Paying Hardly Nothing for My Groceries

Hi,

I know several moms who blog about it, give tips...
One even ended up with a $-3 (minus!) instead of $17 at CVS!

http://savespendrepeat.blogspot.com
http://johnstownmoneysaving.blogspot.com/

I agree with the coupon and flyer advertising comments. You may want to consider store brand items vs. name brands as they are usually made by the name brand companies. It is all in the planning of the groceries. Plan out your meals either on a weekly, monthly or whatever calendar. Stick to the menu. Review what you already have in the cabinets and freezer. Utilize all leftovers and have a cook once serve twice mentality. Turn leftovers into a different meal. Ex. pot roast dinner...becomes beef pot pie if put inbetween 2 crusts with gravy and additional veggies (optional). Viola! New dinner! Also, my grocery store has marked down meat occasionally. It is still good but they can't sell after a certain date. I take it home and freeze it. Best if prepped before freezing. Ex. Pork chops. Put in labeled freezer bag (name/date of item), season to your liking and freeze. That way it is ready to cook and you don't have to think about it-just cook it. I got a huge pork loin for $3 dollars! Eating at home is much cheaper. If you have leftovers for one person, make TV dinner style plates and freeze. Make great lunches or TV dinner night for the family. (you may want to invest in some TV dinner/plastic freezer style plates.) Hope these ideas help.

You sound like you are asking about stockpiling. Google stockpiling and you will find sites like stockpiling moms. Some of these sites will offer classes and show you HOW to get the most for your money. It comes down to planning your meals, clipping coupons and watching advertising.

Another option is the Angel Foods Ministries. This is done through churches (as far as I know, anyway). You pick out packages of food that you want to buy. It is done once a month so you need to keep that in mind when you order. The food is pretty good with a wide variety. The prices for the packages are very reasonable.

I hope that helps!

Go to the farmers market and ask them for overripe fruits and veggies for your chickens. They will give them for free usually.

Coupons and store advertisements work well together. Look to see if your grocery store has a double coupon day. Plan in detail what it is you are buying before hand, have a weeks worth of meals planned and stick to your list, only your list. Take out a certain amount of cash to take with you (you cannot spend more than you take with you).. use a calculator while shopping and add together how much you are spending. Look at store brands and buy them if they look like they are up to the quality you need (reading labels).

I have a friend that went to the grocery store ( Kroger) and spent $43.00 on her groceries with the use of coupons, her total bill would have been I beleive around $200.00 if you have the time to do coupons I would go for it.

I don't know about pennies but if you have Kroger, Ingels or Food City stores that you shop at get the store advantage cards. You fill out some info and get $$ money off specially marked items throughout the store. Also look through the store sale ad for the current week and plan your meals around what is on sale. Cut coupons for items that you use then give them to the cashier when you purchase those items. If none of these things are workable for you then buy the store brands, shop at other stores such as Aldi, Save a Lot or other stores in your neighborhood that are cheaper. These stores carry an their brand of merchandise that is usually cheaper. They usually don't have several brands of the same item just 1-2 brands of the item. If you have a produce stand, check their prices compared to the store that you normally shop it may be cheaper. We only purchase meat when it is on sale or marked down. If you have a Sam's or Costco near you that may help your bill. The only thing with shopping there is everything is in bulk or larger quanitities so it may be more $$ up front but it can last longer reducing the number of trips to the store. I hope some of these ideas will help you lessen your grocery bill.

I use afullcup.com and I am also a member of vickysdeals.com. Both of these are free sites. Afullcup is a little overwhelming to someone new using coupons. On vickysdeals it is a community of women who help get you started. I also subscibe to myfrugaladventures.com. They send an email daily with store matchup with coupons.

Couponing is very time consuming but so worth it. I wish you the best of luck.

I like to use couponmom.com. It is a free site and "spells out" deals at many grocery, discount and drug stores showing the weekly sale items, where to find coupons and the percentage of savings per item if you follow her advice. The member boards are also a good resource for finding rebates and freebies and for asking questions of other members, some of who are real pros at saving money. My sister-in-law likes a website which I think is called southernsavers.com. She lives in SC and relies on it to help her find deals.

I make a menu, make a list, go to the store and everything I put in the cart I write the price down and keep a running total. This helps me to stay within my means.
I typically buy generic and or use coupons and use these ideas with the market flyers.
Good luck.

www.grocerygame.com

You will need to clip some coupons to go with the list this site gives you, but it is the most valuable resource I have ever found. There is a column with the original price, the sale price, any available coupons (and where/what date), and final price. It even includes unadvertised sales. I have only recently joined and have already gotten many items for free or nearly free. I save at least 60% on my grocery bill, even though it can be more sometimes. Amazing!

Good luck!

southernsavers.com.

I also use www.thegrocerygame.com. You have to pay $10 for the first store and $5 for each additional store you want to shop at every 2 months. You will make this savings up on your first trip to the store. I shop two stores and save a ton of money. It is stockpiling, but worth it.

I grocery gamed for several months and then stopped for several because we were going to move and I didn't want to have to move too much extra. I haven't HAD to buy any shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razors, shaving gel, or cleaning supplies in almost a year! I bought all of these for a fraction of their regular cost. Like $1 for name brand soaps and $2 for razors.

You choose which items you want to buy and click on the items you don't and it grays them out. The list you print is already in the order you will find it in the store. You just pull your pre-clipped coupons that are listed and off you go.

Most lists are available by Monday evening or Tuesday. Also watch for double coupon days at your grocery stores. And, check the grocery stores you shop at and see if they take expired coupons and for how long. One of my stores takes them for 3 months past the expiration date, the other store won't take any expired ones, but has a double coupon day.