Grocery Smarts

So I promised in my last post that I would describe Grocery Smarts in more detail.

Yesterday at Smith's I spent $22 and saved $34 so 63% total savings. The checker gave me a high five for saving so much and wrote down the coupon I used to buy Electrasol for .50 a box. And that doesn't include the saving on items I got on clearance.

Albertson's I did even better. I spent $25 and saved $125! so 83% savings!
No high five from that cashier though.
Albertson's had doubled coupons the previous three days, so I bought 4 boxes of capri sun juice for .08 total and 4 packages of treetop juice boxes for free (among other things). I think the checkers are completely tired of crazy couponers after all of that.

80% savings is unusual for me, but I regularly save 60% on my groceries and sundries.

Thanks to Grocery Smarts (passport g84ctm)

The folks there publish a nifty interactive list that matches the current sales with coupons from the newspapers, with stars to tell you how good a deal each item is.

They do all this.... For Free.

I think the newspapers must pay them, since they encourage everyone to subscribe to several newspapers, so you can stock up when the sales are really good.

(Though you could just ask several neighbors if you can have their leftover Sunday papers instead.)

I've never cared much for grocery shopping and usually put it off as long as possible.

Now shopping is an adventure... How much can I save this week? What can I get for free? Will the really good sales items still be in stock? (There is some risk involved)

My kids love it, because I now buy things that I wouldn't normally, like juice boxes, cause hey, free!

It takes time and effort, Albertson's especially has some complicated promotions to figure out, buy this much of this long list of things and get this much off, or this much off the next shopping trip. Sometimes it makes my head hurt.

But I think the 2 hours I spent getting the coupons ready, and the trips to two stores were well worth the $160 I saved yesterday. Way better hourly rate than any job I have anyway.

Go to Pinching Pennies to see what is available in your area.