Post your best grocery tips here! (Inspired by shirleyb's post)

[grlpwrd]

Same ole, same ole for me, too:

* Always double check your item while being scanned and make sure the correct price is reflected plus double check your receipts before leaving the store. Common store policy is to get the item for free or for a reduced price if there is an error in pricing..of course, point it out to the cashier or service desk.

* Have themed dinners: soup or salad night, taco night, ethnic food night, leftovers night, etc.

* Make copycat versions of restaurant foods from www.topsecretrecipes.com and www.recipegoldmine.com .

* Use your crockpot a lot. During summer it keeps your kitchen cooler - rather than using your stove and cuts down on energy cost. Plus, cheaper cuts of meat are tenderized and less costly meals in the long run. I find it best to turn the crockpot on and cook overnight to avoid the morning rush and the meal will be ready in the morning so you would just have to refrigerate and warm up during dinner time. Yet some people prefer the regular way of cooking (turning on the crockpot) while away at work or by using a timed crockpot.

 

[kfeuer]

Coupons...lots and lots of coupons! I'll order extra coupons from a coupon service for particularly good deals.

I would also second the poster who mentioned rebates. There's usually one or two try me free rebate offers in the regular Sunday coupons. Also, Walgreen's, Eckerds, and Rite-Aid all have rebate offers each month. They're easy to do, plus you can use coupons and still get a rebate for the full price of the item. We don't each much processed food so there's a limit to how much I can save on our grocery bill, but I find it possible to get almost all of our health and beauty products for free. I have a closet stuffed full of hair color, styling gel, hairspray, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, shaving cream, soap, facial cleaners...all free. I won't even get any of these items unless they're free. That's a huge savings!

 

[frannn]

Many times I can find a lot of the health/beauty stuff that can cost a lot at the market. I buy shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, hairspray, brushes, toothpaste, bandaids, hair gel, etc. there. I also get a lot of inexpensive school snacks for my kids, cereal, and some condiments. I find my grocery list to cost more in past months than it ever was before, no matter which supermarket I go to. I think its because the cost of meat and milk seems to have skyrocketed, plus my refig/freezer in the basement died, so I only have one in my kitchen. Can't save too much in one small side by side refig/freezer. Plus, DH cooks dinners (only simple stuff, no chopping, etc), so he wants to have a say in what I buy at the market. I try to shop the sales, but we are getting sick of the same 'ol stuff. Unfortunately, my family doesn't like plain pasta or just a pot of homesoup. I'll have to start getting creative, as the least expensive cut of meat for my family of five is now about 7-8. Once you add all the trimmings, seasonings, etc, we might as well get Wendy's and save the effort.

 

[Kimmie5870]

tons of coupons.I never buy the sunday paper though.Twice a month I head up to our recycling center and dig through the papers to get all the coupons I can carry out in a brown paper bag.Its time consuming but with the krogers in our area its well worth the time.Coupons .50 cents and under are tripled and any .55 cents to a $1.00 are doubled.I am WAY stocked up on hygenene,papr products and cleaning items and food so I only buy what is on sale w/coupons and rarely pay more than .25 cents for anything except meat and produce.

true story: in august of 2003 I made a special trip for a huge sale at krogers....after the cashier rang everything up and took off all my coupons she calls the manager up and explains that they owe me .23 cents and she doesnt know how to enter that in the registar...Well, the manager was pretty angry and flat out said that they would not PAY me to take their products!I wasnt about to argue ,so I handed her a dollar,grabbed a pack of big red gum and walked out with 328$ worth of grocerys,etc..

I do get ALOT of free stuff this way,any food that i know we will not use goes to needy families and any extra hygene,paper products and cleaning items that I do not use gets saved until christmas,then I make big gift baskets and give them all to a local charity drive to hand out.

 

[kimbac3]

I make up two weeks worth of menus, however I am very flexible. For instance if I have an unexpectedly busy day and I'm out of the house all day, I obviously can't have that roast turkey breast (bought on sale for $0.79lb), so instead I'll pull out the frozen pasta sauce and pasta. With the menus I know how many complete meals I have available and what they are.

As far as freezing goes, I freeze just about everything! Bread, rolls, lunch meats, cheeses(american and shredded mozzerella). When I get back from shopping I think about how I'm going to use the food. For example: If I buy 20lbs of chicken breast on sale when I come home I'll process it according to the planned meals. So if I have chicken fajitas on the menu I'll slice the chicken for that, put it in a freezer bag and label "Chicken for fajitas". I do that with the rest of the meat. It's so much easier than trying to cut through frozen chicken. If I remember far enough ahead I'll thaw it in the frig. usually I'm quick thawing in the microwave. Sometimes I'll just throw the frozen meat into a large skillet with water and seasonings,put alid on it and cook it on medium.

I always try to have mac & cheese and hot dogs on hand in case I'm sick or whatever (I have feet/leg problems and some days they just won't work ) that way DD or DH can cook something fast and easy.

Kimba

 

[canwegosoon]

You know I always thought the store brand items were cheaper ( and sometimes they are) but yesterday I got $212 in groceries/ HB/laundry for $97 (inc tax/deposit) plus I have $10 in rebates to send in. ANd there was not a store brand in there. This was a lot..usually I buy half that but there were lots of great sales this week....There were fruits/ soda/ other items that were not on coupon/sale too. But I watch for sale/espically B1G1 + coupons...if not sale I try not to buy...I need mayo... but no sale Hopefully next week!!! Waiting for a Chicken sale too!!!

I also garden, but this year has been hard. Also we try not to eat too many pasta meals, so finding healthier foods with coupons can be challanging, but doable. Wish there were more coupons on veggies/meat. I also have my shampoo/toothpaste/deoderant for the year...for free (or very very close) EG. my store has shampoo on sale b1g1 and, I have $1 off (doubled with special store coupon so $2 each bottle) so it is free!! Toothpaste 2/$4 ..coupon $1 each (also doubled) so also free.

 

[Muushka]

Great tips everyone!

Just to add my own:

1. When you are looking at a product, look around and check to see if the mfgr is offering " Free **%". Like laundry detergent. They may have several boxes of 100 OZ boxes, but there may be boxes that weighs 150 OZ for the same price that has a banner across the top "50% More Free ". It is surprising how many products you can get like this.

2. Buy a freezer. If you have an old one, consider replacing it. We just replaced our 13 CF freezer that was 12 years old with one that is 20 CF, which actually is cheaper to run than the old one.

3. Don't limit yourself to XX dollars a week/month for groceries. I can spend $300 a month for groceries and the next I may only spend $50. Some weeks have really great sales, and some weeks don't. If I find a good deal, I want to take advantage of it and not worry that I may have gone over my food budget. For example, Kool Aid is on sale for .10 a package. Usually it is .25 a package. Well, when there is a good sale like that, I will buy 200 packages. The stuff does not go bad (well, maybe after a few years) and I am going to buy it anyway, so why not get a deal?

4. I am terrible with cupons (EEEKKKK!!!). But I make up for it with my willingness to not only shop at 1 store and willingness to shop at up to 3 stores a week.

5. Where we live there are always price wars going on. For the most part we do not spend more than 50% for pretty much everything, and up to 75% of a lot of things.

6. Freeze, freeze and freeze. Bread, cheese, milk, butter, prepared foods, chopped vegetables. You name it, I freeze it.

7. Always have groceries on hand. And toiletries. My poor husband cringes when he tells me he needs something and I have to buy it when it is NOT ON SALE!!!


Now you know my innermost private secrets....

 

[travelbug]

Great thread! I've enjoyed everyone's ideas.

I'm lucky enough to live centrally located to numerous grocery stores, drugstores, and discount stores. So on weekends, I go through all the sale flyers that come with the newspaper. As someone said earlier, I do know prices extremely well. So I usually know a good deal when I see one. I'm a big coupon user, so I always have plenty of coupons to check. I make up a list of the sale items I want, put a C in parentheses by each item for which I have a coupon, then I paperclip the list and the coupons right to the sale flyer. When I have a chance to stop at each store, my list and coupons are all set to go.

I stockpile things when I can get them for an outstanding price. It is a VERY RARE day when I pay full price for anything. It is even a rare day when I have to pay even half price for many things. By coupling great sales with great coupons (our stores double coupons), we can do very well around here.

I often buy extra items that I have no intention of using and donate them to a food bank. It's pretty cool to drop off a big box of all kinds of stuff when I may have paid a grand total of a couple bucks for the whole thing!

Cutting and organizing coupons, and making out my shopping lists are great activities for when I'm watching TV.

 

[ReneeQ]

I am trying to get back into using coupons. I used some this week, combined with a buy one get one free sale, and got cereal for less than $1 a box!

To those of you that use coupons, what have you found is the best way to organize them? Those little accordian files are too small and hard to use for me.

 

[swilshire]

One of my 10yo's chores is to cut out the coupons we get in the newspaper each week. He inherited this from his older sister when she was always too busy with her part-time job. It took a while to make him understand that you can't cut off the dates, and I always check to make sure he didn't miss any coupons. He cuts out everything and I toss or give away any I don't need.

I have a couple of shoe boxes and keep the coupons sorted by category such as dairy, cleaning supplies, paper products, etc. I also keep an envelope of the ones that are expiring in the current month.

Once or twice a week I go through the five grocery store ads we get in the newspaper (three on Sunday, two on Wednesday) and make lists of the bargains. Then I go through the coupons and pull out any that match the sales. I paper clip them to the grocery lists and use an envelope in the store to put them in as I find the appropriate items. Near the end of the month, I check for any coupons that are good enough to use even without the item being on sale.

I probably spend a couple of hours a week working on this (not to mention the time spent going to four or five stores each week), but it's usually when I would be watching TV or hanging out with the kids anyway. Sometimes it's a real pain, but I do save a lot of money.

Sheila

 

[Kimmie5870]

I could never use and regular coupon holder.Not enough room or categories listed for me.I have found that the more I can seperate my coupons into specific categories the faster I make it through the store...and there is less chance of coupons expiring because I couldnt find or forgot about them

I use a cheap Photo box (shoe box size) use the large index cards to make seperaters (another good hint,I bought a pack of 4 highlighter pens and highlighted the top of the index cards, alternating colors, It is much easier to sort through the categories that way).

for those of you who shop mostly at one store it is much easier to categorize your coupons in the order that you go through the store.Once you are used to this system it is simple to find what you need quickly even in other stores.

 

[CherylA]

I used to cut out all the coupons in my flyers. Now I just cut out the ones I know I'll use. Also I don't even bother with the "off 2" coupons unless it's an item that I would buy no matter what the price (like Cheerios for my toddler). The rest of my coupons I buy on e-bay or from a coupon service. Other parts of the country may have coupons for amounts that are better than those it your area. For me I'd take a .75 coupon over a 1.00 coupon any day because my stores double all coupons under 1.00 and on special weeks they will triple 6 of your coupons under 1.00. I too have had them not know what to do when they owe me money at the register.

I go to Costco for some items especially staples like milk, eggs, and lettuce that there are never coupons for. Planning meals is so great, I have to get back on the ball with that. It saves $$ and makes like easier in the long run. I love the trash stew idea(or something like that someone mentioned) When I was a kid my mom used to make garbage soup! (she saved the peels from carrots potatos cucumbers etc and then boiled them to make a veg stock then added leftover meat and veggies to the stock)

Yummy garbage soup night!

Cheryl

 

[crisi]

Two I don't think have been mentioned:

1) Meatless or limited meat meals - meat is expensive. Chili with 1/2 a pound of beef and beans is cheaper than chili with 2 pounds of beef and beans - and vegetarian chili is cheaper still. I cook a lot with tofu, beans and rice - more for the health benefits of limiting meat, but its cheap, too.

2) Ethnic grocers....if you cook with a lot of rice, its often cheaper from your Asian or Indian market. Lentils can be bought cheaply at an Indian market as well. This has the added benefit of making you feel good supporting a small business.

 

[sorchamac]

Originally posted by CherylA
I used to cut out all the coupons in my flyers. Now I just cut out the ones I know I'll use. Also I don't even bother with the "off 2" coupons unless it's an item that I would buy no matter what the price (like Cheerios for my toddler). The rest of my coupons I buy on e-bay or from a coupon service.
Cheryl

What coupon service do you use? I've been looking into these and was wondering which one works best.

Thanks-

Sorcha

 

[minnie1928]

Check your Entertainment Book. The local store (Weis Markets) puts 3 or 4 $5 off coupons in our book. This about pays for the book itself! I also use Valupage.com, they don't offer as many items as they once did, but occassionally I'll find a good deal.

I'm also interested in the coupon service, if anyone has experience with one I'd love to hear it.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I have trouble shopping--but it is b/c of our diet that we CHOSE to go on...no sugar, no white flour....etc etc....

So since we go wholesome...I am still feeling it out....but the key is to make a grocery list and stick to it. That is the only way I can save money.

Also--since we have gone "healthy"...in one month I have had absolutely no desire to eat out at all. Came up as a thought once or twice, but it no longer coincides with the lifestyle.

So it didn't reduce our budget--but it certainly reduced our expenses.

Now if someone has some tips on that--I would soooo appreciate it!

 

[Dizkneenurse]

Hi there!
For all of you trying to get organized with your coupons, I just bought this and I LOVE it. i keep it in my car all the time and take it in with me every store.

Coupon File

It is great..I recommend their site too....

Refund Cents

Their free stuff is great and so is the info you can subscribe to.

heidi

 

[sorchamac]

I just got my coupons today from my coupon book I bought on ebay. It really works. I bought the coupon book on ebay for less than $3. Then I fill out the voucher and mail it with a check for $1 and a self addressed envelope. On the voucher I choose the coupons that I want. They then send me back the $10-$12 of coupons I asked for. It worked great.

Sorcha