couponqueenofcorning

I thought I would share the best ways to save on money on groceries and other household products.This is the first half of my money saving tips for grocery shopping.

1. Generics - Did you know that many of the generics on the store shelves are actually made by your favorite name brand companies? There are many generics that I use on a regular basis. I use generics for everything from ibuprofen to bread. I have tried a lot of them and there are only a few things that I have to have a name brand product. I will only use Charmin toilet paper, use the better paper towel brands, makeup, and Pepsi (though I will drink Diet Cherry Coke and Diet A&W). Try replacing one name brand product with a generic each time you go shopping. I am sure you will find some really great generic products out there.
2. Coupons - I have decided that I will start trying to put more effort into coupons. I had been very disappointed in the lack of coupons out there, but I was mostly using the Sunday papers. I do find a lot of cleaning and personal product coupons the first week of the month. Frugal Village has a monthly coupon train where you swap coupons with others, and I will once again be doing that starting in February. You can find a lot of coupons online also, but you will need to make sure that the stores you shop accept online coupons. Walmart supposedly does, but they have been known to give people using them a hassle by trying not to take them. I  have used these sites to get coupons: The Coupon Loop , Smart Source , and Penny Pincher Gazette .  You can also order coupons for products you use a lot of. These would be products that you can stockpile or freeze, because you get 10-20 coupons for around $2 and they do have expiration dates. I have used Ebay stores to order coupons, but there are also places where you can find coupons for sale.
3. Keeping a price book or list - Knowing what prices you usually pay for things, will help you be able to tell if a sale is actually a good deal or not. For example, I know that I can often get Chef Boyardee for less than $1 at Walmart (or I can get the generics at Alid’s for even less and they are just as tasty), so when I see them on sale somewhere for 10/$10 I know that this is not a good deal . There are many ways to keep track of what you spend. If you buy the product quite a bit, you may actually remember how much you usually pay. This is what I do now. I used to come home from grocery shopping and enter all the prices in to a spreadsheet using Excel. Some people use a a price book. This is a little notebook that you write down different products, the stores where you shop and how much the product is at that store.

Those are the first three tips for saving money at the grocery store. The other tips will be continued tomorrow, with the next three tips. If you have anything you’d like to add, or you would like to comment on these, please leave it in my comments sections. Until tomorrow….

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