I was leisurely strolling along the new release shelves at my local library skimming the titles, when I came across “The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half” by Stephanie Nelson. I had heard of the author, and been to her website in the past. I even knew that she had written this book. However, considering myself I pretty savvy coupon shopper, I did not search the title out to purchase it for myself because I figured it would not contain much information that I did not already know.
Being that it would not cost me anything to check it out and have a look through it, I tossed it in my basket and brought it home with me. In many ways, I was correct in my first assessment. It is filled with mainly things that I already put into practice. Still, I was extremely impressed with the time and research she put into the book, doing calculations to show how a certain amount of savings each week would translate into hundreds of dollars saved in a year’s time.
I also enjoy that the book is not aimed entirely at people who are just starting using coupons. In each chapter, tips are laid out for busy, rookie, and varsity shoppers. In doing so, she challenges everyone, no matter where they are at, to take saving to the next level.
She also has chapters laid out for many individual categories of grocery items, such as meat, dairy, and produce. These are items that often do not have coupons available for them, and there were some helpful tips to know how to calculate the prices of different options in these departments to make sure you get the most for your money and stock up when prices are at their best. She even does some math to show you how much you are actually paying for convenience items that would take less than five minutes to prepare yourself.
The savings tips did not end at the grocery store though. She wrote about the world of drug store shopping, which is something I recently discovered to be a major money saving strategy for many toiletry and cleaning items. She neatly laid out how the reward programs at each of the major drug store chains work, and told about how to get the most savings at these places.
I think this book is a must read for anyone interested in using coupons and wondering where to begin, or for someone wanting to get more savings out of their coupons. While I have learned several helpful new insights, most of what the book contained was things that I already put into practice. I do not feel like it was a waste of my time, however, because it gave me more confidence that I was doing things the right way.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in saving more money on just about anything they need to purchase for their household.