To clip or not to clip....

So I did my fancy experiment on the two grocery stores and now I'm wondering how much effort I should put forth into clipping coupons. Originally I never did clip coupons because I didn't have the time. Now that I have the time I've been paying a little more attention to all the junk mail we get in case there are some coupons we could use. Here's one problem about coupons....we don't normally buy what the coupons are representing so I would, in fact, be spending more money than I usually do just to use this coupon. I also wonder about brand name products being offered at a discount rate, when generally store-brand products are about $1 or $2 cheaper already. My next thought was, is my time worth the $10 I might save? It would probably take me a good 30 minutes AT LEAST to get my coupons in order and make my list to match. Again, I'm not about to shop around at different stores, because my time is worth more than that. I have continued shopping at Fry's for now, except when I need something quick, I'll run to Safeway. One good thing about Fry's is they now accept all competitor's coupons.



I know of some friends who are paying to get coupons and another friend who follows a weekly blog on Arizona stores. They all claim to be getting items for free. I don't know the whole situation and would need to hear more about their process and how they do it all, but it sounds like you essentially buy in bulk according to the coupon's terms. So if you have to buy 2 to get the 3rd one free, you may end up buying 3 boxes of rice, when you only needed one for the week. Ok, so it's like stock piling then. I suppose you have to be careful what you stock up on so it doesn't spoil or you eat the same thing for the next 2 or 3 weeks. I think if you're going to make this worth it you'll need to do lots of planning ahead. Also, what if you've spent so much of your grocery budget on stock piling that you don't have enough for a few miscellaneous items? Perhaps this is solved with planning also. Again, I don't really know how it all works, so until then these are all assumptions.



I did find some great places where you can load coupons onto your VIP card or Club card. If you haven't seen them you should check them out. I also didn't realize Target has a section on their website where you can print off coupons. Every now and then I find a good coupon I can use but the majority of the time it's for things we don't buy. It's a great concept, loading coupons onto your card but the stores would really benefit if they included some of their store-brand items. I'll include a few links below of what I've found if anyone has interest in looking around.

I was getting good at planning an entire month of dinners at the beginning of the month and it made grocery shopping SO easy. I think I'm going to try it again and maybe even find a way to share it with recipes so others can get ideas. Planning really is key to saving money, it's certainly the first step.

What do you think? Are coupons worth the effort?

Links:
Coupons.com - They have both digital and printable coupons
Shortcuts.com --  Digital and printable coupons
Target Coupons -- Printable
Centsable Shoppin' -- coupon blog detailing ads and locales of manufacturer or store coupons for AZ stores. You click on the store on the left and it takes you to the page for their ads and coupons.
Proctor & Gamble -- You can load your Fry's (and maybe Safeway too) card and get digital coupons or printable coupons
Fry's -- You can load coupons onto your card or print them
Safeway -- Digital and printable coupons