Monday, January 14, 2008

My coupon shopping system - groceries

There aren't enough words to describe how excited I get at the grocery store checkout when I swipe my member card and then hand over my coupons. The exhilaration of saving so much money validates me in a way I just cannot explain.

Here's my system:

Sunday, I sort through the sales flyers and give them the once over to see what pops out at me. Then I cut out my coupons and set them to the side.

Now I go back through the grocery sales flyers and look at the sales. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $2.49/lb, while cheap, isn't a rock bottom deal so I pass it by. (The best price I've gotten is $1.79/lb but $1.99/lb comes around pretty regularly so I stock up.) I write down the sales items I know are great prices and want to purchase. Normally, I will purchase way more than I need and stockpile enough to keep us going until a great sale comes around again.

Then I start pulling out the coupons that match the sales items. I do not use a coupon unless the item is on sale or it's an emergency. The goal is to combine these sales prices and coupons for rock bottom prices.

Once I have my coupons done, I go to eSaver. eSaver is an online coupon service of Proctor & Gamble. Basically, you create an account, choose your favorite grocery store, enter your savings club card number and load coupons onto your card. It takes about an hour for the coupons to hit your savings card. Here's the great part... you don't have to bring any paper coupons AND you can stack these with other store and manufacturer coupons! For example, I bought shampoo on sale, used a manufacturer paper coupon AND Kroger automatically used my eSaver coupon when they swiped my Kroger card! It's enough to make a girl all tingly!!

After hitting up eSaver, I go to all my online coupon sites and start printing out coupons that weren't in the Sunday paper.

Armed with all of this, I hit the store (leaving the children at home with their father) and save, save, save!

No comments: