Making a Plan

Now it’s time to create a battle plan.


Gather the sales fliers of the stores in which you wish to shop

They may come to your mailbox, arrive in your local newspaper, be part of an email, be available on the store’s website, or you can pick on up at the store itself.

If your going to get your copy of the sales flier from the store, I suggest you drop by and pick it up some day before you intend to shop. If you try to shop will a stack of coupons and an open sales paper you’ll miss deals, fall for sales that aren’t really sales, and generally not use your coupons to their greatest advantage.

You might also want to consider shopping at more than one store, especially if you pass several stores on your way home. Yes, shopping at more than one store takes more time and yes, it could use more gas if you go out of your way to a sale, but it will allow you to take full advantage of sales and your coupons.




Make a menu

Planning your family’s meals may be a new concept to you but it will really allow you to make the most of what you have on hand and control what you buy. Decide how many days you’re going to shop for at a time. (One week at a time will allow you to take advantage of weekly sales.) Write down what you want to make during the chosen time period, glance through the sales fliers and your cabinets to get inspiration. Make a list of ingredients you need to make these meals and snacks. Leave things you have in the pantry off the list.




For Example:


Dinner Things I Need



1. Fajitas Tortillas, chicken, bell pepper (I have onion & spices)

2. Hamburgers Ground Beef, Hamburger buns ( I have fixing’s)

3. Sub Sandwiches Sub Rolls, chips, meats (I have cheese and toppings)

4. Homemade Pizza Bell Pepper, mushrooms (I have dough, sauce & cheese)




My grocery list, which I try to organize buy department might look like this:


3 Bell peppers

Mushrooms


Tortillas

Hamburger buns

Sub rolls

Chips


Ground beef 2lbs

Chicken 1 lb

Sandwich meats




Check the sales and your coupons

Now it’s time to really look through the papers and see what the sales are. I like to sit down with a piece of paper and the write down the sale items that look interesting to me. Also make a note if that store is having a double or triple coupon sale or a 3 day only sale that week.

Lets say after looking through my papers my list might look like this:


Store 1 (doubles up to 50 cents)

Canned cat food 2/1

chips (select varieties) 1.50

Milk BOGO (normally 3.50 according to my price book)


Store 2 (doubles up to 99 cents)

Can soup 2/3

Milk 2.99

Hamburger buns 75 cents


Store 3 (face value)

Can soup 2/3

Chips 1.00

Canned cat food 2/1


Now I look through my coupons and see if I have any match ups. Don’t forget to check the printables sites.


Store 1 (doubles up to 50 cents)

Canned cat food 2/1 .50/2 (doubled to 1.00/2)

chips (select varieties) 1.50

Milk BOGO (normally 3.50 according to my price book)


Store 2 (doubles up to 99 cents)

Can soup 2/3 .55/2 (doubled to 1.10/2)

Milk 2.99

Hamburger buns 75 cents


Store 3 (face value)

Can soup 2/3 .55/2

Chips 1.00

Canned cat food 2/.50 .50/2


Looking at this list we can see that even though canned soup is the same price at stores 2 and 3 we should buy it at store 2 because they will double our coupon. Store 1 will double our cat food coupon but we will still get it cheaper at Store 3. As for the milk, Store 2 has it on sale for 2.99 and Store 1 has BOGO. We’ve checked our store’s coupon policy and so we know that BOGO rings at half price. The milk at store 1, normally 3.50 is on sale for 1.75, so that’s the one we’d pick.

Decide which items you’ll buy at which store then go back over your ingredients list to see if anything that wasn’t on sale has a matching coupon. Look through your price book to decide which store you should visit for that item. Make sure to double check that you have the correct size, brand, flavor, etc. required for the coupon.

There are many websites which offer coupon matchups. Essentially they’ve done all the sales paper rummaging and coupon sifting for you so they can tell you which stores you should visit for which items and which coupons you should use. The only problems with that is prices, coupon distribution, and store variety varies by region so you need to check your price book to make sure you’re getting the right deals.

Make sure you take all your coupons with you in case you stumble upon an unadvertised deal.

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