Smart Home: 4 Basic Tips to save BIG at the Grocery Store

The following is a guest post from Shelly at Coupon Teacher (MyCouponTeacher.com). She has been blogging for 18 months and bargain shopping since birth.

I realize that extreme bargain shopping is not for everyone. Here are a few non-extreme tips to help you save more at the grocery store.

  1. Plan your meals around what is on sale that week. Check out the sales flyer carefully each week. Is organic pork on sale? Plan two meals of pork for the week. Does the sales flyer have an Italian theme? You can bet that my family will be having Italian for dinner at least one night. If you buy mostly sale items, you are going to decrease your grocery budget immediately. On the other hand, if you shop for only what sounds good, you will spend more.
  2. Use coupons. I am not saying you have to be the crazy lady at the checkout counter with a fistful of coupons. (That might be me.) For your average family, you can clip only a few coupons and come up with some savings. Do you buy a ton of yogurt? Great! There are yogurt coupons in the Sunday paper about once a month. Even if you only clip those, you will save some money each month.
  3. Buy produce in season. If you buy watermelon in January, it is going to be expensive and not very tasty. Watermelon in June and July will be about half the price of January and taste a lot better too. Even if you aren’t able to buy organic all the time, the produce that is in season will taste better and be less expensive. You may wonder what is “in season” during the fall and winter. Think about pumpkins, apples, and potatoes, and there are many more.
  4. Shop alone, if possible. I know what this sounds like coming from a woman with no children. (I do have nephews that I shop with on occasion.) When you shop with kids (or even husbands), you end up having to purchase items that just aren’t necessary. Every now and again a special treat is fine, but if you shop with your kids each week and they beg for an average of $5 of items per week, that adds up to over $250 per year that could still be in your pocket. If you feel guilty leaving the kids at home or with a neighbor, you can still pick them up a special treat. It will probably still be less than if you brought them along.

Shelly is a full-time fourth grade teacher and blogs at Coupon Teacher. She wants you to share and celebrate your successes with her, and she may give you a few tips along the way! Right now, she is offering a free savvy shopping course. She would love for you to join her!

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