Saying good bye to the $10 a week groceries.




For a long time my average grocery costs were about $10 a week. It stayed at $10 for at least a few years. What I would do is keep all my receipts for 3 months and divide the total to find my average. I went to the grocery a few days ago for one of my quarterly stock up trips. I bought only my normal staples. My items cost about 3 times what they were only a few months ago. My average is not $10 a week anymore.

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Boo hoo.... can you see me weeping? The economy stinks!!! My mission now is to find a way to get back to the $10 a week average if at all possible. I believe it can be done, I only have to change my way of shopping. I will be going back to shopping every two weeks instead of every 3 or 4 months. I'm doing this more for my sister in law than for myself. She's asked me to start taking her to the grocery so my brother can do some construction work on their house instead of driving her around. The more frequent grocery shopping will help me too.
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Recently, my daughter and I had a discussion about our use of coupons. She was telling me how difficult it's become for her to actually find the items that go with the coupons.

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As more and more people have started using coupons, it's become an exercise in patience to get to the stores before the items are all gone. Did you know stores deliberately have fewer sale items than they expect to sell? Usually it is a popular item they know many people want to buy on sale. It's a marketing tactic to get you to ask for a rain check. Rain checks mean you will return to the store. Each trip inside the store means you are likely to pick up an extra item or two.... since you are there anyway.

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I recently saw a tv news spot featuring a man who had a whole garage full of free items. He had shelf after shelf of things to show. He showed how he had hundreds of deodorants and hundreds of nail polish along with hundreds of other things too. He had more than he and his wife could use in a lifetime. I mean really! Can one couple use 500 bottles of nail polish or 900 deodorants? A person can do an internet search and find examples just like the man on the tv. The people can show how they have HUGH stockpiles of all kinds of items from toothpaste to disposable cameras. What they have is not a stockpile..... it's a small grocery store within their own homes.


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It's almost a culture within the couponing community to see who can get the largest stockpile. Each week you can find examples and the latest photos of stockpiled free groceries. It's almost like seeing the fabric stash of quilters who are fabricaholics and their latest fabric purchases. Their stash is already bulging at the seams but they can't resist buying more fabric.

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Now don't get me wrong, I've been a coupon person since about the late 1950's. I love the savings I can get by using them; especially the free items. The problem is that when some people realize they can get free items they tend to go hog wild to get more and more and more. They get far more than they actually need or can use. Just like the man on tv.... enough is not nearly enough. These people seriously need an intervention!

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So how do I get the best use of my coupons? Well it starts with the idea that my grocery stash is a part of my emergency funds. You know what I mean? The idea that a person should have at least 6 months worth of living expenses put away in savings just in case they loose their income. Instead of having 6 months of grocery money in a savings account I have it in actual items I would need for the length of time. When my freezer and cabinets are full I have enough edible items that I could go for about 6 to 9 months without ever buying a single thing if it should come to that. Using simple "use what I have" cooking methods I could probably stretch this out to a year.

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The reason I have my 6 month supply in actual items instead of cash in a savings account is because of inflation. If I buy the products at today's prices I won't be paying a higher price later. Especially if I loose my income when I would least likely want to be paying inflation prices.

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Instead of 900 deodorants in my stockpile, I have only 3. Instead of 600 bottles of ketchup, I have only 5. (I use it for cooking a lot) Instead of 1000 bottles of shampoo, I have only 2. You get the idea? For each item in my grocery stash, I have only what I could or would use in 6 months. In some rare cases, I will have a year's supply of an item.... but only if I happen upon a really good bargain while already out shopping. Not by rushing to the store to get the latest free item. My free with coupon items are few.... but meaningful.

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When I go to the grocery you are more likely to see me purchasing items like this.


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When I shop I go for the staple items to do scratch cooking. No way am I going to make several trips to several different stores to hunt down dozens and dozens of free convenience foods or free non-edible items. It would drive me crazy going to hunt down all those free things.

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There are different kinds of coupons.

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1. Coupons for things that people are not buying - The reason a manufacturer puts these coupons out is to entice you to buy the product to increase their sales. Very often this is for a convenience food item. If the coupon value is large enough and the sale price low enough you can probably get this free. The manufacturer knows this. They want you to get it free or nearly free. Manufacturers depend on brand loyalty to keep inventory moving. If you retry a product you haven't bought in a long time there's a chance you will go back to using it regularly. This type of coupon is also used when the manufacturer needs to get rid of an overstock of inventory.

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2. Coupons for new products - The manufacturer has a new product they are anxious for customers to try. Again, if the price is low enough and the coupon value high enough you can get it for free. This technique is far cheaper than paying to have a free sample delivered to every door in America. The manufacturer is hoping to get some brand loyal customer for their newest product.

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3. Buy one get one free coupons - This is the manufacturers way of thanking a customer for staying brand loyal. It's also used when a competitor has come out with a product that is likely to draw you away from using your regular brand loyal product. The manufacturer hopes that by giving a free product... by the time you use up two, you will have forgotten all about the competitors new one and will stay brand loyal. This type of coupon is also used to entice customers away from using generic products.

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4. A few cents off coupons - These are put out by the manufacturer to keep you buying their products. Remaining brand loyal is what they depend on for keeping their products moving. You find more of these coupons than any type. A grocery store will often double the value of these coupons. The grocery store considers the doubling to be a part of their advertising campaign which is why you often see the same product in a sales ad. The grocery stores and the manufacturers work together when planning a sale and cents off coupons. Cents off coupons and a good sale is also designed to get you to use brand name products instead of generic.

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5. Totally free coupons - These are put out for many various reasons. To promote a new product. To move or clean out inventory. To get you to switch back to using their product. Sorry, no picture of these.

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Recently there was a high value coupon for frozen meal starter and a fantastic sale on them. The final cost for a package of frozen vegetables was only a few pennies. My first reaction was.... oooo I gotta buy those. After careful thought I decided against buying the frozen meal. Why did I decide not to buy them? Because it was against what I would normally purchase. I mean really.... why would I want to buy frozen meals when I can make them myself to put into the freezer even cheaper than buying ready made? I don't want the manufacturer to become my personal chef.

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Always check your coupons and sale ad after making your list

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Your coupon use should be only for the purpose of saving money on what you would be buying already..... not for the small grocery you intend to make in your house or lulled into having someone else do your cooking for you. Don't be so hung up on getting a name brand item for free that it consumes you. Generic items are just as good if it's right in front of you but the free item is 10 miles down the road at another store. If you take the time to travel the extra 10 miles.... the item might be sold out which would mean another trip to the store to use a rain check.

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The exception to my 6 month stash is my canned vegetables. I buy a year's worth of these to closely imitate the home garden canning I would do if I could. I get canned vegetables in the fall when they are at the lowest yearly cost and purchase enough to last until the next fall. I prefer canned over frozen vegetables because it saves space in my freezer and they are still good if the electicity goes out for any length of time. Although, I admit buying produce from the discount bin to be put into the freezer is very good too.