1. Sales
This is probably the easiest way to save though on its own it's probably not going to save you the most money. You can find out about grocery sales by- Downloading apps for your local grocery stores
- Going old school and looking through the circulars you receive in the mail
- Follow bloggers like Southern Savers who post the best grocery sales
When I look for sales I'm not looking for sales that are for a percentage off. I'm looking for serious sales buy 1 get 1 or buy 2 get 3. I've typically seen these types of sales for boxed or frozen items. You rarely see them for produce or dairy products.
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2. Coupons
Like sales, coupons on their own aren't always a huge money saver. The best ways to save money with coupons are to combine the coupons with a sale and/or take advantage of the stores double or triple coupon policy.In today's digital age there are several options for getting coupons several that don't require clipping them out like mom or grandma used to do. My favorite coupon site and app are:
Coupons.com
You can have coupons uploaded to your grocery store card (if your store is on the list). Or you can opt to print and cut them out.
Ibotta
This is an app where you select your grocery store and then the products you'd like to save on and they are added to a list in the app. Once you've bought the products you scan the UPC for the products and scan the receipt. Within a day or sometimes less the savings amount is added to your account. You can cash out once you've amassed $10.
The great thing about this is you have the option to save on generic/store brand products or brand name products. Signing up is easy and you could earn $10 when using my referral link or code 77pwa. The downside here is stores aren't able to double the coupons for you.
Checkout 51
This works similarly to Ibotta. After downloading the app and creating an account you go through and select the offers you want. There are offers for groceries, beauty, health, home supplies and more.
After you make a purchase you scan your receipt and the UPC of the product if needed. After a day or so you'll get a notification if the scan was approved and the cash back will be credited to your account. You can cash out after you hit $20.
After you make a purchase you scan your receipt and the UPC of the product if needed. After a day or so you'll get a notification if the scan was approved and the cash back will be credited to your account. You can cash out after you hit $20.
3. Sale and coupon stacking
This is the biggest money saver and how I have saved a couple of hundred on groceries a year. Here's how this works. Say the grocery store has a buy 1 get 1 free sale which basically means I get two for the price of one. Well, I have two coupons for that product and use both, getting even more off!Here's an example from one of my trips:
Buy 1 cereal, get 1 free = $3.50
Use one $0.50 coupon that's doubled
Use one $0.50 coupon that's doubled
Final cost $1.50 for 2 boxes of cereal ($2.50 if coupons aren't doubled)
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4. Discount grocery stores
While I use sales and coupons regularly I do a lot of grocery shopping at discount stores like Aldi and Walmart. I've found that at discount stores I can save quite a bit on produce, frozen foods, and boxed items.5. Buy store brands
If couponing isn't your thing then buying store or generic brands could be the way to go. I've found that many times the generic brand is just as good or better than the brand name product. Plus, the generic brand can save you several dollars per product which can add up over time.Here's a good example. Tostitos at Walmart cost $3.98. The Walmart Great Value store brand costs $1.98. That's a $2 savings for a bag of chips! If you buy multiple store brand products imagine how much you can save during one shopping trip.
How do you save money on groceries?
Great tips! Couponing is something i want to get into
ReplyDeleteThanks Tomes!
DeleteI just downloaded ibotta maybe 3 weeks ago. I like it because it's so easy to use. Here's my referral if you don't mind being on the same team: ayjyqa (i think that's how it works right? I don't actually have a team, haha)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. I looked up to see how we can be on the same Ibotta team and it looks like we'd have to be Facebook friends.
DeleteI shop at Aldi pretty exclusively. It has saved us $150 per month.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's great! What are your favorite products to buy at Aldi?
DeleteThese are really great tips! I love shopping at Aldi, and the Ibotta app is excellent.
ReplyDeleteI love Aldi too! So much so that I turned one of my friends onto it and she introduced it to her mom. Now they are both Aldi fans!
DeleteGreat tips! I love going to discount stores like Aldi. We save a ton of money there!
ReplyDeleteThey are so great! Have you tried Lidl? I've heard it's similar to Aldi.
DeleteSuch great tips!! I alway struggle going over my grocery budget 🙊
ReplyDeleteIt can be a struggle. Hopefully these tips will be helpful.
DeleteI use some of the aps as well. Purchasing store brands is my main way to save money at the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI definitely buy a lot of store brand products to save some money. Most of the time I don't notice much of a difference in taste!
ReplyDeleteSame here! I also buy store brands for other things like toilet paper, paper towels and even some cleaning products.
DeleteThese are great! I love shopping store brands. There are so many now that I love, and actually seek out :)
ReplyDeleteI do too. For the most part, I usually don't see a difference between the store and names brands. And in some instances I've found the store brand to be the better product!
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