We don’t need no stinking coupons
Some people love to find and use coupons at the grocery store. It’s a good way to save money. You could buy a $1.50 Sunday newspaper and end up saving $40 on groceries and other items you need just by cutting and using a bunch of coupons.
Other folks aren’t too crazy about coupons. They consider them a hassle and don’t like how much time they have to spend at the checkout counter in order to take advantage of them. Fortunately for them, there are quite a few additional ways to save money at the grocery store. Here are seven of them:
- Buy what’s in season. This can apply to non-perishables, but it’s really geared mostly toward produce. Buy and eat (or buy and freeze) fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in season because they’ll be more expensive when they’re not in season. By the way, oranges might be in season during your coldest months.
- Buy what’s on sale. Pretty much every item goes on sale at some point. Stock up on items when they’re on sale and hopefully they will carry you over until the next sale on that item.
- Buy store brands. I know people who won’t do this because they believe store brands are inferior, but when they take a taste test, they can’t tell the difference. That’s because some of these foods are the exact same products sold in different packaging under different brand names at higher prices.
- Ask about markdowns. With some foods such as baked and dairy items, some stores will mark them down at certain times of the day. Ask about those scheduled markdowns and purchase those items after that time.
- Try a different store. Every once in a while, check out a discount grocery store you have not visited before or haven’t been to in a while. It’s very likely you will see some prices that compare favorably with prices you’re used to paying at your regular store.
- Utilize store loyalty programs. Get the free card your store offers for this and use it every time you shop there. If you can save $5-10 each time you buy groceries, you’ll probably end up saving about $500 a year.
- Use what you buy. This seems so simple, but if you’re a typical consumer, you probably throw away hundreds of dollars’ worth of food every year. Make a point to only buy groceries that you are confident you’ll use, then make sure you consume them before returning to the store.
Are you a coupon clipper? If not, have you used any of the methods above to save money at the grocery store? What other strategies do you use to save money when you go shopping? I’d love to hear about them.
6 Comments
Wow, there are a lot of good ideas here. So here is mine: 1.) grow your own foods. What’s that you say you can’t – sure you can. When you go shopping what do you usually get, when it comes to fruits and vegetables? Onions? you can grow the yourself. The same for zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and so on. The great thing is that it doesn’t take that much space. (I got my seeds from http://www.survivalseeds4patriots.com) (Thanks Frank)
2.) Fruits that come from trees like cherries, apples, oranges, tangerines, and pears and so on. All you have to do is find someone that has these trees already and ask them if you can have some. Chances are they will let you of allow you to pick your own. I have a few of these fruiting trees and I always have more than I can handle. I end up giving my excess to the food bank. If everyone that has fruiting trees and donate their surplus to the food banks then we as a people would really put a dent into hunger.
3.) Each year I go out and find a ranch that will sell me a calf. They raise the animal for me. Then when it comes to slaughtering time I split the cost between a few others that have put in for the steer. We each split the meat evenly and the rancher also gets a cut of the meat since they raised the animal for us. This is their price for keeping an eye on our interest. The same way for chickens and eggs. (Keep the animals on the farm but I reap the benefits when I share in the cost of raising them. (If your a farmer or a rancher doing business this way helps keep your farm running. Just think when you need x-amount of money to pay for watering your trees or produce. Sell a share of your produce in advance for x-amount of produce.
$.) I only buy certain items that I can’t get readily like flour, spices, salt, butter and milk (but the way the prices have risen lately I may get a milking cow on the same ranch that I have my beef at and milk the animal for the butter fat rich milk and make my own butter.) But you get the point.
I hope this will open avenues of opportunity for thought for you fine folks. I use to spend about $100. per week on groceries. Now I spend about $100. per month.
1) shop in cycles to stock up on categories
2) try to make a garden or shop at stands
3) figure out how to make soups. Go online try tortilla soup. You’ll get hooked when you see the savings and the tastes.
4) adopt a couple baked recipes – use mixes or pie crust if you need to.
5)buy melting chocolate and a couple molds
at Walmart the kids will have fun.
6)find new ways to make your home focused on warmth and sharing. My grown kids talk all the time about the fun we had!
Like others I do not use coupons because they are usually for processed foods. Beyond frozen veggies (occasionally) I only shop the parimeter
Great ideas and comments. Here are a few more:
1. Seems counter-intuitive, but EAT less! Most Americans overeat, which is also wasteful and leads to obesity, diseases, and injuries.
2. Combine coupons with sales, preferring stores that double the coupon. Also combine coupons with clearance items. They may need to be entered by hand, since the UPC may be covered.
3. Make large batches of food, and freeze them in containers that will serve your family size for 1-2 meals when thawed. Transfer to fridge a couple of days before you need it.
4. Weigh produce, even the kind that is already measured. Some bags or containers weigh more than others.
5. Freeze scraps of leftovers to make soup.
6. Freeze over-ripe fruit for smoothies or popsicles.
7. Always purchase items by comparing the unit price. It unit prices don’t match (dry vs. liquid measure, etc.) then compare reconstituted amount or number of laundry loads, for example.
8. Use wax cereal and cracker box liners instead of wax paper or for freezing items before placing them in freezer bags.
9. Avoid aluminum foil, as it is the most expensive way to wrap your foods. Sometimes only foil will do, but think first if something else will work for a much lower cost.
10. Use cloth towels and napkins, sponges, etc., instead of paper towels and paper napkins. You can sanitize sponges in the dishwasher (bottle nipple cage), or microwave, or clothes washer. People just give me cloth napkins because they don’t want to “bother”, and I have used them for a family of 6 for 10 years. Do the math.
I rarely use coupons, because most of them are only for items that are overpriced and I don’t buy anyway. The store where I shop has a clearance bin with items marked at 75% off. Usually they are going to be discontinued or nearing their expiration date, but I have found quite a few good things there, including specialty organic foods that I would not pay full price for.
Regarding store brands, it depends on the item. If the taste, nutritional value, and ingredient list are as good as the name brand, I will buy them. I have actually found some store brands that are better than the name brands.
Anything that is not perishable or will fit in my freezer that I normally buy anyway, I will stock up on when it is on sale.
I have mixed feelings about buying and freezing fresh fruits and vegetables in season. Unless there is a really good sale, I don’t know if I save enough over buying them already frozen to warrant the time and extra freezer space involved. Of course anything I grow myself above what I can eat fresh gets frozen or otherwise preserved.
Another thing to watch is package size. Often, but not always, the super family size is less expensive per pound than the smaller sized packages, even when the smaller package is on sale. I do that with non-perishables, and also meat, which I will divide into single-portion sizes, place in plastic sandwich or snack bags inside another container and freeze until needed.
Two things I have observed about using coupons:
1. Often the store brand is cheaper than the brand with the coupon, even after taking into account the coupon discount. This seems to be especially true of vitamin supplements.
2. If you are not careful, you will use coupons to purchase items or junk foods that you normally would not have bought had you not had the coupon. So did you really save money doing that??? No! You SPENT money!
That said, using coupons carefully and wisely can benefit. I’m not much into coupons unless I happen to get one for something I would have bought anyway, but I’ll pass on a coupon if the store brand is cheaper.