So many of you have asked how you can save if no stores around you double. Well I could honestly not come up with a great solution because the stores I shop at do double daily. So I found a great person to tell you just how to save if your store does not double!
Meet RJ- A dad who coupons!
Hi. My name is R.J. and I am an extremely normal couponer. I live in the land of no doubles and while I will never be on the TV show because I don’t have access to the extreme deals that you can get with doubling coupons, I can still save money doing my grocery shopping each week. It just takes a little bit more diligence and utilizing all of the resources available to you to help you maximize your savings.
Here are my tips to help you save money, even if no stores in your area allow you to double coupons:
1) Change Your Mindset. If you go into it thinking that you are failing if you aren’t saving 80% and 90% because that’s what you see on the show, then you are looking at it all wrong. Instead, you need to realize that your situation is different for two main reasons: a) You can’t double coupons so that cuts your savings per item on a lot of items in half. b) People with massive stockpiles don’t NEED to buy stuff every week, so they can choose to only buy the things that are the extreme deals each week, allowing them to maximize their savings. So, once you realize this, you’ll be able to move onto saving a lot of money still, even if it isn’t an extreme amount.
2) Get Coupons. In order to save money with coupons, you need to have coupons. Definitely subscribe to the Sunday paper. If there is a coupon you want more of, you can ask your neighbors, family and friends for the entire insert or just that specific coupon. You can order the coupons on eBay or other online coupon clipping services, or you can get those “recycle bin rewards” (aka dumpster diving).
3) Match the Weekly Stores Deals. Taking a little bit of time to match your store’s weekly deals with the coupons that you have will allow you to maximize your savings. Don’t just limit yourself to 1 store. There are probably multiple grocery stores and multiple drugstores in your area, and they all have deals on different stuff each week. By spending a little bit of time looking online at your favorite coupon blogs, seeing what the deals are and what coupons you have or can acquire, you will save the maximum amount of money.
4) Buy Multiples When They’re Cheap. You don’t need to clear the shelves at the store or have a garage full of groceries in order to stock up on a few items. If you go through 1 body wash per month, and you find a great deal on body wash and buy 6 of them, you can cross body wash off of your grocery list for 6 months! What if you did this with razors, toothpaste, deodorant, hair spray, shampoo, toilet bowl cleaner, etc? You don’t need to have 100 of an item, but getting 3-6 months worth of supply will not take up a lot of space, and it will allow you to cross a lot of items off of your grocery list for months on end. While those savings don’t get calculated at the bottom of your receipt, they can still add up to significant savings over time.
5) Learn Store Reward Programs. One of the best ways to maximize your savings is to learn about the various stores in your area and how their various reward programs work. Safeway has a club card that allows you to maximize savings, and in some areas they are rolling out the Just 4 U program that allows you to put personalized coupons directly on your card for increased savings. CVS has a savings card as well as ExtraCare Bucks that print out for buying certain items. They also have a reusable bag program that pays you $1 for every 4 visits that you don’t use one of their bags! They also have a card scanner that prints out additional coupons. Walgreens has their Register Rewards program which is a Catalina coupon that prints out that gives you $x off of your next purchase for buying certain items. Walmart will price match local competitors’ ads as well as pay you overages if your coupon is worth more than the item you are buying. By knowing and understanding all of these rewards programs, you can increase your savings beyond just matching a store sale and a coupon.
While you can’t see the extreme savings that people with doubles are able to, you can definitely save plenty of money by changing your mindset, acquiring coupons, matching those coupons with store deals on top of maximizing your savings with their rewards program, and stocking up a reasonable amount when the price is right, so that you can cross that item off of your list for many month.
Good luck, and happy [normal] couponing!
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Thank you RJ for the great post. Readers I hope you grabbed some tips out of that and put them to use!
