Grocery Coupons Offer a Source of Free Food

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.