[joymoonflower]

I want to know how people can go shopping and end up getting almost $300 worth of groceries for just a few cents. Where do you shop? Give me pointers, please. I desperately need to reduce my grocery bill. Any info is welcome. Please let me know. I live close to Bowling Green, KY, and Nashville area....so I can shop anywhere in this area for good bargains. Thanks.

Joy

[kmeiding]

Well as far as I know, most people who have trips like that only buy stuff that is free after coupons or gives overage, which usually isn't very healthy food. They also use catalinas from previous transactions that say "Save $ on your next offer" or something like that. I don't know of any stores in your area, but check the forums on here for the stores near you and check out their sales. Some stores double and triple coupons up to a certain amount, which can really help to lower your total. My grocery bill is still pretty high because I usually buy produce and meats that there aren't many coupons for, but I am able to save at least 20% every week depending on sales. I am much better at stockpiling HBA items for very cheap so spending a little extra on food isn't so bad.

[Bandksmom]

Ditto to above. I am fortunate to have Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods (and Bilo) close by and both double coupons everyday, then HT does special events where they do more. I am not expert as I just started doing this seriously in early September but I have saved a considerable amount since I started working the boards at AFC. I don't buy coupons and have say 50 of one coupon like some do. I buy a few papers, get some from friends/relatives and print some. I go to my store sites every week and create shopping lists based on their sale flyer. Since most stores have other sales that aren't listed in the flyer I check the forum and shopping list at AFC for my stores and see what other sales people have listed that others have found then I add things that I might be interested in to the shopping lists that I created. Then I pull my coupons. I always take all my coupons with me just in case I find something at the store that I didn't know about. Now if you want to see how the big timers do it just read the boards. Good Luck.

[scamelo]

I am no expert and have cut down lately on groceries by using coupons, store specials and other deals. I think when you see the person on TV buying 300 for under a $1 they have spent a lot of time preparing and as mentioned above use catalinas and ONYO from previous purchases and may not necesarily be buying what there family wants to eat for that week. Also I would think they spent money buying either lots of papers to use or trade or buying coupons directly. They never mention things like they spend 20.00 a week on papers. They don't fall from the sky in my area.

You can't buy one paper a week and expect to feed a family of 4 on $5.00 a week unless your family does not care what they eat and they are small kids with no appetite.

I print many on the internet and do buy some off of ebay or coupon sites occasionally if I know a good deal is coming up. It might help you to search what sales are posted for stores in your area and if there is a good deal, buy or trade for coupons on that item.

I try to stock pile freebies whether we need them or not, like recently tons of free tuna and free butterball turkey bacon and free wacky mac pasta. Can't make that every night, but sure does help in the long run.

Again, I am just starting and learning lots myself, but have been able to save and hoping to save even more. Start by trying to save and work your way down to just spending a little every week, not sure it can be done overnight.

I have been home for 3 days with H1N1 Flu and its killing me not to go out looking for deals.

Good luck

[joshmamabear]

Do you have a coupon friendly WM? In my case, I have multiples of coupons that I have tested on items to give overage. Aside from this, I have MQs specific for items I am buying. I compute my totals before taxes. I make sure I don't go to negative subtotal after all coupons. since we pay sales taxes, I have never paid as low as 0.00 or less than $1 for a half cart full of grocery items. This works ONLY if your WM gives overage without hassles and your cashier also know the policy about giving overage to customers for the full face value of coupon as long as there are items in the transaction that cover for overage. Just like anything in related to coupons, this is strictly YMMV.

To give details how this would work:

Example: Borden cheese slices is on rollback 2/$5, with that I buy .97 Adams flea collar. subtotal =6.94. I buy 2 of each, use $1/2 Borden product and (2) $3 Adams (includes flea collars) coupon. The $4.06 overage from Adams plus $1 Borden cheese MQs pays for the cheese with the excess applied to other items I'm buying like produce for which there are usually no coupons. That is just one item, I do that for all items I am buying so I know how many of items that give overage I need to buy so the overage will cover for the balance. it looks complicated but I look at the overage as part of my spending money so my "actual" cash paid comes out very little. I live near a WM so I make sure I don't use over $50 worth of discount per transaction to save time on waiting for CSM for override. I just separate my transactions and go at a time where it is not busy.

I keep an eye on coupons that I know will give overage and make sure I have a lot of them handy for my shopping trips. What is good about our SWMs is they re-stock everyday where we are. I don't have stores that triples or doubles up to .99 unlimited, but my friendly WMs more than make up for it so I can still get my groceries pretty cheap. To top it all, I save all my receipts for beer rebates submission. Its win-win!

HTH.