A friend of my husband has become amazed at how little we spend on groceries because of coupons and casually joked he should pay me to grocery shop for him, that even after paying me it would still come out alot cheaper for him?


Have or do any of you guys do this? Do you think it would be worth the money for both parties? Any ideas?

I had a friend say the same thing.

I sat down with my neighbor and gave her a BUNCH of coupons so she could save $ while grocery shopping. She went and forgot the coupons so she bought EVERYTHING on her list WITHOUT coupons.

It boggles my mind that she didn't either go back for the organizer of Qs I'd let her use OR just buy a few essentials and make a second trip later.

I'd do it, if you "have nothing better to do", meaning you're able without taking time away from important things in your life. If you could, for instance, do it while kids are in school, or if you don't have kids at home.....

I'd tell him to subscribe to at least one Sunday paper, he could use that site that saves you 66% off delivery, and he'd need to give you his inserts so that you'd have Qs for him without taking from your own.

You'd need a grocery list with brand preferences and brands they do NOT like. Depending on how far you have to drive you may need to factor in gas also. Then work out your deal on how much you get, a percentage of how much you save him, no less than 1/2 of what you save him, seems fair to me. I'd get paid in advance unless this is someone you REALLY trust.

Obviously you'll spend time planning his trip, buying it, taking it to them, etc. The more you save them the more you get.....which is higher than what you'd get for trading the Qs....Your time is worth $ though....so there's a lot of bargaining to do with him about who gets what share of the savings, and your time/gas being a factor.

That's neat that you've been asked to do this too, I think it'd be an ideal job for us to make a few dollars while doing what we do anyway. I just don't know how much more labor intensive it might be.

I know what you mean, I offered to help teach his girlfriend, because frankly I've never even thought of being paid to grocery shop for someone, it seems absurd because I know I'd never pay for it. On the other hand, he mentioned that she hates thinking about saving money and worrying with it. So with that said, I feel like I could save them money still, even after being paid and feel alright. At least I could make a few bucks and they could glean some advice once they start doing it themselves.

Those were good tips. I would definitely figure in the cost of an extra paper, and I would only be shopping for them while I was out doing my own anyway so it wouldn't eat up any extra gas, I just figured I'd get two carts. Thats a great idea on getting a list from them about brands and items they don't like. I mentioned that to him before and said it doesn't really matter, but I think I'll use that list idea just to make sure. Also he works with my husband, and has to go past our area on his way home, so instead of delivering it, he could stop by and pick it up. I also thought maby I could make a simple list of meals out of what I bought for them everyweek, so it makes more sense once they open the bag. Sometimes it's hard for people to look at a bag of sale items and be creative and piece them together in a meal.

Anyway thanks for ya'lls advice, I'll post if I actually start doing this and let you guys know how it goes. : )

FYI - AFC member "rgyman" was doing this. She was great at finding bargains and using her coupons and she turned it into a source of income by shopping for others. Perhaps you can pm her to get her opinion.

IMO - if you shop for someone as a service you are selling, then they pay full price for the groceries, you charge a fee to do the shopping, and if you use coupons you profit from the use of them as well. In other words:

$100 - full price of groceries before sales, etc.
80 - price of groceries after store sale prices taken off
10 - value of coupons you utilized
70 - price you paid cashier for groceries
20 - fee you charge for service

Your "customer" pays $120 for your service and groceries
You paid out $70 - thus you gain $50

IMO - you might not gain anything but the $20 service fee because what they want/need for you to purchase might not be on sale and there might not be coupons available for you to use.

NOTE: My math may be way off. It never was my best subject. So you do the math and see what you think.

This is something I would completly enjoy doing. I just havent figured out a way to profit from it without stockpiling. Say your customer needs pb and they only like jif. Well its not on sale and there are no q's. so it would be $2.50 (just guessing)....but you have 22 jars of skippy at your house that you got free!! Do you start stockpiling their brand in case they want more later? Would you be able to convince them to try the skippy? or are they willing to shell out more $ just to have their brand? KWIM? Might get frustrating. My family doesnt have a choice as to brand preference anymore...but a customer is different.

My thinking is that they (the customer) don't get the benefit of the sales or coupons. They are buying a service. You as the provider of that service then charge the retail price on everything and pocket the difference between sale price/retail price and the coupons you had taken off. Of course, how are you going to "prove" to them what the going price is at the store without giving them the receipt. Then the receipt shows all the details.

I suggested to a friend of mine to make a box of foods and have customers buy the box (angel ministries concept).

I have a list of my SIL wants and wishes. When that item is on sale I will tell her I have some of this do you need some? We usually argue about the price she wants to pay more then I want to take but what ever. she always wins that battle. Sometimes I have a hard time offering my stockpile to family at $2-$3 when I got it free. but I have tried to teach both of my SIL's and well I know one doesn't do it at all and I think that the other still uses coupons, but nothing like me. I would love to do personal shopping, but I think it is a lot of work and I wouldn't know how to charge someone.