How to decide between needs and wants

My biggest struggle when I first started using the grocery smarts website and coupons was deciding what was a need and what was a want. It definitely helped that I avoided Wal-mart like the plague once I got going because their prices are fairly cheap for all items and so I would often buy items that I didn't absolutely have to have but thought it would be nice to have and hey it's affordable so why not buy it? But at a grocery store you are less tempted to buy items that aren't on your list because regular price is so expensive! Of course I still had to run to Wal-mart because I ran out of items that hadn't been on sale yet but I was much more determined to buy only what was on the list because I was then in the habit of only buying what was on my list and not bothering to browse the aisles. Now, I can't remember the last time I went to wal-mart because I have been using coupons long enough that I am well stocked on most items.

So back to the original question how do you decide between a want and a need? As a beginning couponer it all felt so overwhelming to me! The first thing to remember is the stores sale rotations, which basically means how often are items going to be on sale. For example, Pasta will be on sale at an incredibly low price once every 12 weeks. Keeping this in mind there were certain items that I knew I would never ever use and so it wasn't a temptation to buy (any and all seafood for example), but what about pasta when it goes on sale for 88 cents? Should I buy 10 packages of them because it is such a hot deal? Or should I buy 30? How do I decide? Well I bought 10 because we do love pasta at our house, but I know it will go on sale again in 12 weeks and I don't make it every week. If I made pasta more, then maybe I would have bought more but I figured I will make it once a week best case scenario so that would be 12 packages I would buy, however I know that more than likely there will be two weeks in there where I don't make any pasta especially since there wasn't any pasta sauce on sale at the time. Is this making sense? So the first thing to look at is will I use this item and how often will I use this item in the next 12 weeks? Don't just buy it because it is on sale and is a good deal and therefore you have to buy it.

My other saving grace is that I only use cash when I go to the store. If I know I only have $50.00 and I have to buy produce, meat and milk then I am going to budget in those items FIRST and the sale items next. If I miss out on a deal then IT IS O.K. BECAUSE IT WILL BE BACK IN 12 WEEKS!! Sometimes even sooner. Cereal is one item that is easy to pass on a deal for because it tends to go on sale more frequently than say pasta sauce so if I have to choose between cereal or pasta sauce and I only have 1 jar of pasta sauce in the pantry but 6 boxes of cereal that i bought from the last sale then I am going to use that money to stock up on pasta sauce.

Last but not least if it is something you have never tried but would like to then wait for it to be .50 or less because then it is like you pulled out two quarters from your change jar and if you don't like it it's not that big of a deal and if you do like it then SWEET! For example, I never buy disposable cleaning gloves because I think they are a waste of money, I have pretty good skin so cleaning doesn't bother me, but when playtex disposable gloves were on sale and I had a coupon that made them free I grabbed them because they didn't cost me anything and I do use them when I have them.

I have heard so many people tell me that they were buying things they would never use because it was on sale and I am telling you DON'T DO IT . . . JUST BACK AWAY FROM THE SALE ITEM AND SAVE YOURSELF THE $1.00. If you aren't going to use the item leave it for someone else to buy and only get what you will use.

How do you decipher between your wants and need?

My savings this week.

I usually only go to one store but this weekend I had time and both Smith's and Albertson's had things I needed so I went to both. I was very happy with both shopping trips as I got things I was running low on. I was completely out of macaroni and cheese - this is my kids favorite thing next to chicken nuggets, so I got a pack of 5. I could have saved even more if I had paid better attention because on the box of macaroni it has a coupon where you can get one free capri sunrise with the purchase of a 5 pack of macaroni - oh well. To put the Albertson's savings into perspective: the max pack of steaks without being on sale was priced at 20.05. So it's like I bought the steak full price and got everything else for .84!

What's your favorite day of the week?

When you coupon there are so many days in the week that are amazing! Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday they are all great in their own special way. Here is why I love them:

• Sunday: The morning that our bundles of gold (newspapers) come. My kids love to run outside and gather up my four Sunday papers. Then we unroll them and browse through every ad looking at all the saving possibilities that are out there this week. I especially love the Target ads! Then I gather up my Smart Source inserts, mark the date and file them away!
• Tuesday: The day the grocery ads come! Before I started couponing I would occassionally glance at them, then throw them away. I never knew what was a "good deal" so I would just make a list, run to Wal-mart, spend more than I meant to then would try to rationalize to myself and my husband why I spent way more than we budgeted and whether we really needed everything we bought. Now when I get the ads I pour every page and love every minute. On Tuesdays I try to place an order on Dede's website to get any inserts I might be missing as well, and if there is something in the ad that is really amazing then I stock up on coupons for those item as well!
• Wednesday: In the morning I wake up, feed my kids, then hop onto the Grocery Smarts website to browse through all the wonderful lists that are on there. Based on the ads I browsed through on Sunday and Tuesday I decide what lists to look at first. This morning I checked out Walgreens, Albertsons and Smiths!
  
• Thursdays: My coupon inserts arrive in the mail! That's one thing I love about Dede - she mails your coupons out usually the day you order them or the first thing the next morning so they arrive in time for you to use them with the sales! Thursday nights I also print out my lists and get my coupons ready to go.
• Friday: SHOPPING DAY!!! We wake up and get ready as fast as we can then we are off to the stores! Sometimes we just go to one store and other days we run to multiple stores. We go to Burger King for lunch (my kids love their nuggets) and enjoy some great family time. The best part is that no one is grumpy because we are SAVING MORE THAN WE SPEND AT ALL THE STORES WE GO TO!!
  

I am curious to know what your favorite day of the week is and why? Do you even bother to look at the ads or do you just hop on the website and look at the deals there?

Smith's was my pick this week

Every week I look at both the Albertsons and the Smith's lists to see who has what I want most for the week and this week Smith's had the upper hand - I got all of this yummy food (I know there is a lot of junk in there but hey there is also some healthy stuff too) for guess how much . . . go on keep guessing . . . o.k. I'll tell you . . . I SPENT $132.75 and SAVED $179.25 for a total of 58% SAVINGS. The cashier told me that I broke his record for the most saved that day! Want to know how I did it? I used the grocery smarts website and had the right number of coupons and that equaled lots of food for a little amount of money!

Why I Coupon

My husband is a man who loves to save money. He grew up in a home with seven kids and his mom stayed home as well. If he wanted a Nintendo he had to buy it with his own money which he earned by selling items, weeding gardens, mowing lawns, delivering papers, etc. Whatever he had to do to buy what he wanted he did. They never had brand name foods in his home growing up and for the most part neither did I. My husband wants to be financially secure and that is his driving force in life. I am very fortunate to have a husband like this because he has taught me how to budget, invest and save in ways that no one else has taught me. However, because he is "obsessed" (for lack of a better word) with money when we were spending way too much money on what he calls "doodads" (a Robert Kiyosaki term that refers to anything that doesn't put money back in your pocket) we started to argue. It got so bad that we went months without even talking about money because the minute he started to talk I tuned him out. I tuned him out because I felt like I was doing everything I could do and no matter what it wasn't good enough. I shopped at Wal-mart, never bought new clothes, only bought generics and rarely bought any meat except for chicken and hamburger. Finally I had enough. I suggested that we out the credit cards away (we pay them off every month but were using them like crazy) and we used cash for everything. Every week we would take out a set amount of money and that was what we had for the week. If we used all of our money on clothes for the kids we ate out of our pantry for the week even if that meant we had Top Ramen every day. The weeks we had to buy groceries I was spending all of the money we had alotted for the week and had nothing left for anything fun. Then back in February my good friend invited me to her coupon class and that changed my life!

I wasn't going to attend the class because I was nine months pregnant - I had my son 7 days later, but she was so excited and was saving TONS of money so I thought what the heck, I'll check this out. I signed up for four papers and thought we'll see how this works. For the first month I set the inserts aside and kind of glanced at the website but never did much else. Then one day I thought what the heck let's see how this works. I made up my shopping list and clipped my coupons and just hoped I did my math right because I only had about $96.00 left for the week. We went to Albertsons and bought everything on the list for about $83.00 and I saved about $83.00 I was then convinced! Since I have been using the coupons the "RIGHT" way my husband and I no longer fight about money. He comes with me every week, or stays home and entertains the kids and he is just as excited about my savings as I am. He even went shopping for me one day! We now have money to go on dates, play golf, buy new pots and pans and still get the groceries we need each week! Using coupons and the Grocery Smarts website has brought us a little closer to being more financially secure.