Molly's Money Saving Mania

Lately, I have become quite the economic grocery shopper. In this economy I am going to try to help any friends that would like to cut their grocery budget. I know that not everything will work for everybody, but this is what works for our family.

1. First off, we get the Sunday paper, so I clip all of the coupons of any product that I MAY use. I then file them by category in my coupon organizer. One thing that is really important to save money is to not care about brand name. Now there are some things, like JIF peanut butter, that I buy no matter what, but overall, we don't really care about the brand.

2. I joined the Grocery Game (http://www.thegrocerygame.com/) signing up for Kroger and Meijer. I look at the list weekly and will pick up products are we will use won't expire before we would use them but I do a big grocery shopping trip every 3 to 4 weeks. I have a large stockpile downstairs. We didn't start seeing a huge savings right away, but we are now enjoying this large stockpile. If you join this game, be sure to read the rules. She explains about the grocery sale cycle and will let you know when to use your coupons to maximize your savings. One thing to mention here is TRUST THE LIST!! She has a lot of unadvertised specials in there. So, if there is no sign in the grocery store, pay attention when you check out because there is more than likely an unadvertised special! I have found a couple of great ones!

3. I check this web sites daily. http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ She has some great recipes and money saving ideas. She also gives great advice on how to take advantage of the CVS sales. She posts a couple of times a day about freebies and sales. She also links to other sites that are useful.

4. I check all of these coupon web sites and print as many as it will let me of the products that we would use. They are usually updated every couple of weeks.
http://coupons.smartsource.com//index.aspx?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO
http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10
http://www.redplum.com/pages/Grocery.aspx

5. I load my Kroger card with coupons from these sites. I always load all of them on because they are free and who knows when you may need something. You can use these ecoupons along with a manufacturer coupon so you can get really good deals!
http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Unilever_MakingLifeBetter/Page/HomePage/
http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/PG_eSAVER/Page/HomePage/
http://shortcuts.com/

6. I also plan a menu, usually 3-4 weeks worth, after seeing what deals I can get the week I need to go shopping. I will use my stockpiled stuff to stretch the food farther and to fill in meals. I also try to plan that we get take out only once a month. Then I type out my menu and type a grocery list. This way I can go through the recipes and make sure I will have all of the ingredients that I need.

I know that this seems like a lot, but it really isn't that time consuming! Happy money saving!