seriously, i'm obsessed

apies · Guru

seriously, i'm obsessed

Lizzy · Guru

apies wrote:

i cannot.stop.couponing.

walgreens, shoprite & acme are my obsessions. i hit cvs for an occasional steal, but the others? wowzers, i'm hooked.

hotcouponworld posted the catalina scenario that starts thursday and i've already gotten my Qs organized and put my spreadsheet together. right now my plan is to go 3 times. i will spend a total of $17.20 on $275 worth of groceries. that will leave me with $25 in cats that i can use on produce, milk, etc and/or roll into more deals.

i actually contacted the person at my school who is in charge of collecting food for the needy families in our community. i'm going to start taking her some things - cereal for example - i cannot hold anymore here nor can we eat it before it goes bad (i'd guess i have about 25 boxes of cereal right now).

phew.

I know...me too! I have to limit myself to spending only $50 a week or else it will just get out of hand.

We have adopted a family at Ivy's school and now I have tons of stuff to donate.

apies · Guru

Lizzy wrote:

apies wrote:

i cannot.stop.couponing.

walgreens, shoprite & acme are my obsessions. i hit cvs for an occasional steal, but the others? wowzers, i'm hooked.

hotcouponworld posted the catalina scenario that starts thursday and i've already gotten my Qs organized and put my spreadsheet together. right now my plan is to go 3 times. i will spend a total of $17.20 on $275 worth of groceries. that will leave me with $25 in cats that i can use on produce, milk, etc and/or roll into more deals.

i actually contacted the person at my school who is in charge of collecting food for the needy families in our community. i'm going to start taking her some things - cereal for example - i cannot hold anymore here nor can we eat it before it goes bad (i'd guess i have about 25 boxes of cereal right now).

phew.

I know...me too! I have to limit myself to spending only $50 a week or else it will just get out of hand.

We have adopted a family at Ivy's school and now I have tons of stuff to donate.

omg.

this is genius.

i wonder if i can find a program like that near me.

off to google.

Juni · Guru

April - what about donating to a food pantry or a women's shelter? They are so hard up these days I'm sure they would love donations.

apies · Guru

Juni wrote:

April - what about donating to a food pantry or a women's shelter? They are so hard up these days I'm sure they would love donations.

thanks juni!

i found out there's a food bank at the community center in the town where i work. i'm going to call there tomorrow and see if they take just drop-off donations. i would love it if the donations might help some of the students at my school.

Corey · Guru

3 times?! i am ashamed of you, april--i figured you'd be hitting this atleast 20 times:)

biggrin

Corey · Guru

btw, what are you after?

all that is catching my eye is more cresent rolls and frozen veggies, i guess...i feel like i still have oodles of everything else from the last time they did this deal.

apies · Guru

Corey wrote:

3 times?! i am ashamed of you, april--i figured you'd be hitting this atleast 20 times:)

do you have a store with the same sales as my acme?

i am going to be stocking up on the $1 progresso soup - i'll save some for us and the rest i'm going to donate to the food bank. it's a double dip with the progresso cat, so for every 24 cans i buy, i get $20 + $3 cats - with the Qs, the 24 cans will cost me $12. so that right there is an awesome MM.

i'm also stocking up on progresso bread crumbs. they're 10 for $10 and there are IPs for $1 off 2, so that makes them 50c each. also more chex mix and kix and cinnamon toast crunch. i'm also going to grab 10 boxes of the nature valley granola bars - after Qs they are $1.80 each so a pretty good price combined with the cats.

i've planned 4 trips so far and am considering ordering Qs for more granola bars and soup.

how about you?

mally · Senior Member

Where'd you get all the q's?

Sara · Guru

wish.i.had.acme.

soooooooooooooooooooo jealous!!!!

ygg with your deals though!

CoffeeQueen · Guru

No acme here.

I just suck at this coupon thing. I am still trying though.

Alyssa · Guru

I guess this is where I get lost. If you have enough cereal, why would you buy more? I'd see a sale like that and think let me skip it until I need it. Just like I usually won't do a 10 for 10 because I just don't need that much of anything!

And I'm sure it probably makes more sense to spend the money and stock up than do it my way but I'm too cheap to pay out upfront.

Juanita · Guru

Alyssa wrote:

I guess this is where I get lost. If you have enough cereal, why would you buy more? I'd see a sale like that and think let me skip it until I need it. Just like I usually won't do a 10 for 10 because I just don't need that much of anything!

And I'm sure it probably makes more sense to spend the money and stock up than do it my way but I'm too cheap to pay out upfront.

I'm the same way, but the food bank is a GREAT idea!

sbucking · Guru

I'm so jealous of all these deals. It's just not possible here. No double coupons. Cat deals are RARE. Boo!

apies · Guru

Alyssa wrote:

I guess this is where I get lost. If you have enough cereal, why would you buy more? I'd see a sale like that and think let me skip it until I need it. Just like I usually won't do a 10 for 10 because I just don't need that much of anything!

And I'm sure it probably makes more sense to spend the money and stock up than do it my way but I'm too cheap to pay out upfront.

alyssa, the deal is i'm NOT spending money. on my first trip to the store, i spend $19 or so. then i "roll" catalina coupons towards more of the products to earn catalinas.

why WOULDN'T i keep buying when it's free (or essentially free)?

i was spending about $350-400 every 2 weeks on groceries. i'm now spending about $50-75 per week. that's a SUBSTANTIAL savings, regardless of stockpiling.

and when you reference 10 for $10, just as an fyi, you don't usually have to buy 10 of something to get that price. but here, there ARE things i think are worth stockpiling. i have enough free deodorant to last a year. i have about 25 jars of pasta sauce and i probably use 4-5 of them a month. i have the room, so why NOT buy them when they're less than 50c each. even if i spend $12 on them today, it's worth it to me to not pay $3.50 for them periodically throughout the year.

i guess it's just a matter of preference, but since i have the space, time, effort and energy, i will stockpile as much as iwe can reasonably consume before something expires and then donate as much as i can on top of that.

Corey · Guru

apies wrote:

Corey wrote:

3 times?! i am ashamed of you, april--i figured you'd be hitting this atleast 20 times:)

do you have a store with the same sales as my acme?

i am going to be stocking up on the $1 progresso soup - i'll save some for us and the rest i'm going to donate to the food bank. it's a double dip with the progresso cat, so for every 24 cans i buy, i get $20 + $3 cats - with the Qs, the 24 cans will cost me $12. so that right there is an awesome MM.
i'm also stocking up on progresso bread crumbs. they're 10 for $10 and there are IPs for $1 off 2, so that makes them 50c each. also more chex mix and kix and cinnamon toast crunch. i'm also going to grab 10 boxes of the nature valley granola bars - after Qs they are $1.80 each so a pretty good price combined with the cats.
i've planned 4 trips so far and am considering ordering Qs for more granola bars and soup.
how about you?

acme, jewel, and shaws are all the same corporation.

Corey · Guru

alyssa,

the reason people buy more when they don't need it is b/c sales typically run on a pretty predictable cycle. once you do this for awhile you get a feel for when things go on sale...like there are usually phenomenal deals on baking supplies around the holidays as well as coupons to go along...now, i bake all year long, but the sales on that kind of stuff aren't as stellar in the middle of august. i stock up when it is free/cheap to carry me through until the next time it is free/cheap. make sense?

i would rather buy 10 boxes of cereal at .50/box when i don't need it, then wait until we are out and pay $3.50/box.

this way of living definitely isn't for everyone though! :)

Alyssa · Guru

Corey wrote:

alyssa,

the reason people buy more when they don't need it is b/c sales typically run on a pretty predictable cycle. once you do this for awhile you get a feel for when things go on sale...like there are usually phenomenal deals on baking supplies around the holidays as well as coupons to go along...now, i bake all year long, but the sales on that kind of stuff aren't as stellar in the middle of august. i stock up when it is free/cheap to carry me through until the next time it is free/cheap. make sense?

i would rather buy 10 boxes of cereal at .50/box when i don't need it, then wait until we are out and pay $3.50/box.

this way of living definitely isn't for everyone though! :)

that makes total sense. I guess my problem is I'm too cheap to spend the extra money when I don't need it. It's like buying a shirt that's on clearance when you don't need a shirt. It's still money I wasn't going to spend. And then two months later, I'll buy a shirt full price. I should have just brought it on clearance. I guess I'm too short-sighted. I need to be more like this. I need a coupon tutor to come help me.

Juni · Guru

Alyssa wrote:

Corey wrote:

alyssa,

the reason people buy more when they don't need it is b/c sales typically run on a pretty predictable cycle. once you do this for awhile you get a feel for when things go on sale...like there are usually phenomenal deals on baking supplies around the holidays as well as coupons to go along...now, i bake all year long, but the sales on that kind of stuff aren't as stellar in the middle of august. i stock up when it is free/cheap to carry me through until the next time it is free/cheap. make sense?

i would rather buy 10 boxes of cereal at .50/box when i don't need it, then wait until we are out and pay $3.50/box.

this way of living definitely isn't for everyone though! :)

that makes total sense. I guess my problem is I'm too cheap to spend the extra money when I don't need it. It's like buying a shirt that's on clearance when you don't need a shirt. It's still money I wasn't going to spend. And then two months later, I'll buy a shirt full price. I should have just brought it on clearance. I guess I'm too short-sighted. I need to be more like this. I need a coupon tutor to come help me.

Except that when you can get in a groove there is no "extra" money being spent, kwim?

mally · Senior Member

I'm struggling with what the deals are. I've been reading afullcup, the hot deals one, and slickdeals. I feel like I'm starting to get one week, and it's time to think of the next week.