Bargain Hunting

I've become an avid couponer. It's like a game to me. A game with a learning curve, sure, but a game. I like finding bargains for my family. Since I'm the one that spends the vast majority of the money in our household, I try hard to find good deals. And I'm getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

I used to think, like a lot of people, that buying in bulk is cheaper. So I'd load up on stuff at Sam's Club every week (since we sadly do not have a Costco here in Cache Valley). Now I can easily skip a week or two at Sam's Club since I've become better at bargain shopping.

There are a few tricks to bargain shopping. First, you can't be brand loyal. For some things you can, but you have to be willing to buy the cheapest brand of shampoo or toothpaste to get the really good deals. Just the other week, I bought 14 bottles of shampoo for less than 30 cents each and a bunch of toothpaste for less than 25 cents a tube. I easily have gotten a years supply of those things (and more) just by bargain hunting.

Second, you have to save all your coupons. Save all the inserts you get in the paper on Sunday and get multiple subscriptions to increase the number of coupons that you get. We get two Sunday papers and I'm toying with the idea of getting more, just for the coupons. I have coupon inserts from back in January that I've used recently.

Third, you have to match your coupon usage with store sales to really maximize your deals. For example, don't use a toothpaste coupon for 75 cents off two tubes if you are paying full price. Wait until that brand of toothpaste goes on sale and then use the coupon to get money off the sale price. That's how I ended up with my cheap toothpaste.

There are tons of websites around to help you find great bargains. I like grocerysmarts.com for matching up my grocery store ads with available coupons. Another good website is pinchingyourpennies.com, which I believe you can link to from Grocery Smarts. I like that these websites classify the deals as 3, 4 or 5 star deals to help you know if it's worth stocking up on an item at that price.

There are also a lot of blogs out there for bargain hunters. I've found so much good information on other people's personal blogs. They are good to share information about the great deals that they've found.

Our church encourages families to build a three month supply of food that your family eats regularly and more as you can. Couponing and bargain hunting has allowed me to do just that at good prices that haven't been a strain on our bank account. I still have some things that I'd like to have a better "stash" of, but we are well on our way. And it feels really good.

Of course I'm aware that there are lots of people around that are couponing experts. So if you are one of those people who basically pays $0 out of pocket for toiletries, don't rain on my parade. I'm not there yet, but don't worry - I will be.