A few folks have recently asked me for pointers about how to save money, so I thought this might be the easiest forum to explain it without them actually having to drive 600 miles to go to the grocery store with me. I’ve had the most savings at Publix and CVS. I went to Publix today, actually, so I’ll use it as my example later.
Tip #1: Get a Sunday paper. Every Sunday. And cut the coupons. All of them, even if it’s stuff that you don’t think you’ll need (at first, anyway). I went so far as to buy a notebook with clear plastic baseball card holder sheets to further organize my coupons, but I am pretty OCD.
Tip #2: Forget about the Extreme Couponing crap you see. It probably ain’t gonna happen. I have consistently had savings of around 40% off of my grocery bill in the last 4 months. Probably about the same (maybe a little better) with other household items and things like soap and deodorant.
Here’s a shot from today’s trip, for example: Saved 87.33, paid 94.75. That’s right at 48% savings.
Tip #3: Be a hoarder…with everything non-perishable, at least. I currently have 6 bottles of laundry detergent and enough Lysol spray and wipes to survive a nuclear winter. I also have 21 cans of tomatoes (diced, sauce, etc) and 10 cans of Chef Boyardee in the pantry. I’ll stop there, because you get the point, but when you find savings, stock up.
Tip #4: Now we’re getting to the good stuff. I like Publix because it offers a variety of buy one get one (BOGO) deals each week. That’s an automatic 50% savings right there. Stock up! I’ve found that if I stock up a little (buy 2 jars of peanut butter and get 2 free), then usually by the time we’ve worked through the peanut butter, there’ll be another BOGO deal so I can stock up again.
Tip #5: Use a coupon with a BOGO for some awesome savings. See below, but note that the arrows are all messed up and I don’t know how to fix ’em.
<– (peanut butter’s BOGO this week, btw. And it’s the big jars!)
<– There’s a bag of Splenda I bought for 6.99.
<– Down here are two boxes of Splenda packets that were BOGO. I had a coupon for $3 off any Splenda product with the purchase of a Splenda Essentials, which is just Splenda with extra crap added in. I couldn’t use it on this deal (minimum 200 packets and these aren’t 200), so I bought the big bag of Splenda above & got $3 off of it. So I have 2 boxes of Splenda packets and a big bag of Splenda…and it all cost me $7.88. (that’s .89 cents more than the bag of Splenda itself would have cost me)
<– I also had a coupon for $1 off any Planters product. Their peanuts were BOGO + the $1 coupon, means that I paid 2.89 for 2 cans of Planter’s peanuts.
<– Publix in FL also does BOGO on wine. Not sure if they do that up in GA, but I’ve gotten some good deals on wine that way, too.
Tip #6: Publix also has store coupons that you can use. You can add a manufacturer’s coupon to that store coupon to add up some savings, too. I did this a couple of weeks ago on sunscreen. We’re in southwest FL, so sunscreen is a must. Coppertone sunscreen is normally $8.99. Publix had a store coupon for $2 off – bringing it to $6.99. The bottles of sunscreen themselves had $2 manufacturer’s coupons on them, bringing the price down to $4.99, nearly 50% off. That’s a good price for the SPF 50 easy spray on stuff, so I stocked up!
Tip #7: Be on the lookout for extra savings. Examples from today’s trip:
(<– bread is also BOGO this week, and with a kid home for the summer who eats a billion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day, it’s a good deal.
(<– Pilot G2 pens – yes, the good ones – are also BOGO, so you get 4 of ’em for 2.99. Good deal).
<– I missed the Neosporin deal in the ad, but while walking down the aisle, I saw it and thought I had a coupon. So this Neosporin was 20% off = $4.31. My coupon was $2 off any Neosporin product, for a total of $2.31 for a tube of Neosporin.
<– Publix kept this deal on the down low, or maybe I just overlooked it, but packs of mechanical pencils were only $1. The limit was 5, I think, so I’ll have to go back tomorrow for more, but a pack of Bic Mechanical pencils for $1 is a hell of a deal.
Tip #7: I know, I know. You’re thinking: this takes too much time!!! At first, I’ll admit, it did take some time to sort this all out. Organizing the coupons, looking at the ads…it took a couple of hours here and there to get it all straightened out. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes MUCH easier. And, with all the savings, it’s like you’re getting paid for it! So might as well stock up on the BOGO wine! =)
Tip #8: For perishables, get the deals while you can. It’s more difficult to get huge savings on milk, bread, meats, and produce, but there are savings available. I have 2 Porterhouse steaks in the freezer right now that cost less than $10 total. I also have 3-4 packages of chicken breast that were BOGO at one point. Cherries were on sale this week, so we’re enjoying them. When watermelons go on sale, we’ll eat 2 of ’em a week. =)
Things to know about Publix:
- Their specials run from Thursday to Wednesday.
- Get their Publix store food coupons inside, usually in a booklet on a turn display at the door.
- Their Publix store health/beauty items coupons are also inside in a booklet on that turn display
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