Ahhh the Grocery Store

Well I did my HUGE grocery shop last night.  When I say huge I mean, over flowing cart, I spent 2 hrs in the store hugs.  I typically save about $125 on my big grocery shop, last night I save $145.37 at the store and  another $50.49 in rebate perks.

Ok, now I'm not crafty enough to only have spent $25 after my discounts.  I still spent a huge chunk of change, but I also tried something new and meal planned for the whole month. Gasp!!! Yes the whole month.  I only do this major shop everyother month, I prepare and stock up as much as I can.  I typically spend around $300-$350, but I find that I spend a lot less per week between shops.  When I was doing a large shop every 1-2 weeks I always wound up spending $200 per trip plus $50 small trips.  So for me this way works very well.  Everyone has there own tips for saving at the grocery store and I will share with you what I do.  Remember this is what works for me, I think the best thing to do is to find what works for you.  If you set yourself up to do things that don't work for you, you will end up putting too much pressure on yourself, you won't have fun and in the end you will most likely spend more money or more time than before.

Even before I had kids, I was a couponer, I made a game of it.  I am always trying to out save myself.  So about 3-4 years ago I set out to find what grocery store was the best store for me to shop at. Now, this is something that takes a bit of time, but I do reccomend trying it out, I think you may be surprised.  I know people that shop at multiple stores for different items (my parents for example) they spend a whole day going to the grocery and to Wal-Mart, well they spend probably half a day but they still do this every week and it is just the 2 of them.  I have absolutely no desire to go to 2 plus stores to get things that I could get all at the same store.  Accept for Target, but quitting Target would be like well I just can't quit Target so we won't even go there.  Ok back on track, so about 3-4 years ago I did my big shop at 3 different stores the first was Kroger, then Wal-Mart and last Giant Eagle.  I saved all 3 of my receipts and put all of the like items into a spread sheet for comparison.  When I went to all 3 stores I did all of my "big" shops there so it took about 3 months to make the comparison.  Here is what I found:

• Wal-Mart- I spent the most money there.  They didn't double my coupons and I found I put more into the cart because I "assumed" it was cheaper and they have all of the other random non-grocery items that found there way into my cart. Plus I'm just not a big fan of the stores around here or the people that shop there.
• Kroger- Without coupons or a shoppers saver card, Kroger had the best prices on my common purchases.
• Giant Eagle- With coupons, shoppers saver card and fuel perks, I had the best savings.

So based upon my findings I began to shop at Giant Eagle.  Now on to savings and coupons.  When you shop you need to be brand flexible.  There are certain brands I stay loyal to so I always make sure to stock up when I have coupons. Here is a list of our favorite brand items, that I just won't buy anything else.

• Cottonelle Toilet Paper with Aloe
• Arm and Hammer Laundry Detergeant (For J and I)
• Jiff Peanut Butter
• Auquafresh Toothpaste
• Aveeno Sensitive Baby Wash

Other than those items, pretty much every other item in my cart is based on price and coupons.  Now if you are new to couponing all together here is a simple tip any coupon $.51-$.99 is better than a $1 coupon.  Why?...because most stores double up to $.99   Here is how a basic transaction works, we will use soup.
  Soup $1.50 per can
  You have a coupon for $.55 off purchase of 2 cans of soup
   2 soups = $3
   less your coupon $3-$.55= $2.45
   less store's automatic doubling $2.45-$.55=$1.90
  So you bought 2 soups for $.95 a can
Now we throw in the store savings, sometimes the store brand is not always the cheapest but on the same note sometimes just because you have a coupon doesn't mean that will be the cheapest either. So if you flip through your stores ad before you go to the store you can already have some of your coupon decisions made up.  If we go back to the soup, how people get things free  or super cheap is they search for things like this.
  Store special 2 Soups for $2
   less coupon $2-$.55= $1.45
   less doubling $1.45-$.55= $.90
   So you bought 2 cans of soup for $.45 a can

See it is pretty easy, some of the things I never pay full price for and usually get 50%+ off are toothbrushes, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, canned food, medicine and face wash.

We are very lucky to have Giant Eagle's food perks and fuel perks.  So I always save my food perks and do my big shop when I have 20% off, this allows me to take 20% off up to $300 and they give $.20 off per gallon of gas for every $50 spent.  Plus we get 10% off all GE products since Jason works there.

Well I think this post is long enough, I can tell your eyes are getting droopy.  I'll talk tomorrow about my month meal plan idea!!