Save 50% or more on Groceries

2009-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

In all seriousness, the money I save grocery shopping makes up one of my largest money savers for the year. It is right up their with Sale Shopping!

In 2008, I saved over $3,000 on my Grocery Shopping, and that was BEFORE you add in the money I got back for rebates!

Last year, I was able to feed my family of 5 for under $75 a week. And, this included my meats, fruits, vegetables, diapers, beauty and cleaning products...EVERYTHING! My savings are more than 50% off for the year, many times more.

Saving at the Grocery does not simply mean you are buying boxed and prepackaged foods, you can also buy healthy products. You basically shop sales ( even organic goes on sale ) and combine sales with coupons for the maximum savings.

First, I have my Sunday paper delivered and All You Magazine. I also take advantage of any Free Coupon packs or Printable Coupons, if available.

The Sunday paper, if delivered, will have all the Sunday coupons in it.

But, why not buy it from the newsstand? You can! Absolutely! But, I have found that many times the newsstand Sunday papers are missing coupon inserts or the coupons are slightly different. Plus, what happens if their is a snowstorm or I am sick and don't want to go get the paper? No worries...it is being delivered.

Don't forget, if you would like multiple coupons, you can have your local paper deliver two papers or more. Or, you can pick up your 2nd paper at the newsstand, but please peek inside first to make sure you have all your inserts.

The rule of thumb I have heard is to buy as many papers as people in your family. For me, I have a family of 5, but since the youngest is still only 2 and doesn't eat much...I haven't bought a paper to compensate for him yet. :-) In fact, my 4 year old daughter doesn't eat that much either, so I only buy 3 papers. But, as they get older, I plan to increase my papers to the size of our family.

Click here to to go to Discounted Newspapers and get a quote on your local paper.

Why All You magazine?

It is the only magazine I know that is full of coupons each month. On top of tons of coupons, it will also have rebate forms that will save you additional money.

This is one of the only magazines I actually pay for and don't get for free. And, it is well worth it. I make my money back by using the coupons.

Click here to subscribe to All You.

Free Coupon packs? They are always around. Right now, you can get $10 worth of coupons from Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Home Made Simple, Eat Better America, etc. Want to get these coupon packs for free? Click below, but remember, you are signing up for their newsletters. So, sign up with your "deals" email account. You can create as many email accounts as you need at Yahoo and other free providers:

Home Made Simple, Click here
Betty Crocker, Click here
Pillsbury, Click here
Eat Better America, Click here
Dinner Made Easy, Click here

Where do I get printables? Well, depending on the month, I never know. Sites of the actual products will often times have coupons available. Also, I like Coupons.com. You can find the current coupons at any time by clicking on the Coupons.com image . Before you go to shop, to scroll thru the selection. You can always print two of each coupon. Click here to download Coupons.com.

Second, decide how you are going to file your coupons. There are a few different ways to do this. I typically cut mine and file them in a coupon carrier. Then, it goes out to my car and with me everywhere. That way, if I need a coupon on short notice, I have it.

But, you can also keep them all attached and file them together by date. Then, as you find out which coupons you need from which date paper, you can cut them out then.

Have more than one paper? If you need to cut the coupons from multiple papers, stack the same inserts and cut them all together.

Third, find a way to match sales and coupons together for maximum savings. I, personally, use The Grocery Game ( please use referral moneysavingmethods@yahoo.com ). You can get 1 month trial for $1, if you want to try it, too.

After your trial, the price is $10 every 2 months for your favorite grocery store. That comes to $1.25 a week. What stores do they have in my area? Kroger, Meijer, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Rite Aid. What stores do they have in your area? Go take a look, your favorite store may be listed.

What does this service offer?

They match up the sale, closeout items and coupons from the paper each week and tell you when you buy your products. They also categorize them by Free ( time to buy ), Rock Bottom ( meaning it is time to stockpile ) and items that are on sale and you can buy if you absolutely need them.

The way they track these sales is a 12 week cycle. This means, they know the rock bottom prices tend to cycle thru every 3 months. So, you stockpile and buy enough to last you about that long, if you can. This may mean, a decent sale is going on, BUT if it is not the rockbottom price, the Grocery Game won't tell you to stockpile.

This is very helpful in making sure you get the lowest prices possible.

For example, when I did my shopping recently, I saved $160 off my bill. I spent just over $100 for $260 worth of groceries.

And, many products were free. What did I get for $0?

10 bags of Green Giant Vegetables, 2 Bags of Quaker Rice Snacks, 4 cans of Hormel Chili, 4 packs of Toilet Paper , Hot Sauce, Chex Mix and most other items at very low prices. On top of that, I bought a lot of meat. Beef and Chicken that was at rock bottom prices.

I will tell you this. When you first start, you will not see as much savings as those that have been using the program for awhile. It takes at least 2 to 3 months before you begin seeing the savings for your family. Why?

When you first start, you can buy the products from the Grocery Game list, BUT you will still need to be buying products you personally need ( because you aren't stockpiled ) and will not be saving as much on those products.

But, once you have your stockpile established, if you are like me, you buy primarily from your list and nothing else. Then, you are saving 50% or more every time you go to the store.

Fourth, use the electronic coupon sites, if available at your stores. These coupons are loaded directly to your shopper card. There is no need for you to carry paper coupons to get the discounts. If you buy the item you loaded to your card, the coupon price automatically comes off OR is refunded to you in your account.

Upromise is one of my favorite with their eCoupon feature. At the beginning of each month, you can load all the coupons they offer. From diaper, to glass cleaners to beauty products, they have a great variety. Your money will be refunded to you after the fact to your Upromise account.

P&G Esavers loads P&G coupons to your card. This comes directly off your receipt.

Shortcuts can be loaded weekly and is a mix of a lot of wonderful products. This, also, comes directly off your receipt.

Cellfire loads to your card. Just like the two programs above, it comes directly off your receipts.

Fifth, check your receipts each and every trip! My local Kroger has a Scan Right Guarantee and if anything rings up wrong, you get it FREE! I faithfully check my receipt everytime I am leaving, and quite often, I am pushing my cart to the Customer Service desk to get my money back on my now free product. Even if your store doesn't give the product free, you still want to get your price adjusted and receive your money back.

Sixth, use recyclable bags. My local Kroger gives 3 cents off per bag. Because I don't have reusable bags, I simply bring my plastic bags from the store back week after week to reuse and get my 3 cents per bag. If they rip or get holes in them, I then place them in the plastic recyclable bin at the grocery store.

Seventh, create your stockpile. As you find free or rock bottom prices, buy what you need at that price to last you. Organize your closets, pantry and cabinets and be prepared to have a lot of food on hand at all times. It is a lot of fun!

Eighth, utilize Drugstores ( CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid ) for maximum savings. These stores all have wonderful programs that allow you to get many, many of your health and beauty products free! This greatly saves on your grocery bill.

Click here to read how to utilize Walgreens.

Finally, take advantage of Rebates. This will also decrease the cost of your grocery bill. Each month, there are wonderful rebates on products you are currently buying. So, for a price of a stamp/envelope, you will get your money refunded to you. Often times, you actually make money.

Why?

If you bought the product with a coupon, the company normally refunds you the full purchase price before coupon. That profit from the coupon then helps to cover the expense of the stamp/envelope and then some!

So, remember, subscribe to your paper and All You, begin your coupon organization system, and find the method you want to use to match sales and coupons! Then, begin shopping and saving!

The Grocery Game

2009-01-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

Please use referral moneysavingmethods@yahoo.com.

Click here to sign up.

Walgreens

2008-01-28T07:27:00.000-08:00

First, just like I do with my Kroger or Meijer shopping, I personally use the Grocery Game ( please use referral moneysavingmethods@yahoo.com ) to provide me a list each week of all the sale and coupon match ups. BUT, Andrea at Mommy Snacks also has a Walgreens feature, as well. So, if you are just starting with the whole couponing and feel a bit overwhelmed, use either of these two resources to assist you.

Why is Walgreens worthy of it's own post?

Because, you will get unbelievable amounts of products free or almost, week after week....month after month.

The reason is they have a Walgreens Easy Rebate Catalog that comes out each month. In that catalog will be items that Walgreens will provide a rebate on. You can click here to view January's Catalog or pick one up at the front of any store. Or, go to walgreens.com to find an online version of the most recent catalog.

As you will notice in the catalog, the first benefit is that if you have your rebate provided to you in the form of a Walgreens Gift Card, they will give you an extra 10%!! That means you are making a bit more money on the rebate.

Also, each month, they have Free After Rebate Items. In January, they had Orajel and Revlon, for example. This simply means that if you buy these products, you will get the full price back to you PLUS 10% next month on a Gift Card. OK...so now you made money! Yeah!

But, how can you make even more? If you have coupons, you then make an even heftier profit. If I have a $2.00 off Revlon coupon and a $1.00 Coupon for Orajel, I will now make a profit of $3.00 plus 10%. Why? Because Walgreens gives the purchase price back before coupons.

In addition, they have items with a rebate but it won't be necessarily categorized as free. But, many times, if you use your coupon, it then brings the item to free after rebate ( plus profit of 10% )

It all sounds so confusing, but it is not, once you get the hang of it. I buy all my health and beauty products from Drugstores now for free or pretty close to it. I can't remember the last time I paid for toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, soap, etc.

The first month you do this, you will of course pay out of pocket. You will then be refunded via Gift Card. But, going forward, you should spend very little out of pocket if you roll everything over.

For example, when I go to shop in February next month, I will use the gift card I got from my January purchases to pay for February's order. Thus, you don't spend anything or very little out of pocket. But, you used that gift card. Now, in March, your gift card will be reloaded with the rebates from the February order, and you will use this new money to pay for March. So on and so forth.

Finally, Walgreens has Register Rewards. You will see these advertised or on your grocery lists from the Grocery Game or Mommy Snacks, when available.

How they work is simple. You buy the products required, and they will then give you a Register Reward for $5, as an example. This $5 is printed as a Walgreens coupon and can be used on your next shopping trip ( or split your cart up and use it to pay for part of your products ) as cash, basically.

By combining all of these simple tricks at Walgreens, you can get a lot of your necessity items for barely anything. This can be a huge cost savings to your family.

So, here is an example of January for me, when I shopped online ( due to a snowstorm that had me homebound )...so you can get an idea of how the program works:

Walgreens has a coupon for Buy 1 Get 1 Free on Walgreens products, with a $10 rebate when you buy 5 products. In addition, Revlon and Orajel are free after rebate.

So, my cart worked out like this:

5 - Wal-Tussin - Buy 1 Get 1 at $3.99 = $9.98 ( they gave a discount on the 5th )
1 - Revlon Blush - $9.99
1 - Orajel Cold Sore - $8.49

Total = $29.46

Entered code: WEEKLYAD

This takes the shipping off of orders $25 and above and $5 off ( which would have about equated to my Revlon and Orajel coupons ).

My final tally was $25.99. BUT, I will be getting $29.46 plus 10% back. So, I just got all those products free plus made $6.42!!

I hope this gives you a bit of insight to how the program works.