Welcome!

I hope this blog will encourage and equip you to be a wise steward of your time and resources. As I hunt for deals, I will be sure to pass on all the great ones I find. Of course you're not obligated, but if anything interests you, I would greatly appreciate your click through my links as this helps to support the work of Joyful Journeys. Happy saving!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

How I Spend $200 or Less per Month on Groceries, Part 6

Today we continue our series with the topic of how to match coupons to weekly sales. If you have followed the posts in this series, you are well on your way to having a large, organized supply of coupons and are now ready to put them to good use!


Depending on your region and your favorite grocery stores, you should be able to find a blogger that offers weekly coupon match-ups. One that I have used extensively is the Coupon Mom. It shouldn't be too difficult to find match-ups for your store. Simply do a google search, such as: Giant Eagle coupon match-ups.



For the sake of our discussion today, I will use the coupon mom's site as an example. If you go to her section, “grocery deals by state,” you can scroll through her extensive national list of grocery stores and hopefully find your store. Click on it and it will take you to a list of all the sale items for that week.



To the left of the sale item is a code for the coupon circular in which a coupon for that particular item can be found. For example, 10/17S refers to the October 17th Smart Source circular. 10/17R refers to the Red Plum circular. PG stands for the Proctor and Gamble circular (usually included in the Sunday Paper about once a month), GM refers to the General Mills circular (also included about once a month) and T refers to the occasional Target coupon circular.



To the right of the item is the coupon's value (if that store doubles coupons, the value listed will reflect that policy), followed by how many items the coupon requires you to purchase. The next field lists the sale price of the item, followed by the final price when combined with the coupon. The final field lists the percentage of savings. 



Other blogs might list coupon match-ups something like this: 



San Giorgio Pasta – $1

Use $0.55/1 coupon from the 10/3 SmartSource insert
Or use $0.50/1 printable
Free after coupon

   
You can see why it is important to start collecting the Sunday paper immediately so that you have the coupons you need to plan an awesome shopping trip!  Having said this, most coupon match ups will include links for online printable coupons if there are any available for a given sale item. Take note if these, especially while you are building up your supply of Sunday coupon circulars.  

Once you have made your list, print a copy and then cut out the specific coupons you need for your trip. Put your list and coupons in your coupon binder or purse and you're ready to strike some major deals! 

When you have shopped this way for a while you will never want to walk into a grocery store again without being armed with lots of coupons and a list.

Stay tuned for the next post. I will talk about maximizing your savings at the checkout counter.




Enjoying this series? Follow me on twitter (@andriajenise) or subscribe to my posts so you don't miss anything!

No comments: