The Good Ole Days
Grocery shopping sure has changed
over the years. I have been grocery
shopping for over 50 years and one thing has stayed the same - the need to save
money on what I am buying. There may be
people in this world that have an unlimited budget when it comes to buying
food. I have never been part of that
group! But we always had enough food to
eat with the help of coupons. My mother
used coupons and she taught me how to save at the store.
Back in the "ole days", coupons
and refunds were a big part of grocery shopping. Stores would compete with each other and give
out coupons for free items.
Manufacturers were also in
competition and would offer refunds on their products. You would save the label from a certain item and
then mail it with the form and in about 6-8 weeks you would receive a refund of
some sort. Could be a $1.00 or even the
full price of the item you bought. Many times,
it would be a gift or a toy.
There were coupon clubs where
people would meet and exchange coupons that they didn’t want for those that
they could use. In the 70’s and 80’s
newspapers were full of coupons. Stores
would offer to double the face value of a coupon in order to get your business. Then other stores would offer to triple the
value of coupons. Coupon wars! Sometimes
there were limits and sometimes there weren’t.
But usually, any amount less than a dollar was either doubled or
tripled. Many times, it made the item
free.
In September of 1979, one of the
local newspapers (The Star Ledger) was running stories on how people were
fighting inflation. I contacted them and
described how I save money with coupons and refunds. They did a story on me! The reporter followed me around the store
which created a lot of curiosity among the other shoppers. When I was done shopping, my grocery bill was
over $60.00. After deducting my coupons,
I only paid $8.29.
Then in July of 1980, I was featured
in another newspaper (the West Essex Tribune) and a reporter went with me on
another shopping trip. This time the
total was $77.89 before coupons. After the
coupons were deducted, I only paid $3.89.
It did take time to cut out coupons
and save labels, etc. I usually spent about 2 hours a week organizing, cutting
coupons and saving labels. I considered it my part-time job. All in all, it was time well spent when you
saw how much you saved on the food bill.
Coupons Clubs weren’t the only way
to get extra coupons. There were also
conventions! Some were just one day long
and others may last the whole weekend.
Attendees would bring boxes of labels and box tops to trade for items
they needed for a particular refund.
Example: If you have a refund
form that states you can get $1.00 back from buying dog food but you don’t have
a dog, you would trade for the labels you needed.
There were also magazines that
were dedicated to letting you know what refunds, coupons and conventions were
available. They had a pen pal section so
that you could find like-minded people and possibly trade coupons, etc. One magazine (The National Supermarket
Shopper) attended a refund convention that I was at and I even got my photo on the
cover of the magazine!
Those were the days. Things are different now. The newspapers don’t carry a lot of
coupons. But you can find some online. Some stores have coupons on their
website. You log in at the register and
the coupons come off your bill – no need to cut them out. Refunds are almost non-existent. I can’t even remember the last time that I
was able to send in a refund form. And
it seems like stores are no longer in competition with each other.
But, we can still save money. It may take a little more work initially but
it could end up saving you some cash.
One Saturday, I look the time to travel around to several different
stores and check the prices on things that I buy. I wrote it all down (no way I would be able
to remember it all!). I created a “price
book” and listed 3 stores with the prices of each item. It helped me to see which store had the best
price on various products. But, not all the
items were cheaper at the same store.
For me, all 3 of those stores are located on the same street so I was not
wasting gas running around town. I was able to shop at each store and get the best price for the items I needed to buy. Each
person would need to calculate the cost of gas to see if it is worth to travel
to different stores to get the cheapest price.
Fast forward to 2021 when we were all dealing with covid. Store shelves were empty, and prices were
rising almost every week. Here’s an example
of the price of a 4 lb. package of bacon at Costco:
2/4/21 – 12.99
4/1/21 – 14.99
4/22/21 – 16.99
8/19/21 – 18.99
9/9/21 – 19.99
10/14/21 – 21.99
4/1/22 – 14.99
Thankfully, the price has come
down. The bacon is just one example as
all the stores were raising prices, not just Costco. I think the most frustrating thing was
finding empty shelves. It certainly
changed the way that I did the grocery shopping. Now, if I need an item, I will typically buy
2 so that I also have one in reserve. I try to make sure that the pantry and
freezer are well-stocked, just in case we go thru another pandemic or a
hurricane or some other event that would prevent me from going to the store.
So, coupons are few and far between and refunds are pretty much non-existent, but we still have opportunities to save. Some stores do the BOGO (buy one, get one free) sales and many stores will allow you to use coupons on those items. Also, look out for clearance sales. Every little bit helps!
For many years I have been using a
“shopping notebook” – it helps me to stay on track. Details about that are part of another blog
that I wrote June 7th – November 6th, 2020 (6 part series).
Times may/will change but don’t
give up! You can still save money on groceries!
