I have found that the best way to get out of debt while building your food storage is to coupon. I'll make this simple: Coupons add up and they ARE worth your time. Since I started couponing in May I have saved over $650. This isn't from coupons alone, but when combining the coupons with store sales and rebates. Broken down, I've saved about $225 from coupons, about $275 from sales, and about $150 from rebates.
Now one might argue "yeah, but how much did you SPEND?" Fair argument. I've spent about $1,000 on groceries since I started couponing. And much of those purchases I didn't need to make at the time, but I did it because I had the coupon. So one could say that I didn't save $650, but rather I spent $1,000. If someone is purchasing stuff they are never going to use or don't really need, that would be true. But I'm not buying stuff just because it has a high value coupon: I only buy things that I know will be used in my family before it expires. So while it's true that I didn't really NEED 8 tubes of toothpaste in the month of June, I went ahead and bought 8 tubes, because I know it will be used eventually, and for the next 2 years I won't have to worry about purchasing toothpaste.
Also I "bought" 8 tubes of toothpaste because they were free.
Yes, you read that right. FREE. Actually, they were better than free. I got $3.72 back for making that purchase.
That's the beauty of combining coupons with sales and rebates. And because I use sales to build my stockpile, I actually saved myself even more money than the numbers reflect.
Here's why: If I buy 1 tube of toothpaste every time I run out, I'll end up buying toothpaste about 3-4 times a year (we have a small family right now). When I've finished my 1 tube and need to buy more, I won't be so concerned with getting it at a rock bottom price as I will just getting it so that my family has clean teeth, so I'll end up spending full price for it, or maybe a few cents off if it's on sale somewhere. So let's say that the average price for a 3oz tube of toothpaste is $2.00. If I buy it only when I need it I will pay around $15-$16 over the course of 2 years.
Instead of paying out $16 and dealing with adding toothpaste to my shopping list every few months, I buy it all at once for a super cheap price, which in this case was nothing, then I don't have to worry about buying it for the next 2 years. This is also a good approach to preparedness, because lets say that in 6 months my husband looses his job. All the sudden we don't have as much cash flow to buy our groceries with, but instead of sacrificing the use of toothpaste because we can't afford it at the moment, we can continue life as normally as possible (with healthy teeth anyway).
The same principle applies to any foods that can be stored either on a shelf or in the freezer. That is my goal for my family: have enough of a stockpile at all times that if something bad were to happen (illness, car accident, economy crash, job loss, natural disaster, etc...) my family can focus on dealing with the problem at hand, and not have to worry about how we will eat or be clean. It also allows me to deal with hard times without turning to credit cards (which is how a lot of people deal with unexpected expenses or unexpected loss of income).
So how do I get super cheap, free, and even money maker deals?
First, I clip coupons every week and save them. I have a binder I keep all my coupons in, with sleeve protectors (the trading card kind) so I can keep them organized alphabetically and find them easier. I also receive multiple papers every Sunday so that I have multiple of the same coupon. Most newspapers will do "Coupons Deals" where they deliver multiple papers on Sunday (that's when the coupon inserts come out) for a small fee more than the regular paper service. I pay $8/mo and get 4 papers every Sunday. It's totally worth it. I also print coupons off of websites, such as Coupons.com and Shopathome.com. I can print two of the same coupon per computer in my house this way, and since we have 3 computers, I can get 6 of the same coupon. Usually the coupons online reflect coupons that come out in the newspapers, but sometimes there are coupons that are only in the inserts and some that are only online. Either way, when I see a coupon for something that I know I would buy if it was on a good enough deal, I clip them and save them. If there is a coupon for something that I don't buy, for example denture cream or pet care (we don't have any animals currently), then I don't clip those coupons.
Next, I check the weekly ads (which almost all stores send out on Sunday's as well). I check for items that I know I'm running low on in my stockpile. If I just stocked up on toothpaste 2 months before, and I see it on sale again for super cheap or even free, I'm not going to buy it, because I don't need it. I have a list of "buy prices" where I keep track of what I'm willing to pay for an item. Sometimes I run out of an item before it goes on sale good enough that I would replenish my entire stockpile, but I still need 1 or 2 of them, so I have a price I'm willing to pay if I'm only purchasing 1 or 2. I have a separate price for if it's good enough that I'll buy my year's supply. There are always items on sale in the stores that match an item you have a coupon for. This is where you often get items for SUPER cheap, sometimes get them for free, and occasionally get money back for them.
While making my shopping list and comparing prices with my buy price list, I also check my rebate apps. Rebate apps have their own post on my blog because I love them so much. I'll briefly list the apps I use and what they are good for:
There are several rebate apps available, but due to space availability on my phone, I only use 5: Ibotta, Checkout 51, Savingstar, MobiSave, and Snap (by groupon). With the majority of offers, you can redeem 1 item for the rebate. So for example, Ibotta usually has a rebate for $0.25 off any gallon of milk. If I buy 3 gallons of milk, I will not be able to redeem the rebate 3 times; I can only use it once, unless otherwise specified. Sometimes on Snap there are rebates you can redeem as many times as you want, so I can use it for each item purchased. But those are not common in the other rebate apps. When I buy something that is on sale, and I also have a rebate for it, I usually get it for super cheap, and sometimes I get it for free or make money off of it (meaning the rebates were worth more than the price of the item). The part I like about rebate apps is that they usually have items that I need to purchase anyway, like milk, yogurt, or bread. Since I'm purchasing them anyway, I might as well get $$$ back for them, right? $0.25 a gallon might not seem like a big deal, but over the course of the last 6 months, I've saved over $150 using rebate apps, so it adds up and ends up being worth your time.
But the really sweet deal is when something goes on sale for really cheap, and you also have a coupon for it, AND you ALSO have rebates for it. And that happens more often than not. It takes work to match them all up and make sure that your item qualifies for all 3 offers (or even more if the item is listed in multiple rebate apps), but in the end, you spend less money at the check out and have more money in the bank.
So let's look at some real examples that I've used throughout the last few months. We'll start with the toothpaste:
In June, Ridley's had Colgate toothpaste (3oz tube) on sale for $0.88/each. I live right next to a Walmart, so instead of driving the 15 minutes to Ridley's, I just price-matched at Walmart (such a blessing they do that!). There was also a printable Colgate coupon for $1.00 of any 1 tube of toothpaste. At Walmart, if your coupon amount exceeds the amount you are being charged for the item, they apply the left over amount to the rest of your purchase total. I printed 6 coupons and used 1 for each tube I was buying. I also bought some other things I needed, so the left over $0.72 ($0.12 from each coupon) was applied to the remainder of my receipt total.
A few weeks later Rite Aid had Colgate toothpaste on sale for $3.50 for a 4oz tube. Every month, the printable coupons reset on the websites, and sometimes certain coupons are there for several months in a row. So I was able to go back and print more of the Colgate coupon. Now, in and of itself, $3.50 for 4oz isn't a good deal, but they also offered a $3.00 rebate usable twice only for their store card. Basically, If you purchase the item, they'll load $3.00 to your store card that you can use towards future purchases, so while I did pay money out of pocket, I actually made money because what I "spent" at the register that day was basically given back to me in the form of a gift card to their store (and I used it later when I really needed diapers). Just using the rebate, I would have paid $0.50 for the toothpaste, but I brought my coupon with me, so I planned on making $0.50 off the purchase. When I got to the store, I found that they also had a vendor coupon for the toothpaste. Vendor coupons are offers that the store promotes, and manufacturer coupons are offers that the maker of the product promotes. You can use both on the same product, as long as both coupons list the same item. The vendor coupon was for $1.00 off and I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off. So I only paid $1.50 out of pocket for each tube. Then they loaded $6 (for the store rebate) to my card. So I made $3.00 and got toothpaste out of the deal.
Other really great match ups that I'm taking advantage of THIS week:
American Beauty Pasta is on sale at Albertson's this week for $0.69/lb. I have 4 $1.00/2 coupons for American Beauty Pasta. I'm used all my coupons and bought 8 lbs of pasta (because I'm almost out) and only paid $1.52 for it (not counting tax, you always pay sales tax on the store price, regardless how cheap or free your coupons made the item). And I also have a $0.50 off any brand of pasta rebate from Ibotta, which I can use twice, as long as I submit the purchase in 2 different receipts. I had to break up the pasta purchase anyway, because it was a limit of 4 per transaction. So after my coupons and rebates I will pay $0.52 for 8 pounds of pasta. That makes it $0.06 a pound. If you really want to calculate in tax, I will pay $1.85 at the check out, a total of $0.85 after my rebate, making them $0.10 a pound. Either way, it's definitely worth the time it took to clip the coupons and match them with the rebates.
Ridley's has Betty Crocker brownie mix on sale for $0.71 a box, and Betty Crocker cake mix for $0.88 a box. I have a printable $0.75/3 coupon for Betty Crocker baking mixes. (I have to buy 3 mixes to use it). I also have a rebate from SavingStar where I get $0.75/3 Betty Crocker baking mixes (usable once only). So I'm going to buy 9 boxes of brownie mix and 9 boxes of cake mix. I'm going to use all 6 of my coupons and my usable once only rebate and pay just over $9 for 18 boxes of baking mix, making them about $0.50 each.
And now I won't worry about pasta and baking mixes for a while. If I paid full price for each of these purchases, I would have spent around $34 for all 8 pounds of pasta and 18 boxes of baking mix. Instead I'm paying $10.34 for it. I would say that's a pretty darn good deal, and I'll enjoy using that extra $22 on something else more important, like extra payments towards paying off our student loans, or extra money in the emergency fund.
And this is how we feed our family, build our food storage, and work towards getting out of debt simultaneously. It's a lot of hard work, and I'm not perfect at it, but it's making a difference for us. Before using coupons and rebate apps we didn't have ANY food storage, and we struggled to have enough money for groceries every month. Now we are well on our way to achieving our food storage goals, and I never run out of money for our grocery needs. I really have a strong belief that God's desire for us is to live frugally. In doing this we are blessed to be prepared both financially and physically for whatever crisis life throws at us. We are also in a better position to help others in need. I've really enjoyed having enough food storage on my shelf to be able to take some and give it to others who were going through a hard time. Couponing has helped me not only provide for my family, but also has given me the resources to participate in helping others. Without putting a strain on my budget.
Hopefully this inspires you to start shopping more frugally!
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