How to Save a Ton of Money on Groceries

I recently ran into two great articles -- both on how to save a ton of money when grocery shopping.

The first tells how to be a bargain-shopping champ and details the story of a lady who's taken saving money to a whole new level. She offered the following tip I liked:

Walgreens, Rite Aid and Long's Drugs offer monthly "single-check rebates," and some of the featured items are free after the rebate. If I have coupons for these products, they cover sales tax and postage; sometimes I even make money on the deal.

Even better, doing this doesn't take a boatload of time:

Sunday mornings, I spend five to 10 minutes clipping coupons and another five minutes filing them. Certain products are repeatedly offered free after rebate. You start recognizing and saving coupons for all the "recidivist" brands. (My daughter may never run out of dishwasher soap, for example.) I also always clip coupons for new products, because they'll almost certainly have rebates sooner or later.

And I really liked this example:

My favorite coupon coup: Glade Scented Oil Candles were $8.99 at Rite Aid with a $2 rebate, and I had a $3-off coupon. Then, since Rite Aid rebates are filed electronically, I used the store receipt to send away for a manufacturer's rebate of $8.99. And then I sold the candles for $5.

Ha! She sold them for a profit! You gotta love that.

The second article offered ideas on how to take a big bite out of grocery bills. Some of the tips they offered that I like the best:

• Get to know sales cycles. McDermed says stores reduce their products according to a 12-week cycle, give or take. Let's say your spaghetti sauce is normally $2.19 a jar; on sale it's $1.99. That's the phantom sale price, says McDermed, so hang in there while the price drops to two for $3. But don't buy until it hit the rock-bottom price of, say, 10 for $10 or BOGO -- buy one, get one free. That's when you buy.

• Know your rock-bottom price. McDermed recommends keeping a price notebook for a while so that you get to know the rock-bottom prices for most items. That way you're less likely to get sucked in by phantom sale prices because you know a steeper discount is around the corner.

• Spot the loss leaders. Those are the staggering deals -- Tropicana orange juice for a nickel -- that lure unsuspecting customers into stores, who then buy lots of other things they don't need. "If you see an unbelievable deal, scoop it up!" says McDermed. Just don't buy anything else.

• Shop off-list. Your mom told you to stick to a list in order to save, but Lustro disagrees. When she saw ground turkey on sale for $1 a package (a loss leader), she happened to have a $1 coupon for the same brand -- and got it for nothing. She may not have turkey meatballs for a month, but when she does, it'll be a free meal.

My wife is the main grocery shopper in our home (in fact, her best money saving tip is to keep me out of the grocery store) and she does many of these. She'll come home very often and tell me that she bought a $5 item for $2.50 on sale, had a coupon for $1 on top of that, then found a rebate for $2.50 off. She's quite proud of these "finds" and I am too -- that's more money in our savings. ;-)

Comments

[fred sanford]

The grocery game is a web site that I did not see in the links that has a lady that does the work for you! ($1 week is her price) I used it and she even told you the week of the sunday paper to look for the coupon, if your local store offers great deals or just says they do, (we have specials that you buy a whole meal, and sometimes they are a steal, and sometimes they are not) Teri's List is the part of the grocery game that you get an email on Tues, when the supermarket ad comes out, and then she does the % savings and $ savings on the list. Not bad as long as you follow it and save at least 4 dollars a month to pay for the service. http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

[Julie]

I agree with your wife. When my husband goes grocery shopping with me, I spend WAY more than what I had planned. He is worse than my 3 year old on putting things we don't need in the cart!

[DR. ARTFREDO C. ABELLA, Ph.D. - COUNTRY CLUB WAY, WHITTTIER, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.]

The best way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to buy your items by the dozens. There is always a saying that goods are cheaper by the dozen since rebates and discounts are available when you buy in bulk. The other way to save tons of money is to have a full stomach when making your grocery since the tendency is you will not impulsively buy things or stuffs if you compare when making your grocery with an empty stomach. The other way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to procure promotional items. Most of the times consumers would think that buying promotional items are of low quality which is contrary to what the supplier has in mind. A company has one to the nth time reasons why they sell their products under promotional items. One is to advertise their products at low cost. The other is to apply the lost leader approach by selling their products under promotional sales at low cost but gain larger advantage of sales in other items once the customers stars to buy. The other way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to buy stuffs under SALES. Goods sold under sales are having discounts up to 50% because the idea of the owner is to already dispose the products due to obsolescence or for fast turn-over of sales. The other way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to list all the items you intend to buy and never to buy stuffs not found in your grocery list that way you will save tons of money. The other way to save money when making your grocery is to look for generic products specially on medicines. Generic goods has 50% lower in price compared to buying goods branded not generic. The other way is to avail of goods with plus on items. There are corporations who sell their products with attached accessories like you buy a bag the plus item is free raincoats for children or set of pencils for students. The other way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to buy under the "Buy one take one" sales. You buy one big can of corned beef, one bottle of soy sauce is for free. You buy one sack of rice one ladle is for free, things like that. The other way to save tons of money when making your grocery is to choose grocery stores where they provide a raffle tickets for every $ 500.00 of sales and who knows you might be chosen as the lucky winner and instantly you will not only save tons of dollars when making your grocery but instead you become an instant millionaire for the day!!