Last month I was invited to a “coupon party” where someone taught me how to save a lot of money by using coupons. Initially I was skeptical…I thought it was a waste of time, that I couldn’t find coupons for the things I use, that I saved more money using generic, etc. Now I feel compelled to share what I learned because it’s already saved me a ton of money! Bear in mind that I am a newbie at this, so I’m still learning myself. Hopefully this info will be useful to someone else.
On Monday afternoon, I went to the Lowe’s Foods here in Sanford and got:
- 4 single serve packs of Whitehouse applesauce. That’s 24 applesauce cups total.
- 4 cans of Chef Boyardee canned pasta.
- 2 boxes of Uncrustables. That is 8 sandwiches total.
- 1 box of Snyder’s pretzel snack packs. That’s 10 small bags of pretzels.
Do you know how much that would cost without coupons or sale prices? At Lowe’s, these items would come to a total of $23.17, without tax. I paid $6.61, plus tax. That’s a savings of almost 78%.
So how did I do it? For all of these items, I had both a Lowe’s store coupon that saved me some money off of the regular price, some giving me a discount even on the sale price. And then I had manufacturer’s coupons on top of that. This is called coupon stacking. Usually (not always…check with the store) a store that puts out it’s own coupons will let you “stack” manufacturer’s coupons on top of theirs, allowing you to save big.
Take for example the Uncrustables, normally $3.09 per
box. The Lowe’s coupon made them $2.00 each. I also had a coupon that allowed me to save 75¢ per box. Because Lowe’s doubles manufacturer’s coupons up to 99¢, this saved me $1.50 per package.
So the final breakdown is:
- $3.09 each (or about 77¢ per sandwich)
- minus $1.09 for store coupon = $2 each
- minus $1.50 for manufacturer coupon = 50¢ total for each box (or about 12.5¢ per sandwich)
If I’ve done my math correctly, that is an 84% savings on that item alone. And yes, this is an item I will use. They’re great for days when we’re running behind and can’t take time to put lunch together. Normally I can’t afford them, but with coupon stacking I can buy a few boxes to keep for those rough mornings!