The most commonly asked question asked at my Strategic Couponing class is this: How do you practically plan and execute shopping trips? It’s very difficult for beginners to visualize how to do multiple transactions and how to make this work during their week. I thought it might be helpful to give you a quick glimpse at my “deal” trips this week.
First, it’s important to note that I make a distinction between “deals” and “regular” shopping trips. My “regular” trips are usually to WinCo and I am buying only what I will need in the next four weeks at the most. I buy generic and typically don’t use many manufacturer’s coupons as WinCo’s generic prices almost always beat their name brand prices with a coupon.
These trips are filled with mostly bulk purchases — grains, spices, pantry items. I also pick up items for my kids’ lunches/snacks and items I need to fill out my menu plan for the next 3-4 weeks. They are probably very much like all of your WinCo trips — about $70 for 5-8 bags of groceries.
My “deal” trips are much different. They are done at Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer or QFC (if I’m in inner-Portland already), are much smaller than a WinCo trip and focus on 1-3 items on sale.
When I started couponing, I was hitting several stores several times a week. Why? I was addicted to doing deals and I was having an absolute blast. My children were at the age and stage where they tolerated the trips well and my husband was jacked at the deals I was scoring. During that year, I filled my stockpile and drastically reduced the amount of money my family was spending on groceries and household items. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. That investment yielded incredible savings. Plus, I was having fun.
Now that I have a healthy, working stockpile, I have shifted my couponing strategy and typically do a maximum of 1-3 deals a week. I often take weeks off from doing deals because either it doesn’t work for my family to shop or I don’t need to stockpile what’s on sale.
When I am excited about a deal and my stockpile is running low on that sale item, I usually shop on Thursdays when I have a babysitter at home when I can do some serious deals in a short period of concentrated time without my kids. Here’s what my day looked like yesterday:
8:00 — Drop the big kids off at school (babysitter relieves my husband at 9:00)
8:15 — Hit Safeway for deal transaction #1:
Bought 4 Quaker Oatmeal Squares on sale $1.99 each when you buy 4 = $7.96
Bought 3 Safeway Pizzas on sale $2.99 each with store coupon from Frozen Foods Booklet = $8.97
Used (4) $1/1 Quaker Oatmeal Squares coupons (-$4)
Used 4 Safeway doubles (-$2)
Paid $10.93
Since Safeway only doubles four manufacturer’s coupons per transaction in Oregon and SW Washington, I almost always do small transactions. The bummer is that this requires more time (and lots of car seat buckles for those of us with little children). The bonus is that trips take about 7 minutes from leaving the car to returning to the car.
8:40 — Walmart to price check, find deals for Monday’s Walmart deals post and do a personal transaction.
9:45 — Safeway for transaction #2. It was the same as #1 with the addition of a bag of oranges (on sale for $2.49 Thursday only).
10:20 — Pick my son up from school and go home to drop off pizzas.
11:15 — Meeting with Africa New Life‘s Child Sponsorship Coordinator in West Linn. So much more about this to come!
12:40 — Safeway for transaction #3. Same as #1, but this time I added spinach to the mix.
Now, I totally realize that not everyone can hire a babysitter in order to do deals. But most of us do have one or two times during the week that, if we are prepared ahead of time, can run in and complete a transaction or two while we are out. If I disregard the time I was doing “business” activities, I really only spent about 90 minutes max doing deals (including driving time). And here’s what I got:
Safeway — $38.28 for 12 boxes of cereal, 9 pizzas, 3 bags of spinach and 8 lbs of oranges
Walmart — $.78 for 6 travel laundry detergents, 4 bags of oatmeal, 4 containers of floss and 1 jar of crushed red pepper
A 90 minute investment yielded me cereal for three months (about 1 box a week?), 9 main dish dinners (pizza), 2 weeks of smoothies (oranges & spinach), floss for 2 months and laundry detergent for our entire summer vacation — all for under $40.
Many of you will wonder why I went to Safeway three different times during the day instead of just completing three transactions at one store. It’s pretty simple: I’m a wimp and like to coupon unnoticed.
This said, I don’t think there’s a problem at all with asking your cashier if you can do a couple of transactions. I suggest you do no more than three in one stop or you run the risk of irritating the employees, especially at Safeway. Couponing can be nerve-racking enough without worrying about ticking your cashier off, so if you’re nervous about doing multiple deals, just go to different stores either in one day (like I did — en route to other appointments) or throughout the week.
Coming next week: Practical ways you can fit couponing into your family’s schedule.
New to couponing? Check out the Ultimate Guide to Couponing in the Northwest here.
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After all of my stuff, on my monthly shopping trip to F M, (Salem) was rung up, and my coupons were scanned, and the total posted, (my card had been pre scanned and then automatically charged) , I asked if I had gotten my wine discount ? (Six or more =10% off) The new checker said no, that I had to ask for it. Self loading out my groceries (for two houses) and then digging out my coupons, I didn’t think to “ask” for the discount as it had been given automatically in the past. Then off to customer service, to have them rescanned and get my discount , $5.60. At that time my “friend” at the c s booth told me very quietly that they had a policy change and to get a discount, senior, wine, etc., you had to ask for it in advance. So, be forewarned and be informed. If this is too long please edit it, thanks.
I’m really enjoying your site and I’m new to all of this. At first I was a super wimp, but I finally decided at a Walgreens one day, to just got for it and do all 3 transactions, instead of going to 3 different stores or coming and going multiple times. I asked the checker if it was ok that I do 3 transactions and she said sure no problem since they weren’t very busy. At that time, I didn’t know that RR ring up as a MC, so I was confused when she said it was too many coupons. She explained, I apologized, she said no worries. I think asking if they have time for multiple transactions is a big deal to them. It shows that you respect them and their other customers.
The BIGGEST thing that I’ve found that makes it easy for me to coupon in multiple transactions, is to sort them into piles in my cart, and have 3 separate piles of coupons in hand. That way I’m not digging through my coupons, or my cart, to make sure I get everything in the right transaction. It’s taken the stress of it way down for me and for my cashiers! Almost all of them have commented and thanked me for being so organized with it.
Thank you for this post and I look forward to the follow-up to come. I think so many people want to coupon but don’t know how it looks in a practical way. And, in a future post could you address your budgeting? In the coupon class you mentioned $100/adult or adolescent and I was wondering how those figures were calculated?
Thank you so much for this blog.
Great post! I feel more comfortable doing small deals with my regular trips out too. My friend (neighbor, and fellow couponer) are starting to co-op driving on some of these trips which then saves us w/ the ever increasing gas prices. Since Alb’s is within walking distance and the weather is getting better, I might be putting the toddler in the stroller and doing it that way as well! 😀
I admit sometimes I’ll even hit the stores at different times during the day if I’m not worried about things disappearing too quickly. Then, I don’t have to see the same cashier or mgr quite so frequently.
Great post! I agree that it’s so much easier to go without little people as I find I get too distracted trying to keep everybody happy. Do you find that it’s worth it to pay for a babysitter?
Babysitter…Great question. Do you mind if I deal with that in a future post? I think it’s worth it’s own post.
I really appreciate how you detail the shopping trip, it makes it much easier to understand than just showing a pic and saying I got all this stuff for 5 cents!! Thank you for taking the time to explain how the deals worked and your shopping time at Safeway.
I loved this post and shop similarly! In fact, I have a raincheck for the Quaker Oat Squares at Safeway ($1.49 from March), buy the same pizzas, and will be buying the FF whole chicken. (Did anyone else notice it’s $0.89/lb instead of its normal low of $0.79/lb this week?)
We live ~4 mi from shopping so I don’t get out much. One other savings for me is milk at Rite Aid since I have the 20% discount. Regular price is $2.69 so milk is $2.15 with discount. This is $0.34 cheaper than Winco or Safeway and, if I buy 4 gallons, I’m $8.60 into a $15 purchase to use a $3/$15 survey coupon. My Rite Aid also carries eggs (currently $1.99/doz so $1.59 with discount) This isn’t a great price but when we need eggs and I’m already there, it saves another stop. (I have kids 2, 2 and 4.)
Thank you for this post! I was beginning to think I was the only couponer that still did a “Big” shopping trip at WinCo. If I didn’t we’d probably only eat spaghetti cereal. I always bring my coupon binder with me to WinCo because I always seem to run into one green tag special that is a better deal at WinCo. I also always check the clearance area. I really hate doing multiple coupon transactions when a store is busy. I get flustered when the customers behind me are staring me down. I usually only do two transactions. At Albertson’s my husband comes with me and we each do two transactions w/the doublers in different lanes. It’s faster that way.
@Jerseygirlsmama I’ve had the same problem at Safeway. I don’t shop at Safeway anymore because I was told I couldn’t do multiple transactions when I was trying to roll a Catalina. Then I was complaining on a blog and another reader commented she had no problem with the same transactions. In my personal opinion Safeway selectively enforces their coupon policy. So there isn’t a deal at Safeway that is worth my time. Plus it really irritates me that they NEVER double coupons in Tacoma.
So I went to Safeway this morning for one deal run. I bought four Quaker Oat Squares in one transaction with the $1/1 coupon and double; paid $1.98 for 4 boxes. Then I did a second transaction with C&H sugar and boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix and frosting. The checker told me it is their store coupon policy to not double “generated coupons”. She said this included all Catalina coupons and coupons printed from the computer. Do you know anything about this Safeway policy?? I am still new at this and I am finding new surprises like this all the time.
That is what I’ve experienced also. They will only double a manufacturer’s coupon from an insert or flier. AND, my Safeway will only accept two of the same manf. coupon in one transaction. You’re lucky they let you use four. I think this is really how Safeway is trying save money – by only allowing two of the same coupon, we can’t get as much out of the doubles. Most won’t let you use two of the double coupons, even in separate transactions. So, if I had done your Quarker deal at my store, I would have been able to use two of the Quaker coupons in my first transaction with a double coupon. Then, I would have had to do a second transation with the other two Quaker coupons, and no doubler. It really stinks how picky they’re becoming!
I love my safeway cashiers. They are so sweet to me all the time. The managers are always so enthusiastic about my savings 🙂 We do a family shopping trip Sundays and hit up as many stores possible. My husband will do his own transaction so we can do it twice as fast. I also stop by a few Wendesday since my son has speech therapy downtown and we drive through Clackamas Im able to hit up 2 Safeways and a Albertsons 🙂
My son prefers safeway because they have starbucks for hot cocoa and a snack. Its his one time a week non gluten free item(his allergy is minimal so it does not affect him yet)
I have several possibilities of hitting stores on my way to (or usually from) a rehearsal. I hit Safeway every Tues. night (amazingly I get very few rainchecks) on my way home, hit Albertsons and Rite Aid on my way home from volunteering at the humane society. Can hit another Albertsons and Rite Aid combo on my way to or from rehearsal at church. Winco would be my fill-in store, but I don’t have to go there but maybe twice a year. Everything else comes out of my stockpile (which is about 3-6 mos worth of most stuff). No kids, so I don’t have to worry about a babysitter. The checkers all know I’m coming in with a handful of coupons, and they know I check ahead of time that they’re not expired, and that I’ve bought the right stuff, so I don’t get any look when they see me coming. I have very little need to do multiple transactions since I’m a household of one. Rite Aid will generally let me do a couple if I need to (I think their sign says limit of 3), but that’s only happened a couple of times.
Thank you for the “real life” couponing! I have been slightly disturbed at the EC show on TLC and appreciate hearing about how you can still save money without clearing shelves, spending 20 hours a weeks, and stockpiling unneccesary amounts of toothpaste!!
I also do weekly Winco runs and suppliments with great deals at Safeway and Albertson’s! Much more manageable-\
I’m also one who shops after the kids go to bed ad DH stays home with them. 1 long run, usually Monday nights where I hit all of them; Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Safeway and Walmart. Then 1 or 2 more times again. Everything but FM is in a 5 minute distance from me so sometimes I can be really fast! Also cashiers at my Safeway are so much more coupon friendly in the evening!
Thanks for this information! I have been using coupons for some time but am now getting more into “extreme” couponing and stockpiling. I have been trying to figure out the best way to budget my grocery money yet not drive to 10 different stores to get the best deals. Your method makes complete sense! Keep the great information coming.
Thanks,
Janice
Great posting! Where did you find the oatmeal quaker coupon? My kids favourite!
1/2 RP insert. It expires 4/30.
I like this post! I think that there are a lot of misconceptions about couponing (especially now since EC on TLC) and the amount of time and effort involved. I plan my couponing to take place on Wednesdays and Sundays, when the stores put out their weekly ads. Like the author of this post, I spend the majority of my time at Winco and use the others to stock up on the pricier coupon-worthy items.
So glad to know there are so many coupon wimps out there!! 😉
I go to the gym most mornings early (5am) so I stop by safeway or albertsons depending on the deals and make small purchases before I head home. It works out great because the “stocking boys” ring me up and well they are nice to me and my coupons 😉 and the baby is still at home sleeping!!
I have a Safeway about a half a mile from my house which used to be convenient. Last week I went in asking my cashier if it was ok that I do TWO seperate transactions and was told that they no longer allow it. Apparently they were all taught their ‘new couponing policy’ a few days earlier and can be written up if they don’t follow it. She said they will NOT double IP’s anymore and that they limit the doubles to one per family per week. I don’t know how they can possibly keep track of that. Apparently word is getting around and I wonder how long it will be before stores specifically train their young male checkers on their couponing policy since we all like to go to their lane.
I, too, am a tad concerned about changes we might see to coupon policies. From far too much browsing of coupon sites, it seems that the NW got the short end of the stick when it comes to couponing. I mean, deals are there to be had, but not like Idaho! And the secret of the young, male cashier? Ooh–it hurt my ears when I heard it spoken on t.v.! :0)
If you stay at home with kids, I find the BEST times for me in SE Portland is between 7:30 am and 10 am. Not saying people are lazy, but there are a lot of people that are retired that don’t get out to shop until after 10 am. Lots of people don’t feel like “shopping’ that early in the morning. Truly I would there when the doors opened if it wasn’t so close to time for my husband for going to work. It’s so much easier to do deals when you can put your binder in the cart without the kids around. I can get things done so fast… BUT
With my 3 year old it’s fun to say, “I’m looking for ….” and make a game out of it. Unfortunately the 9 month old doesn’t appreciate our games very much!
I just loved this post!! I love how you make it simple, real, and easy to incorporate into daily life! I so appreciate the simplifiedness of it!
Great post! Thanks for sharing and keepin’ it real! 🙂
I can totally relate to this post! I feel wimpy at times, but it’s what is comfortable to me, so I go with it. And with couponing so much in the spotlight, I don’t want to draw any more negative attention to the practice than I need to. In and out and on to the next store!
Great post. I love that you are a coupon wimp. I’ve been known to do the same thing.
I do my “coupon shopping” after I put the kids to bed. Lines aren’t as long and cashiers seem to be more generous about multiple deals. I usually make one night of it.
My friend does that too (while her DH stays home) and she loves it!
I just started doing this too. I can only do this once per week with how it works out with my and my husband’s work schedule though. I do most of my coupon shopping at Albertson’s. Even though they aren’t as busy at night, there is usually only one cashier (sigh) and a steady steam of people purchasing just a few items each. I usually will do 2 smaller transactions and leave the other stuff in my cart, wheel back around, and get in line again and do another transaction or two. I cared at first about them knowing I was a couponer and now I don’t. I’ve been lucky at Albies so far and they don’t seem to mind. I also use my lunch break a couple times during the week to hit a the drug stores when I’m child-free.
I always have my 2-year old with me (sigh), and needless to say, it is DIFFICULT to coupon and deal with a needy, independent little one at the same time. You inevitably mess up your transactions somewhere along the line.
I am a wimp too….So much so that I am not returning to the busiest Walgreen’s in Gresham, after the cashier over charged me (or charged for the wrong items or didn’t charge the sale price or all of the above)…because there was 1 not-so-bright checker with 6 people behind me, I’d corrected her twice already, it was after work, & everyone was tired…….
I’d be interested in your amount of driving/gas mileage. At some point, do you calculate that in there too (especially as gas prices keep climbing)? My Walmart is miles away & not in my flight path. Same with several of the “deal” stores… Just curious…
I’m a wimp too, but often I will make my purchase, take it out to the car, then go right back in for my second transaction with a different cashier. That way I don’t have to make a second stop, but I can still get multiple transactions done without irritating my beloved cashiers. 🙂
I am the same way about just stopping multiple times. I don’t want to make things difficult for the cashiers or the people behind me. I pass a Walgreens and a Safeway on the way to take the kids to school. If I have several transactions, I just stop in and process one or maybe two transactions each morning. It’s handy if any of the stores you use happen to be on route.