Saturday, May 25, 2013

Price Matching and Couponing - GIVEAWAY


I have been price matching my groceries for over a year, and am amazed at how easy it is to save some money on my grocery bill.

I go through the flyers weekly and find the sales I am interested in, then I gather up my flyers and head to RCSS; I separate everything in my cart with the flyer I am price matching to (bags and bins work well for this, each flyer gets it's own bin/bag).

When I am done, I grab my coupons and add them with my items. I can average saving about $15-$20/week - however I have saved up to half my regular grocery bill before.

This week, I had two shops - each approximately $50 out of pocket (I think I spent about $95.00 total) however, this was for almost $170 worth of groceries.

I am challenging myself to spend no more than $400 for the month of June - this will include diapers and wipes (although I am really hoping Mr. K will be potty trained by the end of this challenge).

I was lucky and found a local group on facebook just after I started price matching; the two ladies that started the group are wonderful, and super helpful.  They even do a grocery list weekly with coupon and check out 51 match ups, and upload it for us to use if we want.

How will I do this? A few ways.

1) Meal plan - I will plan out the food for the week and stick to it (I don't need to decide which days we will have what, but just ensure I have all the food for the week so I can decide each morning)
2) Price match - I will only buy items that are on sale for a decent price (if this means not having strawberries because of the price, and getting peaches or pears instead, I will) same goes for veggies
3) I will only buy meat/poultry if it the /kg price is $8.80 or less (and if it goes below $7.00 I will stock up on it)
4) Coupons - I use coupons every week (there are lots out there, you just need to find them. In Canada, we can't stack like in the US - but if you pair it up with a great sale you can still get some decent prices, and often times I can end up getting an item for free)

There is no reason for the challenge other than cutting our bill down to add to our savings (we are still planning on going to Disney next year). If I don't make it - I don't make it; to help stay on track I will be blogging about my weekly grocery shops (with pictures of my great deals and my receipts)

33 comments:

  1. My best experience is when I went out with my girlfriend and bought a few stuffs and paid less then a buck. My friend was amazed at me. :)

    Narathip Wall
    polo_wataga at yahoo dot com
    www.dealsandfree.blogspot.ca

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  2. Getting free toothpaste at walmart :)

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  3. SDM had B1G1 vitamins special going on. I was one of the first people to use the coupon with this new cashier, they spent some time trying to figure out stuff. In total I only paid the tax for 2 bottles of vitamins.

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  4. Well, my most challenging (not best) experiences are with FPCs that include taxes. Most places will only take off the item price, and to be honest I usually let it pass. However, today I used one and stated that the coupon included all taxes. A supervisor was called over and said this couldn't be done so I asked that a manager be requested. After about 4 minutes with the manager, who made it clear coupons were not something she desired, I got all taxes taken off too!
    Jan

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  5. I have had a few times where I have shopped and managed to save >50% of the total!

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  6. My favorite coupon experience is from a few months ago when I won a bunch of FPC's for Ferrero Rocher.
    Angela Mitchell

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  7. Chapmans icecream was $1 for 500ml, I used my $5 coupon and got 5 of them.

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  8. Free boardgames from using hasbro coupon off of the cereal boxes

    Marla

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  9. I recently paid only .49 each for 2 deodorant. They were regular 3.49, on sale for 2.49 and I had 2 coupons for 2.00 off.

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  10. Free Chapmans Ice Cream with their $5 off coupon

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  11. My best coupons were FPC's for Yogurt that came in the mail. The other coupon I felt good about using was for five dollars off kids gummies vitamins.

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  12. saving almost 1/2 my bill one day at SDM pairing great sale with coupons!

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  13. I don't remember what I bought, but thanks to picking up a ton of mouthwash, I was able to pick up a few other items and still have the cashier pay me about $1.30 in change, all with the use of coupons, no cash at all. IIRC Walmart is the only place in (Eastern) Canada that gives the remainder back to the customer.

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    1. AS far as I know walmart is the only one to give you cash overage; there are other chains that will allow you to use the overage toward the rest of your bill (I think freshco does this)

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  14. My best coupon experience was using a high value coupon for free razors
    thanks

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  15. Just last week I got 2 coupons for cereal, buy 1 get one free..we go through a lot of cereal so this was great.

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  16. I have had some trips where I have ended up combing store sales and coupons to get items for free. Those are always nice.

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  17. I once hit a sale of $10 off formula AND I had a $5 coupon! It was a pretty exciting time. Haha.

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  18. One of my best coupons was a $5 coupon for Chapman's ice cream. When it comes on sale I can get two or three ice cream products for close to free!

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  19. My best coupon experience was using a FPC for a box of Blue water cod $11.49 value.

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  20. It's too bad that Canadian couponing is not as lucrative as in the US..but I have found some great deals regardless. I always stock up on cheerios when they have the free yogurt/milk/bananas coupons on the box. The cereal won't go bad and it's like getting it for free!

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  21. The store was offering a two for one deal so I got 2 products for $2. Then, the manufacturer was offering a $1 off coupon so I got a 2 products for $1! I love getting coupons for products that I already use.

    Besos, Sarah
    Blogger at Journeys of The Zoo

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  22. i'm pretty new to couponing so i haven't done anything "extreme" yet but i was really happy to use FPCs on an entire purchase I did the other day and only had to pay tax! i felt pretty good!

    texan_michael AT yahoo DOT com

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    Replies
    1. are you in Ontario? if you are - you shouldn't be paying tax on an FPC. It is for a FREE purchase, and unless the coupon states bearer pays tax, then the coupon covers the TOTAL cost

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  23. I recently had a free product coupon from a manufacturer in response to a defective product that I had purchased. As I didn't want to purchase the same product, I decided to buy dishwasher soap packs instead. These get pricy, so I was glad to get some for free. As I was at the store, looking at the coupon and making sure I got the correct product, I noticed the coupon did not have a maximum amount limit. So, I was able to get one of the large packs for free, a savings of around $25 (though I think the store I was at was overpriced to begin with).

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  24. I havent been price matching for long. My best score so far was on boxed pasta. I price matched it to .99 (retail price 1.67) I have 5 coupons for .50 off and one for .75 - total price of the six boxes 2.75 :)

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    Replies
    1. that's great! I have 14 coupons for 0.75 - will be PM and buying all 14 boxes on my next shop!

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  25. Barbeque sauce cost 99 cents. I had a coupon for $1 off. That was years ago before I knew about free product coupons, so I was quite proud of myself.

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  26. I once used coupons and price matching and saved almost 75% of my grocery bill...

    for the longest time I didn't have to buy soap

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  27. I had a $10 off promo coupon for hair color, and ended up getting money back when I used it at Wal-Mart because it was on sale! It was like being paid to shop -LOL

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  28. When I get more than 40% off my total, I feel that I've won against the Man :)

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  29. Getting free children's Tylenol at walmart

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