How to Use Coupons

I'm sure your wondering what the big deal with coupons is anyway. A lot of people wonder if its worth all the time spent clipping and organizing them. Some people also say that buying generic store brands is cheaper than buying a name brand with a coupon. I'm here to tell you, its soooo worth it. The trick with coupons is to match coupons to sale items listed in the grocery and drug store sale papers. For example: This week at Publix they have several items that are buy one get one free and here is an example of why I suggest buying two copies of the paper. One of the items is Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes. You can get two boxes for $1.73. But, if you use two .40 coupons from last week's paper, which Publix will then double to .80 each, you can get two boxes of Au Gratin potatoes for .13. I doubt Publix has generic Au Gratin potatoes for .07 or .06 cents a box. Another example is Ragu Pasta Sauce. Its also buy one get one free at $3.25 for 2 - 45oz. jars. If you used 2 - .25 coupons that were in the paper about three weeks ago then once the coupon is doubled, you would get the pasta sauce for about $1.12 each for the big jars of Ragu. There are all kinds of deals like this at Publix this week.

Another way I think of clipping coupons is this; last week I spent $30 at Publix but I saved $48, so if I spent 2 hours clipping, organizing and matching coupons, I made $24 an hour and created a nice little stockpile of the groceries I bought.