[love2clipcoupons]

I am looking for some guidance in saving big time when I shop for groceries.
I did all right last week. I paid 6.27 for 27.00 worth at CVS. At Krogers, the most I have ever saved is $86.00.... I had $44.00 in MFQ, the rest was savings with my plus card.

I spend 2-3 days comparing my q's to the ads, I write a list, I also bring my binder shopping with me. I have a stockpile that is well on it's way.

I would like to get my grocery bill dropped to under $50.00... Last week I spent 116.25 even after I saved the $86.00....

I appreciate all of the hints and tips.

[tratra]

Some to get you started....

The best way is to stockpile. Pair your coupons with rock-bottom sale prices and stock up when you can, even if it's something you can't imagine needing many of. Then you won't need those items and can use more of your money for the non-coupon things you need each week.

Also take advantage of on-your-next-order (OYNO) deals, where you use those coupons to get low prices and get catalina coupons to put towards another order.
I have so many bottles of lawry's marinade and Kraft dressing. The lawry's paid me to take it and the kraft ended up being under a quarter a bottle. There was another one recently where it was a money maker after coupons, but I'm forgetting it. It was a good one. Do those deals as often as you can and before you know it, you have an extra $25 bucks to put towards your groceries. Just watch the dates, cause they usually expire within 2 weeks.

Don't be brand-loyal, if you are. That will open up some new savings possibilities.


And look at the positive side of it. For the numbers you gave, you spent almost half of what you would have without the coupons. As long as those things are things you normally would have purchased, that's a fantastic percentage for starting out.

[olivas.sandra]

I think in the beginning you will spend a little more... Because you are building... Pretty soon you will be cherry picking.... Building is the hard part.... I remember building it was hard work... And did cost a little more... But just think before you know it.... You will be shopping just to fill in what you have used... Not what you need... Like last year I bought 40 bottles of barbque sauce.. I know that seems like alot but living in California we barbque year round... This week I was down to 3 bottles.... So all the free sauce around I bought another 40 to last another year.... Me I think you did awsome...

[McEngle]

Patience pays off. Buy what you need before you need it. Make a list of what you go through the most and what you need, then scour ads. Ad previews on this site and other savings site are a great way to find good deals early ahead to order/collect the coupons you need. Plan ahead for your meals according to what you have and what is the least expensive ingredients you need for fillers. Cook ahead and freeze, freeze, freeze.

Do you have a freezer? Because that will cut your bill down significantly once you start stocking up and freezing protein. Produce, deli and cheeses freeze well too. Also, I rarely ever shop grocery for my bread, meat or seasonal produce. I rely on 7-11 for our milk because they always have the best price. If you enjoy a lot of seafood, the Asain markets always have the best prices and best quality. And we use Costco for odds and ends.We have a neighborhood butcher, a bread outlet and a produce market that saves us a lot of our grocery bill and we are supporting the local farms. We buy in bulk and freeze and this saves us hundreds a month. Once you cut those expenses out, you will see a huge savings in your grocery bill.

[love2clipcoupons]

How many newspapers do you buy? Currently I am buying 2 of them. I get one from the Shreveport area and another from Dallas. I also scour the net for coupons. Plus, I also buy them from Ebay......

[scamelo]

I think you are doing great. I think there is an illusion that everyone buys $150 worth of groceries each and every week for $10 and I don't think that is so. So many things depend on where you live, do your stores double, what you buy, etc. I just started stock piling and taking advantage of OYNO and do save a bunch.

I say keep up the good work, its a huge % you saved.

[love2clipcoupons]

Today's trip at Kroger was nice......
I had 35.35 in MFQ 5.30 on Doubles, My Kroger Plus savings was 56.56 for a total of 97.31!
I ended up paying 105.32 for today's trip..

At CVS I paid 10.91 for 45.74 in purchases..

I am getting there.....

Thank you all for your advice. I really appreciate it.

[jctngirl]

You're doing a great job!

I don't think we saw really big grocery savings for awhile, since it took time to build our stockpile, but now the savings are really obvious. Instead of spending $100 or $150 a week at the grocery store, now we might spend $30 or so, mostly on fresh bread, milk and produce. It's also really nice, to NOT have to go to the store every week. I can't remember the last time we had to do a "big" grocery run. I LOVE my stockpile!!

[shadyskipper]

I feel like I try very hard to buy things on sale and use coupons wisely, but on an ordinary grocery trip, I usually don't save more than 40%. How are you supposed to save 90% on milk? Baby formula and diapers (sure, you can save on these things, but 90%?) Meat, eggs, fish? Again, there's occasional savings, and you can take advantage of sales, but you aren't going to do as well here as you can at CVS or Wags. I feel like I can't do much better than I am--there's stuff we simply have to buy, and I use coupons as much as possible, but consistent 90% savings will not be possible for our family...at least on grocery trips.

[jessl]

Originally Posted by shadyskipper

I feel like I try very hard to buy things on sale and use coupons wisely, but on an ordinary grocery trip, I usually don't save more than 40%. How are you supposed to save 90% on milk? Baby formula and diapers (sure, you can save on these things, but 90%?) Meat, eggs, fish? Again, there's occasional savings, and you can take advantage of sales, but you aren't going to do as well here as you can at CVS or Wags. I feel like I can't do much better than I am--there's stuff we simply have to buy, and I use coupons as much as possible, but consistent 90% savings will not be possible for our family...at least on grocery trips.

I certainly can't claim to spend 90% on every trip. I have had trips where I saved that much but it was because those trips only included things that I could get massive savings on.


One thing you should consider is shopping at at least two different stores.

Store A would be your "needs" store. This is whatever store in your area has the lowest everyday prices on most things. For me its Aldi. If you don't have an Aldi maybe Target or Walmart. We go to Aldi every week and buy the things we need and cant wait for a sale on, like milk, lunch meat, whatever we happen to be out of.

Store B would be a high priced grocery store that tends to have "loss leaders". Their goal is to get you in the store because you can buy a handful of things really cheap that week and while you are there you will buy your milk, etc. Don't fall for that. Just buy the handfull of things that are cheap and buy as many as you can. You will probably get some odd looks when you are walking around with 10 each of 5 things in your cart but just ignore it If you are starting out building your stockpile try to buy enough to last you 3 months if you can. Obviously pay attention to expiration dates as we have all been caught with a shelf full of expired something at some point . But other than that buy as many as you have coupons for.

For me I buy my needs at Aldi and save about 50% off what I would have spent at Shaws or Stop and shop. Then at Shaws or stop and shop if it is a good week I can easily save 70-90% off what I buy there. If it is a bad week I'm around 50% I have gotten to this point over the past few years. Before Aldi came to our area my Shaws savings were closer to 40-50% because I had to buy some needs there.

[Shanda]

Its hard until you build up your stockpile and then its mainly just keeping up with the frees/cheaps to continue your stock pile. For us we see bigger savings because we only eat meat 1-2x a week and that cuts a MAJOR amt out of our bills for groceries. We are also NOT brand picky, (hubs thinks he is w/Heinz ketchup-don't tell him that for 8 yrs he's been eating Hunts in a Heinz bottle, LOL). If its on a mega sale, I have a coupon and its free/cheap thats our brand until that stockpile runs out

[chella009]

I agree with others. It takes time and patience to get to a point where you are fully stocked and spending very little oop weekly. The one thing I have learned is to not pass up on the items I didn't think I wanted or needed that where super cheap or free. For instance I have over 100 pkgs of egg noogles, 75 bottles of kraft dressings and 40 pkgs of kool aid. These where not items I would buy more than once a year if that in the past but where free. We have turned the dressing(s) into marinades, cold pasta dressings, dips. I have found so many recipes for items in my stockpile I would have never thought of.
I don't spend $ on many items if they are not a good deal and no one in my family realizes they are missing out. Especially when we are stocked on sobe, oreo cakesters,popcorn, etc.

[pointe84]

There is some great advice on here.
One more tip I can add is to re-examine your cooking. Could you make more things from scratch or use slightly different ingredients? We often make our own granola, drink mixes, pancake mix, applesauce, BBQ sauce, soup, etc., and the savings for a small amount of time spent can be significant, not to mention everything tastes better and is healthier. A 2-minute online search is usually all it takes to find a recipe. As far as different ingredients, we cook with bone-in chicken breasts whenever possible, as they are half the price of boneless, experiment with different, cheaper spices, use onions instead of shallots, and so on. Yes occasionally the taste will be altered somewhat but as you experiment you will find compromises you are happy with. You don't have to be an expert cook nor do you have to spend large amounts of time - it really is easy.

[tnmommy]

Originally Posted by tratra

Some to get you started....

The best way is to stockpile. Pair your coupons with rock-bottom sale prices and stock up when you can, even if it's something you can't imagine needing many of. Then you won't need those items and can use more of your money for the non-coupon things you need each week.

Also take advantage of on-your-next-order (OYNO) deals, where you use those coupons to get low prices and get catalina coupons to put towards another order.
I have so many bottles of lawry's marinade and Kraft dressing. The lawry's paid me to take it and the kraft ended up being under a quarter a bottle. There was another one recently where it was a money maker after coupons, but I'm forgetting it. It was a good one. Do those deals as often as you can and before you know it, you have an extra $25 bucks to put towards your groceries. Just watch the dates, cause they usually expire within 2 weeks.

Don't be brand-loyal, if you are. That will open up some new savings possibilities.


And look at the positive side of it. For the numbers you gave, you spent almost half of what you would have without the coupons. As long as those things are things you normally would have purchased, that's a fantastic percentage for starting out.

It was the Schnucks paper plate rolling rr, I think. You and I both cashed in on that one if I recall. Don't forget all the milk at Schnucks, too. I got 7 or 9 gallons free from buying a ton of Kellogs cereal dirt cheap.

[tnmommy]

Originally Posted by Shanda

Its hard until you build up your stockpile and then its mainly just keeping up with the frees/cheaps to continue your stock pile. For us we see bigger savings because we only eat meat 1-2x a week and that cuts a MAJOR amt out of our bills for groceries. We are also NOT brand picky, (hubs thinks he is w/Heinz ketchup-don't tell him that for 8 yrs he's been eating Hunts in a Heinz bottle, LOL). If its on a mega sale, I have a coupon and its free/cheap thats our brand until that stockpile runs out

LOL your heinz ketchup

[steffus]

It scared me to death when I first started because it seemed like I was spending more. I was building the stockpile though, and now I'm spending CONSIDERABLY less. I used to spend about $120 a week and for the last four weeks (at least) I've spent around $60 and still had EVERYTHING we need, and more.

You'll get there.