Stop Stereotyping Couponers: The Majority Frugally Shop the Outer Perimeters of the Grocery Store

There was yet another article about couponing, this time in “The New York Times Magazine,” (May 3, 2012) featuring the folks at Fabulously Frugal, and yet again, I’m astounded at how a topic like couponing can get people so riled up (read the comments, they are more entertaining than the actual article). Many of the misinformed comments that come after the article prejudge people who use coupons as unhealthy hoarders who are a burden to those who don’t use coupons.

NOT what I buy! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m not sure people were so fired up about couponing before that dang TLC show about extreme couponing came along. But every naysayer thinks that people who use coupons buy loads of junk food one step up from the fast food chains. (Oh, how I wish I could find out how many people who write negative comments about coupons frequent McDonald’s or other fast food establishments I wouldn’t be caught dead in… I’m sure more than a few…). Here’s the reality of most couponers (not those on television): we save money on non-grocery and grocery items using coupons, and so we can buy good meat and fresh produce. If I can get razors and toothpaste for free-ish using coupons, that money goes towards fruits and veggies. Most of us are not like the woman in Erie, Pennsylvania, featured on “Extreme Coouponing” who has a locked door to a special room in her basement filled with cookies and snacks, called “Mom’s Cookie Room.”

One Canadian blogger tried to explain her healthy couponing in this informative, helpful article–and then she was lambasted by a reader in the comments section–you may want to read her gracious reply to this reader. Another healthy couponing article by Shape Magazine listed Lean Pockets as a healthy food to buy with coupons. I would never be caught dead with a package of highly processed Lean Pockets in my house. The article also lists Yoplait yogurt, which I know is high in sugar. My take away from these articles: we all have different definitions of what eating healthy means for us–some of us prescribe to healthy-enough while others are more strict. We don’t have to agree with each other, but let’s have a healthy level of respect for one another.

Most of us have heard health advocates, such as the Mayo Clinic, say to avoid any inner aisles of grocery stores food. So, besides buying cereals, pasta, crackers and decent cookies (when I don’t make from scratch) inside the store perimeter, ingredients for tomato sauces, and always flour, sugars, oils and other baking and condiment needs, my own cart is filled with perimeter groceries. It is most definitely not filled with fruit roll-ups (tons of coupons for those) and the like!

Speaking of perimeter groceries, there ARE coupons and sales for those! You have to find the store in your area that holds the best perimeter sales. Thankfully, ShopRite has produce Super Coupons, and besides that, I’ve been able to use manufacturer’s coupons to buy almonds, raisins, protein bars, orange juice, cheeses, yogurts (favorite is Activa), organic eggs, organic milks…with coupons matched with sales! Maybe there are not coupons  and sales for all the items all the time, but most of the time, I’m able to frugally shop the perimeter of the grocery store.

Here’s a small sampling of recent purchases using coupons/sales at ShopRite for fresh/healthy foods:

• Sale: $1.29 a pound for organic apples
• Super Coupon ShopRite: whole pineapple $1.49
• Super Coupon ShopRite: broccoli or cauliflower .99 cents a lb.
• Coupon + Sale: Blue Diamond Almonds (not in perimeter but healthy) for $1.50 a can.
• There’s always BOGO sales on potatoes, carrots, and onions–which reminds me of the bags of baby organic carrots for $1.66 each on sale, no coupons needed.

Here is a short list of alternative coupons I used to get healthy items:

• Groupon to Whole Foods ($10 for $20 worth of items and I bought meat and poultry)
• Fairfield Coupon to Fountain of Youth ($9 for $20 worth of items in this organic store in Westport, and I plan to buy produce and/or meats)
• I use the coupon booklets from Whole Foods, as well. Sometimes you get amazing deals, as you can read about in one of our posts.
  

  I bought nine packages of antibiotic-free chicken drumsticks at Whole Foods because they were affordable at .99 cents a pound thanks to a 70% off sale. Good to know that even Whole Foods has super sales! Photo: TFF

It’s always possible to buy frugally around the perimeter using coupons and sales, or just sales. To all of the coupon critics: Buy frugally around the perimeter by simply reading the store’s sales flyers!

~Marilyn, TFF

Why I Still (Sometimes) Love PriceRite

I’ve had sort of a love/hate relationship with PriceRite. Loved it when it opened, hate it now that prices are going up. But there are still a few things I go there to get that I can’t get a better deal on elsewhere. Or, should I say, the same products cost more at its sister store ShopRite…

These exact same groceries cost me $7.39 at PriceRite, and would have cost me $10.67 at ShopRite (assuming none of the items were on sale). It's worth the savings to go to PriceRite for items my family uses and loves when I'm in the area so I don't waste my savings on gas.

For example, I went there today to get my PriceRite staples: seltzer, Portuguese bread and honey pretzels. We drink a lot of seltzer in our house (in place of soda)–we add juice to seltzer, we drink it plain, we just love it. But the same bottles that go for .39 cents at PriceRite go for .50 cents at ShopRite (but they’ve been on sale for .33 cents a bottle at ShopRite, too). I’ve even found the seltzer for .25 cents a bottle at PriceRite when I hit it just right. My kids love the Chaves Portuguese bread, but it’s a full dollar more for the same exact package at ShopRite. The honey pretzels are $1.29 at PriceRite and normally $1.69 at ShopRite (but I’ve found them for sale for a buck a bag at ShopRite, too). So, though I don’t make it to PriceRite nearly as often as I used to, the store still has some expected, and some unexpected deals, enough to keep me going.~Marilyn, TFF

Another Grocery Store Associate Criticizes Couponers

Here we go again…people who use coupons criticized.

A Dear Abby article in the papers today shines a critical light on couponers once again. In brief, the letter, from a grocery store associate, says that coupons are a necessary evil, and coupons left on shelves for others shoppers to use pose a hazard because they clog up drains in dairy shelves, potentially cause shoppers to fall, and are generally a nuisance all the way around. And of course the writer points out the abuse, fraud, and the amount of work coupons pose for store workers.

I am just stunned. How can a basic act like couponing, which our grandmothers used to do, get everyone so riled up? Do couponers constantly complain about how grocery stores treat us? Should I discuss how many people I know who tell me that they absolutely hate shopping at any grocery store because the workers are rude, the produce is awful, the marketing is ridiculous (ie: the famous “Manager’s Special”), and the prices are outrageous? Is there any wonder WHY so many people now have to coupon to be able to fill a fridge and pantry?

This growing rift between grocery store associates and people who coupon has to stop. Not every couponer is an extreme couponer! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Listen, I’m the first one to say that the TLC show, Extreme Couponing, has ruined it for many of us. The show portrays crazy couponers, not run-of-the-mill couponers like myself. So now, it seems like there are two camps: us (couponers) and them (grocery stores and people who hate couponers). This rift is ridiculous because we are all in this together: trying to save money on our grocery bills so we can feed our families.

Can’t we all just get along?

~Marilyn, TFF

Simple Paper Napkins in a Pinch for Pennies

My TFF blogging partner, Aimee, is lucky. Her family agrees to use cloth napkins. I think she’s successful because her kids learned to use them at an early age.

Napkins in a pinch for less than pennies.

I missed the boat on that one, and my family has an aversion to using cloth napkins, so every week I dole out money–too much money–for this silly thing called paper napkins. But all the waste, and all the money–did I mention money? — is getting to me. I weaned my family off of boxes of tissues (except when they have bad colds), and instead, they use toilet paper for that job. We get quality TP (with coupon), no one complains. Packaged napkins will be the next paper goods item checked off my shopping list for good.

We ran out of paper napkins this week and in a pinch at breakfast, I grabbed the roll of Bounty paper towels (great sale + coupon). One sheet is too large for a napkin. I grabbed the scissors and cut a sheet up in fours, put them in the napkin holder, and everyone was happy. I did a little calculating and here’s what I came up with.

• Price I typically pay for 250 basic, no-frills store-brand napkins: $1.65 (PriceRite) to $1.88 (Stop & Shop).
• That means each napkin = .0066 cents a napkin from PriceRite and .0075 cents a napkin from Stop & Shop.
• Price for one roll of 2-ply Bounty paper towels (sale and coupon) .42 cents.
• 46 Sheets on one Bounty roll x 4 napkins made from each sheet = 184 napkins from one roll.
• I have 184 napkins for .42 cents, making each napkin .0023 cents. Great if 2-ply paper towels are on sale.

~Marilyn, TFF

Step 1: grab one sheet of paper towel and fold in half.

Step 2: After folding one sheet in fours, cut on all folds to make four separate napkins.

Step 3: Now you have four separate napkins to put into your napkin holder.

 

How Much Money Should You Use to Build Your Stockpile?

Stockpiling, a way of life for many couponers, has its challenges, especially when you first start out. The same question keeps popping up from people TFF meets around town or during workshops: how much money do you need per week to stockpile?

It seems that many people who start out couponing/stockpiling believe that they have to start a huge stockpile right away. No. In a nutshell, this is how you start stockpiling and how much money you might use to begin your stash. Please remember, these are just guidelines and tips.

Here's a modest, and always revolving, stockpile. Note the coffee!

The answer to how much money you need to stockpile per week is as individual as your budget. For example, if you have a budget of $150 a week for groceries, take about $10, $15 or $20 out of that budget and use it to buy a stock of pasta or shampoo, or whatever is on sale that week that you can buy for rock-bottom prices (hopefully with a coupon, too). So the next week (or couple of months), you won’t have to buy that item because you have a ton of it already. The next week, find another item that’s priced at its rock-bottom cost, and take the same amount of money from your budget, do the same thing as you did last week. Soon enough, you will see your stockpile grow from nothing to 10 boxes of pasta to that plus a whole heck of a lot more.

For more on stockpiling, especially tutorials on how to begin, make sure to go to Stockpiling Moms and pick up their book, it’s full of great tips.

~Marilyn, TFF

Organic Strawberries Now on Sale at Shoprite (and Stop & Shop)

You may not be able to see the difference between conventional and organic strawberries. Image via Wikipedia

Why is the $3.49/lb sale for organic strawberries at Shoprite in Fairfield a great price?

Organic strawberries can be found as one of the “Dirty Dozen” list for being one of the most pesticide-laden produce, according to the Environmental Working Group. Download the app or wallet-sized list here: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/guide/

But do you know why it’s on that list? Conventional strawberries are sprayed with a chemical called Methyl Iodide, a most deadly pesticide. Methyl Iodide is the chemical scientists have used to deliberately cause cancer in laboratory cells for research purposes. That is how powerfully dangerous it is! Experts are calling for its ban in agricultural practices.

Until then, Frugal Fairfielders, head to Shoprite for your organic strawberries this week!  It happens to be $.50 cheaper than Stop and Shop’s sale price.

Better yet, learn how to grow strawberries yourself.  It’s on my list to try, but that is for a post for another day…

~Aimee, TFF