Teh lion's tutorial: How to save money grocery shopping
Been wanting to do this for a while... so here goes: For taren_ and everyone else out there who never wants to pay full price for anything!
So I've been playing a game ever since I moved out of my parents' house... and that game is pretty much to do everything possible to save money while going grocery shopping. I call it "beating the system," like counting cards in blackjack so the house advantage shifts to your side. Granted, I don't steal or do anything illegal.
I'm mainly doing this so I can save money, and help you save money, towards the more important things in life, namely furry cons, furry art and commissions, and fursuits! ^_^ Priorities, of course.
I know a few friends that don't even bother to look for sales while grocery shopping, (and they're strapped for cash) and that doesn't make sense to me. A grocery bill that ends up being $30 can easily be cut to at least $20 and maybe even more by just doing a few simple steps that really don't take a whole lot of time.
The most important thing is to base your shopping list off of the weekly ad for a particular store. If I need to go grocery shopping and say i need eggs, sour cream, milk, and bread, I'll look through the circular for specifically those items. A lot of circulars also come with clippable coupons as well, and these usually represent significant savings, sometimes up to 50% off retail price or more. Except Safeway (at least around here), screw them because you need to spend $20 to even qualify for their coupons. I hate that!
/end of rant
Ok, and something else is that you need to not be afraid to buy store brands! In a vast majority of cases store brands are the same quality or at least comparable to national brands for much less.
but the most FEARED weapon you have in your arsenal as a shopper is the DOUBLE DIP! That is when you clip a coupon from Redplum, Valassis, or some other coupon circular that comes in your newspaper and then double that savings when something is already on sale at your local supermarket. Yes, this might involve waiting for certain things to go on sale, but the savings from double dipping can sometimes give you that item for free, or almost free. And trust me, when you're poor, free food is a very good thing.
Case in point: There used to be coupons for $2 off any Ken's Steakhouse Salad Dressing (very tasty) so I'd just clip the coupon and eventually my local grocery store would have them on sale for 2 for $4 so buy one and it's free! One time they were actually 2/$3 and I tried to use the coupon and it wouldn't go through... the checker manually put it in so I got PAID 50 cents to buy the dressing!
Oh, and if you didn't know this already you don't have to get the number of product indicated to get the sale price!!! My roommate is adamant that if something is on sale for 3/$9 or whatever you have to get three for them to be $3 each.
THAT IS NOT THE CASE AT RETAIL GROCERY STORES! If it is, it will say "3/$9 or $3.99 each" or whatever the retail price is. 10/$10 or 1 for $1, same thing. Stores want you to think that you need to buy 10, which is why they advertise pop as 4/$12 instead of going SALE: $3 each!
And you have to look for these, but certain stores, usually Albertson's, will offer a deal like "buy this and this at club card price and get a Essensia Frozen Pizza (or similar) free" And if the "this and this" is something you'd usually buy anyway, go for it! the savings from getting a $7 pizza for free will make it more than worth it.
Finally, Albertson's offers coupons periodically that DOUBLE the amount of a manufacturers' coupon (like from Valassis inserts) in the amount of up to $1. Using this with a double dip, you will almost certainly be paying next to nothing for that grocery item.
So here are a couple of my best grocery receipts that i've saved up for reference purposes:
On this trip I used a $1 off Ken's dressing coupon, doubled with Albertson's double-value coupon, which made my $3 dressing worth $1, and I did the same for a loaf of Oroweat bread, which is retail $4.29, on sale for $2.49, which made the bread with 49 cents. Added a pretty decent deal on a 12-pack of coke (though 3.69 is on the high end of what I'd pay for a 12-pack) and a Michelina's frozen dinner for 75 cents.
I always consider a shopping trip a good success when I am able to save over 100% of the total bill, which means, for example, saving a total of $10 through shopper's card, coupon, and "bonus buy" savings on a $10 shopping bill. For this trip my bill was $6.08 and I saved $11.23, which was almost a 200% savings!
If you think about it, the 12-pack of coke, retail, would have cost more than my entire shopping bill. and I got salad dressing, bread, and a frozen dinner on top of that. It does make a difference,
Here's another one, for which I had a much fuller shopping cart:
For this one, Albertson's was doing a almost too-good-to-be-true deal where you bought one of their high-end frozen pizzas for $6.29 and not only did you get another one for free, (the .00) but you also got TWO 2-liter bottles of Dr pepper for free! On top of that, I had two $1 off coupons for Jose Ole Taquitos (retail $6.39, sale price $3.99, net price $2.99) and a bag of Quaker rice cakes, great for snacking (Retail $1.99, on sale $1.25, net price 25 cents)
Add on a steak from the butcher block clearance section (most of the stuff here isn't going bad! Just excess stock) and 50% off a block of Tillamook cheese and I had one hell of a shopping trip! How good was it?
Saved $22.60 on a $16.63 bill for a savings of 142%!
So there you have it, by just paying attention to sales, clipping coupons and what you buy, you can put some extra money back into your pocket. And it's really fun when you carry four bags of groceries back to your car and you remember you only spent $9 and change. You won the game!
Hope this tutorial helped!
And I leave you with perhaps the most important information of all, attained by me tonight upon checking out at the local Fred Meyer.
So I've been playing a game ever since I moved out of my parents' house... and that game is pretty much to do everything possible to save money while going grocery shopping. I call it "beating the system," like counting cards in blackjack so the house advantage shifts to your side. Granted, I don't steal or do anything illegal.
I'm mainly doing this so I can save money, and help you save money, towards the more important things in life, namely furry cons, furry art and commissions, and fursuits! ^_^ Priorities, of course.
I know a few friends that don't even bother to look for sales while grocery shopping, (and they're strapped for cash) and that doesn't make sense to me. A grocery bill that ends up being $30 can easily be cut to at least $20 and maybe even more by just doing a few simple steps that really don't take a whole lot of time.
The most important thing is to base your shopping list off of the weekly ad for a particular store. If I need to go grocery shopping and say i need eggs, sour cream, milk, and bread, I'll look through the circular for specifically those items. A lot of circulars also come with clippable coupons as well, and these usually represent significant savings, sometimes up to 50% off retail price or more. Except Safeway (at least around here), screw them because you need to spend $20 to even qualify for their coupons. I hate that!
/end of rant
Ok, and something else is that you need to not be afraid to buy store brands! In a vast majority of cases store brands are the same quality or at least comparable to national brands for much less.
but the most FEARED weapon you have in your arsenal as a shopper is the DOUBLE DIP! That is when you clip a coupon from Redplum, Valassis, or some other coupon circular that comes in your newspaper and then double that savings when something is already on sale at your local supermarket. Yes, this might involve waiting for certain things to go on sale, but the savings from double dipping can sometimes give you that item for free, or almost free. And trust me, when you're poor, free food is a very good thing.
Case in point: There used to be coupons for $2 off any Ken's Steakhouse Salad Dressing (very tasty) so I'd just clip the coupon and eventually my local grocery store would have them on sale for 2 for $4 so buy one and it's free! One time they were actually 2/$3 and I tried to use the coupon and it wouldn't go through... the checker manually put it in so I got PAID 50 cents to buy the dressing!
Oh, and if you didn't know this already you don't have to get the number of product indicated to get the sale price!!! My roommate is adamant that if something is on sale for 3/$9 or whatever you have to get three for them to be $3 each.
THAT IS NOT THE CASE AT RETAIL GROCERY STORES! If it is, it will say "3/$9 or $3.99 each" or whatever the retail price is. 10/$10 or 1 for $1, same thing. Stores want you to think that you need to buy 10, which is why they advertise pop as 4/$12 instead of going SALE: $3 each!
And you have to look for these, but certain stores, usually Albertson's, will offer a deal like "buy this and this at club card price and get a Essensia Frozen Pizza (or similar) free" And if the "this and this" is something you'd usually buy anyway, go for it! the savings from getting a $7 pizza for free will make it more than worth it.
Finally, Albertson's offers coupons periodically that DOUBLE the amount of a manufacturers' coupon (like from Valassis inserts) in the amount of up to $1. Using this with a double dip, you will almost certainly be paying next to nothing for that grocery item.
So here are a couple of my best grocery receipts that i've saved up for reference purposes:
On this trip I used a $1 off Ken's dressing coupon, doubled with Albertson's double-value coupon, which made my $3 dressing worth $1, and I did the same for a loaf of Oroweat bread, which is retail $4.29, on sale for $2.49, which made the bread with 49 cents. Added a pretty decent deal on a 12-pack of coke (though 3.69 is on the high end of what I'd pay for a 12-pack) and a Michelina's frozen dinner for 75 cents.
I always consider a shopping trip a good success when I am able to save over 100% of the total bill, which means, for example, saving a total of $10 through shopper's card, coupon, and "bonus buy" savings on a $10 shopping bill. For this trip my bill was $6.08 and I saved $11.23, which was almost a 200% savings!
If you think about it, the 12-pack of coke, retail, would have cost more than my entire shopping bill. and I got salad dressing, bread, and a frozen dinner on top of that. It does make a difference,
Here's another one, for which I had a much fuller shopping cart:
For this one, Albertson's was doing a almost too-good-to-be-true deal where you bought one of their high-end frozen pizzas for $6.29 and not only did you get another one for free, (the .00) but you also got TWO 2-liter bottles of Dr pepper for free! On top of that, I had two $1 off coupons for Jose Ole Taquitos (retail $6.39, sale price $3.99, net price $2.99) and a bag of Quaker rice cakes, great for snacking (Retail $1.99, on sale $1.25, net price 25 cents)
Add on a steak from the butcher block clearance section (most of the stuff here isn't going bad! Just excess stock) and 50% off a block of Tillamook cheese and I had one hell of a shopping trip! How good was it?
Saved $22.60 on a $16.63 bill for a savings of 142%!
So there you have it, by just paying attention to sales, clipping coupons and what you buy, you can put some extra money back into your pocket. And it's really fun when you carry four bags of groceries back to your car and you remember you only spent $9 and change. You won the game!
Hope this tutorial helped!
And I leave you with perhaps the most important information of all, attained by me tonight upon checking out at the local Fred Meyer.