How to Get $100 Worth of Groceries for 25 Cents

Since How to Feed Your Family for $1,500 a Year wasn't enough of an over-the-top headline, we now have how to get $100 worth of groceries for 25 cents from MSNBC. Then again, their subline to the piece is "top five tips to cut your grocery bill in half." Last I checked, 25 cents wasn't half of $100. Anyway, let's move on. Since when does fact stand in the way of a great headline? ;-)

The article says that the key to cutting your grocery bill in half is knowing how to use coupons and store promotions along with sale prices on your favorite items. They claim that doing this a family of four can save $100 per week or as much as $5,000 per year. I'm certain my family can't save $5,000 per year because that's about the entire amount we spend on food in a year. Hey wait, maybe "eliminate all food costs" would be a better headline. Heh, I kill myself....

Anyway, here are there top tips to saving on grocery costs:

1. Plan your shopping trip before you leave home

2. Let other people do the hard work for you

3. Maximize your coupon savings easily with the ‘no clip’ system

4. Time it right — wait until the item goes on sale to use the coupon

5. Know how your store’s promotion and coupon policies work

It's not rocket science -- my wife was doing these things in third grade. And she didn't need a website subscription to do it. Sheesh, talk about a letdown. And here I was all pumped up to get $100 of groceries for 25 cents! ;-)

Seriously, since when do people need instructions on how to save money using coupons? Isn't it fairly simple "saving money 101"? Or maybe it's just the sputtering economy that's bringing out all the "how to save" sorts of pieces. Sheesh.

Comments

[Jason]

My wife has used www.thegrocerygame.com and a few other sites to try to optimize her shopping but you are right, for the most part it is just common sense and maybe a little practice. She did once get $15 of swag and CVS had to pay her $1.30. That was her greatest shopping moment.

[devil]

This happens every time the economy tanks. People act as though cutting costs is the newest, strangest idea they've ever heard.

Those of us who've always shopped sensibly just roll our eyes. :)

[Ace]

It's not really strange when you consider how the US society works. Tons of subliminal advertisements in everything we see and hear. You're not American if you don't spend. It really is contrary to the ideas we are being fed.

[justin]

While I like the idea of coupons. Most of them don't seem to be too valuable to me. They typically require you to by 2 or 3 of a certain item, and the savings isn't usually that spectacular (e.g. $0.75 off 2, $1.00 off 3). Having to by the 2nd or third items seems to outweigh the benefit of the coupon in my opinion. Would you be saving more if you just bought one as opposed to 2 at $0.75 off?

[Katy McKenna]

If in boom times, people actually cooked and ate at home, perhaps they would have learned how to shop for groceries as young people and not need to be continually re-educated. I know MANY people who eat out almost every meal and have NO skills in the kitchen. Or the grocery store. Then, when harder times come, they try to change all in one fell swoop. Often, though, they end up purchasing items they do not know how to prepare and then throwing away the food later---and still eating out.

I don't get it. I didn't know a lot until I turned 18 and moved into my first apartment. The morning after, I called my mother and asked her how to boil an egg. She told me how to do it, plus how to make a pot of coffee. I've been cooking----and shopping frugally for groceries---ever since. I'm now 55, and a lifetime of smart shopping and home cooking has served us well!

[DW]

I think you'd be surprised to learn just how clueless some folks are. Then there are the folks who are too "busy" to learn.

[conedude13]

i read this earlier today and it just now clicked. #2, what?! so should i pay other people to do my shopping for me? wouldn't that add to the cost? even if you have a store deliver your groceries to your place there is still a delivery charge as well as a minimum amount you must spend? so that raises another question: is $0.25 after coupons even going to get it delivered to you? :P

[Monroe on a Budget]

It does take more time to shop with coupons, but it's not a difficult skill to learn.

You find out what your store's coupon policy is (I found my local stores' policies in the fine print of their sales fliers).

You clip and save all coupons for all products you might use. Mybe you don't buy cold cereal, frozen dinners or candy bars. But you probably do buy flour, sugar, spices, soap and laundry detergent. Coupons have been issued for those pantry staples too.

You actually read the sales fliers when they arrive at your house via newspaper or mail. Why you do read YOUR neighborhood's sales fliers? Because there might be a different special in your city than in the one 20 or 30 minutes away. I see this situation happen nearly every week in my area.

You notice which coupons you have for the products that are on sale at your local stores and ...

You go shopping with the coupon box for those products.

The savings may be only 25 cents here, $1 there, but it gets to be serious money after awhile.

[Sarah]

Seems kind of strange to be snotty about such people, Katy, if you managed to let your mother/father/housekeeper cook for you for your entire adolescence. You were physically incapable of bringing egg together with water and fire before you moved out?

[Lee]

We stop by the grocery several times a week and spread out the shopping to get fresh fruit and vegetables. In the process we always see the sales on staple products which we purchase extra of when they are on sale. This usually saves us quite a bit of money every month.

[cynner]

Sometimes Sarah people just want to cook for you. I never bothered with cooking. My parents both loved to cook and to cook for me.

As an adult, it was my mantra, "I don't cook". Roommates, colleagues and family took it to mean "she doesn't know how to cook" and they seemed to happy to provide me with meals. I often provide the ingredients.

I'm single and live alone. All that shopping, chopping, stirring and watching bores me. Shopping and cooking for one economically is tough. You can wind up wasting food.

[Katy McKenna]

Sorry, Sarah, didn't mean to come off as snotty. Cynner is correct: I wasn't allowed to help in the kitchen growing up, ALL because I was left-handed and my mother kept thinking I'd slice a finger off or something! Back then, girls (in the absence of Google....) really did call their moms over such small issues! My only point was that when one moves out on his or her own, it's sink-or-swim time as far as basic skills are concerned. And that the type of skills that can save a person/family tons of money long-term aren't that difficult to learn and practice.

What I MEANT to communicate was the opposite of snotty: The idea that almost anyone is capable of mastering basic home economics, if he or she so desires.

[SAHM]

I have learned to look at coupons as free money. This is money that I am being given to buy certain items. And I have been doing this long enough (at least 6 years) to know what items are on sale fairly regularly and which items rarely go on sale. I use one website- couponmom.com- that does most of the work for me, and it is FREE. I don't see the value of the grocery game website unless you are just getting started. I typically save at LEAST 50-67% on my grocery bill by matching the coupons with the items on sale. I buy in large quantities, but not to exceed what I have coupons for, when items are on sale. My coupon savings alone are about $20-$30 minimum. I have kids that won't quit growing, so that helps get them clothes!

As a stay at home mom, I see the grocery shopping as my contribution to our family. The coupons and shopping the sales are part of my "income" to our family. It is a challenge and game for me. My husband sometimes wishes I didn't have to do all the coupon clipping, but he has come to realize that it is a game for me, and a challenge.\

My best was probably last week. My daughter had to have her inhaler refilled, so I transferred it to one of the local grocery store pharmacies that takes competitors coupons. I got a $25 credit that I used to stock up on chicken breasts that were $1.99 per pound. The savings on my receipt were $67, and it cost me less than $4. My freezer is stocked with meals for my family. The inhaler was going to cost me the same no matter where I got it filled.

[Sandy]

I don't endorse the Grocery Game. If you have absolutely no time at all to browse the sales online before shopping then fine. Personally, I don't think what you save in shopping covers the cost of the subscription!