Frugal Friday! How To Begin Couponing and Savings at the Grocery Store!

Step ONE: Pick a few stores that are close to you. Start following their ads each week. They should have a sales cycle of around eight weeks.

Mine is Aldi, Albertson’s, and Target (sometimes Walmart and Kroger)

Step TWO: Make a list of the items you like to buy on a regular basis

I always look for deals on hamburger meat, chicken, and steaks. I LOVE pasta. I like to have Wolf brand chili, lunch meat, and lots and lots of cheese. I keep yogurt and frozen dinners for my husbands lunch.

The condiments that I usually try and find are any brand of mayo, and Heitz ketchup

Step THREE: Start taking the time to pay attention to the prices of the things you like to buy all of the time.

Things that I like to keep under a dollar

• Pasta
• Soups
• Chili
• Yogurts
• Eggs
• Frozen veggies
• Fresh produce

• Things that I like to keep under two dollars
• Breakfast cereal
• Milk
• Chicken
• Frozen dinners

• Beef, I try to keep it under $3

I like shopping at Albertson’s because they double and triple coupons (triple up to .35, double up to .50), Aldi because their prices on eggs, milk, and cheese are usually lower without coupons. Target because their sale prices are very competitive and they usually have Target coupons and cartwheel deals that increase the savings.

Once a grocery store ad comes out, look at the items you prefer to buy. Is it the best price? Cereal is on sale all the time. But it is only under $2 every couple of months. So once you know if the item the best price you’ll see for a couple of months, add it to your list. If it is a manufacturer item (ie Pillsbury or Kraft) and not store brand, use an online coupon database to see if there is a coupon.
Couponmom.com
Survivingthestores.com

Take your list, and the coupons, and go shopping!!

Make your weekly menus based on the items that are on sale. Maybe you normally buy frozen chicken breast. But if the fresh chicken breast are sale cheaper, go with fresh. But if they have frozen on sale, and there is a coupon, buy the frozen. You have to ask yourself, which gives me the best overall savings.

Plan the menus based on meats, produce, and other items on sale.

When you do see that it’s a good price, and if there is a coupon, buy enough to last for two months. (if you would normally buy a box a pasta per week, buy 8 of them to last you until they go on sale again)

Plan your other items the same way. You may have to no longer be brand exclusive. I no longer buy Tide because its usually not a good deal. But I am happy to switch around other brands. For those items that I have to buy a particular brand, (dog foods, coffee, etc) I try and stock up more.

Because certain items like bread, milk, eggs are not shelf stable, I check to see who has the best price. Because I’ve check a few different locations that are close to home, its usually not a big deal to go to that store for that item. Some weeks, all I need to do is make the quick trip to Aldi to get my basics because I have a stock pile of everything else I need.