What's new
By:
Guest viewing is limited

How much do YOU save?

R

Robertw18

New Talker
PF Member
Messages
5
Highlights
0
Reaction score
0
Points
33
Location
Illinois
My wife and I really got into couponing last year. Coincidentally, that's about the same time our daughter Kyli was born. Since then, we've been using coupons, rebates, and sales to help our money stretch a little farther.

We figure the money we're saving with coupons, sales, and rebates was money we were probably going to spend anyway, so instead of blowing that money on toys for ourselves; we decided that Kyli was the reason we started saving money, so she should benefit from it.

We've been tracking our savings on TotalSaved.com and have been putting the money aside from every trip. Today (at just 20 months old) Kyli has just over $4,000 saved in her college fund, all thanks to coupons!!!

The savings also helped when I lost my job at the end of July, but I just got a call about an hour ago, I will start my new job at the State Farm home office at the end of the month!

How long have you guys been couponing, and how much money have you saved? What are you doing with the extra money? What have you saved so far this year?
 
I have been couponing since I got married 23 years ago. I never have kept track of my savings. Also my couponing has changed over the 23 years. Before babies I focused on food and HBA's.

I started stocking up on diapers, wipes & baby stuff 6 years ago before my son was born. I ended up getting pregnant shortly after he was born and I was busy being a Mom and working. So busy that I bought only 1 packet of newborn diapers. I had DS3 on a Tuesday and I HAD to go to Costco on Friday for diapers, wipes, Kleenix, tp, pt, Ziploc bags. Everything. I was out of everything. Since then I have really stocked the above items & laundry stuff.

Right I have too much stuff. I am sitting on a 3 year supply of laundry & paper products. I have a lot of food. I have had to sit back and pass up on some deals.
 
I've been couponing 3+ years. I know I've saved a lot of money, but I don't track how much. I got into couponing because our money situation was not good especially with the economy the way it is. I've paid off all our credit card debt, but I haven't accumulated savings because of couponing. It seems like dh's income keeps shrinking and some expenses keep rising so couponing just helps keep us from taking on new debt.
 
Congrats on your job, and great job of saving and starting a college fund to help your daughter!!
 
I've couponed for about 3 years and for the first 2 or 2 and a half years we also did the Dave Ramsey stuff--during that time we paid off all our credit cards (we were in pretty deep), the car loan and started paying down the mortgage. Don't get me wrong couponing wasn't responsible for all of that, but it was the thing that really started to open our eyes to the fact that we could have a different relationship to money. Well earlier this year my husband lost his job. I was terrified and feared that our savings would quickly deplete--well it's been almost six months and the only thing we've had to take out of savings was money to get to Utah for my mother's final days and the funeral. I don't quite know how it has all worked out, but so far it all just kind of has.:lol:
 
I've been couponing for 3 years now. We kept track last year and saved $6,732. The inspiration to start couponing was to that i wanted inviaslign for my teeth. Goal was to save $100/month in coupons to put towards ortho bill. Now that the bill is paid off, the money we are saving using coupons goes towards payment on our NEW van. (first non-used car we have ever had) It was quite the challenge keeping track last year, so i haven't this year. I don't chase every deal, but when there is something we use, or a money maker i stock up!
 
There have been several tracking threads here and other places. What really is the savings? The only tracking I do is how much of my donations we write off our taxes as charitable contributions.

We have been doing this practically forever, and several years back we exceeded $1 million in cumulative lifetime charitable contributions. Considering the first time I wrote off charitable contributions it was a whopping $75 total, but other years I was exceeding $100K in recorded write-offs.

We only write off a fraction of what we donate, and in the past say 2-3 years we have ramped waay down as the deals aren't what they used to be, and it's a lot harder to get around nowadays. Just as the need ramps up.
 
:lol: Thought for sure I would see "more than some, less than others" here.

Started about 3 years ago when I got laid off my pt job. I'm not a heavy hitter and normally coupon in small quantities. No idea how much I have saved but suspect it is a nice chunk of change. It does not make up for the lost job but it keeps a few extra bucks in our pockets that would have been spent at Jewel, CVS etc.

I remember first starting out looking at the ads and looking at the coupons trying to get the cheapest place to pick up toothbrushes. One day I had this amazing idea of using the internet and I typed in Chicago couponing and I saw the light.
 
I agree with Barb.... Would not buy a lot of things if I wasn't making money on them... I saved over $1200 in less than a week at just one store. Would I have even purchased one of that item If I didn't make money buying it? No way
 
Began "couponing" about 4 years ago. In 2007 my oldest son was about to start pharmacy school when I found out we had no money put away for college. I was a stay at home mom and my husband.. cough.. handled the money. Anyway,I took out a loan for my son to start school and got involved with the family finances. After months of learning the bills and banking, I got us on a budget. Not enough, as I also had 2 other sons at home. I needed a part time job to cover my grocery bill. Then that huge flooding disaster hit NWI. I lost my whole lower level. After months of clean-up and renovation I added a small office area with a computer. I told my family this is where I was going to work. LOL. Ironically, that week I was in line at Meijer and the person in front of me turned and said "this is going to take awhile", showing me her coupons. I said that's okay I use coupons too. I had my 5-6 in hand. I watched her total go down to almost nothing and was so impressed! She spent a few minutes telling me to search coupon blogs on line and how she gets "paid" to shop. I went home and got that job on my computer! I often wonder if she is on CW. If you are THANK YOU! And if not THANK YOU to everyone that is!!!!
 
Barb09 said:
I don't think the question is answerable.

Why? Cause I save money on stuff I would never have bought. I saved $104 on 100 Glade warmers and then made $62 in catalinas. If I wasn't couponing...would I have purchased 100 Glade warmers? noway. Did I save $104? when I wouldn't have spent it to begin with?
Click to expand...

I'm not reading it as "how much do you save?" as what the receipt says you saved.

I'm reading it as, 'at the end of the day/week/month/year, how much $$ do you put away?', like the $4000 saved in a college fund.
 
:wel: Robertw18 hope you like it here :welcome1:
 
I have been couponing for 60 years, going back to the day when my mom could give us a handful of .02 coupons & we could take them down to the little A&P to redeem them for candy...they didn't care if you bought the product...I did my most enthusiastic couponing/rebating back in the early to mid 80s...when more stores doubled, there were no scanners, CRTs just said food or non-food...I had a bigger selection of stores...
 
I have been couponing since 2008. I don't track how much money we saved. But I know couponing has enabled us to do and have things that we otherwise couldn't afford.

Like Barb and LG said, I bought a lot of craps that I wouldn't buy otherwise to get the catalinas to buy stuffs that I couldn't afford otherwise. When I came here in 2008, we lived in a small apartment with no kitchen cabinet and DH has one sauce pan and a few silverwares "borrowed" from his parents' kitchen. The regular MM P&G and Conagra deals and the unforgettable crystal light deal has enabled me to equip the whole kitchen (in fact the whole apartment) with all sort of gadgets. :-)

I may say couponing pays for our house, but it's not like couponing pays for the mortgage and property tax. :-) Since we hardly pay anything for groceries from 2008-2011, that enables us to afford a better apartment and eventually saved anough money for a downpayment for a house. I track for deals on SD and buy clearance stuffs with coupons at the end of season to equip the house with all sort of appliances and gadgets.

The deals have withered and died mostly this days, but there are still ocassional MM deals here and there, I hit them hard and used the catalinas at Menards to get stuffs for the house, buy tools and wood to make furniture.
 
When I first started couponing 20 years ago, most of it was rebates and refunding and it was fun to get the little checks in the mail and hunt for forms. I don't really feel that I "save" money couponing. I guess you could call it not spending as much. I mean I need fruit snacks and I would get them even if they were $2 a box but with couponing and deals they cost much less. Say I pay .50 a box as opposed to $2 I don't take that $1.50 and put it on the side into savings. That to me is saving money. I also don't chase deals all over and buy things just to make $1 or even $5. I have a decent job so I can just stay a little longer and be productive that way. I congratulate you Robert on saving $4000 already. Make that saving a priority and it will be like old hat to you. Once they get older, kids really start costing money and fiting in their activities into your budget gets tuff. But if you already have in your mind that saving is #1 you have already beaten most people.
 
I agree with Barb and LG on this. I think a lot of us coupon because we don't have the $ to put out for full price crap :lol:

It's not a situation where I say OK its going to take $200 for food and H&B, pet food etc. per week for my family. So, I'll bring that down to $50 using coupons and I'll put that other $150 in my piggy bank for a rainy day. I do it because I don't have $200 a week for my grocery budget to begin with.

Also how do you figure "savings" when you have a big MM? Let's say you made $300 in cats doing a deal, when you spend those cats (sometimes recklessly :giggles:) have you "saved" $300? I think no in some cases because I wouldn't have spent that $300 if I didn't have the cats. KWIM?
 
I'm not sure I always save.... But I have twice as much stuff. There are certain areas I've saved a ton..... Baby formula/diapers for example. I could definitely do better in other areas. I have definitely changed my mindset on spending since I started though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top