Grocery Store Coupons
Saving Money on Food

Using grocery store coupons, saving money on food is easy. The grocery shopping section of our budget can be a great source of reduction possibilities or it can be a source of frustration, not knowing how to reduce food expenses or believing it is even possible. I am her to tell you it IS possible.

And so can Deborah Malle, a self proclaimed coupon junkie. I recently had an email conversation with her discussing grocery store coupons as one of my great tips on budgeting. She told me, with much clarity and examples, her way to save money using coupons. I was very impressed and had to pass this good stuff on to you.

Deborah graciously gave me permission to use her words and I have done so in this and the next article, the link of which appears at the end. So, without further delay, let us cut in on the conversation as Deborah begins her great money saving technique using grocery store coupons:

Saving with Grocery Store Coupons

Because my budget [for food] is $600.00 a month for a family of.....well, it's hard to say....the dog eats as much people food as I do (hey, he's a big dog. And we're very proud of him for losing some weight)...so I consider him as one person....my husband and me....my daughter and her son (interesting how much a one year old boy can eat...but not really as much as an adult)....and my husband's two sons pop in regularly for supper....

So it's hard to say how many people I shop for, but I'd say your budget is great!

And about coupons:

I used to say the same thing - that the coupons were for things that we don't use. I used to shop at Whole Foods (daughter loves to tell people I even had organic baggies....which is true) until it got too expensive and other circumstances.

So of course, couldn't really use any coupons in the Sunday paper.

BUT

Do you use paper towels? Toilet paper? How about mustard, mayonnaise, or toothpaste?....salad dressing.....chocolate pudding...(there's a story behind that

one)...?

So I'll tell you some quick stories and see if it inspires you and your wife.

Coupon Mom got me started; I used to wonder how those women highlighted on the news for buying $600.00 worth of groceries, but after coupons spent some ridiculous amount like $13.00 or something....how'd they do it?

Grocery Store Coupon Basics

The basics are this:

I know the prices at Costco, Walmart, Kmart and my two local grocery stores (roughly). I even [created] a list - with columns - of all of the things I regularly bought each month (five or six pages).

The columns were because within a month to six weeks, grocery store prices fluctuate for pretty much anything. Once you keep track for about six weeks, you become familiar with the lowest price for the stuff you buy. You don't buy until then.

Also, I don't randomly shop at Costco just because it's in bulk, so therefore it must be cheaper. If you know the prices of the places you shop, you know that Costco has some great prices on some things, but some of their stuff could be more expensive than your local store - if your local store is having a sale on something. It pays to be [diligent].

That's just for regular prices, regular shopping.

Winning Big With Grocery Store Coupons

But where you win big is when your local store has a sale on something, AND you have a coupon, AND (if you're lucky enough) if your store DOUBLES the face value of the coupon (some states don't have this).

So here's the stories:

Colgate goes on sale regularly for $1.50.

I save all of my Colgate coupons that are 75 cents.

Voila - doubled coupon equals $1.50, which equals free. I stock up when that happens. Haven't paid for toothpaste in years.

Chocolate pudding:

A coupon for a dollar off of THREE boxes of pudding, if I buy a half gallon of milk. Which you need anyhow, for the pudding. Each box usually goes for one

dollar. So instead of paying three dollars for the three boxes, I'd be paying two dollars.

But wait. Don't shop yet.

My local store had a sale - the boxes of pudding were on sale for 50 cents.

I had two coupons for this.

So I bought six boxes of pudding, and instead of spending six dollars, I spent ONE DOLLAR.

See how fun this is?

If you pay attention it really adds up.

Continuing the Conversation

Yes, Deborah it really does add up. Thank you. OK, readers, what do you think? For those of you that are able to double grocery store coupons these are some great ideas. And for those of us who cannot, we still received some useful ideas we may not have thought about before. The second half of grocery coupon savings continues as coupon junkie Deboarah Malle give us more examples and a couple of ideas of what can be done with the money we do save.

Besides grocery store coupons, here are some more ways to save money on groceries.

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