School is just around the corner, so I needed to go grocery shopping today. Though I haven’t shopped with coupons for awhile (I spent most of July in bed recuperating from a knee injury), I decided to get back into the swing of things. Here are my tips.
1. Spend time making a shopping plan before you go in the store.
2. Research store sales, and try to match sales with coupons. I used DealstoMeals (because she focuses on food storage), GrocerySmarts.com, and PinchingYourPennies.com. I also downloaded some coupons onto my SmithsReward’s cards from their website
3. Prepare a weekly menu plan (I didn’t this time), but you save the most money with one. Plan menus’s using most items you have at home.
4. Create a grocery list. My printer is on the blink so I had to do it by hand! However, I carefully decided how many of each item to buy, which items had paper coupons or Smith’s coupons.
5. With Buy-8-items-events-to-save-$4, carefully keep track of those items you put in the grocery cart. It never helps to buy more than you need to or be short. I blew it and should have added two more items. I’ll do better next time.
6. Know what items you are low on in your food storage. Keep an inventory. I recently checked mine so I know what I need to buy and keep it on a spreadsheet.
5. With Buy-8-items-events-to-save-$4, carefully keep track of those items you put in the grocery cart. It never helps to buy more than you need to or be short. I blew it and should have added two more items. I’ll do better next time.
6. Know what items you are low on in your food storage. Keep an inventory. I recently checked mine so I know what I need to buy and keep it on a spreadsheet.
Some items I’ll put in food/home storage
Smith’s 18 oz. peanut butter @$1 ea. (same price at CaseLot sale)
Powerade 32 oz. @ .48 ea.
Progresso Soup @ .75 with coupons
Bic Soleil Razors triple blade w/coupon $.59 ea.
Capri Suns $1.48 ea.
Ground Beef $1.99/lb.
Frozen chicken breasts w coupon $1.67/lb.
Total spent on food storage: $38.37
Here are the results for 82 items purchased.
$238.05 Original Total
$19.55 MFG Coupons
$93.62 Fresh Values & Mega Event Savings
$124.88 Total
Savings: 52% (Even being rusty!)
Start planning. Wed. Aug 25th – Tues. 31st Smith’s Grocery store will round up all manufacturers’ coupons up to $1!
See PinchingYourPennies.com for a great list of how to use your coupons!