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Grocery Shopping: Savings with and without Coupons

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Photograph Credit: Flickr (Kim Smith-Miller)

As I entered the checkout station, I was warmly greeted by one of my favorite cashiers, Miss Daisy. We chatted about the weather, the weekend activities, and upcoming excitements. While conversing, the girls and I unloaded our cart’s contents onto the conveyor belt.

My Conversation

Miss Daisy scanned my two Publix cards (school proceeds and UPromise) and our items. I then handed her my stack of coupons. On this occasion, Miss Daisy paused a moment, then asked, “Are these all your coupons today?”

With a “Yes, that’s all for today,” I rechecked my Publix envelope to be sure I had used all my coupons.

Miss Daisy responded, “This is a short stack for you.”

I agreed and informed her that most of my coupons required the purchase of 2 items and that the sales were excellent without needing coupons. As Miss Daisy deducted the coupons, I watched my savings increase and my total decrease. I love that Publix displays your savings at checkout on a big monitor in front of you.

At the end of the transaction, my total came to $37.51 and my savings rose to $58.01. When Miss Daisy saw my 61% savings and the small amount of coupons used, she was amazed!

My Saving Tips

Hopefully, through this series you are discovering that you do not need coupons to save at the grocery store. Coupons increase your savings, but you can save by shopping the sales. If you are in a season of life where coupons do not fit into your using time wisely schedule, then choose to save in other ways:

  • Purchase enough Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) items to last your family for the next 3-6 weeks. Everything I bought at Publix was a BOGOF item.
  • Do not purchase more than one of a sale item – unless that item is never offered as a BOGOF option, e.g., lasagna noodles. If you need an item and it is on sale, then purchase one. Keep an eye on the sales. When that item is BOGOF, then stock up.
  • Whenever possible, shop after a meal. Refrain from adding items to your cart because they look tasty. You will tend to purchase more if you shop hungry, so try to schedule your shopping exploits after a meal.
  • Use a grocery list. Having prepared your list, stick to it. Gather your items and go to checkout. Do not pass the bakery, do not spend $200! 🙂
  • Know your budget. By using more money on weeks with great sales and saving money on weeks with little to no great sales, I can adjust my spending from week to week. Keep your goal obtainable, but challenge yourself with your food budget. Saving money becomes a game. Are you ready to play?

With these strategic tips and tricks, you are on your way to saving a bundle on your food budget. You don’t need to clip every coupon or spend hours preparing for your shopping trip. Utilizing these five keys to saving more than you pay can have your cashier amazed as well. Happy savings!

Question: What was your largest savings this week? Please add your answer to the comments.

Grocery Shopping: Creating your Grocery Lists – Part 2c of 3

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Photograph Credit: Stock.xchng (Christy Thompson)

How are the grocery sales going in your area? Last week was very unusual in that I spent almost $150 in groceries due to some fantastic sales. Yes, this amount is almost my budget for 2 grocery weeks. However, I am now stocked with meat, cheese, snacks, sides, and vegetables.

When I shopped this week’s sales yesterday, I spent $5 at Publix and by-passed the sales at Bi-Lo. For these two weeks, I am still within my budget. Yeah! The timing determines my savings. Thankfully, I was using time wisely when the items were on sale.

In working through the “creating your grocery lists” series, we have considered Steps 1-2 in Part 1 and Steps 3-4 in Part 2. Now, let’s consider Steps 5 and 6 in Part 3 as we complete our shopping lists.

Step 5: Print Grocery List

Once I have the needed items that are on sale and the BOGOF options, I will print this list. These are the items I may or may not purchase at this store.

Step 6: Repeat process for next grocery store

In my neck of the woods, I have quite a few grocery store options: Food Lion, Ingles, Publix, Bi-Lo, Whole Foods, Earth Fare, and Wal-mart (to name a few). If I tried to shop at all the stores, I would be shopping all week.

Since I would rather be using time wisely and spending time with my family, I choose to shop at 2 stores: Bi-Lo and Publix. As I create this part of my grocery list, I prepare one list for Bi-Lo and another for Publix.

This process may seem long at first. I remember it taking me all day to prepare my lists with all the normal interruptions. (Again, this system is not for everyone.) When it takes me 4 hours to prepare a grocery list where I save $50, then I am “making” $15 per hour. As I practice and continue to cut my preparation time to 1 hour, I am increasing my hourly savings to $50 an hour (when based on the same shopping trip).

Now that I know the system and have practiced it for many months, I am routinely creating these two lists in under an hour which is maximizing my savings.

My success did not occur overnight. I have made many mistakes along the way. For example, stocking up on an item when it was on sale for $1 off to find the next week the same item was a BOGOF item for $2.50 off. Sale items are great if you need the item, but I have learned not stock up on a sale item.

My stock up price is 50% off. I will purchase one item of a sale price to get me through until the next BOGOF sale on that item. Using coupons with those BOGOF sales just increases the savings. How do I know this? Because I have learned from my own mistakes. I would not be saving 50-90% on my groceries today if I had not started trying these techniques. By just implementing one or two saving strategies, you can increase your savings by 20-40% without using a single coupon. But you need to start, learn from your mistakes, and enjoy the savings.

The basic lists are now created. Next week, I will share briefly how I match coupons and finish compiling my list for each store. In using time wisely, I hope you are finding this series helpful. If so, then try a tip or two and see if your savings increase. If you are like me, once you see the savings, you won’t want to pay full price ever again. 🙂

Question: What is your favorite savings strategy thus far? Please click on Leave your Comment to add your answer.

Grocery Shopping: Creating your Grocery Lists – Part 2a of 3

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Photograph Credit: Flickr (Grungezombie)

In an effort to feed my family nutritious meals on an $80 a week budget, I have a system to help me accomplish this goal. This system may be too complicated for you. No problem! Find a system that works for you!

Though you may use this same process, please do not feel like you must force this square peg (my process) into your round board (your life). Remember, this is just one option that works for me right now.

In Creating your Grocery List – Part 1 last week, I shared a detailed overview of my process for menu planning and started explaining my grocery shopping process.

Thus far, I have identified needed items from the pad of paper on my refrigerator and my supply areas: pantry, refrigerator, and freezers. With this list in hand, I am now ready to select sale items for Part 2 of my process which involves 6 steps. In keeping it manageable, I will share the first 2 steps this week. Hang in there . . . I’m going to take this slowly.

Step 1: Consult a helpful web site

Since I live in a southeastern state in the United States, I consult www.southernsavers.com. Jenny Martin has a fabulous web site for southern grocery stores and drugstores. Jenny’s link is on the right sidebar of my home page. You can easily access her web site for grocery store and drugstore deals from Using Time Wisely.

If you do not live in a southeastern state, but you are in the United States, then you can access THE GATHERING at www.becentsable.net. Chrissy has identified web sites in your state that list local grocery store and drugstore deals. You can find THE GATHERING by clicking on Becentsable’s link on my right sidebar under Time Saving Resources. This link on Using Time Wisely will take you directly to THE GATHERING to locate your state and your favorite local stores.

For those of you outside the United States, you might want to use a search engine (i.e., SwagBucks, Google, etc.) with the name of your local grocery store and deals (e.g., MYSTORE deals).

Step 2: Locate your grocery store’s weekly sales ad

Hopefully, finding this information will be easy. Most shopping web sites list the weekly sales ad by the dates of the sale. For this week, I would look for dates August 24 – 30, 2011 (for Wednesday to Tuesday sale days) or August 21-27 (for Monday to Saturday sale days).

I also look for sites that list available coupons for the sale items. This information helps you know where to find a coupon for that item.

Once you locate your favorite web site and find the location of your store’s deals (every web site is different), you will know where to begin next week. These two steps will take seconds once you find what works for you.

Working to find the best web sites for your grocery store deals will be time well spent. I went through two other sites before finding my favorite. Next week, I will continue creating my grocery list by concentrating on the items in the sales ad for steps 3 and 4. Hoping this series is beneficial to you!

Question: For your favorite grocery store, what are their sale days (Monday to Saturday)? To add your answer, please click Leave your Comment.

August 8, 2011: Publix and Bi-Lo Shopping Results

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After creating my menu from the ingredients I have on hand, I am ready to go shopping. Yes, I shop after I know what I plan to make for the week. I know that this sounds backwards, but this system really saves me money, energy, and time.

With my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator housing all the ingredients for my weekly menu plan, I am free to shop the sales at the stores. I am looking for items that are on sale at their rock bottom price, and then using any available coupons to maximize those savings.

This week, I purchased a few sale items. Here are my shopping results:

Photograph Credit: Publix

Publix

2 packages Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (on sale buy one get one free) – $1.40 each

1 Suave shampoo (22 oz.) – $2.19

1 Suave conditioner (22 oz.) – $2.19

2 Dean’s Dips (12 oz.) – $1.95 each

2 Elmer’s Glue (4 oz.) – $.33 each

Krazy Glue – $1.40

Subtotal:  $13.14

Minus the following coupons:

2 – $.55 Publix coupons for a Suave product

2 – Manufacturer coupons for a free Suave product up to $2.99 (took off $2.19 each)

2 – $1 Publix coupons for Dean’s Dip

1 – Manufacturer coupon for $1 off 2 containers of Dean’s Dip

New subtotal: $4.66

Tax: $0.39

Total: $5.05 – With the sale prices and coupons, I purchased $20.40 worth of product for $5.05 which is a savings of 75%.

By stacking coupons, which means using a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on the same item, I was able to maximize my savings to more than the purchase price of the Suave products. Since I had 2 coupons for a free Suave item from the manufacturer, the 2 bottles of Suave where free. But, I also used the Publix store coupons (from the green advantage flyer), so the extra $1.10 of savings was taken off the end total since I had other items that were not free. I did not “make money” in cash, but I gained “overage” to save on other items purchased.

Photography Credit: Bi-Lo

Bi-Lo

2 packages Hillshire Farm sausage links (14 oz.) – $2.50 each (used buy one get one free rain check from previous week)

1 Southern Home Peanuts Fruit Snacks (6 ct.) – $1.79

2 Southern Home Cheese Sticks (11.5 oz.) – free (used rain check from a previous meal deal where these were free, but the store was out. On this visit, the cashier took the rain check, but did not ring up the two items – per his manager.)

Subtotal: 11.77 (plus the price of the cheese sticks)

Minus the following coupons:

1 – Publix coupon $1 off 2 packages of Hillshire Farm links

My Bi-Lo accepts competitor store coupons. Publix is a qualified competitor. Therefore, I used a Publix coupon and stacked it with a manufacturer coupon to maximize my savings.

2 – Manufacturer $.60 coupons for Hillshire Farm links which doubled to $1.20 off for each

My Publix doubles manufacturer coupons up to $.50, but my Bi-Lo doubles manufacturer coupons up to $.60. Since I had a rain check (savings) + store coupon (Publix) + manufacturer coupons + double the manufacturer saving, I had a great result from stacking the savings.

1 – Bi-Lo coupon for free Peanuts fruit snacks from previous customer survey (took off $1.79)

Total: $.68 (tax was $0) – I purchased a minimum of $11.77 worth of product for $.68 which is a savings of 94%.

These savings are due to a slow week of sales and cashing in rain checks and free product coupons. Now, I cannot make one meal out of this shopping trip, but I did not need to. I have plenty of food in my stockpile. By shopping the sales, I am able to stay stocked and maximize my savings.

This is not “extreme couponing” where I am purchasing tons of products I do not need and spending days working my deals. I do spend about 1-2 hours preparing for my shopping trips, but for me, the savings are worth using time wisely.

Question: Do you shop before or after making your menu plan?  

July 12, 2011: Publix and Bi-Lo Shopping Results

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In keeping up with the sales to maximize my savings, our family went grocery shopping together on the last day of the sale. (Hey, we still get the sale prices even if I wait until the last day of the sale. :-)) Here are the results of our trip:

Bi-Lo Purchases:

2 salad dressings

2 bags of chicken fries

2 X-14 toilet bowl cleaners

Subtotal: $22.24

Used the following coupons:

2 – $.50 off salad dressing (doubled to $1 off for each)

2 – $1 off chicken fries

2 – $.55 off X-14 products (doubled to $1.10 off for each)

New Subtotal: $4.90

Tax: $.02

Total: $4.92

On this trip, we received $22.24 worth of groceries for $4.92 which is a savings of 78%. I also received a rain check for the out-of-stock Orville Redenbacher popcorn to be used on a later purchase at the sale price. 🙂

Publix Purchases:

2 salad dressings

1 yogurt 4-pack

3 Bagel bites

2 sponges

Subtotal: $16.83

Used the following coupons:

2 – $1 off Publix coupon for salad dressing – (If I had had a manufacturer’s coupons, I could have stacked them. This means I could have used a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon together to maximize my savings. But I only had the store coupon to use.)

$.50 off yogurt that doubled to $1 off

$1 off Bagel bites

$2.21 off Bagel bites from Publix coupon (buy 2 and get the 3rd for free)

2- $1 off sponges

New subtotal: $4.18

Tax: $.12

Total: $4.30

For this transaction, we received $16.83 in product for $4.30 which is a savings of 74%. I also requested a rain check for the Welch’s yogurt snacks for a future purchase since the shelves had been cleared.

There is a downside to shopping on the last day of the sale with some items being out of stock. However, the rain checks allow you to still grab that deal at a later time. If you are short on coupons, then the rain check is a great option. You can get the rain check for the sale price and then wait for coupons to maximize your savings.

These are my shopping results. How are your savings adding up? Leave a comment sharing your savings.