Saving Money at the Grocery Store with the Internet & Coupons

Travel with me as I explore how to reduce my grocery bills. A while ago, I looked over the amount of money I spent at the food store in one year and was flabbergasted. I was an occasional coupon user and thought I did a pretty good job at saving money at the supermarket. I decided to challenge myself to become more frugal. I wanted more money in my pockets and not in the pockets of corporate America. The journey to saving money on groceries has been a learning process. I engulfed myself in research and have found different ways to meet this goal as time passed.

It all began when I searched for “grocery coupon website” on the internet. I came across two websites that seemed to have potential, CouponMom.com and TheGroceryGame.com. I quickly dismissed TheGroceryGame.com because it cost $1 to join for 4 weeks. I thought to myself, why should I pay money, I’m trying to save money. I’ll revisit the theory of spending money to save money. I decided Couponmom.com was the place to start.

COUPONMOM.COM:

What drew me to CouponMom.com? I didn’t have to pay any money to join. Also, I found the site very easy to use. I selected my local supermarket, ShopRite, and reorganized the list to show the weekly deals by descending percentage saved. 99% of the time, it seems that these savings are realized by using coupons. CouponMom.com’s website lists where to find the coupons needed. How great is that. All a frugal consumer needs to do is save their coupon inserts from the weekly paper.

I was only interested in the items listed on CouponMom.com that saved me at least 50% or more. I followed this theory for about a month and was able to stock up a surplus of toothpaste, razors, hair care products, paper products, and cleaning supplies.

I was proud of myself. I was spending the same amount of grocery money each week, but was buying many more items. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking great, a stockpile of health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, and toilet paper, but you can’t serve those things for dinner. I decided that each week I would buy two more pieces of meat than I needed to accumulate a surplus of meat. Of course, I only purchased those meats that were on sale.

THEGROCERYGAME.COM:

I felt I was ready for bigger and better savings! We’ve all seen those articles or segments on television where a woman buys an entire grocery cart full of items for under $5. That’s the kind of savings I was looking for. I was intrigued by TheGroceryGame.com and was willing to spend $1 to check out the Grocery’s Game’s methods. (In case you’re interested, I believe the 4 week introductory at TheGroceryGame.com is now free!) I must admit that I am now a paying member of this website. It is very similar in theory to the CouponMom.com. However, there is one tremendous difference, which is why many people, including myself, probably do not mind paying for the service. TheGroceryGame.Com tells members when you should buy items. Many things are on sale each week at the grocery stores. How do you know you are getting the best buy, the absolute lowest price you can possible get for a given item? Without tremendous note taking every week, you can’t. This is why I love TheGroceryGame.com. Let someone else track price trends; I love having a go to website that tells me if I should buy a product or wait!

After selecting your grocery stores that you would like to subscribe to you, TheGroceryGame.com provides you with a weekly list of what items they recommend you purchase and stock up on because they are at their rock bottom price. Again, this website provides you with which coupons you should use to optimize savings! Additionally, thanks to a fabulous color coding system, your weekly list also details which items you should buy if you really need them. The item may not be at rock bottom cost, but sometimes you need to purchase an item regardless of whether it’s at its lowest price or not.

While on the subject of TheGroceryGame.com, I must tell you that even if you are not a member of the website, you can still view their message board. I have come across some of the friendliest and most helpful men and women on these boards. I can’t even begin to describe the positive, upbeat manner in which these women and men, yes men too, help each other out. If you are thinking about joining the website or merely have questions, the message boards at TheGroceryGame.com are a great place to begin your research.

COUPONS - TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY:

I originally thought buying coupons was a true waste of money. Then I did a little cost/savings analysis. Coupon clippers services charge a minimal amount per coupon (the cost is for their time to clip, sort and organize the coupons). Fortunately, my local grocery store triples coupons with a face value up to fifty cents. This means that a fifty cent coupon saves me $1.50! How awesome is that. I will admit that it took me awhile to feel comfortable spending money to acquire coupons. However, when doing the math, it makes sense. If I spend fifteen cents to save $1.50, that’s an extra $1.35 in my pocket! If your local supermarket is having great sale and there are matching coupons for the items on sale, why not order some.

Some coupon clipping services require a minimum order, so pay attention to the website rules.

There’s always the old fashion way of getting more coupons. Order extra newspapers, get coupon circulars from family and friends. I have heard that some stores sell discounted newspapers after a certain hour of the day, but haven’t been able to find any in my area that do so.

You can save money with coupons, you just need to know the rules and use the rules to your advantage.

DONATIONS:

I feel strongly that at this juncture I would like to note that when I could get items for free, for example toothbrushes, that I didn’t use or need, but the item was free after coupon, I would get as many as I could with the coupons I had on hand. Why you ask; the answer is simple, the local food pantry. My family uses electric toothbrushes, so I didn’t need manual toothbrushes. Toothbrushes are often free when on sale and the sale is combined with a coupon.

ALL IN ALL:

My recommendation to anyone ready to dive into the world of saving money on groceries is to start with an approach that you feel most comfortable with. As you understand how coupons can save you money, be willing to try new things. Using websites on the internet can help you save money.

Be sure to call your local supermarkets and grocery stores in your area to ascertain their coupon policies. Some stores limit the number of coupons they will double, while others only allow a customer to use a certain number of coupons per day. Knowing all the facts gives you the power to calculate where you will achieve the best savings.