Caution: I’m about to become one of those crazy bloggers who posts pictures of her groceries.
In January I wrote about how I was able to cut my grocery bill almost in half. Since that time, I’ve made even more progress in cutting costs and I have planned an update post for early next month. But for now, the bottom line is this: my initial learning curve is almost over and I’m becoming pretty passionate about this new way of shopping and the savings involved. With that in mind I thought I’d share a little bit of what’s possible when you combine coupons with loss leaders.
These pictures are from a shopping trip I made over the weekend. I hit three stores in about an hour and a half and I had a very specific list with coupons for each store. My husband came along with me on this trip (we lead very exciting lives) and he was significantly impressed with how much we were getting for such little money. He jokingly asked, “Is this legal?” Here are some of the highlights:
- Start a price book.
- Find a coupon matching blog to follow. (For those in KC, I highly recommend Kelly at Kansas City Mamas. She takes pictures of her groceries too.
) - Start slow and try not to become too overwhelmed. As I said, there is a learning curve involved, but once you have it down the time invested is pretty minimal for the kind of savings you’ll see. I estimate I spend about 10 hours a month on this new way of shopping. At a savings of $488 a month, that’s like earning a tax-free salary of $48/hour.
This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family and Kitchen Economics at Family Balance Sheet.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Love your price book. I used to keep better track and compare prices when I was a caterer because it meant I could make more profit. But in this economy I really need to get back to comparing again and pocket the savings.
I really need to get back into this again. I've become awfully lazy on the everyday spending! Love your site!
very nice tips. I've heard about price books for a long time but I hae to be honest, I'm terrible with coupons an. I shop Aldi for rock bottom prices.
Angela and Sharon, It's easy to get sidetracked, isn't it? The good news is that all of your old habits will come back very quickly.
Barb, there's more than one way to skin a cat. I know people who have great success at Aldi. I'm just reluctant to add another store to my rotation, but I may have to consider it.
Thanks for visiting, ladies.
WOW, you scored some great deals. I don't keep a price book, but I have some buy prices in my mind of my big ticket items, like chicken, detergent, olive oil, etc. I probably should write them down because it is getting harder to remember. Some of the lines in your post were cracking me up…very funny.
Thanks for linking up to Kitchen Economics. Can you include a link back to the KE post? I appreciate it
Kristia
Hi Kristia! Like you, I have a few prices that I manage to keep in my head, but it's hard to remember much more than that, isn't it?
The link back is at the bottom of the post. I'll change it specifically to the KE post instead of the blog, in case that's what you mean.
Thanks for visiting!
Great advice! It can be overwhelming to try and save money on groceries. So, many different stores and coupons out there. Keeping everything straight and organized I bet is key. The hard thing is to find things you actually will use, so you don't end up wasting money. Thanks again for tips.
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