Weekly Tutorial – Grocery Shopping Know-how

I love the fact that I am acting like the weekly tutorial is something I just do.

But, surprisingly enough, I have had several of you ask me how I have done so well on grocery shopping.

For the record, my skillz in the grocery department are minimal at best. Remember, I work full time. I do not have the time to run all over creation to hit up the deals like I assume she is. And let's not even talk about how much money she saves her family!

However, I will tell you what works for me.

Which I assume is what you wanted to know anyway.

And I will apologize in advance for not having any pics of this process.

We usually get our grocery store sale papers every Thursday. And every Thursday, I scour them for deals. And there are plenty to be had.

Here's how it goes down at my house.

1. Don't tempt yourself.
The very first thing I do is throw out the ads for stores that are out of my way. I don't even tempt myself with looking at the flyer unless I know that it will be convenient for me.

2. Check in unexpected places.
In the past it has been so easy for me to disregard flyers for Rite Aid, Walgreens, or CVS because they are just drug stores and they don't have any good sales. WRONG-O. Most of the drugstores now have special rewards and rebates programs to draw people in. In the past year, I have been to Rite Aid for free items about oh, 652 times. Make sure you sign up for them. Rite Aid has 2 different programs - Single check rebates and +Up rewards. Look for these kinds of opportunities to save you some money.

Also, did you know that Target posts free store coupons every month that you can combine with manufacturer's coupons for extra savings? Betcha didn't.

BabiesRUS also has store rewards in combination with manufacturer's coupons. I scored a $250 car seat for about $80 due to BabiesRUs rewards. This is also where we scored our diaper deal a few weekends ago.

2. Check for coupons.
If you don't have regular access to the Sunday paper and the regular coupons there, check online. Coupons.com, Bettycrocker.com, and Redplum.com are a few of my favorite sites, and they are updated monthly.

3. More coupons.
Sign up for newsletters for items you use regularly. Just a few that I get - Beech Nut, Similac, Enfamil, Huggies, Kotex, Kraft foods, Betty Crocker, etc. Sure there's the nuisance of monthly or weekly emails, but there is often a coupon included in the email. So check for it. That's how I managed to get about 200 jars of baby food for $16 bucks.

4. Compare.
Compare your coupons to the sale papers. See what matches up. Even better, most grocery stores are offering in-store coupons. So look at their coupons and then use your manufacturer's coupon with it. I got giant sized Arm & Hammer laundry detergent for about $4 a bottle a few months ago by using this method. This is also how we got the 9 boxes of cereal for next to nothing.

5. One more thing.
Did you know you can sign up to test new products as soon as they have been released? Techy and I have been signed up to do this for about 4 years. Ours are through Kraft First Taste, but there are other programs out there too.

Anyway, happy hunting. And please holler my way if you have any more questions.

Wonder what next week's tutorial will be?