Okay, I know the title is a little melodramatic, but that's how I feel sometimes. I see posts on peoples' blogs(you know who you are) about how they buy tons of stuff for $2 at the grocery store using sales and coupons and for some reason I just can't figure it out! I do clip some coupons here and there and I was proud of myself for getting free BBQ sauce and ranch dressing for $.09 last week at Smith's, but from what I see out there, there's so much more I could be saving.
I did find this nifty website called www.grocerysmarts.com They have lists of the sale items at every grocery store in the area, plus they cross reference it with coupons from the paper or that you can print online. I haven't actually used it for a trip to the store yet, but I'm excited to. If you want to check it out you go to the web page and enter this code g84ckv. This will give you all the stores for Utah. I'm not sure how you'd get the right code for other states.
Anyway, so I am trying to figure out this whole coupon thing. If you're "in" on the secret, please let me know! I've been reading up on some of it, but I have questions. Like, I don't understand the whole "doubling" thing. Is that when you use one coupon, but buy two of the item, thus "doubling" the coupon by using it twice, or can you actually use the coupon for double the value on just one item? I get so confused.
Also, I would love any comments on how you save money at the grocery store or in any other way for your family. Here are some of my favorites.....
Kid-to-Kid Stores~~ They buy used kid's clothes, toys, baby gear, even unopened diapers and formula. If you opt for store credit instead of cash you get 20% more. It's great to be able to get more clothes for your old clothes.
Ebates.com~~If I ever need to buy anything online, I go through Ebates. You get a certain percentage of your purchase as "cash" in your Ebates account. They've got a zillion stores available and will even tell you what coupons or specials are going on at each website. The only downside is that you don't actually get the money until you've got at least $20 in your account. Right now I think I've got about $17 just waiting for me to add in $3 more. But, if you're already going to be buying something online, why not?
Carl's JR. ~~FREE kid's meal with adult meal on Wednesdays. We actually just figured this one out. Nate went there to get us some dinner last Wednesday. I always just get a kid's meal because it's a smaller portion and it's cheaper and when he ordered, mine was FREE! Apparently they do this every wednesday. I think some other fast food places may have the same kind of thing. If you know of any, please pass it on!
~Just today I saved $6 by washing the Jeep myself instead of taking through the carwash like I usually do. I'm not ashamed to say that I was pretty proud of myself. =)
Anyway....leave a note and let us know what YOU do to save money!
4 comments:
Good tip on the Carls Jr!
Ashley! I do grocerysmarts.com and get 2 differnt sunday newspapers. I know that the website is set up for Utah and Idaho, but we drive 1 hour to Idaho Falls every weekend to see Dustin and my fam anyway, so it's still conveinient.
All I do is this: I look through the ads (either online or the physical one) and I choose my dinners for the next week (or next 2 weeks depending on how often you go grocery shopping) based on what is on sale. If ground beef is on sale, say for 1.20/lb I'll buy a lot because I know that's a really good deal and I use that all the time. If pasta and spaghetti sauce is on sale... well then we'll have spaghetti for a night! My own rule is that I don't buy ANYTHING unless it is onsale (even if it's just 10 cents). I always know the prices of everything and after a while, you will too (after looking through ads every week). Every food item goes onsale atleast once every 4 months, and you start to know the rotation of the sales. For Magna, I only shopped at Smiths and Reams. Reams has really really good deals in their ads, but everything else is way over-priced. Albertsons sometimes has incredible deals, but not as much. Smiths is my favorite and generally is always cheap, but still has lots of mega sales, too. It takes me about 30 minutes a week to plan what I'm going to buy and where I'm going to go and what coupons I'm going to use (just from the Sunday paper) but I honestly spend about 150-165 dollars a month for our whole family for groceries because of it. Plus, when you go to the store with an actual list with the prices of things written and quanities you need and such, you won't be tempted to buy things you don't need.
My only advise is to not go to walmart! Their prices flexuate SO much week to week and their produce sucks. I always come out of that store with atleast 3 things I didn't have on my list. I do go there for diapers and stuff like that though.
Anyway, keep looking through grocerysmarts.com. It's a really good website and after you play around with it for a while you'll get the hang of things and start learning what's a good price and what's a bad price.
And by shopping the ads and stocking up on stuff you always eat, you can easily get a 4 or 5 month food storage after just a couple of months. Plus, then your food storage is stuff you would actually want to eat!
Sorry I wrote a novel! I'm really not too much of an expert, I'm just really really cheap.
Oh, and how's primary going? Who's the new secretary?
My sister in law Janet is the Living on less contributor for Studio 5 on channel 5 every Wednesday, and she always has the best tips and suggestions. You should watch her. She does enrichment nights, and I think I am going to see if we can get her.
Thanks for the tips guys! I'll keep doing grocerysmarts and I'll have to check out that show!
I use pinchingyourpennies.com. They have the grocery smarts list on there plus a forum for people to leave extra deals they find. Plus they send you emails with codes for online stores. It's great!! Albertson's has lately been sending out "double coupons" with their ads or in the newspaper. They will double the value of one of your manufacturer coupons up to $1.00. Usually there's 3 doublers, this week there's 6! Albertson's does a lot of "Catalinas" too where if you buy so many of certain items they give you a coupon for so much off your next shopping order. You can find those at pinchingyourpennies.com in the forums too. I've only been doing this for a few weeks now, but it saves so much money! And my food storage is already getting so full!
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