Friday, April 23, 2010

Your Savings, Your Needs

I have been couponing for over a year now. I haven't been too diligent with it lately as things were kind of crazy around here. I'm slowly working my way back into it.

I hosted a coupon workshop for the first time several weeks ago. One of the comments brought up, and something a lot of people wonder is, 'How can I get all my groceries for a few dollars'. Honestly, in my opinion, it depends on you. Here's what I mean. My family eats whole, fresh foods with the addition of frozen vegetables and grain products. We do not eat a lot of prepared, processed foods, because I do not like to feed them to my family. That is not to say I am stuck up and won't buy them or eat them ever, but I try to stay away from those type of things.

In our local area, we don't have too many options as far as getting fresh fruits and vegetables in bulk from local farmers. However, I'm finding out more and more farmers around this area are trying to get into the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription arena. That is another topic though!

The point of me mentioning the prepared foods vs the fresh foods is that the cost is notably different. If you're looking for boxed, canned and bagged foods, then yes, there will be a lot of coupons available to you, because convenience foods are the food of America right now. This is sad, but true. Finding coupons for milk, produce and meat is much more difficult. So, if you buy the products that have abundant coupons, then you will be saving a lot more than I do.

I also think the way you stockpile affects the savings as well. I do stockpile some, but since we use a lot of fresh ingredients, I can't really stockpile. This is where I hope one day a garden will come into play, or participating in the CSA exchanges.

Savings are subjective. Your needs are different than mine as far as your desires of what to buy and cook, as well as how much your budget is and what you want to save/spend. I am fine with saving 50-60% on groceries and spending $80 OOP each week, you may want to save that much or more and spend less OOP. I know that I will probably never spend $1.20 OOP, because of the foods I buy, and I am fine with that. When you are couponing, the biggest thing is to be aware of your personal and financial needs and go about what works best for you. Don't let anyone try to sway you different, because each person is entitled to their own opinion and of course everyone has different needs!

9 comments:

  1. Amen, Allisabeth- I totally agree! I got a little coupon "fever" a year ago and brought home things I hadn't had in my house for years (canned soup, granola bars...). Now I've stopped that and our stockpile isn't so big anymore, but our freezer is with good, whole foods. Yeah, I don't see the 80% savings like I had a couple of times, but I'm actually happy about it 'cause that means I'm not buying so much junk. :-)

    Btw, found you via savvy blogging- look forward to meeting you at the summit!

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  2. Thanks for commenting! I saw your blog and it is so homey and warm! Is that an appropriate description of a blog??!

    Look forward to meeting you too!

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  3. Thanks for all of the great tips and info! I am a new follower via Friday Follow. So glad that I found your great blog. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

    Eloise
    Mommy2TwoGirls
    http://mommy2twogirls.blogspot.com/

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  4. I hadn't ever thought about that, you never see coupons for meat, milk & produce.

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  5. If you do see coupons for these, you have to purchase cereal to get money off milk or boxed/bottled products to get money off meat. There's no simple way.

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  6. Hi! I'm poppin in from Friday Follow (on Saturday-LOL) to be your newest follower. Hooray! Come follow my blog! :) (Please?)

    Bridgette Groschen
    The Groschen Goblins
    www.groschengoblins.com

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  7. I need to get back to clipping coupons again too. I've been so busy with life that I've let it slide. I'm so glad to find a fellow Karen Kingsbury reader!!

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  8. She is my all time favorite author!

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