Calgary couponer saves $10,000 in grocery shopping every year
Posted Mar 6, 2023 6:53 pm.
Last Updated Mar 6, 2023 8:54 pm.
Food inflation is forcing Calgarians to innovate with grocery shopping and one Calgarian, Amanda Bisson, is teaching us how to do that through her Facebook page.
“Actually last year alone I saved just under $10,000 couponing and price matching on cashback apps,” said Bisson.
She runs a private group on Facebook titled ‘Couponing with Amanda,’ which has over 5,700 members. Bisson says times are hard for everyone and she wants to share the knowledge and hacks of saving money. She says a lot of research and observation goes behind these shopping tricks.
Amanda Bisson’s Facebook group has members staying up to date with her coupon tips and tricks, as well as sharing their own. (Courtesy: Facebook / Amanda Bisson)
“Always being in the stores, shopping all the time and looking around, checking out flyers and watching what other people do, watching their hauls,” said Bisson.
She says there are many mobile apps out there like FLIP, that can give you the price of almost everything, at different grocery stores across the city. Bisson says they make it easy for you to price match, use digital coupons and get money from cashback apps.
“Start one by one. So go and do price matching first or do use one coupon to start minimally and gradually work your way up. As soon as you start getting into it, you will become addicted to it,” said Bisson.
“You will start grabbing all the points attachments to these items. You’ll start grabbing coupons, and price matching and doing a mixture of all three to save even more money for you and your family,” she added.
Her couponing community not only take advantage of Bisson’s posts, but also shares their own money saving tips and hauls with pictures, receipts and promo codes. Its like an online community to help everyone save money.
Another member of this group, Yuni Olszewski, says she calculates every purchase and buys dinner only when it costs her 25 percent of the actual posted price.
“Last year I saved $15,000 from price matching, using coupons and looking at the deals here and there. And also cashback. That’s for everything, not just grocery, but for baby formula and baby stuff and also hygiene and stuff that I do you know for monthly donation,” said Olszewski.
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These smart shoppers save enough, not only for themselves but also to donate to the Calgary Food Bank and other charities.
Bisson says some people are hesitant and shy to use coupons, but if they are used on markdowns and sales, they can save you a lot more money. She says all you have to is find the right coupons.
“When you go up and down the aisles you’ll see them you can just rip them off and take a couple to use on your next product. They are also pasted on product packaging. Online you can print them out,” she said.
Amanda Bisson explains finding coupons can be a pretty simple process for those who know where to look. (CityNews Image)
“There are cashback apps so they are basically digital coupons that you can go and submit your receipts to get cash back at a different time. You can actually email companies to get coupons. They are literally everywhere, newspapers,” said Bisson.
Bisson says to beat food inflation, shoppers should join the loyalty clubs of the supermarkets they usually shop at, price match items through the FLIP app and use as many coupons as they can find.
