Coupons Are Just One Way To Save Money
We generally are an up-beat group of folks here at Wadyuptoo so it’s not like us to begin an article by espousing the bad news that comes with the bad news. Yet, one of the unfortunate side effects of bad news is that we get inundated with more news, articles and editorials detailing every little aspect of the situation, than we care for. (And yes, we realize the irony of the situation that by writing this article we are adding to the fodder.) But being a site dedicated to everyday shopping, we feel we have a valid excuse. Okay, it may be a weak one but we’ll take it (and we hope you’ll keep reading, too)!
So let’s all shout together in frustration, “Yes, we know the prices of groceries have been going up!” (That’s the bad news.) It’s only been plastered all over the media for the past six months (or more). (Yep, that’s the more bad news!) And we know most people are lost when it comes to ideas on what to do about it. We just watch our bank accounts dwindle and pull our hair out (what’s left of it)!
Well, we’re going to give a try at sharing our perspective on this dilemma. We feel obligated because our mission is to help you save money with your shopping. Hopefully, we will make a little sense out of all the noise out there. First, let’s get one thing straight, saving money is hard work! If it was easy, there wouldn’t be a need for sites such as ours. Scouring through coupons and organizing them takes time. Reading all the articles and learning all the tips and tricks is only the first step. The next is trying to actually put them to work. And lastly, once you finally start to feel comfortable with one or two, the rules change. Grrr….
Like all those late night (or early morning) infomercials that make losing 137 pounds look as easy as falling off the proverbial log, the Internet, newspapers, TV shows and Sunday sermons have all become ablaze with articles on how to save money grocery shopping. To see what we mean, just type the words “How to Save Money Grocery Shopping” into your favorite search engine. We did and got 37,200,000 hits in Yahoo! Google gave us 3,190,000. Either way, that’s a lot of tips to read.
The volume has gotten so large, that authors find the need to verticalize their tips in hopes that you read their articles because you will believe it will apply more specifically to your lifestyle. On a recent perusal of the web, we found articles on how to save money grocery shopping for divorced moms, single dads and new parents. Tips for those that are weight challenged, the retired (or age challenged to be p.c. consistent) and the younger generation (we use to call them yuppies, but that’s dating some of us here at Wadyuptoo). Get this, we even found one to help those with ADHD and those who study zen. Yes, really! Now if we could just find the one for over-worked, over-stressed, under-paid and under-appreciated people. Oh wait, we forgot, that’s all of us!
Then there are the mountain of sites that have followed the 31 ice cream flavor route with 32 ways to save money shopping (okay, they had to do them one better). There’s the “8 Simple Ways” (as opposed to the eight difficult ones?), of course the Top 10 List (and the Top 20 and the Top 15 and … oh, you get the point). The “13 most effective tips”, “17 Ways to Save $100 per Month” and so on… Heck, we find it hard to remember one or two! Guess we need to put some genko biloba on our next shopping list.
Actually, the difference from those infomercials on how to lose weight is that most of these shopping tips have some merit. Ok, the one Top 20 list that had “Eat More Beans” as its number 2 tip was a little hard to swallow (especially if they are Lima beans (inside joke as one of us at Wadyuptoo is not keen on this bean)). And we’ve happily provided links to them. We just hope you come back here after looking at some of them. The difficulty with these tips is the sheer volume and determining which ones work for you. We will get around to posting some of our favorites in the future, but for now, we figure you can navigate Google as well as we can.
To summarize, the main tips we found for saving money fall into three categories. The first is to use coupons. The second is to leverage sales/promotions and the third is to change your shopping habits (i.e., use a list, don’t shop when hungry, etc.). Yes, we know this is real basic stuff.
But, in real life, we find ourselves trying to cram our shopping in on the weekend between the laundry and taking little Billy to soccer practice. Underneath our breath, we mutter that we don’t have the time or the energy of those “Super Shoppers” who bought $100 worth of groceries for $1.95. That’s like believing we can make the Olympic Weightlifting team this August.
We finally get to the store only to discover we left our coupons in the other car. We hunt down those sales but that promotion on Iron Skillet steak (what the heck’s that) for $19.99/lb. just doesn’t look right. We look at that package of toilet paper for $4.59 and wish we could remember what we paid for it the last time. We try to figure out if that “buy 14 and get 17 free” is really a good buy. (And we studied “new” math in school.) We finally just throw up our hands and put whatever looks good into the basket (man, they got us again!).
Does this sound more like the way your shopping trip goes? It sure feels that way for us. Hopefully, one day someone will come up with a solution that more fits our lifestyle, rather than wanting us to change to fit theirs.
Stay tuned…. (in the meanwhile, at least we hope you’ve at least had a good smile!)
Filed under: Checkout Counter | Tagged: Going Shopping, Saving Money
