23 Responses for "saturday chit-chat: do you have a coupon buddy?"

1. Kate November 1st, 2008 at 8:10 am 1

   My aunt and I call each other after every deal. Plus, she not only gives me all her extra coupons, but she clips them for me! She’s retired, and I have 3 kids under 4, so she says it’s the least she can do

2. Shelly November 1st, 2008 at 8:41 am 2

   Like it or not, my two daughters in college are my coupon shopping buddies (when they come home).
   Their idea of shopping is to bring empty bags home and go shopping for enough to last until their next trip home…in my pantry.
   They do bring any great coupons they find to me and we go shopping to restock when they are home.

3. Julie November 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am 3

   I have lots of coupon buddies. My entire “inner circle” of friends and family are all coupon shoppers now!!! Tenille, Jen, My Mom, and Cari! We all share deals and share coupons. Cari and I coupon shop together most weeks. We go to the g.store and to CVS or Wags at like 9pm together when our families are asleep, safer!! OR we carpool with all our kids in her car or mine and one of use runs in for a good deal—then we switch. The kids watch a DVD or yell at each other, or eat a snack (or all three) during our shopping adventure. Lately, with Cari’s oldest kids off track, we’ve brought strollers and our combined 5 KIDS all into the store together. We’re LOUD but we love to get deals together. The cashier’s don’t hate us like I expected—-cause our kids are so cute. Lol. Most times we even do 2-3 transactions each. BUT HERE’S the Sad Part……………………I’m moving out of state in 3 weeks. Sad face—-but we’ll always have CVS & WAGS together : D Thank goodness for the internet and great sites like this.

   Julie : D

   Julie´s last blog post..Aren’t These So Cute!

4. Brea November 1st, 2008 at 10:01 am 4

   I wish I did have a coupon buddy but I do not…It would be nice to have someone there to bounce ideas off of and keep me in line during trips because occasionally I get adrenaline rushes (I know, weird huh?) when doing big deals and forget things.

   Brea´s last blog post..Happy Halloween!

5. gina November 1st, 2008 at 10:37 am 5

   There are four of us. We moved to texas from Ca and soon enough we discovered that even though it was cheaper here we were broker than broke (we’re all trying to be stay at home mom’s after being in the work force before). We try to encourage one another - occasionally shop together - sometimes cut coupons together and certainly pass on the deals. Plus if one of us makes a really good score (I bought 21 boxes of frosted mini-wheats for $8 a couple of weeks ago) we share the wealth (I’ve gotten vitamins, arizona ice teas and snacks from the group). We’ve only been doing this for about 4 months. We’ve also joined a larger group of couponers in the area but without my friends it would have gotten to be too overwhelming.

6. Jennifer S. November 1st, 2008 at 11:15 am 6

   I always go it alone but my father puts their coupon inserts aside for me and my parents love getting emails with pictures and the tag line “guess how much this cost me?” I “buy” more than I can use myself so I save up all the extra to donate.

   My boyfriend is tolerant of my habit. He’s patiently followed me around Walgreens before but hasn’t really gotten into it. He just likes that I can get his razors for him inexpensively. He’s much more supportive of my blogging efforts, since food is something he feels strongly about.

7. Jodi W November 1st, 2008 at 3:29 pm 7

   I have a coupon buddy that I met at CVS! We started talking and exchanged email adresses. We always email special deals or coupon finds to each other. Also, my parents and a friend/neighbor give me their coupons. In exchange, I give them some of my freebies!

8. Lisa Neicen November 1st, 2008 at 3:47 pm 8

   I have several coupon buddies, some that play with me all the time and several that play with me when they can focus on it…. I even have a BFF in GA, one state away that shops with me and vice verse om the phone! All of my coworkers play the game now and my manager and I will even hit the Publix together! It is a great inexpensive sport to share with others.

9. Mrs. J November 1st, 2008 at 6:51 pm 9

   My only coupon buddy is my husband. I don’t have any friends in my area yet. I think it would be fun to meet a female coupon buddy!!!

   Mrs. J´s last blog post..Afternoon Cooking for Tonight

10. jamie November 1st, 2008 at 6:51 pm 10

    I wish I had a coupon buddy! I’ve tried recruiting people, but no one “get’s it” Years ago, my co-worker and I would shop Albertsons together, but when they went out of business, she stopped doing coupons. The advantage is everyone (parents, aunts, daughter’s friends moms, daughter’s girl scout troop moms, co-workers) gives me their coupons!
    The funny thing about shopping at wags, is my father-in-law has been doing the rebates for YEARS and now I can help him get better deals:)

11. Kim S November 1st, 2008 at 7:36 pm 11

    I don’t have a buddy but wish I did. My bff is a teacher so during the school year she is not much of a couponer but during the summer we share deals. We never shop together though….I think that would be too distracting. I don’t let my husband shop with me either, he just follows me around and acts annoyed!

12. Patricia November 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm 12

    @Kate: That is so nice of your Aunt to help you out with coupons.

    @Shelly: Your daughters and pantry shopping - love it Nice of them to bring you coupons in return.

    @Julie: Love your partnership with your Coupon Buddy! I can’t imagine shopping with kids since I don’t have any but I’m sure it helps when you can play tag. Kristin has a super cute toddler and the cashiers and the many customers love him too So I see how your kids act as a cute distraction.

    @Brea: One of the advantages of having a CB is just to have somebody to get excited with. My husband really gets into it but he doesn’t know the ins and outs. Kristin does so we share opinions, secrets and just laugh about our couponing adventure. You should put out a CB Ad on FWTR

    @Gina: Great Couponing Group you have there - especially when you share the deals you’ve scored!

    @Jennifer: I love the emails I should send those type of emails tomy family back in Australia - they’ll be shocked and probably won’t believe me!

    @Jodi: Awww…what a great way to make a new friend - better yet, one that coupons!

    @Lisa: A coupon buddy over the phone - that’s awesome! And you’re right, it’s a great inexpensive sport

    @Mrs. J: Your husband sounds like a great Coupon Buddy I hope you find a friend that coupons to share couponing with.

    @Jamie:I hear you about finding it hard to find people who “get it” or want to invest time on couponing. At least you have your Father In Law

    @Kim S: Sometimes my husband isn’t into the shopping bit - but then he sees the bill and gets excited about that and asks what we’ll be getting next time. I can sense when he’s not into it and make it as brief as possible

13. Tara November 1st, 2008 at 10:29 pm 13

    No coupon buddy although I have discovered the moms group I lead has many moms who coupon. At our November meeting several of them wrote and asked for this to be one of the “roundtable topics”. Anyone have some suggestions for me to give them a list of tips…… I am new to this and since I am not a mom I don’t know the specific coupon tips or diapers and such (I know, it may seem strange I lead a mom’s group and am not a mom- I am a Children’s Minister and I started this group at my church — last month we had 53 moms.
    Gina I am interested in learning more about this coupon group you went to, what is that all about?
    Any help anyone can give me I would appreciate it…… I am just now learning myself.
    Thanks
    Tara

    Tara´s last blog post..Fall Festival

14. Laurie November 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 am 14

    Hi Tara, I just went to a coupon class in my area and it was awesome though 80% of the stuff I already knew. It was mostly cool to be a room of people who were excited about this stuff. I am going to do a coupon talk for a few moms in my moms group. It will be informal and it will be my first time. At the end of this is a basic outline of what I plan to cover. The class I went to supercouponing.com was 2 hours and the presenter talked fast and this was only an intro, so maybe if we don’t get to cover everything, we can have a 2nd session. God bless you in helping others! I pass the info on because so many online couponers have helped me get my budget under control and I am paying off debt now instead of getting deeper into it each month Yea!….I am keeping my meeting to 5 people since I have a small house and I want us all to be able to see the computer, I feel more comfortable, and hopefully only the seriously interested will come…..

    Grocery and personal care spending make up the second largest monthly household expense after housing. Let’s meet to learn strategies for saving money on groceries and drugstore items by combining sales and coupons.

    In this meeting, we will review:
    -Organizing coupons and sale fliers
    -How to create a coupon stash
    -Where are all the good coupons?
    -Playing the drugstore game to lower your total food and personal care spending
    -How to spend less on prescription and over the counter medicines
    -Store coupon policies and coupon logic to maximize savings: Stacking coupons, expired coupons, getting free stuff, etc.
    -Review lessons from Super-Couponing class

    Depending on level of interest and previous experience of the moms who attend, we can also discuss:
    -Planning menus around grocery store sales
    -Freezer meals
    -Planned leftovers
    -Anything that saves you money
    -If you already know this stuff, please come to share ideas!

    Other Stuff:
    -If you have coupons that you won’t use, bring some to share.

15. Erin November 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm 15

    my coupon buddies are my sister, aunt & mom.
    my sister and I make a pretty intense team and share coupons and deals together.

    shopping together is now going to not happen. as of this morning i decided to never step foot into my local walgreens again. i am saving my deals for the store nearest my work where they dont pick apart your deal and adjust your coupons. and if the store is out of stock, oh well. it has become to much of a hassle. i was in line for 10 minutes as she minced my coupons and adjusted, tried to do math, etc. i just grabbed my coupons and walked away. its not her fault, new store policy. i have a feeling that they are going to lose a huge number of coupon shoppers now. problem solved for the store manager, he dislikes coupon shoppers. i’d like to see how much of a dive his bottom line is going to take now.

16. Tara November 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 pm 16

    Laurie THANK you so much for your response. I do have two questions from your list………….

    1. What are different ways you can organize your coupons and sale fliers- can you guys give me ideas, I have a coupon organizer but know there have to be other ways.

    2. How do you create a coupon stash? I have quite a bit myself but am looking for ideas to help the moms in our moms group start? Anybody have any ideas how I can find coupons where they might can leave that day with somewhat of a stash?
    One idea is wondering what my local paper does with the left over coupon inserts from Sunday’s paper. I was hoping they might give some to me. I also thought of asking the senior adult ladies sunday school classes in my church to start saving these if they do not coupon- most of them take the paper but do not coupon. ideas please…….. I want to be as well prepared as I can be in helping our moms through this discussion.

    Thanks and blessings!

    Tara´s last blog post..Fall Festival

17. Jennifer S. November 2nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm 17

    Tara, I’ll jump in with a couple answers too.

    1. I’ve heard of people using the following methods:
    - Clipping all coupons and filing them in an expanding file by category
    - Clipping all coupons and filing them in a binder, using pages meant to hold photographs or baseball cards, using dividers to separate the different categories
    - Dating inserts and keeping them separate

    I was using the last method, since I was only taking advantage of the great deals I found online, where some wonderful soul had told me in which insert I could find the coupon I needed to take advantage of the deal. The problem with this method is it makes it hard to use coupons on groceries, as I don’t carry all my coupons with me. I recently won a coupon binder in a contest and when it arrives I plan to switch to that method. It will take more time each week but I think in the end it will be worth it.

    There may be other methods out there. Some people clip EVERY coupon, some only clip the ones they think they’ll use. I do a mixture of both - I clip all the ones I think I might use but also coupons for items I believe may go on sale that I could buy to donate to a local shelter.

    2. In my opinion, you’ve got the right idea. Ask people to save inserts for you. I have asked my parents to save their inserts and I pick them up whenever I go to visit, which sadly isn’t often enough to be truly useful right now.

    Ask your friends, neighbors, anyone in your membership groups to save inserts for you.

    The internet is another great source of coupons. Perhaps rather than printing a bunch and dividing them amongst your students, you could provide each student with a handout showing useful websites for coupons. The Betty Crocker newsletter, for example, advertises printable coupons in every issue. Redplum.com and coupons.com, as well as many others, offer printable coupons.

    Check the magazines you have lying around your house. I found several coupons in the issue of Family Circle I received yesterday. All You magazine usually has a HUGE amount of coupons every month, not to mention some interesting article and recipes. I occasionally find coupons in other magazines as well.

    Keep your eyes peeled when you walk through the grocery store. Many stores have little coupon machines attached to their shelves. They’re generally red and have a little blinking red light, which has led to the nickname of “blinkies”.

    Also be on the lookout for “peelies”, which are the coupons on the front of a package that you pull and use at the time of purchase. I found some “Save $1 now!” coupons on boxes of pasta on sale for $1.13, which made them an incredible deal! If I hadn’t already had a shelf full of pasta I would have bought more.

    This one may sound silly, but I’ve found it to be a great source of coupons: order samples. Walmart has a fantastic sample site (largely health and beauty products) and when your sample arrives you often get a coupon with it, generally a coupon of higher value than that which comes in the newspaper.

    I’ve also heard of people purchasing coupons from coupon clipping websites or from eBay but have never tried it myself.

    I would encourage them to watch for sales with which to combine their coupons. If a coupon comes out on Sunday, you don’t have to use it that same day. They’re usually good for a couple of months at least. If you can combine a coupon with a sale you get the best deal.

    I’m sorry, I think I’ve hijacked the conversation. Hopefully what I say makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll either see the post when the reply is emailed to me or you can contact me through my blog.

18. Tara November 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 pm 18

    Thanks Jennifer that helps so MUCH! Thank you. I really appreciate your input. I like your idea about the list of coupon sites rather than print out coupons. You have been very helpful. If anyone else has input- I would appreciate it.
    Thanks

    Tara´s last blog post..Fall Festival

19. Laurie November 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 am 19

    Erin, if there is no other Wags by you and it is not worth the fight anymore (I have the same issues with Target by me) and you have CVS, you can start CVS’sing and forget Wags!!! I go CVS’ing each week and know some things about Wags but really have been only Wagging my Way to Riches about once per month. I am still a novice at Wags and that is why I come to this site to learn more. I need to track both stores for the diaper deals. Possibly Wags is a little better because you can do more than 1 deal wheras CVS, you need the Extra Care Card and they limit your deals more, but really who needs 1000 free toothbrushes, etc. I heard that Wags might start a customer loyalty program like CVS anyway and that would also probably limit the deals? Who knows, but if you are in a big city like me, if 1 store doesn’t like coupons, there are many more to take your $ and coupons!!! Manufacturer coupons are the same as cash + they get more $ on top of that for the handling compensation. If that manager is that stingy about coupons, maybe he is like that with other stuff too and what a bummer for the employees!! Hopefully he won’t stay at Wags very long!

20. Jennifer S. November 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am 20

    Just to throw in one more idea, it wouldn’t hurt to keep a list in the binder showing maximum prices they’re willing to pay. For example, I know I’m unwilling to pay more than $1 a box for pasta but I’ve frequently been able to get it for less. Cereal I won’t pay more than about $2 a box for, and that’s only when I’m about to run out. If they keep a list of what their target prices are it will be easier to know if they are getting a good deal.

21. Laurie November 3rd, 2008 at 11:56 am 21

    I love the idea of listing how much I am willing to pay for things or different $ goals to keep each item or each count item (in a box,bag, per oz., etc.) This is great for diapers and wipes and other things we use every day because 10 cents per diaper vs. 30 cents per diaper can be a difference of $40-$50 per month in diaper savings alone. My diaper goal is 10 cents each, but I will go to 15 cents per diaper if I am desperate or I am paying with Extra Bucks at CVS when that means I will really only spend like 2 cents OOP If I stock up for a month when I can get the diapers at about 10 cents each or with Extra Care Bucks, that pretty much holds me over till another big sale. I usually don’t have enough cash to stock up for longer than that long because food $ needs to come before diaper $

22. Kristin November 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm 22

    Oh wow, I feel special! I got to be on the blog!

    We did have a good trip, and will have to go again. Baby Bob is the perfect tool for multiple transaction trips. People in line behind me are always so taken with him that they don’t realize how long I’m taking at the register! He’s also very mellow so I can watch the register and not miss anything.

    I thought I would prefer to go alone but after going with Patricia I see now that a coupon buddy is the way to go!

    One other really nice thing is that when we go out on our own and see something of note, we can report back to one another to share local deals, which is awesome.

23. evelyn November 14th, 2008 at 5:53 pm 23

    I need a coupon buddy too!
    Fort Bend Co. Texas!
    BTW, I don’t have kids so I always have tons of baby and kids coupons that I cannot use….