Grocery

I have finally worked out a way to save money on our bigger grocery shopping trips that only takes about an hour or two of prep and seems to work better than any other method I have tried.  I thought I would pass along the info in case it helps anyone else.

1.  Keep a list on the fridge at all times so things you are running low on can be added.  Get everyone to help with this, it's annoying when you get in from the store and your child says, "Oh, did you pick up toothpaste, we are out."  Well, no I did not KNOW you were out!  If only mind reading came with the uterine package.

2. Make your menu out at least a week ahead. If you have a store you favor, use the sale paper to help guide your menu.

3. Add more snacks than you think you will go through.  Or whatever else your family seems to plow through.  You only want to go shopping once.

4.  Gather up your current coupons, the ones you clip from packaging and get in the mail. 

5.  Go online and print out coupons for as many items on your menu and running low list as possible.

6. Make your shopping list, grouping items into where they are found in the store.  I do a general area list: natural foods, produce, canned/boxed, dairy and frozen.  Split your coupons into the same sections so you can check quickly in the store for size or type limits.  This also saves time at the check-out when you can pull out the coupons you end up not using before you are in line.

7.  Make a note by each item of how many coupons you have or how many you need to buy for the coupon to work.

Here is our latest grocery trip, the total was $258 before coupons.  We saved a total of $75.41 with the store card and coupons.

Don't get sucked in to just using the coupons, check store brands against the coupon price and go the cheaper route.
Don't use a coupon for things you don't regularly buy.  The exception to this is when you want to try a new product. 

That's enough for our family of 5 to eat for about 10 days plus extra goodies for our camping trip. 

I don't have a magical place to get all my coupons, I just google the item I want plus the word coupon. 

Get on a couple coupon e-mailing lists and subscribe to your favorite stores e-mail list for upcoming sales.

Many times when you print a coupon, you can go back and print one more at the same time.  This is helpful when it's a bulk item like cereal or pasta.

It only takes a couple of hours each trip, spread out over a few days.  Saving even $40 for 2 hours of effort is a good trade-off when you are an at-home mom.  Not many other household tasks give you back $20 an hour!