Coupons - a rant!

We all have read or seen on TV those families...you know the ones...who can feed a family of 6 for $350/month, and can get $200 of groceries for $50. The Economides family is one such famous family. http://homeeconomiser.com/ So why can't we all succeed at this game?

First of all, there are the coupons. The local paper isn't the best, so I get the LA paper. They are better, but still, the vast majority of coupons are for processed foods. I am not a big fan of processed food, though I will buy it if it's a great deal (hey, a hot dog once a month probably won't kill you right?) My best luck tends to be with salsa (which I could make, but really I do love Newman's own), and occasionally pasta.

Of course to get the best deals, you have to combine coupons with sales. Even with a sale and a double coupon, Sargento Cheese was $6/lb at my local grocery store, and I can purchase it at Costco for $3/lb. The store brand of cheese was $5/lb.

And then there's the secret double coupons...well, here's that secret. Vons stopped doubling coupons here years ago. They have since started up again...so is the rumor, though I haven't tested it. Ralphs has been the best source of sales-plus-double-coupons for me locally. Today, however, I learned the hard way that they no longer double coupons. I read the fine print (after checking out), that anything 50cents to 99cents is rounded up to $1. Anything above that is face value. So...no more double coupons for me.

That just means that Scolari's, which still doubles coupons up to and including $1, will be my new store of choice for most items. However, based on their location (in a heavily Latino area of town), I am not so lucky at getting whole wheat flour there...so I will have to go elsewhere for that.

So...why can't we all be like these families? Well, if you choose to eat unprocessed foods and your local stores don't double coupons...you aren't going to be going home with 15 boxes of almost-free groceries. And that's okay. You're probably better off.