Saturday, August 29, 2009

How I save on groceries

Okay, so some have asked and I thought I would share how I grocery shop. Today I saved $52.41 off of a bill that was $214. I typically save $100 or more on groceries and household items a month. We are a family of 6.

The very first thing I do is order coupons. Now you make think that by ordering coupons it defeats the purpose. WRONG! There is a great site call The Coupon Clippers. http://thecouponclippers.com You pay a shipping and handling fee to get the coupons mailed to you. You can select the coupons you want and the quantities. Occasionally on really good coupons there is a limit to the amount you can get. New coupons usually post each Saturday.

I also use My Points. If you don't know about them you should. You get points for shopping online, reading email, referring friends, AND EVEN PRINTING COUPONS AND USING THEM AT THE GROCERY STORE. These are the same coupons that are on coupons.com but when you print them from the My Points site you get to save the money from the coupon and add points to your point bank on My Points. When you redeem 10 coupons a month you get a bonus of 25 points. I have gotten gift cards for Cracker Barrel, Subway, On the Border and a few others. When you have enough points you can redeem them for gift cards. Enough about My Points, back to saving......

Once I have my coupons I sort them by category. HBA, Cereal/Breakfast, Household, meat, frozen, dairy, canned goods. I bought the trading card plastic sleeves to put the coupons in. Those plastic sleeves are in a basic three ring binder.




Once I am grocery shopping I pull out the coupon that I will use and put it in the front top pocket of the binder. If the store has a better coupon than mine I use the store coupon. If it is a product that I use regularly I will take more than one coupon and put it in the bottom front pocket of the binder, to be organized later. That way I have more for next time. I typically don't by a lot of processed stuff unless I have a coupon for it and can get it dirt cheap. So on weeks where I stay out of the middle aisles of the grocery store I don't save as much. I have learned to NEVER EVER pay for price for HBA stuff. (toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, razor blades, all that stuff)

I do occasionally have coupons that expire before I use them. Wives of Faith is sending our expired coupons to military families overseas. The families can use them for up to 6 months after they expire. What a great treat for them! Go to Wives of Faith click on programs and then Coups for Troops for more details.

Share your grocery saving tips in the comments section. I love hearing ideas. I used to comparison shop Harris Teeter, but by the time I spend the gas to get there and back it's not really worth it unless I am on that side of town already. I mostly shop at the commissary. I am not even the best at this game but I am getting better. What are your saving tips?

EDITED TO ADD: Check out A Full Cup. It's a great saving site. They will help with coupon match ups and all sorts of things like that. They even have a section where you can sign up for FREE STUFF! I have gotten backpacks, DVD's, make-up, all sorts of stuff.

1 comment:

  1. Great ideas!!! Thanks for sharing! You are so organized!

    ReplyDelete