Using a few tips can help you to save dozens of dollars a week. This can fairly quickly add up to be substantial savings. Keep track of your savings to see how they add up and inspire you to continue making an effort to save money. By aggressively shopping the sales, you can often get premium brands cheaper than the store’s generic items.
Pay attention to grocery store flyers
This seems like an obvious thing, but it’s easy to be too busy to even look at a sale flyer. It can be a mistake to avoid them, since poring over a grocery chain store’s sale ad can easily save you $50 on a shopping trip for one or two people.
Frequently, there are coupons that can be matched to items on sale. This is a way to save additional money on top of substantial sales. Often, these coupons are found in the Sunday paper of the week for which the sale will start. For example, items that go on sale starting on Wednesday of a week will usually have coupons available in the previous Sunday’s newspapers. It pays to save the coupon inserts and then look through them after you have received the sale ad. This saves you having to go through and cut coupons you may not end up using.
Items that are frequently on sale and do not have matching coupons are fresh produce. Coupons for produce do exist, but are rare. You can get fruits in particular at significant savings by tracking their sales.
The Basics of Inexpensive Buying
Sign up for a reward card from stores you frequent
To get the best prices, you normally need to have a reward card for the stores you shop at. Signing up for these cards is straightforward and does not usually involve sharing a lot of personal information. If you give your e-mail address, you are likely to get coupons for that store.
Stock up when items are on sale
When you get a great deal on non-perishable items, see if you can buy more than one of each item and keep the rest for when you can use it later. This is particularly true for items such as coffee, canned goods, and paper supplies. It is worth it to make room to store them if you can get them at a fraction of their normal price.
Be willing to try other brands
Often competing brands are on sale at a great price. If you are willing to switch brands, you can save a substantial amount of money.
Use a list to shop
Using a list can save you from expensive impulse buying. Note the items on sale that week on your list, so you can quickly find them. If you know the store well, consider making a list out by aisle. That will let you shop the most quickly and be more likely to keep you from impulse purchases.
Don’t shop when hungry
Keep an eye on pharmacy chain grocery sales
The major pharmacy chains such as CVS and Rite-Aid carry groceries in addition to their health and beauty aid (HBA) items, and these items are frequently part of their sales. Such stores can also be the best source of inexpensive HBA items such as shampoo and deodorant. To get the best bargains, it is usually necessary to be signed up for their rewards programs. Sales at pharmacy chains generally start on Sunday with ads in the paper that day. Often there are coupons in the current paper for these sales.
Jenny Willis is a professional blogger that enjoys providing consumers with personal finance advice. She writes for Purechecks.com, a leading check printing company of designer personal and business checks.
