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Grocery Coupons And Other Excellent Ways To Save On Your Grocery Bill
Plan your grocery outing The first secret to saving on your grocery bill is to plan your grocery store trip outing. This starts with deciding on the day and time for your shopping excursion a few days in advance. Ideally, choose a time you can stick to on a weekly basis so you’ll be able to craft a regular grocery shopping routine. Eat first A cardinal rule of grocery shopping is that you should never go shopping hungry. Instead, plan your shopping excursion after a meal or be sure to eat a snack on your way to the store. If you don’t, all your lists and grocery coupons and planning won’t matter – you’ll be subject to impulse-buys based on the demands of your hungry belly. Make a list One of the major secrets to saving money at the grocery store is to go armed with a shopping list. When you have a list prepared you are less likely to buy items on a whim and more likely to buy the things you actually need. Having a list also makes it possible to gather the applicable grocery coupons. Clip grocery coupons Throughout the week before you shop, keep an eye out for grocery coupons. Scan your local paper and the pile of mail you receive every day for applicable grocery coupons. Pay attention to mailers and postcards stuck on your door or tucked into your front porch screen. To many people, grocery coupons seem like more work than they’re worth. Fortunately, this is hardly the case. To make grocery coupons work for you, you don’t need a lot of extra time and energy – what you need is a system and a quick eye. For instance, if you clip grocery coupons from your newspaper or from magazines, you need a place to keep those coupons. Throwing them all in the same drawer is not only inefficient; it’s a great way to lose the grocery coupons you need. Instead, take your paper grocery coupons and come up with a basic filing system. This can be as simple as separate envelopes in a shoe box or as complex as a tabbed and labeled filing system. In either case, separate out distinct locations (envelopes or file folders) for the different types of coupons you have. For instance, one category could be “Groceries,” while another could be “Household Items” such as cleaning products. In addition to creating a clever way to store your grocery coupons, you need to train your eye to pick out the good coupons from the bad. Some vendors will place ads in papers that are made to look like coupons, but actually advertise their product at its regular price. Other vendors will advertise grocery coupons that require you to buy multiples of the same product just to receive a discount, a move that actually makes you spend more rather than save more. Get in the habit of scanning coupons for discounts and expiration dates. As you become more accustomed to working with grocery coupons, you’ll quickly become an expert at sorting out the good from the bad. Look online for grocery coupons The age of the Internet has done wonders for the grocery coupon aficionado. You can go online and type “grocery coupons” into an Internet search engine, and over 9 million site links will pop up. Many of these sites offer free grocery coupons for you to print or download. Like all things on the Internet though, you need to be wary. Some sites touting their grocery coupons will actually only have ads from different companies and won’t have any tangible coupons for use. Others will let you access grocery coupons that are expired or are not legitimate. On the bright side, many sites that offer free grocery coupons are perfectly legitimate, helpful sites. Just be careful of where you go and only look at sites that list their contact information, customer service policies, and preferably testimonials from happy clients. Check receipts for grocery coupons One last source of excellent grocery coupons is on the back of purchase receipts, particularly those that come from grocery stores. Be careful not to chuck your receipt before you take a look at what’s advertised on back – you may find some excellent sources for discounts listed there. Believe it or not, grocery coupons save consumers hundreds of dollars a year on groceries. To count yourself among those who save, be diligent about planning your grocery shopping trips and keep an eye out for grocery coupons. When your savings add up, you’ll be glad you did. Mindy Tyson McHorse is a contributing writer for BillSavings.com, your information resource and community for money-saving tips and offers so you can shop, compare, and save money on just about everything. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Recent article about how to save on dinner |
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