Strategic Grocery Shopping Tips

There are so many variable items in your monthly budget. One thing you can easily control is your grocery spending. You can easily slash your grocery bill by 50% or more by strategically shopping.

Instead of just using your coupons randomly, use them effectively and when the price is lowest. Plus, there are other tricks you can implement to maximize your return.

Here’s a few strategic shopping tips you can implement right now:

• Sign up for loyalty cards at your favorite stores. Not only does this give you discounts each time you shop, some stores mail or email special coupons. I recently received home mailer coupons from CVS: $4 off $20 purchase along with (2) $25 gift card coupon with new or transferred prescriptions.

• Once you have your store loyalty cards, link those loyalty cards to your Upromise account. Look for Upromise partners in your grocery store and you will earn a percentage back for college. You will also want to activate all the e-coupons available each month. Activate all the Upromise eCoupons at the beginning of the month just in case you purchase some of those items. If you haven’t signed up for Upromise, do it today. It is completely free. Even if you don’t have children, you can transfer the money to someone else or even use it to pay off student loans.

• Activate other eCoupons from sites like Shortcuts and Cellfire for savings when you shop Kroger and other grocery stores.

• Stack store coupons with manufacturer’s coupon for extra savings. Many stores like Target, CVS, and Walgreens to name a few, will allow customers to stack store coupons (usually labeled X Store Coupon) with a manufacturer’s coupon. This can give you significant savings. Target and Meijer both have printable store coupons available.

• Peruse the clearance aisles at your favorite store. You can save even further by using your coupons on these deeply discounted items.

• A little known fact is you can use a coupon on trial size items, if the coupon language doesn’t restrict it. Many times, you can get trial items FREE after the coupon.

• Know your store’s coupon policies and price matching policies. Policies vary from store to store. Having an official policy in hand always helps in case any issues come up.

• Print coupons from the internet. There are hundreds of dollars of savings waiting for you online at sites like SmartSource.com, Coupons.com, and RedPlum.com.

• Buy the Sunday Paper or raid the recycle bins. You will find a wide selection of coupons in your Sunday Paper. Every week, I list a preview of the inserts in the week’s paper. Be sure to check it before you buy the paper as some weeks, usually holiday weekend, there are no inserts. Make sure to buy the largest circulating paper in your area to get the most coupons. I recommend the Indianapolis Star for readers in my area to get the best coupons.

• Meal Plan. Organizing Junkie has a weekly Meal Plan Monday where bloggers link up to their weekly meal plans. In the past, I’ve always found so many great recipe ideas by hopping from site to site.

• Subscribe to Bargain Briana via email or RSS. I do all the hard work of matching the deals up for you and alert you to the best deals I find. You can also find a state by state listing on The Frugal Map.

Have fun shopping and remember, don’t compare your savings to others. Each personal and family will have their own individual savings based on their level of couponing!