Monday, November 24, 2008

Pretty Good I Would Say

So I am all about saving money on groceries. They are so darned expensive. It has also been driving me crazy lately where something appears to be on sale but is it really. I have no idea since I have nothing to compare it to. And in reality, some of it probably isn't really a good deal afterall when compared to another store or brand. It also drove me nuts to clip coupons to only go to the store and their store brand was cheaper and thee coupon would not do a bit of good. I ran across two very helpful sites. The first is called The Obsessive Shopper. From here I learned about another site called Grocery Smarts. The first one was a great introduction to using coupons and saving big. The second one is a lifesaver and takes the guess work out of sales for the most part. The other thing that I have been doing within the last week is keeping a notebook of prices for certain products. I discovered that some brands and/or quantities can make a huge difference. I found that buying 5lb bags of flour in a certain brand is cheaper than buying in 10lb. Why not buy in 5lb bags knowing that. Much handier anyways. I found that some things at Costco are not cheaper and the brand is the same as say Winco. Crazy. I found the inspiration for the notebook in the Tightwad Gazette that my mom gave me.

So yesterday, I put the Grocery Smarts method to work. It is SO much easier than clipping coupons and Grocery Smarts matches up the coupons with the sales ads for that week so you really maximize your profits. So today I had my list and stack of coupons and headed to Albertsons. The Obsessive Shopper suggests that you buy one Sunday paper per member of your family. Makes sense, so I always get three. This is what I bought today:
1 15lb bag Russet potatoes @ $2.85
2 boxes 16oz Albertsons Baking Soda @ $1.00
6 boxes Albertsons pudding @ $3.00
12 cans Del Monte canned vegetables @ $4.08 ($.34/can!) coupon
4 Keebler pie shells @ $4.00
6 Lipton soup mixes @ $3.78 ($.63/box!) coupon
4 Green Giant Steamer frozen vegetables @ $FREE (they were $1 on sale & I had a $1off coupon)
3 Eagle Brand sweetened Condensed Milk @ $2.85 coupon
4 Pillsbury Cake Mix @ $2.00
3 Pillsbury 5lb Flour @ $4.50
7 Pillsbury Frosting @ $7.00 (my circular was missing this coupon or else it would have been $.50/can)
1 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls @ $.88 coupon
3 Sunday newspapers $4.23 (I swear I have paid cheaper, did not notice until I got home)
Grand total paid: $46.98
Money saved: $70.76
All because I was able to use coupons and piggy back those with the store sales/savings. I had a heart attack when I saw the original total, hoping and praying that I did not make a huge mistake. When the preferred savings kicked in and the coupons the ticking noise of the cash register was music to my ears. It took me about an hours time last night to make my list, check it against my notebook and locate/clip the coupons. Then it took about a half hours to buy them at the store. One thing that The Obsessive Shopper has commented on is that this helps you to slowly build your food storage as you go. No need to really feel overwhelmed here on out. I plan on doing this regularly, so we will see where this takes me. Give it a try yourself.

5 clever remarks:

Rachel said...

Kristi, you are AWESOME! As my visiting teacher, you're going to have to teach me this Grocery Smarts method. I've looked at it several times, but haven't been able to figure it out... :(

mandbrid said...

I'm going to have to try this out...thanks for the suggestion!

Stacey said...

I love getting good deals too!! I am glad to see that Grocery Smarts is working for you. I have heard other people love it too. I just haven't really tried it yet. Looks like you got some great deals!!

Unknown said...

hey there.. thanks for your digi scrapbooking tips! I think that I just need to take my time and get better at using the programs so that it doesn't take me so long to do one page! I think that I've only discovered the tip of the ice burg on this too! gunnar is so big... crazy little kids!

Hannah said...

Wow Kristi. I checked out the site, but didn't quite get it. We will need to talk!