Grocery Shopping and Where I Find Coupons

Remember on Friday when I mentioned I was going to check out my other prescriptions and see if they had a website with coupons? Well, I did and guess what? One of them did. Seriously, no matter what you are taking, it might be worth doing a quick search to see if the pharmaceutical companies have a website for it and if they are offering any specials - you might be surprised. I sure was! I don't usually think of being able to get a coupon for a prescription, but there you go - shows what I knew!

I do hunt for online coupons when it comes to grocery shopping though. The first thing I do, after I make my list, is go to the website of the store I am going to shop at. If I shop at my local megamart they have a ton of in-store printable coupons, right on their site. I don't have to sign up or pay for them or anything. It makes it a lot easier, even if I am not particularly fond of their coupon printer program. However, it is free and I can almost always find a couple I need. While I am there I usually check out the flier, but I don't spend a lot of time on it. I live alone - no real need to stock up here. Because of that, I am only concerned with the items on my list. That makes browsing the flier pretty short work. It is handy for knowing brands that are on sale though...

I haven't had a lot of luck with general Google searches for coupons, but I have had success looking up particular brands and going directly to their websites. For example, if I need almonds I might go straight to the Blue Diamond website, or if I flour, I might go straight over to the King Arthur website. Another place I stop on the web is Coupon.com's coupon bar, which you can find here.

Once at the store, I like to compare prices. I may have a coupon for something, but the store brand may still be cheaper. However, what I didn't know (until I started reading a lot of personal finance blogs) is that a lot of times you can combine coupons. For example, say my local megamart has a $1 off a $4 frozen foods purchase. Say they just also happen to have name brand organic frozen veggies on sale for 2 for $4. Then I hop on name brand organic veggie's website - and look! A coupon for $1 off 2. That's right - most stores will let you use both the coupons - even on the sale items! So, grocery shopping is a bit of mixing and matching for me, but I treat it like a game and have fun with it. (Because you know it is never a good idea to go in the store cranky and hungry, right??)

Here's one other tip - shop the ethnic stores. I buy my dried chickpeas and olive oil (among other things) at a wonderful little quirky Middle Eastern shop for far less than I could at megamart, and the olive oil is of much better quality. Get Stuff Done just recently mentioned that she gets a better deal on soy sauce at her Asian market. Although, you don't always have to go to the ethnic stores to get good deals. For example, I usually buy my rice in 5 lb. bags. Megamart's store name long grain rice was $7.99. In the Asian section of the ethnic aisle, the same long grain enriched rice was also $7.99. However, in the Hispanic section it was $5.99! Same rice, same cook time, different packaging - different pricing!

Since the pantry was a bit low after March's No Spending Challenge, I just recently went grocery shopping. Using these steps, I was able to save $28.17 on my last grocery bill - and that doesn't even include the savings on finding lower priced options like on the rice! (My total after coupons was $60.95.) What I bought should pretty well keep me fed for the rest of the month.

What are your favorite grocery shopping tips?


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