Use Supermarket Coupons

Budget-Saving Grocery Shopping Tips: What You Should Know About Being a Frugal Grocery Shopper

2011-02-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

In our last post we finished up talking about some of the advantages of using supermarket coupons. Have you ever wondered why the person ahead of you at the checkout is able to spend $60 less on the same basket of groceries than you? On the surface, you are buying the same number of bags of groceries, but their total seems to be less than yours…a lot less.

The secret, they know how to be a frugal grocery shopper.

Frugal grocery shoppers have some characteristics that you may not be aware of, and I’m about to dish on their secrets.

Frugal grocery shoppers, just like the millionaire next door have a trick or two up their sleeves for saving a bundle every time they go to the supermarket.

Frugal Grocery Shoppers Know a Good Deal When They See It
Savvy shoppers know the going price for the products they use the most often. They are not tricked into a fake sale price that is not really a sale. On the flip side, a knowledgeable shopper knows the difference between a low price and truly fantastic deal and will stock up only when the price is right. Knowing your prices puts you in control of your spending rather than letting the marketers tell you when to buy.

Frugal Grocery Shoppers Never Buy at Full Price
Knowing a good price also gives you the ability to stock up ahead and avoid paying the full retail price for every item on every shopping trip. Think about it, even without ever using a single grocery coupon, you can save 30% off the full retail price if you buy only when an item is on sale. If you always buy enough to get you through to the next sale, you can reduce spending by $30 on every $100 you spend. That savings is no small potatoes. An average family of 4 spends over $200 per week on food. Save $60 per week and realize a $3120 savings a year. What could you do with a savings like that? If you are like me, a nice trip someplace on a tropical beach comes to mind.

Frugal Shoppers Go Without if They Run Out
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to run to the store for just one item that you are out of between shopping trips. Why? Grocers love the impulse sale, and most of us are impulsive. If we want it we buy it. Big mistake! Not only do you pay the highest price for what you have to buy this instant, but that trip to the store usually does not end with just one item. One whatever you are out of becomes, and entire bag of unplanned purchases with a price tag to match. Incidentally, you waste more than just money on that trip to the corner. Time and gas come at a price too.

Frugal Shoppers Are Masters at Substitutions
Plainly put, if the frugal grocery shopper or frugal cook runs out of something, they avoid the trip to the store by substituting whatever they have on hand. The cheapest most frugal way to cook is by using the fewest ingredients possible, purchased at the lowest possible prices. This is a favorite tactic of controlling food costs in restaurants. Restaurants and diners build their entire menus around just a few ingredients. The true advantage to this cost saving strategy? Buying fewer perishable ingredients means less waste and fewer products to buy, thus controlling food costs. If they run out, they make do. A little creativity goes a long way.

Frugal Shoppers are Consistent
Just like the millionaire next door, a frugal grocery shopper has a strategy and knows that the savings are in the details. They never deviate from the plan. They are as consistent as the day is long. You may be wondering why this is so important. I have worked with many over the last few years, and have noticed something striking in my client’s behavior. They can do everything right and then loose an entire months savings by failing to stick to their plan on just one shopping trip. Let’s face it, we are human. We are also creatures of habit and everyone falls down from time to time. Realize this though, you only hold yourself back by deviating from your plan. If you find yourself making excuses like “I’m just too tired,” or “I’ve worked hard this week so I deserve a treat,” then it’s time to ask yourself if you are doing all you can to stick to your savings plan.

How You Can Become a Frugal Grocery Shopper
My motto has always been “work smarter not harder.” So, you don’t need to get too deep here to become successful at reducing grocery spending. Really, all you need to do is two really simple things to realize reduced spending on food. First, understand that becoming a frugal shopper is a mindset and as such that mindset will eventually become part of your lifestyle. No big concession really, since we all tend to continue doing things that benefit us. If there is a payoff in the end, it really is easy to continue behaviors that we see as positive. The key here is to find a way to adopt the new behaviors that make them easy to maintain over the long haul. If you can do this, then you won’t have to put much energy into maintaining the changes you have made. They will come naturally after awhile.

Second, and again a really easy strategy to implement is to adopt what works well for others. Tweak the strategy until it easily fits into your lifestyle, but you really don’t need to make things difficult by starting from scratch. Reinvent the wheel and then you can move on.

To recap, frugal grocery shoppers slash their grocery spending because they do the following well:

-Frugal grocery shoppers know a good deal when they see it.

-Frugal grocery shoppers never buy at full price.

-Frugal grocery shoppers go without if they run out.

-Frugal grocery shoppers are masters of substitutions.

-Frugal grocery shoppers are consistent.

Most importantly, just have fun with seeing your own progress. Congratulate yourself on the positive changes you are making. Give yourself kudos for reaching your goal. Make small improvements every week and in no time you will be a frugal grocery shopper too.

Oh, and by the way, frugal shoppers also kick up their savings by choosing to use supermarket coupons. A good deal is never good enough for them unless it is free.

$10 Off Next Order Coupon at Vons

2010-12-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Here is a little supermarket coupon cheer for your holiday season. Vons is offering a $10 off your next order coupon with a sinlge purchase of $75 or more in one shopping trip when you use your Vons card. Special offer good from now until December 7th.

If you are planning to shop this week, check out this offer and save ten bucks on your next purchase. How is that for a high face value grocery coupon?

Where to Find High Face Value Coupons

2010-12-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

People are sometimes confused when we talk about high face value coupons. Genereally speaking, high face value coupons are those with a value over $1 or more before they are doubled or tripled.

Why should we look for high face value supermarket coupons? Coupons with higher values make finding a freebie a whole lot easier. Say an item regularly retails for $3.79 at your local grocery store. The sale price will likely be 2/$5 which is already a pretty steep discount right? Add a $1 coupon and you are down to $1.50 which represents a savings of 60.4% off the full price. Now suppose your store doubles coupons up to a buck? Your net price is just $.50 of a $3.79 item, or a miniscule 13.1% of the regular asking price, or, a savings of 86.9%!

You could buy 7.5 times as much product for the price of one regularly priced item.Talk about stretching a buck.

Where to Find Free High Face Value Grocery Coupons

1. Newspapers
2. Ebay clipping services
3. Printable coupons online
4. Manufacturer sites
5. E-coupons

Get clipping and saving everyone!

Hyper Inflation in Food Costs- Is Superinflation a Reality We Will Face in 2011?

2010-11-24T13:22:00.000-08:00

One of the most frightening books I have read in a very long time is Aftershock by David Wiedmer, PhD, Robert A. Wiedemer and Cindy Spitzer.

Why is it especially frightening? Well, it has to do with the coming superinflation and global depression that will be upon our country very shortly. If you need evidence that inflation super or otherwise is about to hit us soon, you need look no further than the amount of money the government has printed in the last several years. The result of printing more money is always inflation. Print more money than ever before, superinflation and sometimes devaluation. Listen to the news, we are now just starting to talk about national debt, spending and inflation. While we talk, we are also still running the presses and printing more money than we ever have before. The longer we go on printing it, the worse the problem will be when inflation ultimately hits.

Why should you care? The thought of multi-100% inflation will make it difficult at best for most of us to find a way to feed our families well, not to mention purchasing the many items we consider as totally essential for our way of life. If the currency we use daily becomes not worth much, you can also imagine the difficulty that their other prediction of 50-60% unemployment would cause.

While I consider both to be doomsday predictions, even a very mild version of their predictions could make it difficult for you to protect yourself finacially becuase we still need to eat. Food prices are a large portion of monthly expenses and dramatic increases in price are difficult to avoid. Protecting yourself is critical in infaltionary cycles. The authors of Aftershock give specific expamples of how to do that in most areas of your financial life, but not with food which essential.

What is great about the book? The authors do a good job of explaining what the forces are that will drive a series of interconnected bubbles to burst in our economy, each causing the next bubble to burst. As each bubble bursts, it will place increasing downward pressure on our economy, making it much more difficult for us to recover in both the short and longterm. Finally, someone has given us a solid explanation of how far the government will have to inflate our currency to get us out of the debt we are currently in and continue to prop up our economy. The numbers certainly bear strong consideration on our parts as consumers because they are so grim. There is finally an explanation for what we all suspected, there is a reason why our economy is still a mess. By the way, the links at the bottom of this page also describe the reason why our economy is showing some signs of improvement in the short term and why the next downturn will be much more severe than the first warm up. The authors of both articles, by the way are not the same as the authors of Aftershock.

What is not so great about the book? Well, in my opinion, this is a very negative look at where we are headed in both the short term and longterm financially in our nation. The predictions are so grim, in fact, that when I first read the book I needed to step back, set it down and then reread certain passages because they seemed too far fetched to be possible. As I have researched further,I have began to realize that there is a lot of truth to what the Wiedemer's have predicted. Get past the negativism, fear and visceral reaction to their theories and you will start to see the sequence of events are already begining and we are not yet to the most concerning part of the scenario.

What does this book have to do with saving money on food with supermarket coupons? Everything if you use them correctly! Regular readers of this blog will know that I keep a large pantry and buy ahead to get the best price on everything that I buy. Heavy double coupon use plays a major role in keeping prices as minimal as possible. Using tons of coupons when building your pantry will do the same for you...give you a lot more buying power.

While I am not proposing to buy a years worth of staples, or anything near as aggressive as that for most people, it would be wise to start to think about how you structure your spending to prepare for an inflation when it happens. In one form or another, our nation appears to be in for a bumpy road financially and serious inflation is likely at one point within the next year or so. Watch the news, the Fed chief Mr. Bernake, can not even look in the camera anymore when he speaks every month on the state of the economy. His body langauge speaks volumes.

Why be the bearer of grim news at the holidays? Sorry folks, I don't mean to put a damper on your holiday celebrations, just the opposite. The holidays are the best time of the year to fill up your pantry with really cheap loss-leader food purchased with supermarket coupons. Great sales and low prices make the spending decision easy and very much reasonable. Now is a good time to get started thinking of how you will pace your spending in the new year and beyond.

Do yourself a favor, read the two articles below and see if what they are saying makes sense. Some of the theory presented is the similar, and both offer good advice via solid research. If what is presented is enough to concern you, get Aftershock and read it to learn how to protect yourself. Then, check back here because we will be starting a series of articles on how to put together a pantry of supplies at low prices.

Resources:

1. Hyper-Inflationary Great Depression Is Coming

2. When will Inflation Really Hit Us?

Tis the Season for Savings on Baking and Makings for Your Holiday Feast

2010-11-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

So what do holiday food savings and using supermarket coupons have in common?

We are just coming into the best grocery shopping week of the year is the answer.

When I worked as a grocery rep this next two weeks was affectionately called the "eating season." Thanksgiving week means fierce competion for ad space and coupon FSI drops are huge starting now.

How to max your savings?

1. Buy extra newspapers this Sunday.

2. Clip your coupons and be organized.

3. Search for printable coupons online.

4. Buy as many extra items as you can use and fill your pantry.

If you shop well, it is not uncommon to buy everything you need for your Thanksgiving dinner for $30 or less, including the turkey.

Here is an idea for buying a really cheap Thanksgiving Turkey to get yourself on the path to a frugal, yet fulfilling Thanksgiving feast.

And They Say the Economy is Better?

2010-09-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been under a rock lately you will know that the claims that are being made about inflation being nonexistent are pretty bogus. I don't know what food prices have been doing in your area of the country, but here in Southern Cal I have been tracking prices over the last year and prices are up nearly 26% at my local grocery.

One has to ask if it these numbers are truly accurate when inflation is calculated. In fact these are the official food inflation estimates. It all seems relatively tame until you realize that in my state unemployment is still hovering around 12% and nationally the number is around 9.2%, which does not even take into consideration the number of underemployed or those forced to replace good paying jobs with service based jobs at minimum wage. Joblessness seems to be the new norm even if the recession is "officially dead," we are still living with the repercussions.

Well, if things are getting better, like the official reports would have you believe, then why are retail giants like Walmart going this route?

Walmart, love them or hate them, is run so efficiently that there is not an ounce of fat or waste in the company. Execs share rooms as they travel, their main office is a converted building which is stark and industrial to say the least. They pay barely over minimum wage to employees, offer health care, but at a fairly a pretty high share of cost to employees. What the heck, it is better than the 51 million Americans that currently don't even have the option. The point is that Walmart does not make mistakes when it comes to marketing. They are just stone cold efficient. They know what consumers need everyday to live and deliver a reasonable quality product at a lower than average price.

Case in point, we have all seen those displays that have the shopping carts lined up with the same items purchased at different retailers to prove who has the lowest everyday price right? What they don't tell you is that items in those carts are generally not selected randomly. Someone does a price comparison to find the items that work to manipulate the results of the totals. As a consumer, we all shop a little differently. Whoever has the lowest total depends on how you shop.

We FINALLY just got our local Walmarts remodeled to carry a full grocery. When I did my own comparison my total, without coupons was a whopping savings of 42% when shopping at Walmart. With coupons I ended up at 62% less than my local retailer, even when using the same coupons doubled. My take was that Walmarts everyday prices were the equivalent of the sale price at my grocery store. They may not have the lowest price you will ever get if you shop for sales and use double coupons, but you will come within 5% give or take without the time and effort. Their prices are fair to cheap everyday on most products you will buy regularly.

Those of you who have followed my blog regularly know that I am a heavy coupon shopper. The truth of the matter is I am a heavy dollar store shopper as well and know a good dollar store value when I see one. I search for the deal, get a great kick out of finding one, and try very hard not to spend more than a buck for anything.

My take: Shop at the dollar store first for some spectacular savings. You need to be willing to pick and choose, but it can be worth it when you find a deal. Once you do, be willing to buy in bulk. Work your way up to the food sections of discount stores like Walmart and Target. The rates they pay for labor are a lot less than the grocery unions demand, so their prices are less. Again pick and choose for savings. Work your way up to either the sale items with heavy coupons at your local retailer. This would depend on what you need to buy for the week to round out your groceries. Your other option is to take a wad of coupons to Walmart and buy what you need.

What to avoid: Club stores like Costco. The prices are fair, but the quntities are huge and not everything is well priced. Again, the prices are fair, but not that great. Full priced anything at a supermarket. Way, way expensive. Stick to loss leader sales and heavy coupons, preferable double coupons at regular grocers.

The key to savings. Coupons, coupons and more coupons. Adding a cents-off coupon to an already low price can save you an additional 15-50% off what you will spend. The discount retailers like Walmart and Target accept coupons at face value. Don't miss out, printable coupons are available online just about everywhere.

I can hear those just waiting to make the comment about the club stores, "you have to check the unit price." Yes, you do. The thing most people forget is that when you waste you loose all of your savings by purchasing a large quantity. If you are a single person, or just a little of something you rarely use, quite often the higher unit priced,smaller package is the better bargain. Money management is often a matter of knowing thy self as a consumer.

Frugal Grocery Shopping List at It's Best!

2010-02-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a frugal grocery shopping list at it's best...don't forget your local dollar store for produce, name brand produce and much more when trying to stretch your budget to the max.

To all the nay sayers who think that shopping for produce at your local dollar store will seriously damage your health, you may be surpised at the finds at my local store today. I came home with four large packages of organic baby spinach, the same brand purchased for $4.99 each at our nearest health food store. As if this deal was not good enough, they also had organic bananas and berries today as well with similar savings.

One more bonus to an already great shopping day was 10 ounce bricks of Cracker Barrel 2% white cheddar cheese. I got a dozen of those and will freeze most of it to grate later for casseroles and such.

Moral of the story...Keep your eyes open for bargains and your mind open to possibilites and your frugal grocery list will get longer as the deals get better.

Betty Crocker Coupons to Print

2010-02-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Get $20.145 in printable Betty Crocker coupons this month when you sign up for a free membership with Betty Crocker. For those of you who don't know, Betty Crocker brands are a subdivision of General Mills and are always aggressively couponed on a monthly basis.

New club offers are available regularly and will save you a lot of money over the course of a year. Get free printable Betty Crocker coupons and start saving today. Click here for more info and to sign up.

Free Cheerios and Coupons too!

2010-01-21T04:52:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for a really cheap way to feed your family breakfast? How about a free box of Cheerios cereal? General Mills is giving away 50,000 boxes of Cheerios ceral in their most recent promotion. Sign up for their online mailing list and you will also get $4 worth of free coupons for your next General Mills products.

For more information and your free Cheerios coupons, have a look at their website for their latest promotional offers.

This offer took about 30 seconds to sign up for, and your coupons will be emailed to you immediately after registration.

How are Your Money Saving New Year's Resolutions Coming Along?

2010-01-14T04:14:00.000-08:00

If you made a New Year's resolution for saving money this year, especially on those grocery bills, are your savings goals still on track? We are two weeks into the New Year, how are you doing?

Making changes takes quite a bit of effort at times and it is sometimes less straight foreward to stay on trach as we would want to admit. If your goals are starting to waver, make a couple of easy changes and you will start to see results once again:

1. Go to shortcuts.oom and select your free grocery coupons. Using electronic grocery coupons is as easy as it gets for fast savings.

2. Go to Redplum.com and sign up for a free account. Check out their money saving free printable grocery coupons.

Learning where to find the best high-face value grocery coupons, be they printable supermarket discounts or e-grocery coupons will kick your savings coupons into overdrive.

New Info About Coupons.com

2010-01-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

As those of my faithful readers will already be aware, I have a preference for coupons.com printable grocery coupons. They are easily the oldest and most reliable of all the free printable coupon websites currently available today. Coupons.com has been around for years and is a well-established and longtime player in both printed and online printable grocery coupon markets. As you know, they offer hundreds of high face value coupons which change monthly and allow you to print more than one coupon at a time for each offer. Coupons.com is an easy way to save a lot of money very quickly because their coupons have such high face values before doubling at your local double coupons supermarket.

For those of you not familiar with coupons.com, all you need to do is register for the website and install their small coupon printing software program. Their coupon software uses the latest coupon printing technology and will make your grocery coupons easy to scan at the checkout, ensuring you get all of the savings you are entitled to.

I have made no secret of my preference for coupons.com over the years. Their easy to use site and long-standing tradition of customer service makes the well over 100 offers a month you can find here some of the most coveted available every month.

There is new news on the coupons.com front though. Coupons.com has recently purchased a new app for iPhone and iPod touch. Some of you may already be familiar with the Grocery iQ app which is currently available at the Apple App Store. Grocery iQ allows you to search and clip virtual coupons in real time as you shop. They have now integrated coupons.com with a slick interface that will allow you to download your savings directly to your grocery loyalty cards. In addition to all of their other highly useful features, the ability to search for coupons and save in real-time as you shop is easily the most inivative, consumer friendly, money-saving innovation to come along in a long time.

In addition to the ability to shop and save in real-time, the Grocery iQ has a huge number of handy functions, too many to mention here. Suffice it to say, you can organize all of your grocery shopping tasks in one easy to use money saving app.

If you are looking for a quick, easy and inexpensive way to manage all of your grocery shopping tasks without the hassle of paper grocery coupons check into the
Grocery iQ app for iPhone and iPod touch. At $.99 it's a no-brainer that will help you save literally hundreds of dollars this next year without any hassle.

What's Your Money Saving New Year's Resolution?

2009-12-30T14:53:00.000-08:00

As 2009 draws to a close and we begin a new year, we once again start taking stock of our lives. What is your New Year's resolution going to be this year? Most of us will stick with the old stand by's...make more money, spend less money, find more time (which can be more valuable than money), less weight at the end of the year, and reconnecting with family. But, let me ask you this...how are you going to get there?

Do you really want to make the same resolutions this time next year? Why not be successful this year and move on to something new in 2011?

Most of us are great at defining our goals, but not so great at following through on the changes to make them reality. Let me give you a little secret advice that can make attaining your resolutions as painless as can be. Whatever changes you are planning to make to in the coming year, your goals are much easier to stick to if you make them so easy to achieve that your success is gauranteed. No, I'm not suggesting that you make a half hearted attempt at change, but rather that you set some high goals and make the methods you approach them with easier to implement than the behavior you want to change.

Let me explain further. Say you want to save money on your grocery bill, but HATE the time and hassle it takes to clip groery coupons. Should you just forget it and never bother?

Nope, you should make clipping coupons and saving thousands of dollars a year something so easy that you just don't mind the process. If it were me, this is how I would go about it.

1. I would only buy things on sale. Start here and you will save 30-40% off the top. Easy right? Just pick what is on sale, no preplanning required.

2. I'd use electronic coupons next. Go to cellfire.com and register. Pick the offers you want to use and send them to your wireless devices. Still easy, it takes a couple of minutes, you don't need to clip coupons, and your discounts are quick and automatic. Heck, cellfire.com is so easy, you don't even need to take a paper coupon to the store.

3. Next, head over to shortcuts.com and do the same. Register, pick your offers and load them to your store shopper's card. Still no hassle and you will be getting quite a bit of savings. No paper coupons, you can't forget to use them, and it takes about a minute for addtional savings.

So far, you have reduced your grocery expenses by 30-40% by purchasing only sale items. You have saved around another 10% (or more depending on your purchases)by using electronic grocery coupons. Not stress, no hassle and in only minutes you are spending half of what you would have last year.

If 40-50% savings is enough for you, great, stop here you are done and you have accomplished you resolution. If you want to save even more, head on over to coupons.com and match up their printable grocery coupons with what is on your grocery list. You can print two coupons at a time, so be sure to get two when you find a free or really cheap item. You will see freebies week after week, so be certain to get as many as you can when you do to max your savings. Now you are up to savings of 60% or more for your efforts.

There are many ways to meet your goals of spending less on food, giving your overall budget a break. The truth of the matter is that to be successful in the long term you will need to make whatever you do to reach your goals so easy to maintain that it is a no brainer. Do this, and you will be saving a lot of money on groceries and for many years to come.

A word to the wise, this behavior modification strategy makes any resolution much easier to accomplish...give it a try.

Best wishes to you all for a happy and prosperous New Year!

Free Taco Bell Fresco Taco Coupon

2009-12-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

Need some free food? How about a free Taco Bell Fresco taco coupon? Taco Bell is currently offering an online printable coupon to try their Fresco Taco. Limit one printable coupon per person while supplies last.

Get your free Fresco Taco coupon from Taco Bell on their website while supplies last and enjoy some free eats.

The fine print: Offer valid only at participating stores, within 7 days of printing the coupon, OR until 1 million free tacos are claimed. Store managers have the final say on if they will honor your coupon, so call ahead first if in doubt.

Mr Coffee Espresso Maker and Coupons Saved Me $1360 This Year!

2009-11-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

Mr Coffee espresso makers are really something. I love mine, and have to tell you that getting one for Christmas last year was the best gift I have gotten in a long, long time.

I'm just like everyone else, I have my consumer faults too. My one lingering addiction was my double (or more than double) shot in the morning. I, like so many others, are guilty of falling into the trap of spending too much for the ease of having someone hand me my morning Joe. Yes, guilty, I admit it. As good as I was at the rest of my food budget, I am guilty of being too busy in the mornings to pay attention to the details.

Savings always seems to be in the details. What does not seem to be but a few dollars every morning ends up being a whopping $1360 at the end of every year. Ouch!!!

Last year I came to the conclusion that I needed to hang on to the grand I was dropping unnecessarily every year. That's a lot of cash to be overspending every year of your life. So, I asked for the espresso maker during the holidays, and figured I would just have to make my own until the change became second nature.

The thing is that a few months later, making espresso in the morning was just something I did everyday. No hassle, just part of my regular routine. In the end it did not take me anymore time than going through a drive through to get my espresso and I don't need to worry about spilling in the car anymore.

I even found a way to get great quality organic coffee for cheap. I use Amazon, and do not sign up for the subscribe and save. I just wait until what I'm looking for goes on sale (usually at 50% off or more) and order enough to get free shipping. If you don't want to use Amazon as your coffee supplier, although they have good prices and a huge selection, you can do the same at your local grocer. Look for grocery coupons on good quality coffee, and wait for a sale to use your coupons and you will save half or so on the price of your coffee.

The final result one year later is that I am so glad I got my Mr Coffee espresso maker last year. I stuck to my savings goals, and will now happily pocket an extra $1360 a year forever. Would that saving so much on all groceries would be so easily accomplished.

Grocery Coupons and Charitable Contributions

2009-11-21T13:03:00.000-08:00

I touched on this briefly in my last post about how to use grocery coupons for charitable contributions and food contributions during this time of year. But in truth, I would be remiss if I got so far ahead of myself and I failed to mention that grocery coupons and charitable contributions really do go hand-in-hand during the entire of the year. Food banks are always in need of donation and there are almost always free items to be found in every week’s grocery sales fliers when you use grocery coupons.

You see, grocery coupons make many good offers exceptional. Every single week there are freebies on nonperishable goods. Freebies make it easy to give to those less fortunate even without much money to donate. All of us can take the time, and use our skills rather than donate money if we are light on financial resources. I saw quite a few people grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner when I was in the store today doing my own shopping. Many used coupons, and many dropped a few items in the food barrels on their way out of the store.

But what really surprised me as I walked out the door putting my own donation in the bin, was what I saw happening outside the store. I watched as a teenage girl made a donation to the Salvation Army bell ringer. The red kettles are out in full force today as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and we get into the thick of the holiday season. I watched as a young woman of 16 put over $50 into kettle. Intrigued, I had a chance to speak with her as we both walked to the parking lot. I mentioned to her that it was quite a generous donation she had just made and to my utter surprise she volunteered the information that she just donated the money she had saved on her Thanksgiving dinner with grocery coupons. She is a long time coupon shopper and does such a good job that her mother charges here with the grocery shopping.

A donation to other charities with the money saved from coupon shopping was an idea I had not really thought of. I usually donate the free food I get when using grocery coupons to the food bank, but that is it as far as the coupons go anyway. She said that the Salvation Army was her charity of choice and that they could use cash donations in lieu of food. She merely paid for the full price of her order that day, and then had the cashier give her the money she saved with her coupons in cash. The cash he saved became her donation. She said her family approved of the idea prior to the trip, her mother deciding that she would have paid full price anyway were it not for her daughter’s excellent shopping skills. One week’s savings was hardly a stretch when she was saving the other 51 weeks a year.

What a fantastic idea from a very generous young woman. It reminded me that there are so many worthy organizations in need of donations especially at this time of year. So this year, I will be making other donations in addition to the free food items I'm able to get at the grocery store with grocery discount coupons. I'm sure the Salvation Army as well as other worthy charities will be on my list.

How to Get a Free Thanksgiving Turkey

2009-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

Do you want to know how to use coupons to get a free Thanksgiving Turkey this year? I have a simple method of doing so.

Here is what I do to eat my Thanksgiving turkey for free. I find a grocery store where they are offering $5 turkeys with a coupon and $25 minimum purchase. In my local area you can get this deal from Vons. Since Vons offers double grocery coupons, I find 3 coupons for $1 each on something I am going to buy anyway and make my purchases. I save a quick $6 bucks, and then use the savings to get my Thanksgiving turkey for free.

This really simple method is a quick way to save enough to get a free bird with very little effort.

How to Grocery Shop for a Cheap Thanksgiving Day Dinner

2009-11-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

Grocery shopping for a cheap Thanksgiving day dinner is a lot easier than you would think if you know how to go about reaping the benefits of the lowest grocery prices of the year. The Thanksgiving week food ads really are the best buy every year for food well below wholesale pricing.

Why?

Grocers use the nostalgia of creating a true feast meal to be shared with with your family and close friends and take the opportunity to have you associate low prices on everything you need to buy to cook your Thanksgiving Day meal. Think that it is a mistake that there is super low pricing on Thanksgiving turkey? How about the pumpkin pie fixings, stuffing, potatoes and cranberries to go with it? It is not mistake, but rather, a carefully planned marketing strategy designed to get you to associate the lowest prices on food with their grocery chain.

What does this mean for consumers?

You can anticipate super low pricing on everything you need to make your Thanksgiving dinner and then some. You should also be looking for the printable coupons and electronic grocery coupons that match the sales to get your groceries for pennies on the dollar. Why not get the most savings you can with coupons so easy to come by?

If you are looking for a way to cut the cost of cooking for the holiday, all you need to do is grab a wad of coupons and match up the sales and you will be eating for cheap for the better part of a week. Even for beginning coupon shoppers, it is easy to grocery shop for a cheap Thanksgiving Day dinner with coupons.

For more info on getting your Thanksgiving turkey for less, check out this post.

Printable Grocery Coupons, Giving Thanks and Holiday Food Savings

2009-11-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

What do printable grocery coupons, giving thanks, and holiday food savings all have to do with each other?

The truth is that printable grocery coupons are the means to give thanks, help out someone in need and reduce your own food bills this holiday season.

Let me explain more.

The coming week will see the lowest prices for most of the year on food as grocery chains try to entice you into their stores when you shop for your Thanksgiving Day dinners. It is a sad but true fact that Thanksgiving is one of the few days that we cook full feast type meal throughout the year. The competition for your business is fierce and will become even more so as food manufacturers drop literally hundreds of coupons in an effort to gain your business.

Low sale prices + printable grocery coupons + shopping in a double coupon store = Freebies and great bargains!

So, here is what I do as I shop during the deal week of the year, I think of those less fortunate and buy whatever I can at rock bottom prices to donate. If I can get something for free, great, I "buy" the limit. I then set a budget for the rest of my donations and make every effort to get the greatest number products I can within that limit.

This is a great project to do with your kids, because it teaches the value of community service. The nice thing is that it takes very little other than your time to really make a difference. If you are short on cash, just scale back and donate whatever you can get for free.

Printable coupons are both the fastest and easiest way to accomplish my goals. When the sales fliers come out, I head on over to coupons.com, smartsource.com, mambosprouts and cellfire and look to see which items have matching coupons. When I find a match, I print the limit and then head off to do my grocery shopping.

I can usually get about 100 items for around $30 to donate when using this method every year. That's a lot of bang for my donation money, and a lot of people that will have something to eat this holiday season who would have gone hungry otherwise.

So, what do printable coupons, giving thanks and holiday food savings all have in common? Printable grocery coupons are the means to getting your own holiday dinner for much less than you would have spent, while being able to help others in need. Won't you join me this year?

Where to Find Free Grocery Coupons to Make Your Thanksgiving Dinner Even Cheaper

2009-11-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

Wow! I love Thanksgiving week grocery ads! This is absolutely the best week of the year for getting freebies with grocery coupons.

Why?

Thanksgiving grocery ads are notorious for deeply discounted loss leader specials on highly conspicuous items that give the perception that you are shopping in the lowest priced grocery chain in town.

What does it mean for you?

Grab as many free coupons as you can, and collect as many free items as you can. Seriously, deeply discounted grocery bargains and out right freebies do not get any easier than this.

Where should you find all your grocery coupons?

I'm a big fan of online printable grocery coupons because their face values are usually much higher than those found in the newspaper. Really the selection of online printable grocery coupons are as good as the savings. Start your search for coupons online, and then get a few Sunday papers every Sunday for the next couple of weeks and you will have a pantry stuffed full of freebies!

I usually start with coupons.com first since their selection of printable coupons is the best, next I move on to cellfire.com and then have a look at smartsource.com and mambosprouts.com to see what they have. If you go this far and get a couple of Sunday papers for a few weeks, you should have more than enough coupons to grab your share of the bargains.

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to Buy a Cheap Thanksgiving Turkey

2009-11-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

How do you buy a cheap Thanksgiving turkey? Thanksgiving turkeys are in the grocery stores now and the signs say that they are already on sale. But are they really?

I have noticed I startling marketing trend over the past 10 years. The closer you get to Thanksgiving, the cheaper turkeys become. The deals will start next week, and get progressively cheaper until the ad breaks for the week just prior to Thanksgiving, sometime around the 23rd or 24th of the month. Prices go up again to more than full price the day after Thanksgiving.

Coincidentally,or not, the best grocery ads of the year run the same week. What does this mean for the frugal grocery shopper?

Now is the time to start collecting tons of grocery coupons, as many high face value multiple coupons as you can. Why? You know the great ads are coming, just as they do every year, and you can reap some serious savings. Finding as many coupons as you can right now will help you to get lots of free items within the next few weeks.

Which items will be at rock bottom prices? Anything you would use to make a full Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, cranberry sauce, produce, baking goods, dairy item, wine, soft drinks...you name it. All the fixings will be on sale,and with tons of coupons you can get a lot of freebies for your efforts. Belive me, this is the easiest week of the year for great bargains and he or she with the most coupons win.

It is not unusual for me to shop more than once this week in the year. I go once to get the fixings for our Thanksgiving dinner and then make another trip through the checkout on the same day just for bargains. If you ever wanted to reap the benefits of free stuff for an extra hour or two of your time, this is the week.

This is how I shop Thanksgiving week deals. I collect as many grocery coupons as I can find in the weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving ad, sort them and get really organized for the week. When I get the grocery ads for the week, I plan my trip, buying all the items for my main dinner and the week on the first trip through the store. I take my purchases to the car and load everything up. Then I make one more run through the store very quickly, just for freebies and the items that are deeply discounted. Then I head home to put everything away.

If there are additional free items to be had at another grocery chain or chains, I go there next and make two trips through the store just for these items. You really can save a lot of money this week with all the thanksgiving food sales and specials with just a little extra time and organization.

Another thing I like to do is to prepare a list of items I will need for either holiday entertaining, baking Christmas cookies, and our Christmas dinner. Thanksgivinig prices are really the lowest of the year, so plan ahead for the rest of the holidays and watch your savings grow. A lot of what you can buy during the Thanksgiving food sales is nonperishable and will keep through the rest of the holidays.

So, do yourself a favor and start collecting free grocery coupons now and you will have options for all kinds of free stuff within a few weeks!

Where do you get free grocery coupons? Coupons.com had 167 of them available for printing the this morning when I checked. They were one of the first and are still the best place to look for high face value grocery coupons. I always start here when starting a printable coupon search.

How to Use Printable Grocery Coupons for Grocery Savings

2009-09-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wished that you could use a wad of grocery coupons without hassles of printed coupons? Well, now you can both printable grocery coupons and wireless coupons for food savings have come of age.

What is a Printable Grocery Coupon?

Printable grocery coupons are both a wonderful and relatively new type of grocery coupon which is available online. You go online to a coupon website offering free, printable grocery coupons, select those you want, and print them out. Take the supermarket coupons to the store and redeem as normal. Printable coupons are available all over the internet and you can easily find a discount for any item on your shopping list.

Where Can I Get Printable Grocery Coupons?

The biggest and best site offering printable grocery coupons is coupons.com; there are always literally hundreds of grocery coupons available there every month. New coupons are added often. Even better, the offers are for high discounts, generally a dollar each or over. Head on over to coupons.com and have a look at what they offer. They will save you a lot of money every month.

What are Wireless Grocery Coupons?

Wireless grocery coupons are new generation of supermarket coupon which is even easier to use than any other form or grocery discount coupon. You go to a website offering free wireless coupons, select which ones you want, and load them either to your grocery savings card or delivered to your wireless device. Your savings are automatic at the checkout.

Where Can I get Wireless Grocery Coupons?

My favorite two sites are shortcuts.com and cellfire.com for electronic or wireless grocery discounts. You can not beat the easy use of e-grocery coupons over traditional clipped grocery coupons. They save both time and money when grocery shopping.

If you are tired of not saving as much as you could while grocery shopping then you should try the new grocery coupon formats for savings. I download all electronic or wireless grocery coupon offers just in case I end up buying something I had not planned on purchasing. Free savings works for me!

Free Frozen Food Coupons

2009-09-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

Looking for free frozen food coupons? Coupons.com has high face value fozen food coupons every month plus a whole lot more. Most of their coupons are worth a dollar or more and well worth the time it will take you to browse their extensive offerings before grocery shopping. At this writing, they currently have a total of 168 free coupons in their system. If you are looking to save money on frozen foods, coupons.com is the best place to start looking for free printable grocery discount coupons.

You can select the ones you like, and print them at home from your computer. Most offers will aslo allow you to print more than one coupon at a time, helping you to get those coveted "like" coupons we all love so much.

Check out the blue box below to see what coupons.com is currently offering. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Wireless Grocery Coupons Come of Age- More Ways to Get More for Your Food Dollars

2009-08-29T07:39:00.001-07:00

Be on the lookout for the next generation of e-coupons for grocery savings to be coming your way in the very near future. Grocery coupons have a gone wireless and are now being delivered to recession weary consumers via your cell phones, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Grocery marketers have come up with increasingly aggressive and cheaper methods of grocery coupon distribution at very low costs making their offers reach further and be of higher value to consumers than ever before.

Imar Inc., a coupon processing company, has seen the use of electronic coupons double in the last year. Be it from the economy or the easy of use e-coupons represent, consumers seem to be catching onto the savings that paperless coupons offer.

Here’s the really cool thing about paperless coupons if you happen to be a bit technologically challenged, most grocery chains offer the option to load your savings directly to your store savings card instead of your iPhone. So if perchance, you have not yet invested in the latest techie toy to get your coupons, don’t worry, you won’t get left out on the savings.

To start getting your free electronic grocery coupons, go to your favorite grocery chain’s website and register your store savings card. You will start getting offers right away

Why You Need Tons of Grocery Coupons to Save Big Money

2009-08-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wondered why you need to go to the trouble of clipping tons of grocery coupons to save at the grocery store let me share with you the reason. You need the volume to have enough coupons to maximize your savings.

Let me explain. It takes both time and effort to find those really good deals for items that are either free or about 20% of the full shelf price you would nomally pay for food. What if you could get 10 times or 20 times the milage out of your efforts?

This is where the big savings is in coupon shopping. Those fantastic deals that give you a lot of free or deeply discounted stuff every week. There is only one way to get this kind of savings, and that is to maximize your savings potential with multiple like coupons for each offer.

Where to you get multiple like coupons?

1. Multiple copies of the Sunday paper
2. Free printable coupons online
3. Free electronic grocery coupons online
2. Coupons in the mail
5. Advertising found on coupon trading boards online

All of these resources are worth your time and effort. The more coupons you can lay your hands on, the more milage you will get out of each super deal you can find. Case in point, I just "bought" 32 jars of peanut butter this last week for a whopping $1.79 when it was all said and done. What did I do with all that peanut butter? I saved half a dozen jars for my family, and donated the rest to the food bank. Total savings $92.42 on just one really good sale item. I might also add that there were 4 other sale items with double coupons which were just as lucrative last week.

Try it, you will never go back to shopping the same way agian when it is so easy to eat virtually free.

Where to Find Cat Liter Coupons Free

2009-08-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

If you have cats you know how much money you can spend on cat liter without a cat liter coupon everytime you need to buy. Here are 3 places to get free cat liter coupons whenever you need them:

1. Check the box or bag of the cat liter you are using now. More often than not there will be a coupon stuck on the package for your next purchase.

2. Check the boxes and cans of cat food you have laying around. You will usually find a cat litter coupon hiding there too.

3. Check the Sunday paper. Cat liter coupons are printed nearly every week. If you are not picky on which brand you use, then you should be able to find a coupon here on most weeks.

Finding high face value cat liter coupons is not at all difficult, you just need to know where to look.

Happy Bargain Huntig!

Can You Eat Free for a Week Using Grocery Discount Coupons?

2009-08-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

I had a shocking revelation the other day as I looked at a freezer full of free frozen dinners I "bought" over the last few weeks with a wad of grocery discount coupons. I started thinking about if I could put together a plan for how to eat well totally for free if I wanted to. Sort of a starving student meal plan on steroids if you will.

I lived on not much while I was in school and was pretty accomplished at eating cheap, but could I eat totally for free if I needed to for say a week or longer?

I reasoned, as I thought over this idea, that having a blueprint for eating without the benefit of funds would be valuable information for anyone on a super tight budget. So here is the deal, over the next month I am going to be looking to compile a list of the best and easiest ways to eat for free. Some of the ideas will utilize grocery coupons, and some may not.

I'm really looking foreward to this challenge and hoping to find lots of success to share with you all. Stay tuned for my results on how to eat for free using grocery discount coupons...and not.

Frozen Meal Coupons- Where to Get Yours Free

2009-07-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Where to get frozen meal coupons for free. How about some fast savings to go with your fast prepared meal?

I know, I know, nothing beats a home cooked meal, but sometimes you just need to fill the tank and be done with it. Time is the most precious thing we possess.

There are a number of places you can get free frozen meal coupons. Heck, use your coupons to their maximum and you may just get the meal for free too.

1. Check out the printables for free online.

2. Check out the Sunday paper, there are frozen food coupons in there every week.

3. Check out the message boards on couponing forums for trades. This is perhaps the best way I know of to get tons of frozen food coupons all at once while helping another out with what you won't use.

4. Check on the box of the frozen items in your freezer. There are coupons to be found there frequently.

5. Got to manufacturer websites and look for free offers there. You will find tons of offers on every product in their product line.

Finding free coupons is really a matter of just putting in the time, nothing tough about it. The business enviornment is really competitive with the economy still being so slow. There are tons of free frozen meal coupons to be had just for the asking.

Free Kelloggs Cereal Coupons

2009-07-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

If your family eats cereal in the mornings, you can never get your hands on too many free Kellogg's cereal coupons. The price of cereals has risen sharply these last few years and now most boxes of cold cereals are hovering around $5 at full price.

Kellogg's is putting five $5 coupons inside their cereals in specially marked packages for the summer months this year. Good savings on multiple purchases. Take these to a double coupon store and save ten bucks for your efforts on your next shopping trip.

Want to save even more? Wait until the cereal goes on sale 2/$5 then use your double coupons, your net cost will be just $.50 per box.

Easy Grocery Coupon Clipping

2009-06-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Love the savings of grocery coupons, but hate the hassle of clipping, sorting and filing cents-off offers? Why not try the easy grocery coupon clipping?

If you are like most of us, time is tight and so is money. The solution is to utilize the new food discount coupon technology to tap into big savings with just a few minutes time. There are literally hundreds of grocery coupon sites online offering free printable grocery coupons. Printables offer high face values with little effort for clipping or storing. Why? You select, print and clip only what you will use while shopping.

Another quick money saver is electronic grocery coupons. These are really fast and easy. You go select the offers you want and load the savings to your store club card. You will get your discounts at the register without any further efforts. There is nothing to cut out, store or fumble with in the store. Even better, you can not forget to bring your coupons with you while shopping. If you forget your club card, just use your phone number to access your savings.

When utilizing the new coupon technologies I generally print only they coupons I will use to save time, printer ink and paper. With electronic coupons, I select all offers and let the computer do the work at the checkout.

If you are short on both time and money try easy grocery coupon clipping for savings. you can still save money and something even more valuable, time.

6 Places to Get Free Grocery Discount Coupons

2009-06-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

Once you have clipped your grocery coupons in the Sunday paper for the week you may be wondering where else you can get free grocery discount coupons. Here are 6 great places to look for additional savings:

1. Coupons.com is by far the biggest and the best online site for grocery discount coupons. All of their coupons are free. Just select what you want and print them out for high face value offer galore! See the banner on this page for more details.

2. Smartsource are the folks that make the fliers you are used to seeing in the Sunday papers. They offer a good resource for getting multiple like coupons to print from your computer.

3. Shortcuts.com is a free service from AOL offering free electronic grocery coupons. For more information on saving with electronic grocery coupons read this article.

4. For natural and organic foods coupons, try mambosprouts.com for hundreds of money saving offers.

5. Amazon.com offers monthly electronic coupons right on their website for case packs of all your favorites. These are exceptional values and always worth a look. New coupons come out the first of each month. Hint: some items run out of stock the end of the month, shop towards the beginning of the month for best results.

6. Manufacturer websites almost always offer the latest samples and coupons for joining their email lists. Just have a look at the back of your favorite product to see who makes it and go directly to their websites.

It really is possible to find coupons for every item in your grocery cart, with huge savings for not a lot of time. You just need to know where to look to get free grocery discount coupons en masse.

Resources:

Smart Source

Short Cuts

Mambo Sprouts

Amazon

Baby Diaper Coupons- Do You Buy Diapers Without Them?

2009-06-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

As I scan down the coupons offered in this week's paper, I am not surprised to find numerous baby diaper coupon offers. Why? Every week there is at least one high face value coupon in the paper, and very oftern there are several.

Baby diapers are expensive items with high profit margins for retailers folks and they are big business. If you can get a new mom to become loyal to your brand, you have gained a customer with a need that must be filled every week without fail for 2 or 3 years. Cha-ching!

Just look at all the national brands vying for your business and willing to get your business by offering you diaper coupons for several bucks off:

Pampers, Luvs, Huggies, Drypers, Good Nights and Seventh Generation all offer regular coupons to help you save money on thier products.

My question to you is why would you every buy diapers without saving a couple of bucks a pop? Combine a high face-value coupon with a store sale and you have saved an average of 40-50% off the cost of diapering your little one's bum.

Think Traditional Grocery Coupons are the Only Way to Save? Here are 6 Ways to Save Money on Groceries Now!

2009-06-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Don’t overspend on your groceries week in and week out, fight back! If you think traditional clipped grocery coupons are the only way to save on food, think again. Here are 6 easy ways to save money on groceries right now:

1. Only shop the sales. Do only this much and get 30-50% savings with very little time or effort to you in the process.

2. Use printable grocery coupons. Printable grocery coupons beat traditional grocery coupons in two ways. You have less to sort and store, so printable coupons are a huge time saver. The face values also tend to be higher, saving you extra money too.

3. Use electronic coupons grocery coupons. Talk about fast and easy, electronic grocery coupons are the way to go. The face values are high, and you absolutely can not mess these up.

4. Shop at fruit stands and farmer’s markets to save on produce. Seriously, the cost of produce has nearly doubled in the last year. If you want to get great quality and lower prices, go local.

5. Watch the warehouse stores for savings. You need to be careful when shopping in warehouse stores and watch your unit prices. Some items are of exceptional values although many are not. I did a price check not long ago and found that my local warehouse store was not nearly as low priced as they were a year ago. Don’t get me wrong, the warehouse stores do a good job of being fairly priced everywhere. Often, though, you can get a lower price somewhere else. It pays to watch your prices.

6. Check the dollar stores for grocery deals. No kidding, a buck still buys dairy, frozen food, cheese, lunchmeat, bagels, bread, tortillas, fresh procuce, and much more at my local store. Take a look around and see what is offered in your local area, you may be surprised.

If your piggy bank needs some extra cash, don’t forget looking to your food budget to help keep some cash in your pocket. Just a few changes will have you saving again in no time, grocery coupons in hand or not.

Grocery Coupons and Philanthropy

2009-06-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

What do grocery coupons and philanthropy have to do with each other? I use piles of them to get either free or almost free food to donate to the food bank. All you need to do a good deed that will impact the lives of an entire family at once is a stack of coupons and your time.

Most people would not consider that philanthropy and grocery coupons would have a nice synergy, although they do. While I was in college we were supposed to spend several hours a week doing community service as part of our graduation requirement. Our service could be anything we wanted to do as long as we were able to document the hours and report our progress at the end of the semester. Heading a project with other volunteers was also desirable in showing your management abilities for a better grade.

I lived in a poor state at the time, where child hunger was a particular issue. Most grocery stores in my area offered double grocery coupons, so long story short, a community service project was born. I enlisted the help of several other students and we started out.

2436 coupons, $56, 110 hours of community service, and 1256 pounds of food later I knew my project was a success. My true education: you don’t need money to eat; grocery coupons can do that for you. You don’t need money to do a good deed grocery coupons can do that for you too. As for the concept of incorporating community service into my formal education, the project was a success. I am still working on my project more than fifteen years later.

Grocery Coupons and the Frugal Grocery List

2009-06-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

I just looked at the calendar and realized that Use Supermarket Coupons is going on a year old now. Wow, time certainly flies and I have had a busy year. Taking a few minutes for reflection, I took a look at my stats and was surprised to see that my top visited pages were not the ones I would have expected.

Coming in third was the post I did on brining chicken. Anyone who is trying to make basic (and cheap) whole chicken into something speical should try brining. Brining is versatile and can be done with anything from just a simple salt solution to any one of hundreds of combinations of herbs added to the brine. The result of a simple and inexpensive process; your meats come out perfectly tender and juicy every time. Get the lowdown on a brining and make your next bargain meat something to rave about.

In the second spot was another oddball article, how to ripen bananas quickly. Apparently there are a lot of green bananas floating around out there that we are impatient to eat. I know it seems we are forever getting really green bananas at the grocery store.

Now we come to my most popular post ever…the frugal grocery list. This post gets more traffic than any other I have ever written and I can understand why. If you have not yet read the original give it quick once over and then ponder this question:

Can you still use grocery coupons to maximize savings with the frugal grocery list?

The answer is really both yes and no. If you take a look at the list you will see that there are quite a few items on it that you either will generally not find coupons for or that should be purchased from the bulk bins to maximize savings. That said you can use coupons on some of the other items and should when you find them. Next week I’ll be adding to the frugal grocery shopping list.

Do Cents-Off Coupons Make Sense?

2009-06-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

I had a family member laugh me straight in the face yesterday for my complete obsession with frugal living. She blatantly pointed out that it simply is not worth her time to go through the Sunday inserts looking for “those little cents-off thingys.”

Oh really? Does it not matter to you that I am able to average 70% or more off my grocery bills by taking the time to either clip or print food discount coupons? I dragged out all my grocery receipts for the last few months just to prove a point. I tallied up the savings from my last few months and in the end my efforts had amounted to several just under a grand in savings my family. Still think cents-off coupons amount to just cents?

Think again! Cents-off grocery coupons mean hundred dollar bills in your pocket!

Cheap Healthy Meals

2009-05-30T12:29:00.001-07:00

I was asked by one of my regular readers yesterday how to make cheap healthy meals using coupons?

You see, my reader had gotten really good at buying groceries with coupons for next to nothing and loved the price. When she looked at all of the packaged and processed food stacking up in her pantry she found that her diet was not as healthy as it could have been and wondered what she could do to maximize the nutrition in her newly overhauled frugal grocery shopping efforts.

I can see the problem, and will admit that processed stuff is generally the most heavily promoted, yet decidedly not the most nutritious diet you could be eating.

Here is how to solve the problem:

1. Buy meat (if you eat it) fresh and cook by grilling, broiling, or roasting on a rack. You will lower your salt consumption, and avoid the chemicals and additives of prepared meats. Incidentally, buying fresh meat on sale is almost always the cheapest price ounce for ounce unless there is a really exceptional coupon offer around.

2. Buy fresh produce somewhere other than the grocery store. Fresh fruit stands, farmers markets, u-pick farms and dollar stores that carry produce are usually a better deal anyway.

3. Buy bakery items either at the dollar store or local bakery outlet. Just Google "Orowheat bakery outlet" and your location to find the nearest outlet store.

4. Use coupons for healthier versions of prepared foods. Look for lower salt, sugar and fat options on the grocery store shelves.

5. Watch the waste. Get used to putting the last little bit in the freezer to avoid spoilage. Waste can escalate your food bills by as much as 20% every month.

With a little attention to detail, you can easily combine frugal grocery shopping with eating an extremely healthy diet. The two can and do go together, it just takes knowing where to get the lowest prices on the healthiest food options. Using supermarket coupons plays a large role in the process of learning to make cheap healthy meals while grocery shopping cheap.

Organic Grocery Coupons

2009-05-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that organic foods are both healthy and pricey without organic food coupons.

If you ever thought that skipping the organic foods might make your budget a litte easier to stomach, I urge you to watch this hillarious video and give organic foods a little more thought.

Need discounts on organic foods? Check here for organic food coupons.

Grocery Coupons Offer a Source of Free Food

2009-05-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Can you really use grocery coupons to get food for free on a regular basis? I had someone email me that question just a few days ago. Like so many others, both she and her spouse have both been laid off from their jobs of 10 years at the same time and are desperate for some answers on how to reduce grocery spending.

The short answer is yes, free food and products are the norm when using grocery coupons both on a regular basis and extensively. Some weeks are better than other when it comes to available free food items, but you can usually find several or more per week. Not to mention several others that you can get for just pennies.

To maximize the savings when you find a freebie for the week you will need to be willing to stockpile free product. I don’t mean one item or two… think 10, 20 or 30 free items when you have the opportunity.

Who cares if you will be eating peanut butter forever if every jar you open for the next year was a freebie? If you are broke, free is the best price you can hope for. Even if you are not broke, I’ll take free any day.

What You Will Need

1. Time. Time to clip coupons, sort through the sales fliers and make multiple trips to the store in order to stockpile this much product. Most stores only allow 3 like coupons, so you’ll need to make several trips to get this much product. I usually go through the self check out once, and the regular check out once per day.

2. Coupons, lots of like coupons. Get these by printing from an online coupon site, extra Sunday papers or using a coupon clipping service. 1 coupon for every item you wish to purchase. Having enough coupons are critical.

3. Access to a Double Coupon Store. Double coupon stores make getting a good deal or freebie a lot easier.

4. Patience. It does take patience to be willing to shop more than once a week. I factor in the cost of gas and my time to be sure that I’m getting a good return for both. If the sales are really good on a certain week, I’m always willing to make an extra trip or two, or three.

5. Storage Space. Store canned goods in a cool and dry place. I also use a sharpie to write the date purchased on the labels. It makes rotation and spotting really old items easier in the long run.

Is stockpiling free food a viable strategy? I do it all the time and it saves a small fortune on food. I tend to work in items I have more of into our menus naturally I have been doing this so long.

You can save many thousands of dollars a year if you use multiple like grocery coupons to help you find free food.

Grocery Coupons Online- the Real Places to Find the Best

2009-05-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered where all the really good grocery coupons online can be found? You know, the high face value, save a lot at once coupons?

There are really only a few places to look and get these money savers.

1. Go straight to the manufacturer site. This can be time consuming, but you can not argue with the savings.

2. Smart Source. These are the same folks that bring you some of the Sunday coupon inserts every week. Smart Source also makes their coupons available for printing online. I use them to get free duplicates on the ones I need extras of.

3. Coupons.com is my favorite. The box directly after this post will lead you to some fantastic deals.

4. Amazon Grocery Coupon Codes. Of all the online grocery saving resources, Amazon has the best clearance sales and promotions. When the have products go on sale they reduce the price, offer free shipping, and then usually offer a huge 40% discount on top of that. Amazon grocery is a best kept secret for saving. Check the Amazon Grocery Specials Page often, you will find something new almost every time you visit.

The reality is that regardless of what kind of grocery coupons online you are looking for online, knowing where to find them quickly and easily will save you a lot of time every week.

Amazon Grocery Coupon Codes Deal Alert: Yummy Savings this Month!

2009-05-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! There are some fantastic savings to be had this month at with Amazon Grocery coupon codes.

A Huge Kraft Products case sale is going on right now. Big savings on cases of Starbucks coffee, cereals, macaroini and cheese and hundreds of tother Kraft products. Free Shipping included too. While you are there have a look at the Kraft 2/$25 Sale list, good deals here as well.

If you are trying to eat healthier, then 50 % off Organic Foods Sale has 153 items currently reduced for savings 0f 50% off or more.

There are still more deals to be found on Grocery Gold Box specials.

Whatever you are looking for, Amazon has better than thier usually good deals in their grocery department this month. The coupon codes and purchase requirements are at the top of the page. Just follow any link to learn more.

Where to Find Grocery Supermarket Coupons

2009-05-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Grocery supermarket coupons are easy to find and quite often free. There are literally thousands of offers available to help you save money everyday.

With new technologies coupon distribution has become a lot less expensive in recent years, allowing food manufacturers to give higher face value coupons to consumers.

Why is this important? The higher the face value the more you will save on your purchase. High face-value coupons make your savings add up faster.

14 Places to Find High Face Value Grocery Coupons

1. In the Sunday Food Inserts. Your Sunday paper is still the best place for clipable grocery coupons. I usually preview the coupons in the paper delivered to my home and then buy an extra (or more) if the coupons are good for the week.

2. The Wednesday Food Section of the Paper. The Wednesday food section has some very high face value coupons and should not be overlooked. Again I preview my paper at home and run to the gas station at the corner if the coupons are good enough to warrant the trip.

3. In Magazines. Food coupons are still regularly printed in magazines, especially women oriented publications and parenting themed periodicals.

4. Snail Mail Coupon Packs. Yes, companies like Val-Pak and Pennysaver still get mailed to your house. You’ll need to dig through the offers, but some food coupons are exceptional.

5. Grocery Shopping Surveys Mailed to Your Home. I get these from time to time and they actually do send you the coupons when you fill out and mail in their surveys. It’s worth the effort, the last bunch I got were worth a dollar or more each.

6. Automatic Shelf Dispensers. Be sure to look for the little red coupon printers on the shelves in front of the products. While you can not double these offers, money back is money back.

7. In the Grocery Store Fliers. The grocery chains have gotten really good lately at putting bonus coupons in their weekly fliers. There are almost always coupons there every week and some are worth the effort to clip and then some.

8. In the Product Packages. Check the inside of boxes for either printed coupons or manufacturer coupons printed on the inside of the boxes.

9. On Product Packages. Look for instant coupons stuck on the products or hung on a neck hanger on bottles.

10. Online. Coupon websites are everywhere and offer printable coupons for groceries and other online stores.

11. Electronic Coupon Websites. These are all the rage right now and certainly make shopping easier. Learn more about electronic grocery coupons.

12. Manufacturer Websites. Manufacturer sites themselves often offer coupon if you either take their surveys or sign up for their mailing lists. There are literally thousands of offers so be sure to check the maker of your favorite brands.

13. Email. Really, food manufacturers actually do email offers regularly. Don’t miss the opportunity to save.

14. Ebay Coupon Clipping Services. Looking for something special, or just a higher face value offer? Get coupons for really cheap. Seriously, spend pennies and save dollars. Whatever coupons you need, you will be sure to find here.

Get your coupons totally free, or spend a dollar to save ten, supermarket coupons are the way to go to beat the rapid inflation our economy is currently experiencing.

Free Printable Grocery Coupons

2009-04-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know why printable grocery store coupons are my favorite way to save money at the grocery store? They work and save a lot of money without much effort at all!

Did you ever consider how the most frugal among us can buy their food for just a few dollars, rather than hundreds? I am about to tell you how they do it: they use coupons on everything in their shopping carts and stock up when the prices are very low.

Let me explain. In order to get the huge discounts the super shoppers do week in and week out, you need to have a ton of coupons at your disposal. Most preferably free coupons, free printable grocery coupons or clipped coupons, but sometimes grocery coupons purchased through a coupon clipping service for just pennies.

Having a lot of multiple coupons will allow you to buy many of the same items when you can find an exceptional deal. In order to do this efficiently, multiple like coupons are the way to go. When you find a freebie it is time to stock up. Don't mess around with the savings on one or two items, go for a dozen or more at a time.

How do printable grocery store coupons save you money? Printable grocery store coupons do not cost anything. Free is always a good price when trying to save. Printable grocery store coupons can usually be printed several at a time everyday, this helps you get those coveted multiple coupons for only your time. Some sites have limits on some offers, but you can always print more than one at a time. You will save a lot of time by only printing what you will need; but if you think you will use the coupon print away. Free is good, easy is better, but HUGE savings is the best!

Printable grocery store discount coupons are simple to use, worth more than traditional coupons, and offer around a dollar per item savings on average. When you are looking for savings, printable grocery coupons are a versitile tool in your money saving tool box.

Why are printable grocery store coupons so great? They save tons of money for cash strapped consumers.

where to get free printable grocery coupons

How to get free food using free printable grocery coupons
If the item is nonperishable, don't be shy, "buy" as much as you can.

Free Food Ideas for Grocery Savings

2009-04-23T10:34:00.001-07:00

Why should everyone take a minute to learn about free food ideas for grocery savings? Free food ideas are always good information to have. Cheap meals might be good, but you just can not beat free. Besides the free is the best price wisdom, you just never know when you may need to eat either a really cheap or free meal.

I awoke to the latest headlines on the economy this morning in our local paper, "global recession could be responsible for another 10.1 million job losses, US jobless rate still at 6.1 million."

10 million more jobs could still possibly be lost? The way the article was written, it was a bit ambiguous as to if the 10.1 million job projection is for the world economy or the US alone, although the reality of the statement got me thinking WHAT IF. What if it happens to my family or somebody close to me.

With the sobering thought that the reality of pay cuts, hour reductions, or outright layoffs as a possibility for any of us I began to think about what could be done. The best solution is to eat free if possible, since your grocery bill is the largest of your variable expenses.

Drastic times call for drastic measures right?

6 Free Food Ideas for Reducing Grocery Expenses

1. Shop in your own cupboards and pantry. Your stockpiles are crucial when you find yourself short of cash. Buy it ahead, buy it with coupons and keep a good variety of staples on hand just in case. It it worth noting that stockpiling makes good sense for financial self defense in our economy in case of pay cuts or layoffs, while the strategy also protects you from price increases and inflation. Nobody is saying it, but I track food prices closely. Prices on food are still rising on the whole, while the price of loss leaders and sale items seems to be falling. Buy it on sale or do not buy it at all.

2. Use coupons combined with sale prices to get free items. There is rarely a better price than free. Buy a lot when you find a good deal and keep those cupboards full. Use online resources to find free coupons en masse, and buy multiples of sale items. Get the full strategy for using coupon clipping services for savings here. This strategy works, and works really, really well. I shop this way all the time and it nets me freebies consistently.

3. Use your leftovers. Leftovers are already paid for, so don't waste them and get a free meal. No kidding, use it all and watch the savings stack up.

4. Grow it yourself. If you have a green thumb, or even if you don't, add a container garden or edible landscaping to your home and save on the veggies and fruits you grow. You water your landscaping anyway, so you may as well get something for the money you are already spending.

5. Find a friend with garden surplus. Trade them help in the garden for a few hours for their excess of fresh fruit and vegetables. You will be surprised at how much you can save by not paying for produce. I know a few people personally that do this and never buy produce anymore.

6. Eat with family or friends. It is always nice to be able to bum a meal now and again. Again, I know someone who lost their job recently and has managed to have 2 full months of meals just by eating regularly with their very large network of friends and eating what they already had on hand.

Finding free food ideas for grocery savings is not difficult, it only requires a little creativity.

Free Online Grocery Coupons

2009-04-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

Free online grocery coupons are money savers, yes big money savers!

One thing is for certain, the more free online grocery coupons you can find, the more money you will save at the grocery store.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Using grocery discount coupons to save money on your food bill is the fastest way to save a small fortune every month.

The strategy for saving hundreds of dollars a month on food is really, really simple, no rocket science here folks. Find and use as many coupons as you can every month and you will get a lot more for your money than you would without using cents off coupons.

Here are the rules in a nutshell for my newer readers:

1. Find and use a coupon for every item in your shopping cart.

2. Find multiple coupons for every sale item you plan to buy.

3. Plan to use your double coupons at double coupons stores or on triple coupons days.
Always buy multiple “like” items with your multiple coupons when the prices are either very low or free. Stock up!

4. Look for buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) offers. BOGOS will often yield free products when combined with coupons. Depending on the store, you can always use one coupon on the full priced item. Some stores will also let you use a coupon on the free item.

5. Plan your shopping trip, and stick to your list.

6. Shop when the store is less busy. Early mornings are best because the store is less crowded and more likely to be well stocked than later in the evening.

7. Stay organized. Pull the coupons you will definitely use ahead of your shopping trip and paperclip them to your shopping list.

8. Always buy only on sale and with a double or triple coupon.

9. If the price is not at least 50% or more off full shelf price, then pass.

Learn the basics and you will be saving 70% or more on your shopping bill in no time flat. There really is nothing difficult about learning to save this much money every week, you just need a lot of coupons to make it happen. Multiple, high face value grocery coupons are the secret to saving a lot of money.

Where to get your coupons:

The Sunday paper is a good place to start, the food inserts are full of coupons. Next, take your search online, there are literally thousands of free printable online grocery coupons floating around in cyberspace. Print several of each of the offers you want and add them to your coupon stash. Lastly, don’t forget the new ecoupon sites. These sites are really cool and allow you to load the savings directly to your store club card before you grocery shop. Once you get to the checkout and swipe your card, the amount of the coupon will automatically come off your grocery bill. Ecoupons are quick and hassle free savings.

If all of the coupons above are not enough, or if I want more multiples of high face value coupons for certain items, use a coupon clipping service to supplement your existing coupons. For pennies, I can save time and hassle while still getting a ton of savings on selected items. Really though, the printable coupons found online offer a huge variety of grocery coupons for free, so check there first, then go on to the clipping service offers.

Follow these few rules and you will save money, no doubt about it. Free online grocery coupons are a good way to do just that.

Buy Discount Coffee Online

2009-04-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Why should you buy discount coffee online? Because it's cheap, really, really cheap.

Buying discount coffee online does not mean just the run of the mill grocery store brands, although you can find savings on those as well. You may not know it, but you can almost always find gourmet and specialty blends online for less than half of the full price you would find in bricks and mortar retail stores.

How come?

Online retailers have the edge. They routinely sell either at, or slightly above wholesale and consistently beat out the store based local retailers due to lower overhead. With low overhead online retailers offer great savings, good service, free or low cost shipping, and make up the difference in volume undercutting the price of your local store.

What's the catch?

There isn't one really. You just need to buy in large enough volume to get the discount on the special offer, and free shipping on a minimum purchase to make the deal work. Don't let bulk purchases scare you. In this case bulk is not really that much. Coffee lasts a long time in the fridge, especially if you buy whole beans rather than ground, so you do not need to worry about using all the coffee.

Here's another shopping tip:

In addition to discount coffee, you can buy many shelf stable products for deep discounts online. The savings can be spectacular on some sales and special offers. As always, do the math to be sure you are getting a good deal.

Two good resources for buying coffee online:

Save $20 on Starbucks Gourmet Coffee this works out to (3) double packs for $39 including free shipping, offer good through April 30, 2009.

If you are looking for other brands besides Starbucks, try the discount coffee page for all other brands at big savings of 50-70% off.

The long and the short of it...don't go to a cheaper brand you would enjoy less if you love good coffee. Shop smarter, and buy discount coffee online.

Half Price Sale Plus Grocery Coupons Means Free!

2009-04-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a great deal alert for all of you starting first thing tomorrow morning when Easter candy is on half price sale or clearanced. Those of you lucky enough to be sitting on Easter candy coupons will be able to get lots of freebies due to the markdowns starting first thing in the morning. Just use your double coupons with the clearance price and take home a free, or several bags of candy.

Traditionally holiday items are put "on sale" the week just prior to the holidays, and discount grocery coupons are dropped about two weeks before the sales begin to stimulate sales for the holiay.

If you save your coupons for the day just after the holiday, then you can take your pick of what is left for free or very close to it.

You can use this same savings strategy at Easter, Halloween and around Christmas.

Need a freebie? Get some extra coupons around the holiday, and use them as soon as the store opens the day after the holiday. The selection may not always be the best, but the price is sure right when you combine half price clearance sales with double grocery coupons.

Deal Alert: April Coupons.com Printable Coupons Just Added!

2009-04-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

Wow! Coupons.com has really outdone themselves this month with some fantastic high face value coupons for the month.

There are several $5 off coupons for Hasbro games (start thinking about Birthday and Christmas presents at this price!), Dove soap, Curves products, Progresso products and much more.

Great selection this month and all are high dollar amounts. To view the entire selection, hit the "view all coupons" at the top of the Coupons.com ad and take a look.

Happy Savings!

How to Shop a No Frills Grocery Store for Savings

2009-04-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

If you want to cut your grocery expenses in a hurry, try a no frills grocery store for savings.

What is a no frills grocery store?

There is a discounted chain of supermarkets by the same name, but for the sake of this article, we are referring mainly to the to deep discount supermarket chains. Generally, deep discount supermarkets offer a warehouse type environment without the giant packages.

What is shopping in a no frills grocery store like?

You can expect huge, well organized stores with full service bakeries, meat departments, produce and dairy departments. Services are pretty much the same as any other grocery store.

What is the difference between a regular supermarket and no frills store then?

Basically, the savings of 30% or more from the full shelf prices in your regular supermarket comes from store policies designed to save labor. You can expect the shelves to be neatly stocked with cases that have been cut open and paced on the shelves rather than products on the shelf itself, and you will most likely be expected to bag your own groceries at the checkout. Other than that, it is pretty much business as usual. Not much of a concession for the savings, and great saving it is.

Do no frills supermarkets still take coupons?

Most do, although a few do not. Check the store policies before you go. I will give you the heads up that deep discount no frills grocers do not double and triple coupons.

Is it crowded, will I wait a long time at the checkout?

The prices are low and a good value, so yes the stores do tend to be crowded with the worst crowds on the weekends. Shop at off hours and your shopping experience will be less hectic.

How about quality, are the products as good for the money?

Amazingly, the several stores I shop the most often, yes. I have found that the store brands are an exceptional value, and the national brands are well priced.

How do I get my best deal?

I use the same strategies you would use in a regular supermarket. I take a ton of coupons and use them even at the face values. Store sales are a great deal at discount grocery chains…especially on produce, meat and dairy items. Additionally, buy in bulk when the price is right, buy produce in season, and do not be afraid to try the store brands.

No frills grocery stores are a great way to save over 50% off your grocery bills without a lot of effort. Shop the sales, use coupons for extra savings and get big discount just for bagging your own groceries.

Dollar Meals: How to Eat Healthy for a Buck!

2009-03-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Who says you can not eat healthy for a dollar? With dollar meals you can do just that.

I have had many people say "I have my cheap ingredients and coupon deals, now what do I do with them?" How true it is that using supermarket coupons is only one part of the equation for feeding your family well for cheap.

I love resources like Big Oven to look for new ideas for cheap and healthy meals. Big Oven is a data base where you can plug in the ingredients you have on hand and up will pop a whole list of recipes for you to try. It makes both inexperience and the occasional lack of creativity no problem for finding something delicious for dinner for a very frugal price.

Here are a few other ideas to get you started.

Breakfasts
Breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day to cook. You can easily cook up any meal with eggs, toast and coffee for around a buck per person if you are watching out for specials when you shop. The key is getting your ingredients for cheap at the store.

You may like: homemade muffins, quiche, french toast, homemade waffles, homemade pancakes, oatmeal and cornbread. Cold cereals and milk will easily fall into this price range if purchased with coupons and on sale.

Lunch and Dinner
Lunch and dinner is a little tougher to come up with a bargain, but still very doable.

You may like: homemade pizza, soups, stews, chili, any kind on sale meat marinated and on the grill, quiche, homemade stir fry,tacos, meatloaf and meatballs, main dish salads.

The key with heavier lunch and dinner menus is to keep the cost of the proteins down to a reasonable level and then fill in with lots of homegrown or sale priced produce and/or grains or pastas. Your choices get broader the better your shopping and bargain hunting skills become.

Additional Resources For Dollar Meals:
Dollar Store Food and Gourmet Meals

Cheap Meal Ideas for Breakfast

Cheap Meal Ideas: The Best Meatballs and Meatloaf

What Makes a Recipe Cheap?

The Advantages of Grocery Shopping Online

2009-03-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

It really should not surprise you that online grocery shopping has gained in popularity over the last few years.

Why? Here are 8 good reasons that people love to grocery shop online:

1. No wasted time. No travel time to the grocery store, driving around waiting for a parking place, waiting in line at the checkout, loading your groceries in your car and driving back home.

2. No more going out to shop in bad weather. Yep, bad weather complicates the process still further. Heat, and rain and can make a not fun task still more unpleasant and add time to your shopping trip.

3. Your groceries come to your door, you don’t go to them. This is one huge advantage that explains why people prefer to shop online and is the most often sited reason for doing so. Gone are the days of high delivery charges, most online grocers offer free delivery service. You save time, frustration and gas when your groceries come to you.

4. You are less likely to buy things that are not on your shopping list. A lot of consumers have difficulty with impulse buying. If you are one of them, you will not be subjected to endless displays tempting you to buy more than you had planned.

5. Shop whenever you have time. No need to worry about busy schedules anymore. Online grocery shopping allows you to shop 24/7 and 365 days a year when you have the time. Shop whenever and wherever you feel like it, then schedule delivery at your convenience.

6. Online grocery is easier than fighting the crowds. You can take your time shopping and looking for bargains rather than working your way up and down the grocery aisles. You will not need to navigate crowded aisles, pallets of product being stocked, and have your tired and hungry kids begging you for candy just before dinner. A much less stressful and relaxing experience all the way around.

7. Online grocers are set up so that your favorites are in a handy list. Once you have used the system for a while you can select your staples quickly and easily from one list. I love this feature, it is a definite bonus. Some online grocers even have the ability to let you place a standing order.

8. You can still use your coupons. This will vary from store to store, but some allow you to use your grocery coupons. In addition, online grocers have to offer discounts in order to keep their market share and be competitive with bricks and mortar businesses. Look for additional electronic grocery coupons when placing your order with them. These savings can really add up and are often a good inducement for trying their services.

People really do like to grocery shop online. The savings are good from a financial standpoint. The time savings is still better. But the best reason to shop online? The biggest advantages in grocery shopping online are the time savings, and ease of shopping.

10 Ways to Save $100 at the Grocery Store this Month!

2009-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of spending a fortune on groceries? Really you should know that you can easily save $100 on food within the next month with mastering only a few savings tips:

1. Get a store loyalty card. Most of the promotions offered in major grocery chains are only available at the lower price to club members.

2. Buy only what is on sale. It is just that simple to save. Grocery store sales are generally in the 25-50% range. Buy only what is on sale and reduce your bill by up to 50%.

3. Study the sales flier before you go. Take the time to figure out what is really on sale and which items are at regular price or above. Usually you will find the weeks loss-leaders either on the front or back pages of the flier, so look there first for the best deals.

4. Use supermarket coupons. Clip and use grocery coupons on every shopping trip. You guessed it, discount food coupons are absolutely the fastest way to save on the products you buy the most often. Clip and save, then clip some more.

5. Have a coupon for every item in your shopping cart. Coupons save money, the more discounts the better. Do the math to be sure you are getting a good deal when using a coupon by comparing unit prices. Most often you will find that the price is right.

6. Use your coupons at a double or triple coupon store. Prices at double coupon stores are generally only a bit higher than in discount grocery stores. When shopping with a large number of coupons, hit the double coupon store where your savings will be the greatest. Of course this strategy assumes that you have a coupon for nearly every item in your shopping cart to compensate for the slightly increased prices. If not, go on to tip #7.

7. If the cheapest grocery store in town does not double coupons, shop there for everything besides your coupon purchases. No doubt about it, shopping in more than one grocery store for sale items is the best way to widen your choices and still get the discounted sale price. If you are not using double coupons then hit the cheaper store. It's worth the savings to shop in more than on store when sales are good and time permits.

8. Maximize savings by combining double or triple coupons with store sales. This is where the savings are the best. Quite often you will find free items when using this strategy.

9. Max out purchases when items are free or close to it. When you find a free item stock up. Free is good!

10. Look for markdowns when shopping, especially in the bakery and meat departments. I have found London broil for $1.00 a pound, lunch meat at $1.00 and bakery bagels for $1.00 for 8. Markdowns can save you a fortune. Either use short dated items right away or freeze as soon as you get home to avoid spoilage.

If you start using the 10 money saving strategies above I am absolutely certain that you will save much more than $100 in the next month. There are easily several hundred dollars a month savings in just the first two tips alone. That said savings strategies are individual preferences. What works for me will not necessarily work for you, hence the 10 tips for saving $100 on groceries next month. Pick and choose which strategies will work best for you, then get saving!

10 for 10 Grocery Sales: When NOT to Buy!

2009-03-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we talked about what a good deal 10 for $10 grocery sales are. It is true that 10 for 10 grocery promotions are USUALLY a good deal. The more I thought on yesterday's post, the more I realized that I had been a bit remiss in telling the whole story.

In truth, there are a few situations that your may want to pass on the 10 for 10 grocery sales that are becoming the norm lately. Let’s look at those reasons today:

1. When the deal is not a deal. We have all seen sales where the prices are anything but a bargain. 10 for 10 sales are no different, sometimes the prices are a value, sometimes not. Once in a very great while you will find the odd product or two that is priced either at or above regular retail pricing. Unless you have a double coupon, you may want to pass.

2. You already have a full pantry. Yes, it is true. You may have become such a savvy shopper that you already have a pantry full of bargains at home. If you do, then pass, waste will escalate spending far faster than either poor shopping skills or running out of bargains before the next sale.

3. You have never tried the product before.If you are unsure of the quality of the product offered, then pass. Do a taste test to check both flavor and quality before stocking up. Again, sales and bargains are great; however waste will torpedo your best intentions for scaling back expenses.

4. You will not use the product. Yeah, the item is on sale and the price is right, but if you won’t use it, don’t buy it!

As you can see from the above, the concerns are not many. If the price is right and you will use the item without waste then go for it! If you already have enough on hand, the price is too high or you are not sure of the quality of the product then even the 10 for $10 grocery sales and promotions can be a bad buy.

10 for $10 Grocery Sales- How to Get an Even Better Deal

2009-03-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Grocery marketers have been using 10 for $10 grocery sales to push volume for years, but are they a good deal.

Yes, they almost always are. Most of you know that I love the dollar store, well, 10 for $10 sales grocery sales are right in line with my grocery shopping philosophy but are often a better deal than dollar store groceries. Incidentally, 10 for $10 grocery sales will usually get you either free or next to free groceries with a double coupon and there is no need to limit yourself to one coupon per week so stock up when you can.

Stock your pantry for free, that is a price that is absolutely hard to resist for anyone. Free groceries and free food always work for me. How about you?

Here’s how to get free food from the 10 fer $10 sales:

1. Scan the circulars looking for deals as soon as you get the fliers.

2. Go to an online coupon clipping service and buy the coupons you need and order right away. If you order on Monday, you should have the coupons by Friday at the latest so you can go shopping while the sale is still on.

3.Match up your coupons with sale items to get free groceries. Either find your coupons online in printable format or buy them from a clipping service, you need exact coupons to make this strategy work.

4. Buy as many free items on one shopping trip as you can. Some stores limit how many "like" coupons you can use on one trip so ask ahead.

5. Make additional trips to buy more free items if you have the time. Limits generally are per trip, but consult the ad for limitations and restrictions.

That’s it, just a few steps and you will literally fill your pantry with free goodies.
Here is the best part, grocery chains run this type of sale about every week or two with different items, so there is always a lot of free food to be had just for the asking. Free or just a few pennies per item, the price is definitely right! I would rather spend cents than full price any day of the week.

When searching your weekly grocery flier for bargains, there is one thing that a 10 for $10 grocery sale should scram at you…DEAL!

Where to Buy Cheap Groceries Online

2009-03-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Would you like to know where to buy groceries cheap online? I thought so, a good deal is just plain hard to beat.

With the economy tight all businesses are offering some stellar bargains in on just about everything you can imagine and then some. The grocery industry is no different, and there are some truly exceptional deals to be found.

In a nutshell, online businesses delivering groceries to your home are no different than any other business. They are fighting for survival in lean economic times too, and are practically begging for your business.

Here is the thing, if you have money to spend, take advantage of some of the really great incentives online supermarkets are offering for you to try out their services. For the sake of keeping this list as accurate as possible, surf on over to the websites listed and the latest offers are posted on their home pages. Deals change all the time, so there is always something new to see.

Amazon Grocery offers fantastic savings on monthly specials, discontinued items and their subscribe and saveservice. Most items come with free Supersaver shipping and fast delivery. If you have not tried Amazon Grocery, you should. I am a hardcore tightwad and some of their specials are truly a good value for your grocery dollars. Best deals: health and beauty, nutrition bars, discontinued item sales, coffee, tea and manager’s specials. Also check out their extensive specialty and gourmet food selections.

Ebay offers good savings on specialty items from gourmet coffee, tea, wine, chocolate truffles, and shelf stable foods. You never know what you are going to find at Ebay, but you can bet the price is ALWAYS a beyond cheap. I recently found free range organic pasteurized chickens and turkeys, buffalo meat, buffalo burgers, turkey jerky and a whole host of food manufacturers using Ebay to sell direct to the public at discounted rates. There are some deeply discounted food products to be had here, so don’t count Ebay out! Best Deals: Just about everything is fairly priced if not downright cheap!

Additionally, did you know that most local grocery chains now offer shopping and grocery delivery services at low prices? In my local area, Vons will deliver any $150 order starting at $6.95 and up. There are many other large grocery chains that offer similar services and the price of delivery services has dropped steadily the last few years. One big drawback is that most grocery chains offering delivery
will not allow you to use grocery coupons, so you are limited to reducing your grocery bill buy what is actually on special for the week. Still, if you are really busy, grocery shopping and home grocery delivery services are a lot less expensive than eating out.

I found another service, that I admit I have not tried, which will allow you to use grocery coupons with your order called wegoshop.com. It is my understanding that they will come pick up your coupons for an additional fee before shopping, if the franchisee in your area offers the service. This may be an option for those of you who are heavy coupon shoppers like me, but find themselves pressed for time once in a while.

I was surprised as I looked into online grocery shopping this last week out of necessity how many bargains there were online. Online grocery shopping services with home delivery have really come a long way in the last few years and are no longer as expensive as they once were. I can see the advantages, especially with all the current discounts floating around to try out a few of the services I had previously not considered. Although I have used both Amazon and Ebay extensively, I'd never had a local grocer deliver to my home, and I am more than willing to give wegoshop.com a try since they will take coupons.

Where should you go to buy cheap groceries online? Surf around and take your pick, there are a lot of discounts that make it worth your time to try a few services out.

How to Cook Cheap: The Frugal Grocery List

2009-03-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Wow! I am surprised at the number of questions I get asking for more information on how to cook cheap, but more specifically people really are want me to dish on what items should be on a frugal grocery shopping list.

No doubt, based on the emails I keep getting, most people are feeling the pinch of the ever deepening recession. There seems to be one common theme, I need to get more for my grocery dollars because food is one of the few places I can save money in my budget.

Here it goes, the frugal grocery shopping list, and these items are in no particular order.

Items purchased from the bulk bins are labeled (BB).

spaghetti and pastas
rice
beans- (BB)
oatmeal- (BB)
cornmeal- (BB)
canned tuna
canned salmon
canned chicken
peanut butter
jelly
whole chickens
sale meats- most are 40-50% off on sale
canned tomatoes
canned soups
dollar store produce
sale produce- generally 10 pounds for $10 or less, but loss-leaders are a better buy.
potatoes
onions
carrots
yogurt
eggs
cheese- when $2 per pound or less.
cold cereals- when on sale and with a double coupon at $1.25 a box or less.
spices- (BB) is the least expensive, the dollar store is second best.

Notice what is on the frugal grocery shopping list. A large number of the items listed are shelf stable and do not spoil. Keep starches like baking staples (flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda) and salt on hand. You can always make pancakes, waffles, and muffins if you run out of things to eat for breakfasts.

Canned goods also will not spoil easily and offer some variety in your diet when money gets tight. Canned soups can be used for the sauce in a casserole, canned meats make for a good sandwich if you run out of lunch meat, and can also be used in a quick soup or stew.

Adding some long lasting vegetables like potatoes, carrots and onions will give you versatility when making soup, casseroles or main dishes. They can also be used as vegetables for side dishes.

Always buy meat and dairy products on sale, and use double coupons where you can. These items can be a good value for the money when the price is right, and expensive when not purchased correctly.

Eggs are especially versatile, so keep them on hand and use them often. If you are worried about fat and cholesterol, you can use 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg to substitute for every 2 eggs in a recipe. Dropping 2 egg yolks gives a mixture very similar to egg beaters for about half the price.

I'll be adding to official how to cook cheap frugal grocery list in the coming weeks, but the items listed here are a good start.

How to Cook Cheap

2009-03-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of people ask me at one time or another how to cook cheap. They always want to know if there is a really easy method for doing so.

You are kidding right?

I've even had people tell me that the dollar menu at the local fast food joint is cheaper than shopping for and buying groceries with supermarket coupons, cooking and eating at home. Well, I'll grant you that eating out is a time saver but not usually a good value for the money. Granted, I will concede the point that the dollar menu, IF you are going to eat out, is not the worst choice financially. I'll let you make the call on the health risks of fast food yourself.

Exactly what do you need to do to eat cheap?

1. Plan ahead, be sure you get a low price on your ingredients. Cheap meals start with cheap ingredients. Cheap does not necessarily mean of low quality, just low priced.

2. Use fewer ingredients. Simple dishes, with 3-4 ingredients or less naturally cost less. The fewer items to buy the less money you will spend while grocery shopping.

3. Use lots of produce and grains, but less meat. Meat and proteins are the most expensive of the items on your shopping list. The less you use the lower the cost of the finished dish.

4. Plan meals around the sales. Again, eat what is on sale and cheap if you want you meals to cost less. Grocery marketers generally feature seasonal product in their sales flyers. Buying in season will almost always save you a good percentage off your grocery bill.

5. Cook from your pantry and freezer. It's a fair guess that if you don't go to the store then you will have more money in your wallet at the end of the week. Take advantages of sales to stock the pantry and freezer to the brim when the price is right and then cook from your reserves.

6. Be creative. A little creativity with substitutions can go a long, long way. Try something new, you may like it and learn a new cheap trick in the process.

You don't need to get all that hung up on what is the right way to cook cheap, or how to cook cheap. Learning to stretch your resources is an ongoing process. I have been at this a long, long time and I'm still learnning every day. The trick is to keep learning and trying new strategies as you find them.

Just let the creativity flow and ask yourself how can I cook cheap... or shall I say cheaper today than yesterday?

Free Printable Grocery Coupons

2009-03-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

Did you know that free printable grocery coupons save you big money on your grocery bills and are available to print online? Yes, I said free for the asking. All you need to do to start saving big money every week at the grocery store is to visit online couponing sites, select what you want and print. The whole process takes about 5 minutes at most.

Take a look at the Coupons.com widget in the left sidebar to see what I mean. These coupons are real money savers with high face values, usually around a buck each. You don't need to use many at once to see the savings really start to add up. Of course, the more you use the more you will save.

The free printable grocery coupons are no different than regular coupons you clip from the Sunday paper, they are just a lot more efficient to use. Some of the coupon sites offering free printable grocery coupons have placed print-controls to limit abuse and new protection technologies in place to avoid coupon fraud, but you can usually still print several duplicates at once.

People seem to like the technology and the process is a lot easier on the environment than printing and distributing coupons the old way. Who wants to waste reams of paper and gallons of ink if you don’t need to?

Why have printable grocery coupon getting to be so popular lately? The cost of distribution for food manufacturers is a lot cheaper than the old way of distributing cents-off offers and mail in rebates. The reduced price of distribution allows room in advertising budgets for higher face value coupons. More savings is a definite advantage for consumers. The more money you can save easily the better.

In recent years grocery coupons have been both a helpful in reducing grocery costs for consumers and a problem for retailers due to increasing coupon fraud. Finding a balance has finally been achieved with the advent of free printable grocery couponing. Food companies can limit the number of coupons printed easily to avoid coupon fraud, while increasing the amount of the offers for consumer. Online printable coupons are winning solution for everyone because they are cost efficient all then way around. Food manufactuers save, so we save.

Free printable grocery coupons make saving a lot quicker and easier than ever before.

4 Simple Grocery Shopping Secrets

2009-03-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of watching the price of food go up and up? The experts may be saying that grocery prices are relatively steady, but anyone who shops knows otherwise. The economy is still sliding daily and most of us just want to know that our lifestyle is secure. How to accomplish this task is as seemingly monumental as the answer is simple…spend less and save more. With your grocery bill being one of the very few expenses that is not fixed in your budget, trimming what you spend on groceries is likely to free up some cash for you to save.

Here are 4 simple budget trimming grocery shopping strategies you may not have thought of:

1. Shop around. Experts will tell you to write down the prices of local retailers to learn where the cheapest price in town is for the items you use most often. If you don’t have the time to go that far, just keep an eye on the prices as you shop and start to notice which store has the best price.

2. Know that the warehouse stores like Sam’s and Costco generally have fair prices but are not always the lowest price in town. Don’t get me wrong, I love these stores and shop there myself. I caution you to be selective, because not every item is a good value. It is easy to spend more than you planned on when you shop in this type of store. Check your unit prices to make sure you are getting a good price.

3. Fresh Produce is not always best. While I’m not a big fan of canned produce, there have been recent studies to suggest that nutrition does not suffer much over fresh. I keep a few cans on hand to avoid extra trips to the store, and then stock my freezer with organic frozen produce. Frozen organic vegetables are usually a lot less expensive than the non-organic fresh vegetables. Better nutrition at a lower price is a value in my book.

4. Free coupons are easily printed online. Free coupons are everywhere online, so there is never a good reason to pay full price for anything. Most families will find that selective couponing can reduce their grocery expenses by 10-25% with very little effort. Go for high face value coupons and take a few minutes to print online before you head to the grocery store.

Just four simple grocery shopping strategies can save you thousands of dollars a year. Who knew that reducing grocery spending was so simple?

Free Printable Grocery Discount Coupons

2009-03-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered if free printable grocery discount coupons will save you enough money to bother with at the checkout?

Well, wonder no more…printing grocery discount coupons on your computer does not just make sense, regularly using grocery discount coupons will save you up to 80% off your total grocery bill. What was that again? Yep, save up to 80% off your food bill just for taking the time to clip grocery coupons and use them regularly.

Quick Tip: Before you say you are too busy to take the time, realize that use a few high face value coupons strategically will save you AT LEAST $10 per week, or $520 per year for just a few minutes. Have I got your attention yet?

How does making a habit of taking the time to print grocery coupons make for more cash in your wallet? Well, the answer lies in how many high face value coupons there are floating around online. There are literally hundreds of new discount grocery coupons available for printing every month right from your computer. Month in and month out, food manufactures are looking to push volume by moving product through the stores and you are the lucky recipient of their marketing promotions.

You may be wondering how much you can save, but you can easily do the math yourself. Most manufacturers now offer printable coupons with a face value of a dollar or more each. Use 20 coupons per week at a buck each and you’ll find an extra $1040 in your bank account at the end of the year. Have a bigger family, or feeling industrious? Use 50 coupons a week and you will save l thousands of dollars at years end. Sound good? Using coupons is certainly easier than working enough extra hours to make that much money isn’t it? That is, if you can even find a job of late, and many are still looking.

What kind of coupons will you find available for printing online? My favorite high face value grocery discounts are found on every aisle of the supermarket. With the economic slow down, food manufactures are fighting for business.

Discounts on baby items are common with printable baby coupons. I have seen printable coupons with face values over $1 for baby diapers, baby food, and many other childcare related products. For the last several months almost every major brand of baby diapers has offered printable coupons. There really is never any need to pay full price, just print and save.

Likewise, printable coupons online for health and beauty products also carry high face values. I have noticed that printable discount coupons online for shampoo, hair color, lotion, toothpaste, oral care products and deodorant are frequently higher in value than those found in the Sunday coupon inserts. Since health and beauty products are most often the highest profit margin items on grocery store shelves, it makes sense to cut costs as much as possible.

Where else are the good online coupons hiding? How about cold cereal? Cereal is another high profit product on grocery store shelves. You can tell that there is a high profit margin in cold cereals by how many cereal coupon offers there are both online and in the Sunday coupon inserts.

Seriously there is never a good reason to pay much over a dollar or two a box for cold cereals. There are so many cereal coupons available online that all you need to do to save a small fortune is to look at what cereal products are on sale for the week at your local supermarket and then look for a dollar off cereal coupon online. You will have a lot of grocery discount coupons to choose from since cereals are a mainstay coupon offers both online and in the paper.

Another place to look for savings is on the products you use the most frequently. What does your family use every week? Think about the things that you use the most, and always look for printable grocery coupons before you shop. I make lists of the websites that carry the printable coupons for the products I use the most often. Staying organized will save you time when searching online for coupons.

I also like to look for coupons that I use occasionally and print them once a month. Printable spaghetti sauce coupons will often allow you to get a free can on spaghetti sauce for your pantry. Spaghetti sauce coupons are almost always available for one brand or another, so I rarely feel the need to buy too many cans ahead.

Rice and pasta side dishes are another type of coupon that will generally get you a free box of food. While printable pasta coupons and printable noodle dishes are usually available online at least monthly, tend to buy several boxes at once to save time when the price is right.

Where else is the savings particularly good? Coupons for canned goods online are another favorite that I print quite often. Although I do not use canned goods often myself, the face values are high enough on products like canned tuna, canned meat, canned vegetables and canned fruits to get items very close to free. I tend to pick up grocery items when the price is very low and donate to the local food banks. They are ever in need of donations, but especially when the economy is struggling.

Coupons for dairy product are also helpful reducing your grocery expenses. Coupons for yogurt and printable grocery coupons on cottage cheese make dairy products affordable. Don’t miss the grocery coupons that give you a free gallon of milk with the purchase of another item. Combination type coupons offers are particularly helpful for larger families.

The deli section has its share of values too. Lunchmeat coupons make packing your lunch a lot cheaper than buying lunch out. Cheese coupons are a good deal as well. The secret to getting a rock bottom price on cheese is to always use coupons and buy when cheese is on sale

In fact, waiting to use your coupons until the product is already on sale will save you an additional 30% off regular prices and then you can still take the additional discount for your coupons or double coupons. Using the sale plus coupons strategy is a must to maximize your savings.

Speaking of maximizing savings, my favorite kind of coupon is the buy-one-get-one-free coupons frequently offered online. Think about the savings, you instantly get one item free, so you have already saved 50% and here’s the real kicker…you can still use a coupon for the item that you are purchasing at full price.

What kind of products come with buy-one-get-one-free coupons? Just about every product can be marketed in this fashion. I have recently seen buy-one-get-one-free cereal coupons, buy-one-get-one-free salad coupons, and buy-one-get-one-free bread coupons. There are many other buy-one-get-one-free coupons on many other products, there are simply too many to list. Whenever I come across a buy-one-get-one-free coupon, I print it regardless of if I think I will ever use the coupon or not.

Why? I’ll tell you a secret. Buy-one-get-one-free coupons often will allow you to get two items for less than 30% of the regular price. Even better, sometimes you will end up getting two totally free items. Like I said before, even if I will not use the product myself, free is free. The food banks will thank you for your donation.

Generally speaking, you will save a lot of money using any coupon regularly, but the best deals are on buy-one-get-one-free coupons and combination type coupons like buy this and get that free. My other favorite type of coupon is the high face value coupon. High face value coupons allow for free or nearly free items so the price is always right.

Another hidden value in coupons is a combination offer that is run almost every Superbowl for potato chips and soft drinks. This is a very popular promotion that has run every year like clockwork.

Surprisingly, there are literally hundreds on printable online grocery discount coupons to be found online every month. Recently, online coupon networks have begun offering printable online coupons for fast food chains as well.

If you need a quick meal, don’t forget to check the coupon networks for savings on fast food. I recently found printable coupons for KFC, and as I looked around further found some free printable Subway sandwich coupons.

The moral of this really long post is this, if you want to save big money on your groceries, print online coupons before every shopping trip. Once you get used to using free printable grocery discount coupons you will never go back to shopping without the money saving power of this technique again.

Grocery Discount Coupons or Dollar Store Food…What Saves the Most?

2009-03-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

I have gotten a few emails lately about the preferred strategy for saving money on food, namely grocery discount coupons or dollar store food shopping strategies. Most of you want to know which strategy is the best.

A difficult question to answer to be sure, but I’m going to sum it up in one word…BOTH! Both strategies are worth their weight in gold quite literally can and do save you upwards of 70-90% off the full shelf price for most food items. Do you know why?

With the economy sinking still further by the day and more folks finding themselves without cash to spend, every tool in your tool box for saving should be practiced, honed and studied. Every option is a good option for savings because not every strategy will work for everyone, everyday. Sometimes grocery sales are a little thin from week to week, with few free or deeply discounted items available. When you hit a week like this, other options like living off what is in your pantry, dollar store shopping and hitting the discount store grocery aisles make a lot of sense.

I am quite an experienced grocery shopper and money saver, and use 4 main strategies to save on my food bill every week because not all of them work well every single week. In short, if the options are thin with one strategy, I move on to another. I use the following strategies the most:

1. I always hit the dollar store first, and only buy what is of good quality and a good value for the money. Some items are not, and I pass just as in any other grocery store.

2. I always use coupons, either doubled or tripled and with a sale to maximize my savings.

3. I always use multiple “like coupons” from free printable resources online BEFORE buying the Sunday paper or using a coupon clipping service. Why spend money if you do not have to? Coupons.com is the Grand Daddy of online printable coupon resources and is always free with high face value coupons. Free is always the best price in my book, so start there first. Their coupons really are tops of all the online printable grocery coupon services.

4. I always stockpile non-perishables when items can be purchased for free or pennies on the dollar. For that price, I will find a way to use the product without waste. When using the stockpiling strategy, coupon clipping services that you can find on Ebay are the way to go. The selection of coupons is tops, and the price is lower than most other clipping services online.

Each strategy will save you a ton of money on its own, but the real strength of these 4 together is that they give you more than one option for saving. Forewarned is forearmed they always say, and the ability to eat well for less is good financial self defense in uncertain times.

Which strategy is the best for keeping your food costs low? I use both dollar store food and grocery discount coupons every week and so should you if you want to save over 50% off your food expenses.

Dollar Store Food- How to Get the Most for Your Money

2009-03-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

LOL, this short video makes a couple of astute observations about dollar food shopping that I would like to discuss in greater detail.

First, deep discount and dollar food shopping both have two main strategies in common to maximize savings. At the basis of the dollar store shopping strategy is having a good working knowledge of the prices of the products you buy the most often.

While the values of the products carried at both discount and dollar stores are usually in the range of good to spectacular when compared to the price, some products are stil not bargains. You will need to have an idea of the price of the items you are shopping for to know the difference between a deal and a so-so offer.

For example, how much is produce per pound in your local supermarket or farmers market? What is the full shelf price, and the usual sale price on canned goods, frozen foods and dairy products that you buy the most often? Finally, how much would you generally spend for the comparable name brand product when purchased both on sale and with a double coupon? Many times, but not always, you will be in the same ball park for cost when doing heavy couponing.

All of the above factors play into the relative value of the dollar store item you are considering purchasing. For example, if the price you would normally pay for the nationally known product of known high quality is either at or near the dollar store price of a generic, go with the national brand. A known product of good value is always a better choice than taking a chance on a product that may be of lesser quality.

While I will readily admit that generics most often are of equal quality to their name brand counterparts, there can be exceptions to the rule. When in doubt and the price is nearly the same, trust the quality of the product you have used in the past.

If in doubt of the quality of a product you have never used before, buy one to try before stocking up. If you can easily do a taste test in the car to make your buying decision, go for it. Remember that dollar store and discount store items come and go quickly, and you may not see them again. If you plan to stock up, do so within the next day or two or you may loose the chance. If you carry out your taste tests in the car whenever possible it will save you the trouble of returning to make the rest of your purchases. A good strategy for saving both time and gas on a return trip.

Second, creativity while shopping is key. While dollar store grocery items may come and go quickly, your creativity will never fail you. Learn to keep an open mind in how you define a bargain. Is a bargain price only? Or, is a bargain a combination of both quality and low price, meaning a good value for the price. In my mind, value trumps quality, although your defination may not be the same. What consititues a bargain to you?

Knowing what kinds of foods will go well together to make quick and tasty meals is an added bonus to help you keep meals interesting. Keep in mind that even if you need to fill in from the grocery store to complete the remaining ingredients for your menus you can do so inexpensively. If you buy the bulk of your groceries off the dollar store shelves, the porprotion of fill in itmes at the higher priced supermarket should be minimal.

Because shopping in dollar stores is hit or miss proposition, I have started to carry the grocery sales fliers for the week with me as I shop. If I need to know what is on sale that could potentially help me to add variety to the ingredients I have to work with from the dollar store, I simply refer to the ad.

Carrying the weekly sales circulars is also particularly helpful when evaluating produce for purchase in the dollar store. Sometimes the supermarket loss leaders are just as cheap as dollar store produce and there are additional items to choose from when shopping several stores a week. It helps to have a visual of what is available for the week at super low prices regardless of the store you are shopping in. shopping several stores a week will give you the widest variety of cheap ingredients and help to avoid boredom in your menus. The more options the better.

Dollar store food shopping really is not as difficult as you would think. You just need to know a few tricks to get the most for your money. The main thing to know is that the "it's only a dollar" mentality will keep you from getting your best bargains on your shopping trips. It may only be a dollar, but a dollar is still worth a lot especially when money is extra tight. Don't waste money even at the price point of a buck. Be sure you will use your purchases without waste, and keep an eye on both quality and value when shopping for dollar store food.

Dollar Store Food and Gourmet Meals

2009-03-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here's some more great ideas on how to use dollar store food to create gourmet meals. I have to admit that lately, I've been in the mood to go back to my roots as I share this information with you all. I know that you can eat well by using dollar store and discount store foods. While my food budget remains low today, I'm enjoying the burst of crativity in doing the research for my latest posts!

I'm dating myself just a bit by telling you that when I was in college dollar stores were not yet the rage. My choices were limited in this regard, so I also frequeted farmer's markets, discount stores like Target, Walmart and Grocery Warehouse. I bought what was a good value and then purchased just as much as I needed from the bulk bins to supplement my coupon and sale purchases.

Case in point, no matter where you live there are some low priced options. I did not have the luxury of dollar stores, Dollar General, and Family Dollar near me, but there were other right down cheap alternatives to help me keep my budget low while still continuing to eating well.

With so many dollar stores around now, the choices are wider than ever before. Use them as part of your shopping strategy to save lot time and money. With a little prersistience and practice, you to can be a gourmet with dollar store food.

How to Cook With Dollar Store Food

2009-03-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

I know that budgets are getting tighter still as the economy continues to sprial downward, so now is a good time to begin our lessons on how to cook with dollar store food. This short video is just the beginning, but should help you all to open your minds to the possibilites found in your dollar store.

They say that "necessity is the mother of all invention," and I couldn't agree more. I learned to be a really good and thrifty cook while I was in college. The surprising thing was that creativity and desire were the only two skills I needed to eat really well on a super tight budget. Learning how to cook with dollar store food is really not that difficult, you just need to be willing to think outside the box.

Related articles: 14 Budget Stretching dollar Store Buys, Dollar Store Deals, Dollar Store Duds

Buy Grocery Discount Coupons on Ebay

2009-03-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

If you buy grocery discount coupons on Ebay, you can save thousands of dollars a year off your food bills. Why use Ebay as your coupon clipping service? Simply put, they are the fastest and best service around. There are others who do a good job, but Ebay for coupons has the largest selection at the lowest prices, by a mile.

Super savers don't just use coupons available in their city, offers do vary widely. They are savvy shoppers who know the value of a bargain and put great effort into finding a true value. When all free printable coupon sources and the coupons in the local Sunday coupon inserts don't do the job, they cut to the chase and spend a little to save a lot more. Spending a little is worth the savings and they know it. There, I've just given you the crux of a $67 dollar e-book for free.

Why? Simply put, coupon clipping services accomplish two very important things:

1. Coupon clipping services save you TONS of time. If you are short on time, simply buy the high face value coupons you need and get on with saving both time and money. I can hear the skeptics, but the folks who pay pennies on the dollar for groceries make extensive use of cents-off grocery discount coupons week in and week out. They NEVER buy anything unless the item is both on sale at a baragain price (not a fake sale where they charge the same or more and stick a sale sign in front of the product) AND have a coupon, double coupon or triple coupon making the product either free or almost free.

2. When you use a coupon clipping service, you purchase mutiple coupons for a low service fee. You will have multiple coupons at your disposal for the same item. When you find a product for either pennies or totally free, stock up. You can always find a way to use the product without waste if you are managing your pantry correctly. Using the stockpiling method is simply the most effective way to save a ton of cash. You save time while purchasing mutiple items at once, with the added bonus that everything in you pantry was purchased at deeply discounted prices.

To shop like a super saver, do what they do...always, always use a coupon for every item in your shopping cart or pass until the price is right.

If you need to save cash consistiently and in a big hurry, do yourself big favor and buy grocery discount coupons on Ebay.

How to Grocery Shop Cheap

2009-02-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how to grocery shop cheap? The answer will vary from household to household depending on what you like to eat, and how much money you have to work with.

There are a few basic strategies that will help you slash your grocery bill when money is especially tight, although the most important thing to remember is this

What you do not put it in your shopping cart; you do not spend money on.

I can almost hear you all saying, “Well, duh! But, I have to eat something!”

Of course you do, and the first thing you should do to avoid spending money is to go shopping in your own pantry and freezer. Even the most depleted household will have something on hand already. Consider anything you have leftover from previous weeks to be a bonus. It’s like found money and something to be glad of, not frustration.

Your main goal is two-fold. First, avoid wasting money by using anything perishable so you aren’t wasting your grocery dollars on food that ends up in the trash. Second, anything you already have on hand is an item you will not need to buy and spend money on this week, so you can free up a few dollars for other items to add variety to your diet. Having a few extra dollars for goodies and extras can make a big difference when money is really tight.

BigOven.com has a really cool database for ingredients and leftovers. Just tell the wizard what ingredients you have on hand and up pop more recipes than you could imagine. Tip: If you are stuck for ideas on what to make out of sale grocery items, this is the place to go for ideas! You can find all sorts of easy and really delicious recipes here, and I use this resource a lot myself when I want to try something new.

Now that you have a loose plan for the items you already have, what do you still need to buy? Forget about what you would like and focus on your needs. Cereal is cereal right? Does it matter if whatever you buy is not your all time favorite for a week or two? Does it matter if the cereal you buy is a store brand instead of the name brand you usually get? You get the point, focus on needs and try to work in as many wants in as you can.

Write down what you still need and how much you need to buy for the week. Need, need, need…I can’t stress the point enough. Most of us are so brand conscious that it is hard to remember that there is a difference between wants and needs at times…I’m guilty too!

Once you have an idea of your needs, hit the sales circulars and see what is on sale. Ask yourself if you can justify each purchase if your budget is exceptionally tight.

Make sure as you write your shopping list that you pay attention to covering all your needs and total the list as you go so you will know how much you are spending for the week. Here are a few things to consider as you write your list:

1. Did I find a way to work in all of last week’s perishables before they were wasted?
2. Do I have enough volume of food to feed my family for the week with reasonably sized portions?
3. Are the items I am purchasing varied? Do I have some perishables, some frozen and canned goods, enough meat, and enough variety to satisfy everyone in my family?
4. Did I allow for a few treats? Making sure you have a few goodies helps to avoid the boredom of a basic diet.
5. Did I allow for any special dietary needs in the family? Food for the pets, dietary restrictions and allergies?
6. Is my list reasonable in everyway?

One more thing, once you have written your list, don’t forget to squeeze every last penny of savings out of your purchases. Have a look through your coupons, to make sure you are not missing any savings.

Now you know how to grocery shop cheap. Don’t waste anything, shop in your own freezer and pantry before grocery shopping, write a list, buy only what you need and what is on sale, don’t forget your coupons.

Happy cheap grocery shopping!

Cooking Tips: How to Ripen a Banana Quickly

2009-02-21T11:20:00.000-08:00

How ripe do you like your bananas before eating them? I just came from my grocery shopping at the dollar store and bought a huge bag of bananas for a buck. Great deal, with one exception....the bananas were greener than green. Usually I just leave my fruit to ripen on the counter, and the warm climate where I live does the rest. I want to make banana bread later this week, so I'm going to need to ripen this bag in a hurry.

As all of you know, bananas are harvested and shipped to your local supermarket while still green to avoid shipping damage and spoilage. Generally, the bananas will ripen slightly in transit and just be turning light yellow at the time they arrive in the supermarket.

If you should happen to get an extra green bunch of bananas, here are a few tips on how to ripen bananas quickly:

Place the green bananas in a paper bag with an apple in it and fold over the top to seal the bag. Ethylene gas is the gas that ripens fruits naturally. The ripe apple will produce ethylene gas and help the bananas to ripen more quickly. This is the quickest way to ripen bananas at a faster than normal pace. Incidentally, the same works for other types of fruit.

If you need to ripen your bunch of bananas faster still, place the sealed bag in a warm spot to speed the release of ethylene from the apple. Heat makes the reaction progress at a faster rate. You can try placing the bag outside in the sun during the heat of the day, or near a closed window that gets direct sun light. I also like to set my bag of bananas to be ripened quickly on top of the stove once I'm done cooking. Don't do this until the stove top is off and has cooled a bit to prevent fire hazards! But once cooled to the touch, the still warm stove top is a great place to place fruit you need to ripen quickly for about a half an hour or so.

Save Money on Food - Interesting Facts on How to Keep Your Produce Fresh

2009-02-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

Save Money on Food - Interesting Facts on How to Keep Your Produce Fresh
By Theresa Kruger

Want to save money on food? Tired of throwing away rotten produce? Here are some handy tips to prolong the freshness of common fruits and vegetables.

Our fridge temperature is probably one of the last things that's ever on our mind. The temperature inside your fridge should be between 32F and 41F. If it's too warm, food won't be chilled correctly and bacteria will start to multiply. While if its too cold, ice particles will form within the food.

Avoid storing fresh produce in the plastic packaging in which it's sold. Air should circulate around fruit and vegetables to prevent them from sweating and becoming soggy.

Apples: Remove unblemished apples to prevent them from contaminating the others with their rot.

Lettuce: This is one exception to the no-plastic rule because it seems to thrive if it's kept loose in a large plastic bag in the fridge. A good way to revive limp lettuce is to slice off a sliver of the stem and place the lettuce in a bowl of cold water. Individual leaves can be revived if you sprinkle them with cold water, wrap them in a tea towel and pop them in the fridge for an hour or so.

Carrots (and beetroot and turnips): Cut off any green, leafy tops because these will continue to draw nutrients from the roots. Like all root vegetables, carrots will last longer if they're kept in a cold, dry, dark place with good ventilation.

Lemons: After you've cut a lemon in half, place the halves cut side down on a saucer. Then cover them with an inverted glass and store them in a cool place.

Celery: Celery starts to lose its flavor as soon as it's washed. The best way to store a piece of celery is to stand the stalk upright in a glass of water before placing it in the fridge.

Mushrooms: Store mushrooms in a cool, dark place, but not the fridge. I find that they last longer if they are wiped dry and laid on a piece of paper towel.

Onions: Onions are easy to store. Just put them into a vegetable basket or wire rack. The trick to preventing them from rotting is to keep the bulbs apart so that air can circulate around them.

Potatoes: Stop potatoes from sprouting by storing them in a cool, dry place with a few apples. If you've peeled too many or have peeled them in preparation for cooking, put them in a bowl. Then cover them with water, and place the bowl in the fridge.

Tomatoes: Some people like their tomatoes rock hard, while others prefer them soft. Green tomatoes, along with any that haven't fully ripened, are best stored in a dark place. Exposing them to sunlight simply makes them soft not ripe. To ripen them, place them either in a brown paper bag with an apple or in a drawer, stalk side up, and leave them until they've turned rosy red.

Save money on food, keep your produce tasting fresh and most importantly make your produce last until you're next trip to the grocery store by following these handy tips.

By the way, there is a product called Debbie Meyer Green Bags which also keeps food fresh for longer. If you've ever wondered if these bags really do work please visit my Green Bags review. I also have other kitchen product reviews from the As Seen on TV lineup at my site HonestInfomercialReviews.com.

Article Source: ezinearticles.com

My Take: For the most part, I agree with the author of this article with just a few exceptions. First, keeping lettuce tightly wrapped and then adding a second layer of plastic will keep the entire head fresh for nearly one month. Second, I like to process my produce for the week all at once to save time. I chop onions, tomatoes,celery and other staple items for cooking and cover tightly for use within a few days. Preparing ahead saves a lot of time and encourages me to use all of what I have purchased in a timely manner.
As to the Green Bags review, I have seen them advertised before but have never tried them myself. If anyone has used this product, I'd be interested in hearing of your experiences.

14 Budget Stretching Dollar Store Grocery Buys…Do You Know How to Cook Cheap?

2009-02-19T11:32:00.000-08:00

If you have never considered buying part of your groceries at the dollar store you are missing out on some of the best money saving deals EVER.

Many folks just don’t realize the savings that they are passing up every day.

Myths: Dollar stores only carry junk food and outdated no-name grocery products.

Realities: Many dollar stores now carry large grocery sections complete with bakery, produce, dairy and frozen foods. While many of the items you find are discontinued and generics, many are also major name brands that you will recognize. Perishables may be short dated, but not all are. Yes, they do carry a good selection of junk food, but there is enough healthy fare here for those who watch closely what they eat as well as fellow junk-food-junkies.

Dollar Store Do’s

1. Keep an eye out for name brands. On my last trip to the dollar store I found name brand bagged produce and salad fixings, salad dressings, granola bars, lunch meat, low-fat frozen dinners and ice cream, just to name a few. Buying name brands will bump up your savings, while helping to assure the quality of your purchases.

2. Not all generics are bad, in fact most are of more than acceptable quality. Try out the generics the dollar store carries and make notes on the ones of acceptable quality. You have not lost a lot if you try something and it is not the best product you have ever used. Consider the process as research and an investment in future savings.

3. Stock up when you find a really good deal on name brands. Products come and go quickly in the dollar store. Here’s my strategy for stock ups:

If in doubt of the quality of a product, buy one to test. Go to the car if necessary, try it and return to the store and purchase the rest. Case in point, I recently came across 8 1/2 oz bags of name brand kettle roasted peanuts (yes, this was many months before the peanut scare that has been in the news recently). The peanuts were flavored snacks in ranch and BBQ, but I was not sure that I would care for the flavorings. I bought a bag to test, and what a find! I went back in the store and purchased 10 bags with a total savings of $22.90 on just this one item. It’s a good thing I stocked up when I did, the next week this deal was long gone even though the store had literally hundreds of bags on a giant display the week before. My kids now happily carry peanuts as part of their lunches to school.

4. Shop the dollar store first and then fill in with sale items at the grocery store to round out your purchases. You never know what you will find and not find at the dollar store. Products come and go, produce ranges in quality and sometimes the shelves are wiped out with few bargains to be found. I shop at the dollar store first, keeping in mind what is on sale at the grocery store down the street. If there are few bargains to be found that day at the dollar store I move on to the grocery store. If there are many bargains to be found, I buy what is reasonable to buy and then buy less at the grocery store. It all depends on what is a good deal and where. My goal is always to get a good value for the money, regardless of what I spend and where.

So, which products are the best buys other than name brands?

1. Produce. No two ways about it, produce is a great buy at the dollar store. The fruit may not be the largest or the most beautiful, but the prices are certainly hard to beat. Don’t think that all of the produce is from a nondescript wholesaler either. There are many name brand items here to choose from.

2. Frozen Foods. Believe it or not, I recently found a large selection of low-fat, diet type entrées and French bread pizzas at a third of the price of the grocery store down the streets “sale price.”

3. Milk. If you use only a quart of milk a week buying at the dollar store will save you $52 a year instead of buying from the grocery store.

4. Cheese. Yes real cheese, not the processed American stuff. Frequently you can buy sliced cheese, shredded cheese, string cheese, and cheese bites in the dollar store. Keep an eye out for short dates, but the value for the money is hard to beat.

5. Lunchmeat. You can save a small fortune by purchasing lunchmeat in the dollar store. Lunchmeat is often short dated, but is a good buy if you toss it in the freezer immediately and use as soon as thawed.

6. Bread. Believe it or not large bagels come packaged in a 4-pack and are a bargain, hamburger and hot dog buns are also a buy.

7. Snack Foods. Prepackaged snacks for school lunches and other goodies like cookies, popcorn and potato chips are 40% off regular store pricing.

8. Nuts. Savings of 70% off grocery store prices, and a regularly stocked item in most stores.

9. Tortillas. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that caters to a Hispanic population tortillas are a great buy in the dollar store. I save 66% on this item buy purchasing at the dollar store rather than the supermarket.

10. Salsa and Hot Sauce. Another great money saver with prices well below that of the grocery store. Savings here ranges in the 60-70% range.

11. Beef Jerky and Turkey Jerky. Another great buy is the name brand beef jerky I get at my local dollar store. I save a whopping $3.29 per package off regular store prices.

12. Cold Cereal. You will be surprised at the name brand cereals that show up in dollar store grocery sections. Several of the dollar stores in my local area carry both name brands and generics. Prices are always reasonable and there is almost always good selection.

13. Hot Cereal. Huge boxes of cream of wheat, grits, and oatmeal at prices low enough to rival the bulk section of local health food stores. I generally opt for the packaged variety here, rather than the bulk bins.

14. Spices. Spices are spices, with very few exceptions. You will find that the bottles at the dollar store have 4 times the amount for less than 25% the price of those found on most grocery aisles.

There you have it, fourteen of the best hidden bargains on the dollar store grocery shelves. It is entirely possible to cook healthy gourmet meals only from the items found in dollar stores. The 99 Cent Only Stores Cookbook: Gourmet Recipes at Discount Prices, this it one cookbook with extraordinary ideas for great meals on a shoestring.

With the economy constantly tightening, you can still feed your family well and have money left over.

Grocery Coupons and Other Excellent Ways to Save on your Grocery Bill
2009-02-18T10:43:00.000-08:00
Grocery Coupons and Other Excellent Ways to Save on your Grocery Bill by Mindy Tyson McHorse

Saving money seems to be all the rage these days, and for good reason. Consumers are waking up to the fact that easy credit is a thing of the past and that investment portfolios can plummet overnight. Though better days are assuredly on their way, now is the time to master healthy spending habits. When it comes to your grocery bill, such habits are sure to come in handy. Read on to learn how healthy spending habits can save you as much as several hundred dollars on your yearly grocery bill.

Plan your grocery outing

The first secret to saving on your grocery bill is to plan your grocery store trip outing. This starts with deciding on the day and time for your shopping excursion a few days in advance. Ideally, choose a time you can stick to on a weekly basis so you’ll be able to craft a regular grocery shopping routine.

Eat first

A cardinal rule of grocery shopping is that you should never go shopping hungry. Instead, plan your shopping excursion after a meal or be sure to eat a snack on your way to the store. If you don’t, all your lists and grocery coupons and planning won’t matter – you’ll be subject to impulse-buys based on the demands of your hungry belly.

Make a list

One of the major secrets to saving money at the grocery store is to go armed with a shopping list. When you have a list prepared you are less likely to buy items on a whim and more likely to buy the things you actually need. Having a list also makes it possible to gather the applicable grocery coupons.

Clip grocery coupons

Throughout the week before you shop, keep an eye out for grocery coupons. Scan your local paper and the pile of mail you receive every day for applicable grocery coupons. Pay attention to mailers and postcards stuck on your door or tucked into your front porch screen.

To many people, grocery coupons seem like more work than they’re worth. Fortunately, this is hardly the case. To make grocery coupons work for you, you don’t need a lot of extra time and energy – what you need is a system and a quick eye.

For instance, if you clip grocery coupons from your newspaper or from magazines, you need a place to keep those coupons. Throwing them all in the same drawer is not only inefficient; it’s a great way to lose the grocery coupons you need.

Instead, take your paper grocery coupons and come up with a basic filing system. This can be as simple as separate envelopes in a shoe box or as complex as a tabbed and labeled filing system. In either case, separate out distinct locations (envelopes or file folders) for the different types of coupons you have. For instance, one category could be “Groceries,” while another could be “Household Items” such as cleaning products.

In addition to creating a clever way to store your grocery coupons, you need to train your eye to pick out the good coupons from the bad. Some vendors will place ads in papers that are made to look like coupons, but actually advertise their product at its regular price. Other vendors will advertise grocery coupons that require you to buy multiples of the same product just to receive a discount, a move that actually makes you spend more rather than save more. Get in the habit of scanning coupons for discounts and expiration dates. As you become more accustomed to working with grocery coupons, you’ll quickly become an expert at sorting out the good from the bad.

Look online for grocery coupons

The age of the Internet has done wonders for the grocery coupon aficionado. You can go online and type “grocery coupons” into an Internet search engine, and over 9 million site links will pop up. Many of these sites offer free grocery coupons for you to print or download.

Like all things on the Internet though, you need to be wary. Some sites touting their grocery coupons will actually only have ads from different companies and won’t have any tangible coupons for use. Others will let you access grocery coupons that are expired or are not legitimate.

On the bright side, many sites that offer free grocery coupons are perfectly legitimate, helpful sites. Just be careful of where you go and only look at sites that list their contact information, customer service policies, and preferably testimonials from happy clients.

Check receipts for grocery coupons

One last source of excellent grocery coupons is on the back of purchase receipts, particularly those that come from grocery stores. Be careful not to chuck your receipt before you take a look at what’s advertised on back – you may find some excellent sources for discounts listed there.

Believe it or not, grocery coupons save consumers hundreds of dollars a year on groceries. To count yourself among those who save, be diligent about planning your grocery shopping trips and keep an eye out for grocery coupons. When your savings add up, you’ll be glad you did.

Mindy Tyson McHorse is a contributing writer for BillSavings.com, your information resource and community for money-saving tips and offers so you can shop, compare, and save money on just about everything.

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Article Source: Grocery Coupons and Other Excellent Ways to Save on your Grocery Bill

Deal Alert: Really Cheap Protein Bars

2009-02-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, you would not guess the deal I got on Genisoy protein bars today. I have been looking for a light meal that fits with my diet plan for a quick lunch while out doing my consultations. Yes, I'm trying to lose a few pounds before Summer gets here just like everyone else. Lol, bathingsuit season is just around the corner again, and fast food is not a good option!

I just bought a lot of Genisoy protein bars on Ebay at a price you won't believe. Are you ready for this? 78 bars for $38 including free shipping. Wow! Even with a buy-2-get-1 free coupon with the bars on sale I can't do as well as the $.49 per bar I did today.

I always knew that Ebay was great for low prices on most items, but I was surprised how cheap nutrition bars were as I browsed around a bit. What a deal, and they had literally hundred of auctions to choose from. Take a look at how great the savings are on the ebay widget above and you'll see what I mean. The widget doesn't even come close to showing how many low priced options there are availiable in the stores either. Give a quick search for your favorite brand, you'll be surprised how low the prices are.

I'm going to have a better look around and see if I can find any other exceptional offers on grocery, health and beauty, and pet type offers. I'll let you all know what I find.

Dollar Store Deals?

2009-02-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Most of you know my love of dollar stores. I consider them to be treasure troves of bargains, where you can always expect the unexpected value. As I alluded to yesterday, there is a downside to dollar stores and the rest of this post deals with some items including, but not limited to grocery.

Have you ever pondered if the items in a dollar store are really deals? If I'm honest, some are and then again some are not.

So then, what should you be looking out for to get a true bargain when shopping in a dollar store? What items are best avoided?

1. Keep an eye on the quality. Be on the lookout for items that are well made and appear to be of good quality. In general, some of the products are well made and some are not.

2. Watch for name brands. Most dollar stores carry generics to keep prices down, but name brand merchandise from closeouts show up frequently. While generics aren't always a good buy, they can be if the quality is high...give them a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.

3. Watch for short dated product. Most dollar stores now carry food items, some with a full grocery section including frozen foods, dairy and produce. You can run into product with very short dates of only a day or two, so plan purchases so that you won't waste what you bought.

4. Lookout for toy safety. A good portion of the toys and kid items found on the toy aisle are imported from China. There have been some recent concerns about the safety of both children's toys and pet items manufactured in this part of the world. I'm not implying that all of the toys found at dollar stores are unsafe, just be aware and keep your eyes open for hazards.

Here is a good list of the 20 best bargains in the dollar store.

Dollar Store Duds? Yep!

2009-02-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I am a big supporter of dollar stores. They offer some exceptional savings. Most items are a good value if you don't mind generics and grocery products that are slightly shorter dated than you are used to. But, as with every shopping and savings strategy, there is a flip side.

Here is a short and very useful video from Bankrate to explain the downside of dollar store shopping.

While I agree that you do need to do the math to be sure of unit pricing, there is one point that the video doesn't touch on...how much money you have tied up in the product that takes you awhile to use.

While you may ultimately use all of the lower unit priced product and save money, if you are on a very tight budget, worried about losing your job, reduced hours, paycuts or a student the bulk buying strategy is probably not for you.

Sometimes, based on your lifestyle, the higher unit price for infrequently used items will allow you better cashflow and control of your spending.

A bargain is only a bargin if all of your needs are met, including lowest price and most product for your money.

Cheap Meal Ideas for Breakfast

2009-02-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

I’ve been getting some requests lately for cheap meals ideas, specifically cheap meal ideas for breakfast. The resounding sentiment seems to be that many of you were taking the kids through the local drive through in the morning on the way to work or school.

The local fast food joint drive through is usually quick to be sure, but besides cost has more than a few drawbacks that I’ll be PC enough not to comment on.

Other than the convenience of not having to cook the meal and clean up in the morning when schedules are tight, most of you sited the desire to feed your kids a hot meal for breakfast during the cold winter months.

We eat oatmeal and cream of wheat with milk a lot at our house. You can’t do much better than whole grain hot cereal with milk for breakfast. It’s quick, hot, healthy, filling and cheap at $.79 per pound or less at the local health food store.

Quick Tip: Old fashioned oats cook in less than 3 minutes in the microwave on high. For extra quick and creamy cereal try soaking the oats in a mixture of ½ water and ½ milk overnight in the refrigerator. Use the basic recipe of 1 part oats, one part water, and 1 part milk. Microwave until hot, top with milk, sugar and fruit if desired and eat.

For those of you wanting more hearty fare, try this recipe for a quick breakfast casserole. This casserole mixes up really quickly and cooks in the oven while you get ready for work.
The key to getting the casserole in the over quickly in the morning is to do all the prep ahead. Thaw the potatoes in a covered bowl in the fridge overnight, chop the onion the night before while fixing dinner, and make sure your cheese is grated ahead.

For super quick pancakes in the morning, make them ahead of time. Make pancakes as directed, and allow to cool to room temperature. Freeze pancakes on a cookie sheet, and then transfer to an air tight ziplock bag or container. Freeze in single layer to avoid sticking. To use, toast frozen pancakes to warm, or place on a cookie sheet in the oven if you need to heat more than a single serving.

If you are trying to avoid the mess of cooking in the morning, enlist everybody to rinse their own dish and put it in the dishwasher. There’s not much left to clean up with all 3 of the above ideas.

There you have it, 3 quick, easy and cheap ways to give your family a hot breakfast without heading through the drive through. Cheap meals for breakfast don't need to be a hassle with a little organization.

Did You Know You Can Print Free Money?

2009-02-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

Did you know that it’s possible to print free money every day of the week? Yes, it’s legal, moral and ethical to do so. In fact, grocery manufacturers want you to.

Yeah, I know that free money doesn’t grow on trees, but it is possible to print it right from your computer everyday of the week if you like.

With the tight economy, grocery manufacturers are looking for new and ever less expensive ways to promote their products. In a desperate attempt to control the cost of promoting via the old FSI, or free standing insert found in Sunday papers, consumers eager for savings can now print high face value coupons directly off the Internet.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one really…generally you can print up to 2 of each like coupon at a time. Some offers have a limit of 2 per month, while others can be printed more often.

New coupons are listed throughout the month, and most offer savings at near or over $1 per item before the coupon is doubled.

High face value coupons that can be doubled with many multiples of like coupons are simply the BEST way to slash your grocery expenses.

If you can get a product free or nearly free stock up!

So, where do you get free grocery coupons? Right here on this page. You will notice the offers along the side bars of the page. Help yourself…these coupons are yours for the taking.

Visit often to see the new offers; new high value coupons are listed all the time!

Go Cherry-Picking for Grocery Savings

2009-01-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

Looking to save a pile of cash without the work of using supermarket coupons? Go cherry-picking for savings.

Shoppers looking for huge savings on the biggest portion of their grocery bills can cherry-pick products at supermarkets as well as at discount stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Dollar stores and Costco for the items they use the most regularly.

Cherry-picking savings refers to a shopping strategy that knows, in minute detail, the prices of the products you use the most regularly. By shopping at the store closest to you that has the lowest everyday price of the product, you never need to wait for a sale, or clip a coupon.

Of course, feel free to do so when there are great deals to be found and combine strategies to get additional savings.

Here’s how it works to go cherry-picking. I usually start with the dollar store first, since it’s hard to beat a buck. I buy bagels, produce and whatever else is a great price there. Quite often they carry Learn Cuisine and some other high end products. I shop here for perishables once a week, sometimes more depending on the selection.

Next, I make the occasional Costco run, generally once every 4-6 weeks. I like the quality of the meat there, milk and eggs are always a good deal, and nonfood items have prices that are hard to beat.

Another favorite stop is the Orowheat discount bakery. I stock up on bread, rolls and English muffins for cheap and freeze the bulk of what I buy. Again, I make a trip once a month or so.

Wal-mart is good for non-food items, health and beauty items and some foods. We don’t have full Wal-mart grocery in my area, although I’m told that many parts of the country do.

You get the idea, going to every store in every week would be a hassle. I get fantastic savings and stop only at a store or two a week. Better planning, shorter shopping trips, and very selective purchases make the cherry-picking strategy a real winner.

Chicken Brine Recipe- Make Your Next Rosted Chicken Something to Rave About!

2008-11-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

Frugal cooks have long known that brining chicken, turkey, beef and fish is an inexpensive way to add big flavor to roasted and grilled meats. At Use Supermarket Coupons, we are big fans of brining techniques.

Why?

Simply put, brining is a cheap way to both tenderize and add a flavorful gourmet touch to inexpensive cuts of meat.

While the brine recipe below is intended for chicken and poultry, the technique works well for all types and cuts of meat and fish.

What You Should Know About Brining

1. Brine is little more that a salt solution, with optional sugar, and herbs. The process allows for fluids infused with spices to enter the meat through a simple process of osmosis.

2. The technique of brining has been around for years, but is only now gaining popularity with home cooks.

3. Brining helps to keep meats moist while cooking. Meats that are brined first are juicy, tender and packed with flavor.

4. Basic brine recipes are only the beginning. Add any herbs, spices or flavorings that you like. You are only limited by your own creativity.

Basic Brining Techniques

Basic brining is easy, with only a few steps:

1. Start with a clean and dried, large, food quality plastic container with a lid.

2. Mix the brine and season according to the recipe below.

3. Thoroughly rinse and pat dry meat.

4. Completely submerge meat in brine.

5. Cover the brine bowl or bucket and seal tightly.

6. Refrigerate while completing the brining process. Allow 1 hour per pound of meat. Any longer and the meat may become too salty.

7. When brining is completed, remove the meat from the brine and rinse well. Pat rinsed meat dry and cook as usual.

8. Discard brine, and clean and sanitize your brine bucket or bowl.

Basic Brine Recipe for Chicken and Poultry

1 gallon water

3/4 cup salt

1/4 cup sugar (cuts the salty taste and helps to blend the herbs)

Herbs to taste (good choices for poultry are rosemary, tarragon, pepper, sage, and thyme, garlic, onion and celery)Aim for 1 1/2 tsp to 1 T per gallon of brine depending on how strong you like your seasonings.

In a heavy stock pot or large pan bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Be sure all of the salt and sugar are completely dissolved.

Allow brine to cool completely to room temperature. Pour the cooled brine into the prepared container and add meat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour per pound of meat.

Remove meat from brine, rinse and pat dry. Cook meat as desired.

Try it the next time you are planning on roasting a chicken or turkey. Brined meat is a juicy and delicious change from the ordinary.

Deal Alert: What You Should Know About Grocery Shopping Around Major Holidays

2008-11-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered if there is a best time to use supermarket grocery coupons?

The answer is YES.

I always allow nearly double my usual food budget the week before major holidays. Why? The deals are just too good to pass up! Stock up when the price is right and save.

You can expect the coupon inserts to be heavy in the two or three weeks leading up to a major holiday. Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4th and Labor day have some of the greatest savings of the year on groceries.

How should you maximize your savings on nonperishables? Buy multiples of the same item, using a double manufacterer coupon for each item you purchase. In the weeks leading up to the holiday week, you can obtain multiple manufacterer coupons either buy purchasing more than one Sunday paper, or using a coupon clipping service.

Don't want to go to the hassle of a coupon service due to the minimum order requirements? Here's another secret...you can always find the coupons you are looking for on Ebay! The best time to look is the Sunday the coupon is published. Don't wait, the selection can get a litte scant within a few days on the best offer.

Happy Holiday Shopping!

Fast Food- How You Can Eat Better and Spend Less!

2008-11-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

So what do you think, does fast food come only from the fast food place on the corner? If you said yes, I'm about to let you in on a little secret...

Fast food also comes from your own kitchen! Nope, I'm not talking about pulling TV dinners from the freezer. I'm talking about home cooked, nutritious, delicious dinners from your own kitchen, ready to serve in 15 minutes or less.

Yep, I said 15 minutes from prep to table.

How is it possible to have dinner ready almost before you have time to set you things down and change clothes after a long day at work? The answer is...it's all in the prep. Simple organization saves you hours of time, tons of stress and lots of cash.

4 Ways to Become a Fast Food Gourmet

1. Use the Crockpot- I love crockpots and slow cookers! Just a few minutes prep in the morning and dinner is ready to serve as soon as you get home. Very little mess, next to no fuss, and the meat is always tender.

2. Prep it Ahead- When I go to the supermarket every week, I spend an hour processing fresh produce for the week as soon as I get home. Chop it once, clean it up once, take out the trash once, and save time during your work week.

3. Plan Ahead- The true secret to getting dinner on the table fast? Have the side dishes done ahead. Every week I make giant bowls of green salad, fruit salad and then prepare a jello salad or dessert on Sundays. Just add a main dish and side like rice or potatoes and dinner is ready. Having the extras done ahead makes dinner prep next to nothing.

4. Grilling Isn't Just for Summer- Grilling marinated meats is a quick, no fuss way to get dinner on the table fast. Light up the grill, toss the meat on and turn it a time or two...that's it. Be sure to cook enough meat for leftovers in a main dish salad, or soup the next day. Having the meat cooked ahead makes tomorrows main dishes cook up in minutes.

There you have it, 4 ways to become a speed demon in the kitchen. They secret really is to plan ahead. If you have your side dishes done, all you really need to do is choose either a main dish that cooks quickly like a broiled or grilled marinated meat or fish, or a crockpot meal. Dinner will be on the table with little fuss at the end of your day.

Why You Should Grocery Shop Online

2008-08-25T08:55:00.001-07:00

Skillfull grocery shopping and reducing your grocery budget is one of the quickest places to cut your overall budget down to size. No doubt about it. Yet, grocery shopping is probably the most time consuming task we do every week, especially for the busy professional and those with large families. On average, families spend 1-2 hours per week shopping for food and 3-4 hours if you live in more rural areas and need to drive a ways to get to the supermarket.

How can we save both time and money while shopping for food?

Shopping online saves time, money and more importantly since the recent price increases, lots of gas.

Better still, online grocery shopping is for people like you and me. Busy people, frugal people, and those just looking to shop from the comfort of their own homes, Internet grocery shopping is for everyone.

With our popluation aging rapidly, online grocery shopping also makes sense for those caring for aging loved ones, or those who either lack mobility or are totally homebound.

The best two places to find deep discounts on groceries and gourmet food items?

Ebay grocery has a large selection of gourmet food items at reasonable prices anywhere. Bison burgers, smoked beef jerkey and delicious giant 225-count bags of Lindor Lindt truffles are just a few of the items I found recently at rock bottom prices. Prices so inexpensive that finding a seller you trust and shop with regularly makes sense.

Amazon grocery is still my favorite onlie money saver. Take a look at their monthly bargains and you won't be disappointed. With free shipping their products are always both reasonably and fairly priced, and sometimes a downright steal. Check the closeouts for $10 off $25 instant savings on coffee, tea, cereals, snacks and many other items. These prices are just too low to miss.

Delivery of groceries when purchased online can be expensive depending on the service or vendor. Amazon is, once again my favorite. They offer free delivery on all grocery items with a $25 minimum purchase.

Ebay's delivery charges vary by vendor but are also reasonble in comparison to most other online grocery shopping services.

While grocery shopping is one of the very least favorite tasks most of us need to accomplish in the course of our busy week. Using a good online shopping service can save you time, money, gas and the frustration of needing to shop when you would rather be at home.

Once you try it you will never go back!

Cheap Meal Ideas: The Best Meatballs and Meatloaf Ever!

2008-08-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

Whew! End of the summer already and getting the kids ready to go off to school again. A really busy time of the year for us all. Need a cheap quick fix dinner? How about the best meatballs and meatloaf recipe ever?

I love meatloaf and meatballs, the price is right and the prep time and clean up is only about 10 minutes.

What I do it this....make the recipe above, it comes out perfect everytime. This recipe calls for 2 pounds of ground beef and makes 2 meals for the 5 of us. Mix the recipe as directed, and then bake half as a meatloaf and half as meatballs.

Freeze the leftover meatballs and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer. The next time you need fast food, the meatballs are already cooked. Just nuke to warm and toss into your spaghetti and you are good to go.

Make it once, clean it up once, eat twice, and no waste to boot. A truly frugal meal and great time saver for evenings when you are pressed for time.

Amazon Grocery Coupons and Promotion Codes for August 2008

2008-08-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Finally, here is an updated list of Amazon grocery coupon promtion codes for August 2008.

You'll notice a ton of savings here. Most have free shipping and offer savings over 35%. Some offers top 50% this month. Happy Savings!

August 2008 Amazon Grocery Coupon Codes and Special Promotions

$5 off Sun Crystals Natural Sweetener Expires 12/31/08

$5 off $19 Amazon coupon code Frito-Lay Snacks Assorted Varieties Use Amazon coupon promotion code TRUENRHT Expires 8/12/08

$5 off $29 Amazon coupon code for Timothy's World Coffee Use Amazon coupon promotion code KCUP4444 Expires 08/31/08

$10 off Amazon coupon code for Kraft Mac & Cheese-A-PaloozaUse Amazon coupon promotion code MACPRUIT Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $29 Amazon coupon promotion code for KA-ME Snack Mixes Use Amazon coupon promotion code KAME3333 Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $29 Amazon coupon promotion code for Stubb's Barbeque Sauces and Rubs Use Amazon coupon promotion code STUBBS29 Expires 08/15/08

$10 off $29 Amazon coupon promotion code for Sesmark Chips Use Amazon coupon promotion code SESMARK4 Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $29 Amazon coupon promotion code for Folgers, Millstone and Pringles Products Use Amazon coupon promotion code PRINGSTN Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $29 Amazon coupon promotion code for Izze Sparkling Juice Use Amazon coupon promotion code IZZEFIZZ Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $39 Amazon coupon promotion code for Jolly Time Popcorn Products Use Amazon coupon promotion code POPNJOLY Expires 08/31/08

$15 off $39 Amazon coupon promotion code for Mi-Del Cookies Use Amazon coupon promotion code MIDEL555 Expires 08/31/08

$20 off $49 Amazon coupon promtion code for G' Day Gourmet Canned Tuna and Salmon Use Amazon coupon promotion code SALMON08 Expires 08/16/08

$20 Instant Savings on Olay, Gillette, Secret, Crest, Prilosec, and More Use Amazon coupon promotion code AUG8PGOL Expires 08/31/08

15% Instant savings on Ito En Teas with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code TETEAS22 Expires 08/31/08

15% Instant savings on Silkenty Tea Gifts with Amazon coupon promotion code Amazon coupon promotion code CEYLONTE Expires 08/31/08

20% Instant savings on Haribo Candy with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code GUMM5555 Expires 08/31/08

25% Instant savings on Eden Grove Teas with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code TEALIFE4 Expires 08/31/08

35% Instant savings on Mrs. Leeper's & Eddie's Organic Pastas with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code GLFREE55 Expires 0831/08

35% Instant savings on Silk Soymillk Products with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code SILKSIL5 Expires 08/31/08

35% Instant Savings on Horizon Organic Milk Products with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon promotion code MILKMIL6 Expires 08/31/08

50% Instant Savings on Two Tiger Tiger Asian Foods Products with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code TIGERT55 Expires 08/31/08

50% Instant Savings on Zico Pure Coconut Water with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code COCONUT5 Expires 08/31/08

25% Instant Savings on Henry and Lisa's Natural Seafood with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon code ZGB8BH6R Expires 08/31/08

$10 off $25 Clearance Event with Free shipping Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code CLRANC78 Expiration: Limited to supplies on hand

$25 off $59 Back to Shcool Grocery Event with Amazon coupon promotion code Use Amazon coupon promotion code BTSBASIC Expires 08/31/08

I'll be posting a few more offers soon, but need to do a little more checking before I give them the thumbs up on savings. In the meantime, know that I'll be posting banners and offers for more free printable grocery coupons soon.

Liz

How Thrifty are Your Meals? Take the Foodstamp Challenge

2008-08-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

While researching a few new posts for use supermarket coupons, I recently came across the website for the food stamp challenge.

The program asks participants to stick to the food stamp budget for all of your meals and snacks for one week. The figure given was $21 per person per week per person. The thrifty plan was intended to be an emergency source of food for a person until a more adequate food supply could be found. Get more information on the food stamp challenge here and learn how to participate.

I took the challenge myself this week to see how good my shopping and savings skills really were and was surprised at the outcome. I was able to feed myself and family within the guidelines, but have to admit that sticking to the program without the use of my well stocked pantry was a challenge in itself. Our diet was more limited than we were used to, mainly because we did not have a well stocked pantry to add the variety we were used to.

Beyond the limitations of our diet, I was also frustrated with the lack of fresh produce that our limited budget provided. Even I had to admit as an experienced shopper and saver that my shopping and cooking habits would need to change if I were forced to stay on the program for long.

Lessons Learned

-While I regularly feed my family at about $25-$30 per week per person, the savings from stockpiling and using grocery coupons aggressively is the main strategy I use to keep our expenses down. Buying ahead for pennies on the dollar allows room in our budget for more fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy than the food stamp allowance would for most who suddenly found themselves in this position.

-Grocery prices are regional. Folks living on either the East or West coasts would have a hard time keeping this budget while still meeting their nutritional needs. I spent 10 days recently in the Midwest and was surprised to see just how much less expensive food is there on some items (20%-30%), on others it is about the same as my hometown.

-You need good shopping skills and some knowledge of how to cook to have any variety at all with this limited of a budget. If you were to suddenly find yourself without more than $21 a week per person and no skills whatsoever in terms of grocery shopping and couponing you might very well find yourself eating a steady diet of tuna, mac and cheese, hot dogs and cereal. As of today, the food stamp allowance has not yet been adjusted to take into consideration the recent inflation we have been experiencing. That said, even the modest allowance allotted means that your dollars won't go as far.

My time spent on the food stamp challenge was an eye-opener to a well educated consumer like myself. I learned a lot about my own shopping habits and found myself looking for ever more creative ways to save at the grocery store. I urge you all to give it a try. I'm glad I did. While I learned that my skills are good enough survive if I needed to, I wouldn't want to have this limited of a budget for long.

In light of my recent discoveries of just how important maintaining a well stocked pantry is in lean times I'll be starting a multi-post series on how to maintain a well stocked pantry.

Cheap Cooking Ideas: Easy Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe

2008-08-02T14:27:00.001-07:00

I have the best recipe for easy crockpot barbeque pulled pork. Dinner is ready as soon as you walk through the door with this delicious and simple crockpot bbq pulled pork recipe. Just toss together the ingredients on your way out the door in the morning and dinner is ready in the early evening. Tender and juicy this barbeque pulled pork recipe is easy on the budget and a great option for a busy day with little time for cooking.

In a large crockpot, set to low, combine the following:

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast

1 bottle barbeque sauce

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 Tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

garlic salt (optional)

Cook on low for 8-9 hours without lifting the lid of the crockpot. Meat should have the appearance of shredded pork when done. Serve either alone or on hamburger buns.

Serves 6 adults at a cost of $.97 per serving.

I love to make this recipe when we are busy all day and have only an hour for dinner before evening activities. If you are really in a rush you can prepare a coleslaw or potato salad ahead to serve as a side dish with crockpot bbq pulled pork.

Enjoy!

What is the Best Day of the Week to Grocery Shop?

2008-07-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

There is a secret to saving big when grocery shopping that few consumers know about, choosing the right day of the week to maximize grocery savings. I’m asked often what the best day of the week to grocery shop is, so often in fact that I am always surprised that so many people don’t know the correct answer. Anyone using supermarket coupons on a regular basis needs to know the answer to this question.

When I ask those who are doing the asking, what they think the best day of the week to grocery shop is they almost always either answer that “they don’t know” or that “it has to be the day the new ads come out.”

Are they right? What is your answer?

Get out the giant game show wrong answer sound effects buzzer if your answer was the same as theirs. If you answered that the day your local grocers beak new ads is best day of the week to shop you are incorrect. Technically the first day of a new ad flier is the worst day of the week to grocery shop with only a few exceptions.

Why? For a couple of sound reasons you may not have thought of.

First, if you think about it, the day the new ads break all have one thing in common. There will inevitably be giant, freshly built displays of the products featured both on sale and on loss-leader.

Why is this important? Well for one thing you will be sure to get the product that is advertised in the sales flier.

Ummm, what did you say? Why would you not want to buy the sale item? Well, what you really want is to buy the last sale item left on the shelf and then get at rain checks for multiple others if you are buying in bulk.

Stay with me here and follow my line of reasoning. Rain checks are good at the super low loss-leader sale price and protect you from price increases for 4 to 6 weeks in the future. If you use a coupon clipping service you can order more coupons and wait until they arrive and then use your rain checks, maximizing your savings.

With a rain check you also have the advantage of purchasing more products later when prices are higher, but still paying the lower price. If you change you mind you do not need to buy yet you still have the option. If you have one or two of the item left at home and might have made it to the next sale anyway, you may decide to wait it out until you run out. Not needing to buy exactly when the price is right saves you space in the pantry while still leaving your options open without the obligation to buy. If you don’t need to sink money into your food stores right now in order to save, why do it? You can still buy later if you need to when you run out.

Rain checks have another nifty benefit. They work really well on perishable items when you can only use a limited amount of product in a few days time without spoilage. I love it when I can find rain checks for deeply discounted fruit and vegetables. I get the benefit of a really good price without worrying about loosing money due to waste.

The best day of the week to scrounge for rain checks is on the last day of the sale, in busy high volume stores. High volume stores tend to run out of advertised items and you can usually find rain checks available unless the ad specifies “limited to quantities on hand.”

As big of a help to you grocery budget as the strategy of collecting rain checks can be, there is an even more important reason to shop on the last day of an ad cycle. You will already have the benefit of the next week’s sales flier having been delivered to your mail box.

With two weeks specials and money savings offers to work with, you will have a better idea on how to divvy up your grocery budget. If the sales are not worth bothering with this week you can wait to shop one extra day and allocate extra funds the next week’s ad. If the sales are better on the current week you can spend extra and skip the second week’s ad. You have more flexibility when you know how to plan.

So, when is it not a good idea to wait to shop until the last day of the ad? There are really only two good reasons. One, you have to shop when you can fit it into your schedule. Or, secondly, if you really need the loss-leader items and you want to be sure that they are still in stock when you shop. Otherwise, you can maximize savings by preplanning your purchases well and waiting until the last day of the ad.

What is the best day of the week to shop? The answer depends on the grocery chain you shop in. Ask any clerk or checker what day the new ad starts and they will happily supply this vital piece of information to you.

8 Things You Should Know About Grocery Shopping Cheap

2008-07-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

As I pondered the writing of this post I tried to think about the 8 things you should know about shopping cheap. I wanted to create the how to eat better for less bullet points, as it were.

While there are thousands of nuances to being a true grocery shopping guru, there really are only a few basic skills to master if you want to cut your grocery bills down to size. If you need a quick reduction in spending then here are the basics. These 8 must master strategies are listed in no particular order as they are all equally important.

:: Know yourself and your needs. Get to know yourself as a consumer. How much do you use of certain products in the course of a week or a month? I’m talking about doing the math here. Take a sharpie and mark bottles of shampoo or any other products you use day in and day out. Get a solid knowledge of how much you consume and how often you will need to buy. Knowing how much you use is vital to your savings plan. You’ll see why as we get to our next point.

:: Always buy on sale. Sale prices are 30%-50% off the full shelf price when products run on special. Grocers have a regular repeating ad cycle on almost every item in the store that runs between 3-6 weeks depending on the item. Know when the products you use the most run and buy enough to get you through to the next sale. Never, ever be caught paying full price.

:: Stockpiling is your friend. Know the sales cycle and embrace the sales cycle. Any nonperishable product, as well as those you can freeze and eat within a few months is a candidate for stockpiling. By stockpiling I don’t mean jamming the freezer, but purchasing just enough to ensure that you don’t get caught paying full price. You don't need to go overboard here unless the price is really a steal. See how the first two strategies build on this one? You want to buy just enough to ensure that you don’t have to pay the high dollar, but not so much that you will waste anything you buy.

:: Waste costs. I have seen estimates that food wasted in the average home ranges from 5-12% in most households. In dollars, a $150 grocery bill for a family of 6 means that you just threw out anywhere from $7.50 to $18.00 into the dumpster. Some families just learning to save are spending far more than $150.00 per week, so you get the idea. In a year you could be saving $390.00 to $936.00 or more that you didn’t even know you had. Use itall or loose it.

:: Coupons really do count. Every week I get asked if coupons are worth the time. My answer is always a resounding yes when used correctly! I save $50.00 a week with my coupons and get many products either free or for pennies on the dollar. Free is the best price in my book, all day long and everyday. Use coupons at double coupon stores or on double or triple coupon days if at all possible. Save your coupons for use when the product is already on sale and save an additional 30-50% just for having the patience to plan coupon use. I am often asked if you should ever use a coupon if an item is not on sale. My answer is sure, it's the second best choice if you need a to make a purchase and no sale can be found. Any savings is better than none. Don't forget that major retailers like drugstores, Target, Walmart and the commisaries if you are military also accept coupons.

:: Know your staples. Most people think that staples are products on your pantry shelves like flour and sugar, and they are. But, staples are also the large part of your shopping list that you buy every week or month or a regular reocuring basis. Staple items vary from family to family and generally comprise 60-75% of what we buy. Get to know the products you use the most and look for cheaper alternatives: generics and store brands are a good place to start.

:: Know the difference between the lowest every day price and a bargain. I know the cheapest place in town to buy my staple products. If I was really in need of laundry detergent, or health and beauty products you can bet I’d be heading to Walmart with coupons in hand. In my local area, unless there is a really good sale with a double coupon, Walmart’s price will beat anybody in town for staples on health care products and cleaning supplies. I take the time to make an extra stop and buy enough for months at a time to maximize my savings.

::Beware of impulse spending. Take a list, stick to the list and get in and out of the store as quickly as you reasonably can. The longer you shop the more you will spend.

If you are lost and perplexed about how to pare your grocery bills down to size as quickly as possible then start here. Mastering just these 8 strategies and being consistent with using them will save you over 50% off your grocery bills. You can fine tune and add extra strategies for savings later.

Cheap Cooking Ideas: What is Chicken Bullion?

2008-07-28T07:50:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while you get a question that surprises you. I have been cooking with cheap cooking ideas for so many years that sometimes I forget that cheap cooking is something new to some of us. It's good for me to remember to step back and remember the basics myself.

I got a question from a client I was working with this morning confused about how to save money by making chicken stock herself instead of buying the canned broth version at 4 times the price of homemade.

Most of us wrongly think that when we cook down a chicken carcass at home that we will be making chicken broth. Not so, we are really making chicken stock. Chicken stock is made from slowly cooking down and simmering the bony parts of a chicken, turkey, beef, pork or any other bone in meat. Stocks can also be made with a combination of vegetables and herbs like onion, garlic, celery, and parsley.

Stocks have a fuller mouth feel and richer flavor that do broths due to the gelatin that is released from the joints in the bones when they are long-simmered. Homemade stocks are cheap, flavorful and make wonderfully rich soups and stews. In my food snobbish opinion stocks are superior to broths because of the richness of their flavor.

Broths, on the other hand, are made from simmering the meat, rather than the bones, and tend to have weaker and less rich flavors. Be aware that some of the commercial broths on the market have very high sodium contents and are enriched with bullion to make their flavors stronger. Commercially prepared broths are $.79-$.99 per can at full shelf price, where as homemade broths are practically free.

Bullions are shelf stable and come in either grannular or cubed form. Chicken bullion is not the only bullion you can buy. Other flavors of bullion are vegetable, fish, turkey and beef although some flavors will only be available at gourmet shops and restaurant supplies. Most grocery stores carry chicken and beef bullion. You can use a small amount of bullion (really salty, and a little goes a very long way) either mixed as directed into an instant 'broth' or in granular form for quick flavor in soups, stews and gravies.

I keep a package of bullion on my shelf for the very occasional need. I don't buy prepackaged seasoning envelops or mixes due to their expense. One package of chicken gravy is a buck, while I can get a whole box of chicken bullion cubes at the dollar store for that much.

The real money saver here is to use your own stock or make your own gravies from defatted pan drippings rather than using instant seasoning packets. If the flavor is a little flat or weak I use a small amount of bullion to kick it up a bit.

From a health stand point bullions are not the greatest, so I use them very sparingly. Commercial bullions and spice mixes,for that matter, contain a lot of junk (salt, dehydrogenates fat, monosodium glutamate, dehydrated carrot flakes, dehydrated onion and garlic, sugar, chicken powders, antioxidants mix, and chemicals to make them shelf stable). As I've said, though a very little goes a really long way. I doubt small quantities of bullion will kill you...you've been eating it all your life. I still prefer the homemade stock when I have the option since it tastes better, is cheaper, and has none of the bad stuff in it for you.

What is chicken bullion? A little money saving secret that I stash in my cupboards to use instead of a more expensive seasoning packet of the same ingredients. I like to think of chicken bullion as a little insurance policy in my cupboards for the times when I am out of stock or need a quick punch a blander than desired dish.

Cheap Cooking Ideas: Cheaper and Better Nonstick Cooking Spray

2008-07-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

Have you ever taken a look at the ingredients list on a can of nonstick cooking spray? I don't need a degree in either nutrition or chemistry to know that some of that stuff isn't good for us. In my quest to find a cheaper and better nonstick cooking spray I came across this site with a wonderful recipe for nonstick baking.

Cheaper and Better Nonstick Cooking Spray

1/2c. Vegetable Oil
1/2c. Vegetable Shortening (like Crisco)
1/2c flour

Beat all ingredients in a blender until fluffy and white. Store in the pantry until use in an air tight container. To use, brush pans with a pastry brush. Approximate shelf life is 2 months at room temperature.

Notice that this recipe calls for equal parts of all ingredients. If you don't bake often you can make it up in smaller quantities to avoid waste and maximize your savings.

Cost Comparison

One full recipe ($1.34) equals about the same amount of cooking in 1 can of cooking spray ($3.95 on sale after double coupons).

Savings $2.61

I bake quite a lot and love this stuff. I have to admit that for muffins, cakes and baked goods this recipe is hard to beat.

Quick Healthy and Cheap Recipes: Quesadillas

2008-07-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with our series of quick healthy and cheap recipes, is my latest favorite quick lunch. I love cheese and living in the Southwest has no doubt influenced my love of spicy Mexican food. Nothing is better to me than a ooey, gooey, cheesy quesadilla. I simply love them. An added bonus besides the rock bottom price of this recipe is how quickly you can make these. Under 5 minutes on the stove top and your meal is done.

I find quesadillas a favorite way to use up leftover meats like chicken or pork with a little onion, garlic, avocado, or tomato added if you like. If you are out of the extras, just plain cheese and salsa or hot sauce is still a satisfying quick healthy and cheap recipe.

Quick Cheese Quesadillas

1 large four tortilla
2 oz shredded cheddar cheese or cojack cheese
vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray
optional ingredients: cooked chicken, beef or pork, onion, garlic, tomatoes, salsa, avocado, and sour cream.

Spray or grease a large skillet with either vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray, and warm the skillet over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add the tortilla, and brown lightly on one side. Turn the tortilla and add top with remaining ingredients evenly. Fold the tortilla in half and continue to brown until cheese is melted and toppings are heated through.

Cost Comparison: I buy flour tortillas at the dollar store 8 for a buck ($.13 used in this recipe), and cheese when on sale for under $2 per pound ($.25 used in this recipe). I can get an entire jar of salsa for $.99 when on sale with a double coupon ($.05 used in this recipe).

Total Cost per Serving: $.43

Frugal Blogs and Bloggers Perspectives

2008-07-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

Many of you may know that those of us that blog write for a specific reason...to share our points of view and knowledge with others. Being a new blogger, I am always interested in opposing points of view. A different perspective gives us the ability to fine tune our own philosophy and broaden our world through other's experiences.

As a new blogger, I too spend a fair amount of time doing research and reading opinions that differ from my own while questioning my own judgments in search of the truth. I don't just maintain this blog, but several others on various topics of interest to me. I must admit that blogging is a wonderful way to express yourself and take a stand on topics of interest to you.

I am surprised though, that on occasion some of the opinions I encounter have the ability to frustrate me beyond belief. I am a pretty open minded person and tend to let others have their say while trying to understand a point of view that differs significantly from my own.

Case in point, I was doing research on some frugal living blogs today and came across a rather...ahem...strongly worded point of view that pretty much stated that the media had whipped up the entire nation into a frenzy over the state of the economy. They further went on to state that we need to "stop listening about the price of eggs climbing from $2.00 to $2.15 unless you use 12,000 eggs per week in a commercial bakery."

This particular blogger was making a case for the fact that economies do cycle every so many years and that the media was presenting the alarmist nature of the inflation we are currently experiencing with predictions of gloom and doom.

Well, if you have been following along you will recall from my earlier posts that the food inflation rates have been greatly understated according to my rather unscientific study. Reliable and in depth national data on the current food inflation rate is usually released 3-6 months behind today's date to the general population. In the absence of hard facts, we must rely on our own observations, so my own unscientific observations are all I have to go on.

It is true that I live on the West coast and things are pretty expensive here in comparison to other parts of the country. We may have experienced a greater inflation rate than in other locations. Still, inflation at a rate of 30-40% on many of the staple products we use everyday is concerning.

While the post I read was well written and insightful I had to wonder if they realized the lack of service they had presented to their readers. Not everyone lives well below their means. Not everyone has a two income household. Not everyone has huge savings account or has maintained a frugal lifestyle leading into the current economic downturn. Certainly not everyone can be insulated from even the modest 7.5% inflation rates this post described. Since when did a 7.5% inflation rate not raise eyebrows?

I do agree that the media has hit the state of the economy pretty hard. They do tend to stir up the public and present a doomsday point of view. My concern is that if you are not well insulated from the current economic downturn that you take steps to protect yourself now. No doom or gloom about it, financial self defense is up to each of us.

Learn the skills you need to protect yourselves should the going get rough. I tend to take everything the media says with a grain of salt. In this case the blogosphere is included in media.

With any luck at all the current state of the economy will improve and won't get any rockier. Though I have to wonder if the full extent of the problem has been released in the statistics and studies currently available. So, shall we say that my official stand is one of caution. We may not know exactly what is going on although something surely is. So I wouldn't say that I'm alarmed just yet, just watching and waiting for more information.

Love them or hate them, opinions always have an opposing point of view. From my experience, the truth is usually somewhere on the middle ground.

What Makes a Recipe Cheap?

2008-07-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

As you are looking through your recipes trying to decide on a quick cheap meal have you ever wondered what makes a recipe truly frugal? A good example of a truly frugal recipe is the cheap breakfast recipe we posted a few days ago.

The cost of a recipe and how "good" a recipe tastes are actually two totally separate issues. Let me explain. The cost of a recipe is greatly influenced by your attention to controlling the price of ingredients, how well you shop, your desire to reduce spending, and your attentiveness to preplanned purchases. On the other hand, how good a recipe is perceived to be is totally subjective.

In truth, recipes are good if the meals they produce are both filling and satisfying. If the meal is flavorful, filling, and what you are craving then the simplest dish will taste good to you. You can go out to dinner, eat a $30.00 meal and still not be satisfied if the meal was not what you were wanting regardless of the price. To make cheap meals satisfying all you really need to do is select a cheap recipe to satisfy your cravings. Simple right? The trick is to amass enough cheap recipes to gaurantee a variety of inexpensive meals in your diet.

Take a look at the cheap breakfast recipe we posted a few days ago and tell me what you see. What did you notice about the ingredients and instructions for cooking?

At some point I asked the same questions. I figured, as a long ago starving student, if there was a common denominator for savings that I needed to find it. Saving money was not something I particularly wanted to do, it was a necessity. I needed a shortcut to spotting inexpensive recipes because my time was short between work and school. As it turned out, that common denominator was right before my eyes all the time.

The fewer ingredients you use, the cheaper your meals will be. Cheap and quick meal recipes all have one thing in common, they use very few ingredients. It goes without saying that the cost of each ingredient needs to be controlled to make the recipe be frugal in the end. Sorry, not steak and truffles with wine sauce here.

There are several advantages to using fewer ingredients besides controlling costs. First, fewer ingredients mean less time grocery shopping and we know what happens the longer we stay in the grocery store: we spend a lot more than we should.

Second, fewer ingredients make prep time much quicker. Cheap recipes are usually speed demons to prepare. We have less to slice, dice, chop and clean up. I love the simplicity of the preparation of most cheap meals.

Lastly, and most important is the controlling of waste. You can do everything right when you shop, but if only $5.00 worth of produce goes to waste then you have increased your grocery bill 5% on every $100.00 you spend. Cooking cheap recipes helps you control waste by using larger proportions of fewer ingredients. Less to buy means fewer perishables that can potentially spoil saving you from wasting what you worked hard to save.

All and all, I have to say that I love cheap recipes. They need not be boring, just creative. Be willing to try new frugal recipes every chance you get. Save the ones you love and build a solid list of easy and quick to prepare meals that are as satisfying as the recipes are cheap.

Deal Alert: Really Cheap Bagels, Bread and Pastry

2008-07-24T14:28:00.001-07:00

***Deal Alert***

From now on I will be posting great deals and money saving strategies as I find them. I don't want you to think that just using supermarket coupons is enough to reduce your grocery expenses. While coupon shopping is a fab strategy for saving, there are many other more subtle methods to help you save while shopping/

I was in one of the grocery stores close to my home when I learned something new today. Almost every grocery store with an in-store bakery marks down their day old breads 50% off or more every day. Nothing shockingly new to report there.

What is new though is what I learned from the clerk working in the bakery section, that all "day old products" are not necessarily day old. Depending on how early your store does it's markdowns, day old may mean less than 16 hours old or less.

The store nearest to me sells their in-store bagels for $.79 each. Once the bagels hit the markdown rack they are 6 for $.99, or 80% off the full store price. Nice savings, great quality product. These bagels are so big that I can easily get two breakfasts out of each one, for a cost per serving of just $.08 per meal. Talk about a quick, healthy and cheap breakfast when you are in a hurry.

I don't worry about products being stale when I purchase day old bakery products. Toasting will freshen most breads up, so you'll hardly notice anyway. Just toss them in the freezer and thaw just before toasting. I slice bagels before freezing to make the frozen bagels easier to handle as I need them. Just slice and freeze with the sliced sides out to prevent sticking and you'll be good to go in the mornings.

I used to buy my bagels either in the dollar store, or at the Orowheat Outlet store, where a pack of 5 good sized bagels was a buck. With this latest round of price increases, my favorite dollar store has switched brands and now the bagels come 4-pack and are much smaller. Not as good of a deal, but still significantly less than the full shelf price of major brands at $3.99 for 6, or the in-store bakery price of $.79 when freshly baked. The Orowheat store is a ways out from me, so with the price of gas lately I don't get there as often. It's nice to have options for savings close to home.

Other products on the markdown shelf are similarly priced. Most are a pretty good deal, though you'll need to keep your eyes open for the real gems.

My strategy? The freezer is my friend. If I like what I see on the markdown shelf and the price is right then I'll buy and freeze. If the price isn't right I keep on walking.

Quick Healthy and Cheap Recipes: Apricot Honey Oatmeal

2008-07-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

Oatmeal is one of my favorite really cheap, healthy and hearty breakfasts. When purchased either in bulk at the local health food store, or on sale with a double supermarket coupon oat meal is a tried and true healthy cheap alternative to much more expensive cold breakfast cereals. Apricot Honey Oatmeal is a quick to prepare morning meal that feeds 4 with generous 1 cup portions and my all time favorite cheap healthy and quick breakfast recipe.

Apricot Honey Oatmeal

3-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch all spice
2 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the honey, apricots and spices and simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the oats and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 1 minute for instant oats and 5 minutes for old fashioned oats stirring occasionally. Let stand until desired consistency is reached.

Microwave Instructions:

In a large microwave safe bowl bring the water, honey, apricots and spices to a boil. Stir in the oats. Microwave for 1-3 minutes stirring occasionally until desired consistency is reached.

Calories: 270, Calories from Fat: 25, Total Fat: 3g, Saturated Fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 10mg, Total Carbohydrates: 61g, Dietary Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 30g, Protein: 6g

Recipe Source: QuakerOatmeal.com

Cost Comparison: I buy the generic oats in bulk at my health food store for $.69 per pound ($.39 used in this recipe), dried apricots at the dollar store ($.69 used in this recipe), spices are also purchased at the dollar store ($.12) and honey on sale with a double coupon $1.69 per bottle ($.69)

Total Cost for 4 Servings: $1.89 ($.47 per serving)

I hope you enjoy my favorite cheap quick and healthy breakfast recipe. We will be making regular posts for breakfast, lunch and dinner as a regular feature.

What Else Do You Do While Grocery Shopping?

2008-07-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

It's amazing what you can learn about consumer behavior just by watching others shop. As you all know, I make my living as a grocery shopping consultant teaching people how to use coupons and save money. I spend a lot of time in the trenches showing others how to become better shoppers and I've seen a lot over the years. Modesty aside, I am pretty good at what I do and charge a hefty fee for my time.

I just went back to work after a wonderful 8 day vacation with my family and find myself particularly energized, creative and perceptive today. I spent several hours working with two clients in the field and wanted to relate to you how you may be overspending without even knowing it.

In just that two short hours in the store this is what I observed...not of my clients, but of those shopping around us:

1. About 20% of the shoppers in the store were distracted beyond belief while shopping. Most are on thier cell phones, many have small rather poorly behaved children with them, and some were even having full blown arguments with their spouses.

2. As we shopped I noticed something else that was particularly signifigant, very few had a shopping list and wandered the aisles aimlessly tossing things into their carts while doing the things listed above. If asked I'd wager that few could even tell you what they were buying, much less how much their total would be at the checkout. Impuse spending in action and to the extreme was what I witnessed.

3. Several of those around us were, how can I put this in a PC way? Ummm, not exactly in the best frame of mind for shopping. They were angry, tired, rushed, frustrated, inattentive, hositle, hungry or just downright unhappy. You get the point. The store was not particularly crowded, so you can imagine what the scene would be like in the afternoon on a weekend.

4. Very few had the tools to save. Maybe only 5% had even a few coupons with them. Fewer still had a sales flier. Very few shoppers had a list, pen or calculator.

I'm not judging here, just relating what I saw today. Folks, if you are really busy and I know most of us are, any preplanning is better than none. At the very least, go with a list, pen and sales flier. Clip at least a few coupons with high face values of $1.00 or over if you don't have time for the rest. Shop the sales and try to avoid impulse spending. If you aren't in the right frame of mind to do a big shopping trip then don't. The grocery marketers know how to make us spend, it's their job and they are good at what they do.

The guy in the cartoon at the begining of this post might be smiling while he shops, but I'd bet he's not so thrilled when he pays the bills at the end of the month. Likely he's the one asking why his food bills why everything is so expensive.

Deal Alert: Really Cheap Eats

2008-07-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

***Deal Alert***

Need a really quick way to save big money when time is short and you forgot your grocery coupons? If you live in Arizona, California, Nevada, or Texas just head on over to the nearest $.99 Only Store.

A bargain grocery shopper's dream, the 99 Cent Only sotres in my local area are a deal not to be missed.

What do the $.99 Only Stores carry? All the fixings for a really inexpensive meal...dry goods, dairy, deli, frozen, produce and bakery as well as paper products, cleaning supplies and much more.

I've recently found huge savings on Bertolli frozen pastas (regularly $5.99), Lean Cuisine frozen pizzas (regularly $2.50 on sale), Lean Cuisine entrees (regularly $2.50 on sale), 3-pack yellow, red and orange bell peppers (regularly $3.99 per pound), Romaine Lettuce Hearts (regularly $2.99 on sale), 5-pound red potatoes (regularly $3.99) and Planters Peanut Bars (regularly $4.99) just to name a few. These deals are excellent in my local area when compared to the bigger chain grocery stores down the street. Some purchases beat the rock bottom prices I could get at other stores even with double coupons and sale pricing combined, now that's a deal!

The best deals in the store? Frozen dinners, produce (many major brands Grimmway, Dole and Chaquita), snack foods, cereal and bakery items, salad dressings, pasta sauces, nuts and dried fruits, personal care items, aluminum foil, and zip lock bags.

Like any other deep-discount supermarket or dollar store, products move through quickly and perishable items may be hit or miss a day or two out of the week. Check both the quality and expiration dates on perishable items and be selective with your purchases.

When I find a great deal on name brand products like Lean Cuisine or Bertolli I tend to buy as much as we reasonably expect to use within a month. Meals under a buck are hard to beat when you need a quick lunch and are trying to avoid the nearest fast food joint.

Shopping at the 99-Cent Only Stores is a great strategy if you are either on a really tight budget, or just looking to purchase specific items at deep discounts.

Chrisitne Jory has written an exellent companion cookbook for the $.99 Cent Only Stores shopper. She has created over 100 tasty gourmet recipes using only products purchased at the $.99 Only Stores in her area. Even if you don't have a 99-Cent Only Store near you I was really impressed with the recipes she has created in this book. She has some unique ideas that I had never seen before and her recipes require few enough ingredients to inexpensive regardless of where you shop. My whole-hearted recommendation to Jory's book, this veteran of the cheap meal wars is humbled. The best $10 I've spent in a long time to be sure.

Find a 99-Cent Only Stores near you

Happy bargain hunting!

Quick Cheap Recipes

2008-07-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

In response to several recent emails asking for quick cheap recipes, we are going to be adding a new regular feature to the Use Supermarket Coupons blog…cheap healthy recipes. We are all pressed for time, and always looking for a cheaper and healthier alternatives to eating out.

If only cooking was not so time consuming, perhaps we would all do more of it. I love to cook, and get great pleasure from presenting my family with a home cooked, healthy, delicious and inexpensive meal. The only drawback is of course time in the middle of a busy work week. Quick cheap recipes are not just a goal, but rather a necessity.

The truth is that quick cheap healthy recipes are not so difficult to come by. To be honest, I have saved and adapted quite the repertoire over the years. Options for variety in our diet for quick cheap healthy recipes are definitely not the issue, finding the time to cook in the middle of the work week is another story all together.

We have one hard and fast rule in our house. Cooking during the week needs to be fast and efficient, under 30 minutes is the norm. We are probably not so different from any other household with kids and teens, during the week our evenings are jam packed with activities. Half an hour to get dinner on the table is all we can spare consistently, so half an hour is our time limit. Although 30 minutes of cooking and prep time is always the goal for dinner, other meals need to be quicker still. Time is just too valuable to waste during any part of our busy days.

Starting tomorrow, we will be rolling out our new feature begining with inexpensive quick and easy to prepare breakfasts and progressing on to lunches and dinners. Our goal will always be to offer healthy, quick and cheap recipes that appeal to your entire family while answering the age old question “How can I eat for cheap?”

Eating cheap is not the only goal for those of us seeking to pare down our grocery expenses. Maintaining a healthful diet while making food preparation simple and less time consuming makes the task so much easier. A large number of healthy quick cheap recipes are a must have strategy in reducing your grocery spending.

Just a Quick Note

2008-07-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to let you all know that I will be taking a much needed vacation form 7/12 to 7/22. I'll be back with more money saving tips and grocery shopping tricks starting on 7/23.

Liz

I'm a Big Time Lover of Freebies

2008-07-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it, but in some ways I am absolutely cheap. Yep, as cheap, cheap, cheap as cheap it gets. I have one hard and fast rule, to make my money go as far as it can for every purchase I make. In my book, cheap is good, cheapest is better, free is best, and money back for purchasing something with a rebate is the holy grail of bargain hunting. Whenever you can get a product free and make money at the same time for your efforts, that's a bargain!

You may have also noticed from the title of my blog that I, well to just come out and say it, have a little addiction problem...coupons and promotion codes to be exact. Lucky for me that little addiction matches perfectly my tendency to go beyond being a frugal shopper, search for the holy grail and actually enjoy it. No doubt about it, I love a bargains and deals. In this case, I'm proud to be cheap.

I view my cheapness as a positive part of my person. If I'm cheap in someways, I certainly hang on to enough of my income to put it to good use for some exceptionally worthy causes. In the case of charities, I definately never want to be cheap, but rather the opposite. It all comes down to a matter of priorities doesn't it? I've managed realize that there are times to be cheap and then again, times you should be anything but. Ahhh, the benefits of maturity!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being either cheap or a big time lover of freebies. I simply get a perverse pleasure out of finding a deal and legally beating the marketing industry at it's own game. It's legal, couponing and rebating is free, and I get some really great stuff for nothing. For many of us devoted bargain hunters it's the thrill of the chase that keeps us always looking for the next exceptional deal.

Freebies and bargains abound, all you need to do is keep your eyes open for them. I was shopping online at Amazon grocery yesterday, just browsing through their clearance bins and somehow ended up on their MP3 download pages. Did you know that they have a free list of music downloads that changes almost everyday? Free stuff for the asking always seems to get my attention in a big way. I browsed their selection wondering if I would see anything I wanted. If it's free I'll usually give something a shot to see if I'll like it and music is no exception. I have found some of my favorite products buy getting an item for free, so I reasoned that free music might also widen my musical tastes a bit.

Then I found it, the next REALLY great deal. Did you know that in addition to their free downloads list, Amazon also offers thousands of tracks of music for free download buy almost every imaginable artist?

Yeah, I was surprised too. You need just 5 Pepsi stuff points for a free track of most songs in their catalog. Just search by artist or title and there is a button for "purchase" with Pepsi Stuff Points.

My kids drink this stuff anyway, so we may as well save the codes and get the free music. This promotion is a phenomenal offer that will last through Dec 31st of this year, so you still have lots of time to make a dent in your music wish list.

Now, don't send me emails saying that soft drinks aren't frugal, and it'll ruin your health to drink that stuff, and you'll never reduce your grocery bills if you keep buying junk food. I know it, and I'm not encouraging you. I'm also not going to tell you to go and buy a bunch of soda just to get the codes so you can get the free music downloads. I'm only trying to make a couple of points.

First, as consumers, we all have those few luxuries we refuse to give up. Moderate amounts of soda and junk food are mine. I try to keep my consumption to the point where our grocery bills are reasonable, and I won't destroy my health. We are all deserving of a vice or two if done in moderation. So my first point is this, you do not need to give up everything to get your grocery bills under control. You simply need to make some reasonable decisions as to how many luxuries you should allow and then keep an eye on the quantities.

Second, if you are buying a product anyway and someone is offering you something for free...at the very least keep an open mind and check out the offer! Cross marketing between grocery products and non-grocery products has become a common practice in recent years. If you are going to spend the money anyway, take full advantage of any freebies or promotions that are offered.

Hope you all enjoy the free music. I have a feeling I'm going to have to fight my teenagers for my share of the freebies on this one!

Liz

July Amazon Grocery Coupon Codes and Promotion Codes

2008-07-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

I know that by now you are either all officially addicted to using supermarket coupons every time you shop, or at the very least loving the savings you are seeing in your food bills. Time to take your savings to a whole new level. Check out the savings to be had with Amazon grocery coupon codes and promotion codes for some really low prices on shelf-stable nonperishable products for your pantry.

As I promised in my last post, How to Save Money on Gas while Grocery Shopping, I have put together a list of Amazon grocery coupon codes and promotion codes and will be updating this list monthly for your convenience.

If you haven't tried their Amazons grocery delivery service yet, I highly recommend that you take a look at what they have to offer. I just had my third order delivered yesterday and they are fast becoming one of my lesser known favorite places to look for a really good deal on nonperishable grocery and health care items. Their marketing strategy is to get you through the door with some really good loss-leaders on their promotions and push volume by offering cases and half cases of products.

Well, when the prices are this low, I don't mind buying in volume. With the grocery chains getting singy on their sale pricing as the economy slows Amazon's grocery coupon codes and promotion codes make it alot easier to save on the larger quantities my family needs. Even better is the advantage of shopping from home without needing to drain my gas tank.

Amazon Grocery Coupon Codes and Pomotion Codes for July

Clearance Spectacular***Save $10 on $25 on Selected Clearance Items

Save 50% on Select Tea Chests

Save $10 today when you buy any eligible Jordan Pruitt CD combined with any eligible Kraft Macaroni & Cheese product

Save $20 Instantly on Kashi Natural Foods

Save $15 on Splenda Products

Save $20 Instantly on Bear Naked Products

Save Up to 50% on Loma Linda and Worthington Canned Foods

Get $15 Instant Savings on Kellog's Cereal Products

Save $5 on Lipton's, Wishbone, Hellmann's and More

Save 25% on Glenny's Snacks

$5 Instant Savings on Ciao Bella Gelati and Sorbetti

Save 25% on Ragu Pasta Sauce Pouches

$12 Instant Savings on Amazin' Raisins

Save 25% on Good Health Snacks

$15 Instant Savings on Caffe D'arte Coffee

$15 Instant Savings on Select Kraft Summer Beverages

$10 Instant Savings on Vita Coco Coconut Water

$15 Instant Savings on Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, and More

$25 Instant Savings on Mr. Z Beef Jerky

$10 Instant Savings on South Beach Living Diet Products

$15 Instant Savings on Select Monogram Meat Snacks

Save 50% on RK Foods Rice Dishes

Today's Farm Freeze-Dried Snacks: Buy Two, Save $15

$15 Instant Savings on Camano Island Coffee

Save 40% on Red Bone Alley

Save 30% on Havana Beverages

$5 Instant Savings on Sun Crystals Natural Sweetener

Stash Iced Tea: Save up to 40%

Familia Cereal: Save up to 35%

Happy online grocery shopping and saving everyone!

Liz

How to Save Money on Gas While Grocery Shopping

2008-07-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

I don’t need to tell you that the high price of oil and gas seems to be a sign of the times. Like it or not, high prices are here to stay for the immediate future at least. One of my favorite money saving strategies used to be shopping for loss-leaders at multiple grocery chains and using double supermarket coupons to get free or nearly free products. While I was never a fan of using this strategy to its full potential due to time considerations, I was not above making an extra stop if the price was right. In my book, free or pennies on the dollar is the right price and worth the effort.

After my observations this past holiday weekend, I realized that grocery marketing specialists have a new tool in their tool box. The grocery chains know that we as consumers will be increasingly less likely to price shop at multiple food chains as the price of gas climbs further still. Not only do we live busy lives, if laziness doesn’t make us spend top dollar, then the price of gas will surely make us much more tolerant of paying the full shelf price. That is, provided that the prices on selected products are raised both subtly and strategically. Why would we spend extra time and gas if the savings were not truly worth the effort? It just doesn’t make sense to work harder and not smarter. As consumers, we are pretty programmed to take the path of least resistance.

If you missed my post on really sneaky grocery marketing strategies, be sure to read through it and you will see what I am talking about. Strategically placed price increases are more likely to be tolerated if you simply don’t have the time, energy or desire to seek out a better price.

Most of you will recall that I got a great deal of pleasure from spotting the newest grocery marketing strategy and beating them at their own game. After I posted yesterday I had to do some more thinking about how to create a new savings strategy to save money on gas while grocery shopping.

If high prices on gas are here to stay for awhile, it’s up to each of us to figure out a defensive strategy to keep our own spending and food budgets under control. It goes without saying that saving money on gas while grocery shopping will become increasingly more important as we get farther into our current inflation cycle.

Why is this so important? Well, the current increase oil and gas prices are primarily responsible for the inflation in food prices and other consumables. Our paychecks aren’t rising as rapidly so we need to take a defensive stance just to break even.

Increased gas prices cause the wholesale cause the cost of raw ingredients to be higher for food manufacturers, which in turn causes the wholesale price of the finished food products to increase. Higher wholesale prices mean higher retail prices for consumers. When profits get pinched either at the wholesale or retail level, fewer consumer incentives like grocery coupons or loss-leader sales are offered to consumers. You will remember from our previous discussion that incentives to the grocery chain from the food manufacturer are the main factors that ultimately drives sale cycles and saves us money as consumers and end purchasers.

Now, I don’t have an economics degree but I think most of you will see the truth in my line of reasoning when I say that ultimately it is the end user that will bear the increased expense. To put it more bluntly, that’s us!

The people who deliver the raw ingredients to the food manufacturers will make their profits up front. The food manufacturer will do what it needs to do to make enough profits to stay solvent. The grocery chains have low profit margins to begin with and need to stay in business too. So there you have it, we are the ones who ultimately will pay the price increases as the consumer and end users.

What makes the current economic climate so frustrating is that we really do get hit multiple times and from multiple different directions. Products we must buy to live have rapidly rising prices, and there is nothing to be done but watch. We don’t have control what incentives are offered, how often they are offered, or sale pricing the grocery chains offer. We surely don’t have control over the price of gas, although most of us wished we did.

At the same time that prices are out of control, many of the strategies we would use to save money just aren’t being offered to the extent that they were as recently as several months ago.

What can we do then? The short answer is to work smarter, and saving money on gas while grocery shopping is one option. I still shop multiple grocery chains, but you can bet that I consider carefully how far I have to drive to get to another store and if the savings is worth the money and time to make the trip.

Here’s my simple plan how to save on gas while grocery shopping:

- Make every mile count. Arrange your shopping trips to minimize the distance you spend driving. Take a cooler if you need to in the summer months, but commit to being efficient. Start with the store farthest out and make your way home.

-Be aware. I paid $4.33 a gallon for gas today as I write this. If you use just one extra gallon of gas to make an extra couple of extra stops out of your way, then you have inadvertently increased a $100 food bill by 4.33%. Ouch!! As if the inflated price of groceries wasn’t enough. Make sure you purchase enough and save enough to make additionalstops worth both your time and money.

-Shop less often. I plan ahead for 2 weeks at a time and stock my pantry and freezer to the brim. Most of my purchases are selected to get us through a 2 week food plan, with a few extra days just in case. I may need to buy few perishables like milk or produce at the corner mid way through, but not much. Shopping every other week has two other advantages besides the gas savings: I save time and reduce the chance for impulse spending.

-Shop online. Believe it or not, Amazon has an amazing grocery section with specials and free delivery on all grocery items. Their coupon codes and promotions are a fantastic value on pantry stable nonperishable items. I’ll be making and updating a comprehensive grocery promotion codes list for you every month and I highly recommend Amazon's grocery department. Case in point, Amazon had a June clearance event that scored me a case of Sweet and Salty granola bars (12 boxes) for $15.00 including the free shipping. My net cost was only $1.25 a box. When I checked the shelf price at my usual supermarket the price was $4.29 on just one box. My savings on 12 boxes was a whopping $36.48 just for keeping an open mind and doing my research. Don’t be afraid of the quantities, most pantry products will hold at least 6 months when stored correctly. Over the years our family has found that we just tend to eat more of what we have on hand and less of what we don't. See this months sales, coupons and promotion codes.

Summing Up the Savings
In conclusion, I want to stress that shopping at multiple chains for loss-leaders and using double supermarket coupons is still both a valid and useful money saving strategy. I use this strategy all the time and will continue to use it in the future unless the time, effort and cost simply doesn’t save me enough to bother.

I merely wanted to get you thinking about the circumstances when it is best to bite the bullet and fork over an extra dollar for one item versus the times when making an extra stop or stops makes little sense.

Most importantly, I have also been reminded of the value of being open to new ways of shopping to secure savings. I have to admit, even as a well seasoned bargain hunter, that I had not tried Amazon’s grocery service. I was surprised at the value they offer and will be sure to include them in my list of favorite and cheap grocery resources from now on. Who knows if the sale pricing at my local supermarket will become increasingly stingy as the price of gas pushes costs higher still. I’m all for many options for savings, and am glad to have found another savings resource on groceries.

If I have learned nothing else over the last few days, it is that marketing changes all the time to reflect current trends. If we get too comfortable that we know how to beat the system, we are the ones that will pay the price in the end for our complacency. Savings oppertunities are everywhere, though it is up to us to take the responsibility to find the options in our local area. When I did the math I was surprised just how much of a difference one gallon of gas could impact the bottom line. I learned that even a seasoned bargain hunter needs to save money on gas while grocery shopping.