As you all should know by now, we live in hurricane country. Getting hit by one is not only possibly, its very likely. Add in the reactive nature of my work that results in weeks of no income, and stocking up for lean or hard times makes pretty good sense.

Coupons are a smart way to stretch my dollar buying good quality food that my family will eat. However, I’m not a fan of spending hours every week going through the paper to clip coupons. I see how they can save money, so started looking for my niche. Eventually, I worked out a system that works well for my level of interest vs the level of effort I want to put into it.

First I found that the stores around here publish their flyers Wednesday, and are usually available Tuesday night online. I then found several websites that compile lists of what is in each weekly flyer and more importantly, pairs each sale item up with all available coupons for that item. I eventually settled on www.southernsavers.com as I like the format, and it publishes all of the stores I frequent.

Here is my step by step way to save money using coupons.

1. Goto  www.Southernsavers.com and click on your store of choice and select the “Weekly Ad”:

2. Select the latest weekly ad

3. Scroll through, looking for items you use on a regular basis. Remember, it is NOT a good deal to buy something on sale if you never plan on consuming it.

Here you see canned chicken is on sale. We will use this as an example since my family likes using canned chicken.

• I usually compare prices on the per pound basis.
• Find the best coupon option, in this case $0.75/2 would be a savings per unit of 37.5 cents.
• Take the original price and subtract the savings from the coupon we selected. This gives us the cost per unit if we use the selected coupon when we buy. Cost per unit is $1.25 (sale cost) – $0.75(coupon) divided by 2 (units per deal), or $0.25 per can
• Now figure the cost per pound. There are 4.5 ounces per can. Divide cost ($0.25) by the weight in each unit (4.5), giving us the cost per ounce. Multiply this by 16 (ounces in a pound) to get our final number. SO: $0.25/4.5= .055555 (cost per ounce) and  .055555 x 16 = .88888, or $0.89 per pound.

This sounds complex, but its actually very simple once you understand the concept.

Can you buy white breast boneless chicken for $0.89 per pound? I can’t, so this is a good deal.  Add in the fact that it is shelf stable with a storage life of about 24 months, and we have found a winner!

Wait! We need the coupons! And we didn’t get the newspaper last week! No worries…We go to the World’s Yard Sale – eBay! There are lots of eBay sellers that spend massive amounts of time buying papers in bulk and clipping coupons, thousands of them, every week.

Search eBay using the name of the coupon listed.

In the left column, there are search options. Go to the “Distance” option, use 200 miles and your zip code to sort the coupons available by distance.

The reason we sort by distance is that most grocery sales only last a week. We need to locate the coupons we want, pay for them, have them shipped, and be able to use them, ALL  within 7 days. Time is of the essence, as lawyers would say. One day late, and you have effectively wasted the cost of the coupons, since most items are still overpriced when using coupons alone.

Once you’ve found your coupons, I suggest using only “Buy It Now” listings (again, less waiting to get the items shipped to you) to purchase your coupons. I typically also only buy coupons in lots of 20. If it is an item that we would use, its worth stocking up while it is cheap.

You will also find that coupon sellers have automatic re-listing programs, so if you want more of the same coupon from that seller, just wait about 5 minutes, and they will be available again.

On this particular item, the canned chicken, I have purchased 20 coupons for $1.50 total. This will get me 40 cans, since both the deal and the coupon is based on two items. Coupon cost PER CAN is $1.50/40, or 3.8 cents, or $0.4. Figuring this into the above equation, I find my actual cost per pound now becomes $1.03 per pound, still a pretty good deal when I live.

When buying this many of one item, I try to space my purchases over either a couple days, or a couple stores. This may not be an option for some, but it is one of the benefits I currently have living in a higher population area. If this is not an option, you may want to speak to the store manager.

A little about coupons. Some people resist using them, thinking that the stores are losing money. If you read the fine print, you will see that the manufacturer actually pays not only the face value of the coupon to the store, but also an additional amount, usually around $0.05 – $0.10 per coupon. So if I used 20 coupons to buy this canned chicken, the store actually makes an additional $2.00 on my transaction! It’s a win-win for you and your store.