Grocery Coupons

     

    Grocery Coupons – How I Use Them to Save Money!

    After running a coupon site for a number of years I have heard a lot of questions about how to best use grocery coupons to save money.  Although coupons are pretty straight forward in nature, maximizing their benefit takes a bit more planning and coordination.  My favorite way to use coupons is to find an item that in non-perishable or has a long shelf life and then wait until a really fantastice deal comes along from one of the many supermarkets.  Once you have identified your deal you can combine this with manufacturers coupons and double coupons to create the ultimate deal.  My doing this over and over again you can make sure that the items that you use most are stocked up in your pantry at the lowest possible price. There are entire books written on the using grocery coupons effectively, but it really only comes down to two essential points to make the above scenario work:

    1. Finding Enough Coupons

      - This can often times be the hardest part of couponing, because most consumers only will receive one coupon insert in there Sunday paper.  There are a few options to acquire more coupons, some paid and some free.  You can ask your neighbors or friends if you can use their inserts or you can simple purchase additional copies of the newspaper.  If you are willing to pay a little bit then there are a number of services that provide “Coupon Clipping Services” for a fee.  You can browse their website and have a large quantity of coupons delivered right to your mailbox.

       

    2. Monitoring Local Supermarket Deals

      - To get the best price you have to combine store deals, double coupons, and manufacturer coupons all together.  Monitoring the prices at all of your local stores can be tricky, but it can be accomplished if you are diligent.  I simply read though all of the store circulars and quickly discover if any of my “stock up” items are on sale.  Other people prefer to keep a details spreadsheet, but you should stick with whatever works best for you.

    So, make sure you print all of your coupons each week and then monitor your local store ads to see if you can double your savings.  I know of some users who will print multiple batches of coupons by logging in to different computers since the print limit is 2 per computer.