With the new Roku, I just watched all the episodes of Extreme Couponing. It is interesting to see the how people save money obsessively. There are definitely some good ideas on using coupons.
I guess I was inspired after Ken told me we couldn’t do stuff like that. I said I don’t have the time to be that obsessive about it. However, I did make more effort to sign up for our local store’s flyer.
It was interesting to go out to their flyer and see what they have on sale. In the past I thought this was a waste of time – I’m just going to buy what I need. However, I realized if I shift how I buy from the buy what I need to buying what is on sale it will save money. Obviously starting out, I’m still going to have to buy needed items but over time I’ll be able to stock up on certain items and then they will be at hand.
For instance, this week there is a sale on pasta. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a coupon for the pasta. I can however, stock up on the items on sale as it is a really good deal. Then I won’t need to buy pasta for a while – plus it is my favorite brand. My favorite peppers are on sale for an incredible price. We will buy several bags of them, bring them home, chopped them up, put them in the freezer. This means when Ken is cooking all he has to do is go in the freezer to grab peppers.
I’m still going to need all the normal stuff but I will budget to stock up on those items that are on sale so I won’t have to buy them again for a few months. Then over time I will need less when I go to the store. Matching sales with coupons increases my savings and lowers my grocery bill. I’m not saving millions but if I can increases my savings at the grocery store it will help the overall budget.