I have so many people ask me all of the time what the secret is to saving money on my grocery bill. These days I shop pretty much exclusively at Harris Teeter and never spend more than $40 a week on groceries. I will tell you a little bit of how this couponing stuff works.
Just over a year ago, I was spending about $75-100 a week on groceries. I always went to Wal Mart because it was cheapest and I didn't really even know that there were professional couponers! I was over at a friends house and she had coupons neatly organized in an accordion folder and she told me that particular week was super double coupons at Harris Teeter. I had know idea what that meant but she explained that Harris Teeter along with a few other stores doubles ALL manufactures coupons on a daily basis up to $.99 but that particular week they were doubling coupons up to $1.50 a piece. I got all giddy and super excited and started flipping through her excess of coupons and its all history from there.
For simplicity sake, I will just refer to Harris Teeter and their policies and couponing sales. I started out with a website called
Southernsavers.com. A lady named Jenny created the site to help people like you and me save tons of money. She matches up the sale ads (from all of the major Southern grocery chains as well as the major drug stores) up with any and all existing coupons for the items that are on sale.
In the beginning, you have to start buying the Sunday newspapers and going to websites such as
coupons.com,
smartsource.com,
redplum.com,
mambosprouts.com and
couponnetwork.com just to name a few. At these sites, you are able to print manufacturers coupons that you can use in the grocery store. Like I said, Harris Teeter doubles all coupons (up to 20 per person per day) up to $.99. This means that a coupon worth $.75 off of milk would double to $1.50 off of milk.
Here is where it gets good. On Southern Savers Jenny will tell you all of the advertised and unadvertised sales and deals at your local stores. On top of the sale, you use your double coupons and voila!.......you save money.
Here is a good example:
- Typically Nature Valley Granola Bars are $3.89 a box
- On sale, Nature Valley Granola Bars are 2/$5.00
- On top of the sale, I have a coupon for $.75 off of one box
-
- Each box of bars is $2.50 minus the $.75 off coupon which doubles to $1.50 off making the box of bars $1.00 a piece......That is much better that $3.89 a box and way cheaper than Wal Marts "low prices"
The main obstacle with couponing is ONLY BUYING ITEMS THAT ARE ONE SALE & THAT YOU HAVE A COUPON FOR.
Never by items just because you have a coupon or you will find out real fast that your grocery bill will be huge.
Take a look at Harris Teeters
coupon policy or which ever grocery store you plan to shop at. Lowes foods also doubles coupons everyday.
Southernsavers.com links you directly to all of the latest and greatest sales, coupons and freebies on the web. I usually check the website once a day and they also have a Facebook page which updates you will all of the wonderful things available.
Hopefully this help some of you that have asked me about my couponing!
With triple coupons I got all of this for $26.78!!!!!
