Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Grocery Shopping

How do you shop for groceries? Do you shop once a month, every two weeks, or do you make several weekly runs to the store only when you need certain items?

I used to like to shop every two weeks when my husband got paid. Now I try to shop weekly on a Wednesday or Thursday AFTER the new grocery store sales ads have come out and before the stores get real crowded before the weekend. Sometimes if I am out on Monday mornings I will pop into stores to see if they've reduced their meats from the weekend - you can generally catch some great sales on Monday mornings - but Monday is often my day to catch up on computer work/bookwork from the weekend so it's not often I'm out doing errands anymore.

I discontinued our newspaper subscription several months ago when I realized we could read all the news online for free and since we are trying to cut corners everywhere this would be a great place to start. At first I missed things like my grocery circulars and coupons, etc but I quickly found out that by going to my favorite store's website and signing up with them they now email me their weekly ad! We do still purchase the Sunday paper from the newstand because I can get my coupons and it's nice to have that big thick Sunday paper to lay around and read on our lazy Sunday afternoons after church - when I don't even think about turning on the computer!

Okay, so I like to shop at Winn-Dixie. I get my Winn-Dixie ad emailed to me and I click on the ad and it opens up in my browser. I quickly flip through it and add items to "my basket". (I can look through my coupons I have on hand either while I am making my list or check my list against my coupons after I have printed it out - I look at my coupons so much I have a pretty good idea of what coupons I have and what I don't have.)

When I'm done with that I can review my list or go ahead and print it out. This is the best part because after I have printed out my list and checked to see what coupons I have to match the items on my list, if I don't have a coupon for a certain item then I go online to Google and type in "that item coupon" or the name of the company and find a coupon to match that item!
I have been doing this for over a month now and I am amazed at the great coupons I've found that I can just print out online from these companies!

Here's a for instance. I decided I wanted to purchase some Tennessee Pride Sausage which is on sale this week 2 rolls for $5.00 but I didn't have a coupon for it. So I googled "Tennessee Pride Sausage" and it took me to this website where I found this coupon for $1.00 off 2 rolls of Tennessee Pride Sausage. So now I'm paying 2/$4.00.

I've been doing this for the last month and I am really impressed with how much money I've been able to save on our grocery bill. I'll know better at the end of the month after I have tracked this WHOLE month if I have cut our grocery/food expenses down...but as of right now I'm on the right track!

1 comment:

Rebekah said...

I try. I try. I try. To clip coupons. Well, my problem isnt cutting them out, its actually taking them to the store with me.

I end up with a wad of paper that I never use, they expire, and I through them away.

I try to plan meals and shop once a week. If I let it go longer than that, my cart gets entirely tooooo fulll.