8 Steps to Help you Save Money without Using Coupons

One common misconception about saving money is that you HAVE to use coupons to pick up your household items – while that may be true to some extent, it’s certainly not something that is required.

While we love using coupons in this house, when we think on a bigger level, we probably only coupon for 15-20% of our purchases these days  – and it has worked out quite well for us.   Although I do still use coupons but I’m a little more strategic about my time and deals.  

• Do you REALLY want to drive to multiple stores (not everyone does, and not everyone can!)
• Do you really want to buy multiple papers? (at $1 + each it does add up fast)

There was a point in time that I refused to buy anything without a coupon – but as time has passed, and the coupon scene has shifted from what it used to be, you can find ways to save aside from clipping.   Here are some of the ways we have adapted to save:

Price Match Produce, Milk & Meat

Try to price match what’s inexpensive each week at Walmart... within reason (not every Walmart will, so keep that in mind!).. or what works even better is visiting the Ranch Market in Apache Junction or Mesa – a trip ONCE per week can get you 5-6 bags of produce for $10 – $12. 

That is crazy – that is what I SWEAR by!   That ONE trip will help me meal plan for the entire week.

We try to make vegetables the focus of our meals rather than the meat, which helps us save more – especially when we can stock up on green peppers, squash, and potatoes. Read our tips for saving money on produce.

Meal Plan

When I started couponing, I would just aim for anything that was FREE or cheap – without any regard to what I actually had already in my cabinet or pantry. Fast forward 6 months and I would be starting at a pantry of expired taco shells that I purchased just because they were cheap – knowing what we had, and what we could use was a great start to putting together a meal plan that put more functionality in our budget.

If we had a pile of taco shells & sauce, then I knew that having tomatoes, onions, and lettuce would be important for us to put those shells to use, and finding a way to grab some ground beef would also come in handy.

By centering our meals around what we had, and what produce was on sale, we would eliminate any unnecessary trips to the store for random items – just because they were on sale. 

Use Warehouse Stores

As much as I love the next best deal, I am also a huge proponent of warehouse shopping – time is money (at least for me) – and while the majority may think of warehouse stores as exorbitant prices as compared to what you could pay with coupons, it’s important to remember that for some people, spending 3-4 or more hours clipping coupons, driving to the store and finding empty shelves can be costly too. 

We know exactly what we need to buy at Costco – we shop there for it bi-weekly, and we eliminate the need to buy newspapers, drive from store to store, and pull kids in and out of the truck.  This month – July, the Costco prices are great for many items. 

For us, Cheese is a great deal – as are trash bags, baby wipes, tortillas (similar to TortillaLand), and Organic Chips & Bread.  See our favorite Costco buys.

Don’t forget that if you are a warehouse shopper you can find the Everyday Price List for BOTH Sam’s Club & Costco on the blog – and both are searchable with the Favado App.  

Making things from Scratch

Buying real food and cooking from scratch saves us a ton of money.  We try to use our Crock Pot as often as we can ….. we eat lots of soup (which freezes super too!), and we incorporate Rice and Potatoes into many of our meals.

We avoid buying processed food, and so most of what we spend our money on is fresh, lean meat and produce.  Read more HERE about saving money on produce, and HERE about saving money on beef/meat.

We have great websites like Pinterest which work super for inspiration, and we try to cook for at least 2 extra people so that Dave can have some for the next day’s lunch.

Have a Go-To Store

When you coupon, it’s easy for one to think they need to visit 3-4 stores to catch every day. As great of a deal as it might be, it’s definitely not practical – you are spending fuel to go around, not to mention the time spent putting your trips together.

We know where our “Go-To” store is – and we know what we always get at that particular store – and we don’t deviate from that unless we can get that item at a deeply discounted price elsewhere.

For other items we go to Costco, and occasionally we go to Bashas or Fry’s… through it seems like every week those shelves are starting to become empty on items I need as well. 

SKIP the Newspaper

You might think this is BOLD, but just go to the basics and PRINT what you need. We occasionally get ONE paper, but in most cases the printable coupons available are JUST as abundant as inserts. Of course this will vary by person – it is what works for us.

Use your Apps

Apps like Checkout51, MobiSave, Ibotta, BerryCart &  more allow you to make purchases with OR without coupons to pair. Although you can save more with coupons, many items can be free or cheap without even having to clip.  You can read more about these Apps on our last post, and pre-register for the NEW MobiSave app by heading HERE.

It IS possible to save just as much without coupons – just by monitoring your purchases and shopping smarter – I’d be curious if you use any of these ways to save.

Shop the $.99 Store

Really. JUST DO IT.  Bread alone is worth stopping in for. NAME BRAND bread that you would pay $2 – $3 for is ONLY $.99. 

Read our last posts for our Tips to Shop at the $.99 Store and find our favorite items to buy.

AND of course – what works for us may not work for you… those of you without little ones may have more ability to travel around and grab deals, while some of you may not think that Costco is a great deal – what makes this notable is that each and every one of us has our own formulas for saving.