How To Save BIG On Groceries
There are two major ways you can save on groceries. One I call a coupon bargain queen and the other I call a super wholesale bargain queen. Either way, you can save tons of money on groceries and be a good steward for your family.
1. A bargain coupon queen spends about $40-$60 a week on groceries. They usually buy 4 Sunday papers or we recently discovered ways to find free papers and order coupons online from a coupon clipping service such as . Bargain coupon queens take their coupons to do deals that they find in their local grocery store ads or from bargain groups online. They go to many different stores to get the best deals. They stock up on free or nearly cheap items and put them in a cabinet or pantry in their home.
2. A bulk coupon queen spends about $75- $95 a week. They shop mainly at one wholesale store and one single grocery store or market. Both BJ’s and Costco take coupons. You can really get great deals at Wholesale stores that take coupons. Buying in bulk can save you great amounts of money if you have a large family or have a need to save time.
When I lived just outside of Dallas I preferred to be a coupon queen because we had over 15 grocery stores in a 15 mile radius from my house. Now that we live in New England and live in the country, it can take me up to 30 minutes to get to a grocery store. I believe that it is more economical to shop at wholesale stores here than use lots of newspaper coupons when I factor in time and gas. I will do an occasional deal to stock up my pantry if we use a lot of the item on sale, especially if it is free after coupons!
How I shop: Things I buy at BJ’s. I have a master list of staples that I buy at BJ’s every single month. Some items include.
- Cheese- (a huge bag for around $10 will last me the entire month). Cheese runs about $4 a two cup pack here at the grocery store.
- Tortillas- I would love to start making my own tortillas but I have not had much time to make them. They can be stored in the refrigerator to last up to two -three weeks.
- Foil- I saw a millionaire on Oprah once and he bought a commercial box of foil at Sam’s club. It ended up lasting him over 10 years! I gave ours away before we moved (we had it for over four years), and just recently bought one at BJ’s. It cost $23.
- Juice- Grape juice and other juices are so much cheaper in a two pack than in our local stores.
- Bars of Soap- BJ’s just had a deal where you got an $2 instant rebate and there was a $2 off coupon in a magazine so I got a huge pack of soap for $3.
I try to wait to get most of my paper towels and detergents at CVS when they have their extra bucks deals. I hardly ever purchase these items at the grocery store as they are very expensive.
Other ideas to save on groceries are to have your own garden, trade foods with friends who have their own garden, shop at local farms for fresh produce and cook from scratch (I make my own bread thanks to the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day
Do you have any more money saving grocery ideas to share?
08 Sep 08
Thanks for all the great info!
08 Sep 08
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Jeff Hertzberg
www.artisanbreadinfive.com
Chicago tribune video: http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9780312362911&m_type=2&m_contentid=119255#video
08 Sep 08
lori, my friend lisa is like you, doesn’t pay hardly anything for her groceries, and i went over today to try and see how she does it. i almost cried cuz i just can’t figure it out, i don’t know how to organize my coupons with the specials going on at grocery stores. i wish i had your gift!!
09 Sep 08
I love BJ’s! I think I am a mix but most a wholesale mom now that I have a new baby!
09 Sep 08
Carleigh, you might want to check out couponmom.com. You can select a store for your area and she’ll give you a list of all the coupon matches for the last three months or so. She might miss a few deals and steals, but the site is a great shortcut to using coupons if you don’t have the time to pore over the ads yourself.
09 Sep 08
I love Costco! I have a monthly staples list there as well…and tortilla’s are definitely on that list. I buy 2, 2 packs and throw one in the fridge and one in the freezer. The freezer ones come out just fine!
09 Sep 08
Costco takes coupons??? Any coupons or just their coupons? I had no idea!!! I’d love to hear more on this! Thanks!!!
09 Sep 08
I love your tips…thanx! beth
09 Sep 08
I know I’m hooked on Costco. It’s just so much more convenient, you can get good deals too and I seem to make less trips to the grocery store. Since we strive to eat as much organic as possible, Costco does have a good selection on several things. I was pleasantly surprised. We love going on the weekends because of all the free food tasting. But, for other items I don’t buy at Costco, I definitely shop at our local farm’s market.
09 Sep 08
Oh, I meant to also mention that I don’t think Costco take manufacturer’s coupons, last time I checked. They only take their instore coupons which come once a month.
09 Sep 08
Thanks Lizla! Costco only takes instore coupons but they do add up!
BJ’s however does take them even with store coupons!
10 Sep 08
I am definitely the shop-at-three-grocery-stores-to-get-the-best-deals girl. I use coupons from the Sunday paper and a few I print off the internet. I also try to match them up with the store specials whenever I can, and I find that whenever I look at the specials online before going to the store, I do a much better job of saving $$.
The one thing that keeps our grocery bills higher is produce (and meat, too). I try to shop for produce at a cheaper produce market near me (the farms aren’t really that much cheaper, I’ve found). I am always on the lookout for cheaper produce because we eat a lot of it, or try to. I try to avoid boxed or prepared food for health/nutrition reasons, although that’s what most coupons are for and that’s the cheapest food you can buy, usually. I am trying to do more baked potatoes and stuff this month to see if we can lower our grocery bill. Oh, and I also use a lot of fresh produce to make Noah’s baby food, which ends up being cheaper than buying commercial baby food, but it still raises our grocery bill.
Any tips on finding cheap produce? I have shopped at Haymarket in Boston (an outdoor market where the vendors bring in all the produce the grocery stores are getting rid of and sell it C H E A P, like 10 limes for $1 cheap), but it all goes bad so quickly it’s almost not worth it sometimes.
10 Sep 08
I go to coupons.com to clip coupons. When I looked at the website you shared, they charge you a fee for each coupon. At coupons.com, there is no fee- you just click on the coupons that you like and print them off!
I haven’t figured out the key to coupon shopping yet, but I do try to save a few bucks every here and there!
A Note From The Bargain Shopper Lady: The coupon clippers mail you newspaper coupons so that you don’t have to clip them yourselves. Coupons.com does not usually have all the ones that are in the paper. Coupons.com is a great resource for printable coupons though! Thanks for sharing!
11 Sep 08
Great tips! I’ll have to try them out and see how much we save. I’m in NYC but I know there are warehouse stores out on Long Island…