A Coupon Quest

Lately I've been following several coupon blogs, at least that's what I'm calling them anyway, to see the impact that coupons can have on a budget. These are blogs that deal with using MQ's, manufacture coupons, and store coupons to save money for mostly food purchases but also restaurants and clothing, etc. The women who author these blogs normally see a savings of 75% or greater off of their grocery shopping trips. After several weeks of studious reviewing I too wanted to see if I could save as much on one of my shopping trips. I set out by scouring our local grocery store ad, Publix, to see what was on sale and matching up any corresponding manufactures coupons and store coupons. I’ll be honest and tell you this actually took me about 2 hours on Saturday night to compose my list and match up coupons to the sale items. Along with checking my own coupon stash, I also checked company websites for any additional coupons, savings or rebate offers. It’s not enough just to see what you have but you need to actively pursue offers that exist in the cyber world.

With list in hand on Sunday my family and I went to our local Publix. To do this properly I made sure that we each had our own cart, my husband's cart for our normal family food shopping, and my cart designated only for items in my coupon quest. While I had a good stack of coupons for each cart the lion’s share of coupons belonged to me for my coupon quest. Below you’ll find a picture of all the items that I purchased along with my spreadsheet showing the items, quantity purchased, price, coupon savings, final price after coupons, coupon details and finally the cost of each item after any coupons and deals.



My total bill before coupons was $82.78. the total due after coupons, drum roll please, was $21.10. I saved a total of $69.98 in vendor coupons, store coupons and buy one get one deals. That equals a total savings of 75%. If you look at my spreadsheet you'll see that Publix actually PAID ME $0.93to purchase six deodorants, and $0.50 for six Bayer aspirin medications. Now, what does one actually do with six boxes of aspirin and deodorant? Well, if this is a normal product for your family and household you just shop from your own pantry for free instead of paying for these items at the store. If these are not items you would normally buy or use you can donate them. My husband is very skeptical of the deodorant as he is an Old Spice Red Zone kind of man and that's OK. Our church is always collecting personal items for missions in other countries and I know that there are many local shelters in the Tampa Bay area who would be happy to have these items as a donation. Either way, it's a win-win situation for our family. Publix payed me to purchase these items so my family comes out ahead if we use them for ourselves and if we don't we also were paid to purchase them and donate them to others.



If you look at my spreadsheet you'll see that I have a rebate to mail in for a free Schick Quattro Trimmer. I'll circle the purchase of $8.25, this was the most expensive purchase of my trip, mail off the receipt and UPC bar code and wait 6-8 weeks for a check in the mail. I'm actually making $4 on these purchase as there was a $4 instant coupon on the package. Bonus! Once you calculate the rebate money back to me off of my purchase I really only spent a total of $12.85 OOP (out of pocket). That brings my total savings to 84% for this shopping trip.

While I think that I was truly victorious in my quest I don't think that shopping like this can take care of a normal family's food necessities. A prime example of this would be my husband's shopping cart in which we placed our normal food purchases for the week. Before coupons that ordered totaled $113.70. After coupons were presented the new total was $87.12. I only saved $24.78 on this order, or about 22%. Yes, I realize that is still decent but you'll have to admit it seems kind of puny compared to my savings of 86%.

The only cons that I can speak of for utilizing coupons this way is that it is time consuming. Two hours spent clipping and organizing coupons on Saturday night, and two hours on Sunday afternoon perusing the grocery store. My husband was patient but a word to the wise, "Ladies leave your man at home"! Shopping like this is best done solo or with a couponing buddy. I also have to say that I have a new found appreciation on the time that is required for blogging. Who knew?

My bottom line and take-away feelings from this quest is this; I do think it is worth it to try to save money on items your family uses or you know that you can donate. Laundry soap is a staple that won't ever go bad and if your dog is like our lab, dog food doesn't last long in the house. It's always great to save money and occasionally get paid to purchase products.