coupon shopping

[hearsejr]

 I just tried shopping and using the coupons, and with Sherri watching the counter lady we ended up buying $65 worth of stuff for $20ish.  anyone here interested in what we learned sofar?

[Grime]

Is the 45 dollar savings on stuff you use on a regular bases? Or is it like the ladies on tv that got 1000 dollars worth of stuff for 9 dollars. She even got 117 bottles of Excedrin for free with 51 cents change. One of them had $60,000 of grocery store products in her home.

We've never found the coupons to be on items we use on a regular bases.

[hearsejr]

 yep it was stuff we normally eat. pringles was on the list, but while there we even found a diffrent brand that was 3 cans for the same price of 2 cans of the pringles so we ended up getting a a few of both.
  We have been getting manufactures coupons, and they are useable with store coupons, and we had trouble convincing the clerk that so we also brought out the store policy sheets off the net to take with us to show the clerk.
  the manufacture coupons are sent to us in an email, and we get like 60 of them at a time. we print them out and they are three to a sheet of typing paper, so we cut them and separate them in to what we use and what somebody else can use.
  another thing is we just found out that we can get triple the value of the coupon at a store a few miles away..named Kroger's I think...up to $1.  we'll hit that store next month.
  Save-a-Lot had a deal that was 3 cans string beans for $.99, normally sold for $.89 each(I think) we had a coupon for $.50 off so we got it for 3 cans for $.49..lol. I figured that I was going to get busted at the counter, because I took 4 Coupons and got four sets of cans, and the lady just looked at me and said you sure do like string beans don't ya?".. I just sit there and grinned! 
  Sherri got hooked on the TV  show and we hope to get the balls to do that $1000 worth for like $50. so far I'm not getting that brave. lol.

[Captain Smollett]

Okay, I'm not trying to be a negative stick-in-the-mud type here, but I do still think there are basic problems with using this strategy long term while cruising (if indeed that's what you are suggesting).

I've shopped with coupons - religiously clipped 'em and had 'em organized in a special box and everything.  I did not put anywhere NEAR the time you are talking about into my coupon 'hobby,' and I still abandoned it as not being worth the hassle.  Your mileage may vary, of course, and saving a few bucks (or more than a few bucks) may make it worth it to you.

Those items you mentioned are NOT items WE would buy.  We don't eat chips, Pringles or otherwise, at all.  I have not had a potato chip in about 16 years.  We are NOT going to get coupons for the kinds of foods we eat - they are not "manufactured" foods with some marketing department's goal of getting us to buy them.  We eat a lot of fresh fruits, fresh veggies, fresh, local caught seafood and the like.  Yes, it's more expensive, but it's what we choose to put into our bodies.

On a philosophical note, too, I have a hard time with all the packaging waste of a lot of 'manufactured' and 'packaged' foods that seem to be the things pushed by the coupons.  Geez, we make about 300% more garbage than I'd really like to see us generating now, I could only imagine how bad it could get with more packaged stuff.

Finally, I have my doubts that this is a 'cruising' solution.  Local markets in third world countries are not going to honor manufacturer's coupons even if they carried the items (a big if).  True, you can stock your boat here before you 'head out,' but all the comments given here from cruisers who have provisioned then gone to the Islands, for example, have said 'stock the boat, but eat local.'  They brought back much of the food they took, and even if they didn't, they still would likely have had to buy local.

Maybe I am completely missing the point (that would not be the first time), but since we are generally talking about sailing FAR on this site, I cannot help but trying to apply your strategy to voyaging.  I'd think it might serve well for an initial provisioning and perhaps an occasional stock-up where the resource of a Super Market that honors coupons is available, but less so off the beaten path (ie, outside the First World).

Again, I apologize if I am seeming negative.

[Auspicious]

In the US we clip coupons a bit. We get a greater benefit keeping track of prices at the various stores near us (Giant, Safeway, Shoppers Food Warehouse, and local Hispanic grocery) and the warehouse store. We have lists for each and try to stop for food on the way home from another errand -- with the cost of fuel you can bankrupt yourself trying to save money by driving all over town.

I've just started using some of the Internet coupons that are delivered to my Smartphone. The grocery stores and I are still figuring this out.

The affinity programs help.

Outside the US there are sometimes loss-leaders in the bigger places (Marsh Harbour, Roadtown, Red Hook, St Martin) but those peter out pretty fast as you get into the boonies, at least in my experience. There you worry more about what day the mail boat comes with fresh veg than the prices. There isn't a lot of competition.

At home we belong to a CSA that delivers fruit and veg straight from the farm each week for much less than we would spend at farmer's markets.

Like John's family we stay away from manufactured food as much as we can. We keep baked chips around for salsa at home, but not on the boat.

[s/v Faith]

....  We have been getting manufactures coupons, and they are useable with store coupons....

Sounds like it works pretty well for you Bill.  What do you do to have the mfg. start to mail you the coupons?

Is there a process for that, or do you just get them in a sales flier you get?

[s/v Faith]

.... we get like 60 of them at a time. we print them out and they are three to a sheet of typing paper, so we cut them and separate them in to what we use and what somebody else can use. ....

I'll give you a grog for that. :)  I do that at Harbor Freight Tools... Rose clips the 20% off coupons for me, and I always have extras... so I pass them out in the check out line.

Sometimes I feel like a cheapskate using a 20% off coupon on a 3.99 item... but the shame rarely clings to me much father then the check out counter.  ;D

[hearsejr]

 hi,
I got them from Sherry, she is on an email list , and it's like one email a week with 60 or 70 coupons in it, just like Harbor Freight.  I can find out more for ya. maybe you can start a free accounts with yahoo, and get the coupons sent there. then you wouldn't need to worry about the junk mail. I'm not sure if the manufacture sells the email address, so we got a fake addy just to be safe.  we are also getting our coupons added automatically too the store saving card so it takes the saving out as soon as we swipe the card...nothing like to look on the folks in line when they see the price tag go from $83 to $29 when the checkout dude swiped the card. lol.
just a few months back, someone up here said that they were spending like $100 a/mo on just food, and it was affecting their plans to live aboard. anything... even $.10..will help out.  I was spending $50..sometimes less..and now I'm getting down to around $30/ month. I really wish I had the money to try one of three month stock up trips like on the TV show, where the guy goes in with abox of coupons and gets $700 worth of food for $50! I don't have the oysters to try it yet..I am scared I'll have end up paying more then I can afford. lol.
the trouble I have is that I don't need stuff like diapers or denture cream, so I pass them along to the folks with kids down the road. I've also passed along a few to folks in the store with the item in their cart. lol. the way I see it is that any little thing will help.
  my thing is I don't have any way to keep things re-fridgerated, so 20 cans of string beans or cabbage or what ever, works out better for me then trying to spend more for fresh stuff that will not last as long so you have to get just enough to eat but not too much that it goes bad before you eat it. then you also have to make more trips to the store and hope they have a good choice when you get there. I have been making one main trip to stock up a month, then I'll go and get extra stuff ..aka comfort foods.. that I know is not something the surgeon general will not approve of, but dang it, I don't want to be told what to eat anymore.  lol.
I have been getting veggis, fruits, soups and chef boy-ardee stuff in the 15oz cans that last till I feel like that's what I want for dinner. it also makes me feel like I am not in survival mode all the time. kinda like being a bird of pray instead a buzzard. hehehehehe
   

[s/v Faith]

Good job Bill,

  You are right, $10 is $10... might be handy later.  ;D

Sure, if you don't mind PM me the link to sign up for the coupons.

THanks!

[hearsejr]

 hey yall, I know I might sound like a crack pot here, but we saved enough in the last two trips to pay for towboat memberhip.  we did our shopping today and worked out a plan.  we went online and checked the deals at Walmart, Save a lot, and Food Lion, made a list of the prices of the stuff we liked...amazing thing was we found chicken, same type brand and package, that's was $3.85 at walmart, 2.96 at food lion, and 1.78 at save a lot... we had a loop set up that was 10 miles round trip. we saved OVER $100 in just coupons but we are still adding it all up. all together it's looking like $130-45 total!  in food lion Sherri was at the cash out when some dumbAx had to make a stupid comment.."Oh my god your one of those people that watch too much tv".. Sherri gave him an ear full and walked out with over $70 knocked off her bill, not including the instore specails. when we add it all up tonight I'll try and post it here.