Do you stockpile?

[Dyllan]

I make this a hobby... some would say an obsession... shopping to save money. I never do our "regular" shopping for things we have to have even if they're not on sale - my wife does that. Some of my friends are embarassed to even go in a grocery store with me... A few examples...

About a year and a half ago a drug store here had Chinet plates on sale for $0.99. At the time, Meijer was matching prices on anything in the store (they don't match grocery products anymore - I don't know if they would consider plates to be general merchandise or grocery). Thriftway had $0.50 off coupons in one of those Smartsource dispensers. So I went to Thriftway and collected coupons, got the ad from the drug store and bought every pack of plates that Meijer had -- then I went to another Meijer. Meijer doubles coupons, so the plates were free (just paid tax on the coupon amount - since the stores are reimbursed for the coupons, the amount of the coupon is taxable, but the doubled portion isn't).

We still have chinet plates piled under our couch and loveseat. We saved more in dishwashing liquid by not having to wash those plates than the plates cost - and my wife really appreciates not having to wash so many dishes, since we don't have dishwasher in our apartment.

I did something quite similar with disposable cups, though conveniently the coupons and sale were both at Kroger. Those didn't last quite as long though.

Brownies were on sale for $0.50 / box at Biggs (amazing price) - and they had a $0.55 / 2 coupon in them. So I bought tons, cut the coupons out and went back for more - again I got them at Meijer with price matching because Biggs doesn't double coupons. I ended up donating quite a few to a couple local charities - which helped them and got me a nice tax deduction for free.

Another thing to watch for is store discounts on buy one get one items. Kroger usually puts store coupons, like "$1.00 off this item" on meat when it gets close to it's expiration date. Occasionally, they'll do that with something that is on a buy one get one free sale. I've actually had the coupons end up being for more than the price when I buy two before.

And someone already mentioned you can use store coupons with manufacturers' coupons. Well, our grocery stores all have coupon printers at the registers - the coupons from those can be used with manufacturers' coupons AND store coupons. They're reimbursed by the company that prints them - which is seperate from the manufacturer.

Also, check out valupages - [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] they're not as good as they used to be, but they're still good. They give you cents off on your next purchase (of anything) at the same store when you buy certain products. And they're combinable with store coupons, coupon printer coupons AND manufacturers' coupons. Find any two of those with a sale, or three without, and you're getting things cheap, free, or even making a profit.

With valupages Tyson chicken was on sale for $2.00 once (for the breaded patties or chicken fingers). I had a bunch of $0.75 off manufacturers' coupons (from the outside of the boxes of a different type of Tyson frozen chicken, but it said it was good on any Tyson frozen chicken - that's another thing, look for coupons on products that can be used on smaller, cheaper packages), and the coupon printers were giving $0.75 off one coupons. AND Valupages gave me $0.50 off the next purchase. With coupon doubling (making the $0.75 coupon worth $1.00), I was making $0.25 in store credit per box I bought. Of course, with valupages and the coupon printers, you can only buy one at a time. Luckily my brother worked in the photo lab, so he rang me out there, repeatedly.

And another way to save (or even make) a little money is baby formula. If you sign up for the newsletters when you have a baby (or just say you have one I suppose) from all the major baby food companies, they send coupons and checks. The checks are supposed to be for only as much as the product costs - but I've only once had a store give me the product value rather than the full value of a check. Use the coupon and the check together, and get the cheapest package, and you can make two or three dollars on a can of formula.

BTW, if anyone needs baby cereal or baby formula, I probably have some to spare.

Another trick, if you have one of those shopper cards - have to have the card to get sales. We have one of those at Kroger here. When they have buy one get one free sales, buy two of something (one will be free) and give them two coupons. But don't give them the shopper card until after they ring the coupons. That way it accepts both coupons (two items sold) and then removes the full price of one of those items. Actually, and time your coupon is going to be worth more (especially if it's doubled to be worth more) than the item will be with the shopper card, if you hold off on giving them the card it will ring up the coupon for more of a discount than you end up being charged for the item.

Well, that's all that comes to mind at the moment (at least, as long as I'm limiting myself to grocery shopping).

Think I go overboard?

-Dyllan

P.S. I have over a hundred tubs of cake icing stored away - now if only I could find a way to get cake mix free...

[lauseng]

Wow Dyllan, awesome tips!

I'll have to go shopping and play!

Jackie