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Top Ten Tips to Saving at the Grocery Store

by Lisa Leete

I save at least 40% on each grocery store trip because I am diligent in following these tips.  You, too, can practice these smart shopping practices and the savings will be yours: 

1.  Prepare!!  Know what’s on sale AND know what ingredients you will need for your meal preparation that week.  Hopefully there will be a lot of overlap between those two categories.

2.  Make a list.  Tedious, yes, but you won’t remember everything you need, and then you won’t have what you need for your meal prep, and you’ll end up at the local takeout!

3.  If it’s on sale, don’t be afraid to stock up.  The groceries I bring home often look really ”lopsided“ – I may have 6 jars of peanut butter one week, then 8 boxes of granola bars the next.  By shopping this way, we are always using items bought at the lowest price.

4.  If you have a coupon for an item, buy the smallest size you can.  This usually results in the best per unit price.  Of course, if a larger size is on sale and the smaller size isn’t, the larger size may well be the better deal.

5.  Shop at a store that doubles coupons, nuf said!

6.  Subscribe to your Sunday paper, twice!  I actually get the Sunday Union Tribune and the Sunday Los Angeles Times.  Twice the reading, twice the coupons.  The coupons by far cover the cost of the subscriptions.

7.  Get coupons online, from magazines, from the store circulars, from product labels, and anywhere else you might find them!

8.  Don’t be brand loyal.  Buy the brand on sale that week, unless you are really attached to a certain item.

9.  Try new products.  When new grocery items are introduced, you can often get them for almost free for several weeks as the stores put them on sale and the manufacturer issues lots of coupons to get people to try the new item.  I’ve been getting free Tava soda from Vons for about 4-5 months now!

10. Use your freezer!  If meats, bread, tortillas, cheese, or other ”semi-perishables“ are on sale, stuff your freezer.  For the next several weeks, you’ll be using these items at their lowest price.

It’s FUN to watch the checker run the coupons and then tell you how much you saved.  The better ones will get excited for you if you do really well.

Lisa Leete is a San Diego Bargain Mama Columnist, and the owner of Thrifty Kitchen.com, a great online savings resource, which offers quick & easy dinner recipes based on weekly grocery sale items.  Be sure to check out her site, where she will share with you the strategies she has learned to keep her family’s grocery bill reasonable without leaving her family feeling deprived in any way.  Save time, save money, eat well!