Couponing
Is that even a word? Sort of like garage saling…
I’ve signed up for a trial at couponsense.com. They claim to be in Virginia, but don’t have any circular information any more recent than January. Boy, that’ll irritate me.
The idea behind this service is that they enter all the coupons that go out in the Sunday newspaper circulars AND they enter what’s on sale at the various grocery stores… the magic happens when they match up the coupons to the store sales. You get a list of what’s on sale, matched to the coupons by store and make your shopping list from that. The neat part is they’re matching all unexpired coupons for the last 6 months to the sales.
They’re really big Arizona and lots of California. I wanna try it! I have 3 major grocery stores are within a stone’s throw from each other (okay maybe not that close, but a few blocks from each other), ditto for Walgreens. Target is a couple miles away.
I already use coupons, and I watch the circulars — but usually only for loss leaders, and I stock up when I find a good deal.
I’ve written to their support email to find out about why there doesn’t appear to be any data for my area. Will post results later.
The couponsense.com management did get back to me. I still think they have an awesome concept at a reasonable price, it just isn’t happening in Virginia right now. I may join them and help it get going here. Having compared their system to a few others, I have to say I like the way their’s operates. The lack of local information just killed it for me.
Having only tested a few of these services over the same period of time I found I was getting fabulous deals on toiletries and housecleaning supplies, but not much on food. I understand the cycle is about 12 weeks, so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for the next month or two and see if I can really make out with food too. Much of what I purchased was free or under 50 cents. Occasionally up to a buck. But that was generally on something that would have been closer to $10. Some of the savings was immediate, some on rebates. I don’t mind rebates with reputable companies, so that doesn’t bother me.
More later.