I spend about $150. on groceries each week, and then I spend about $15 or $20 per week on lunches at work. I try to limit meals out with the girls to once or twice a month. My goal is to cut my food budget and contribute what I save there towards my house nest egg account.
I will readily admit that I have never been much of a coupon clipper. My grocery store prints coupons along with the receipt that seem to be refelctive of items that I have already purchased. Unfortunately, I don't always remember to use these coupons. (silly, I know)
Now I have become aware of how much money I am leaving on the table by paying full price for my groceries. My goal is to find ways to cut my grocery budget by at least 25% by using coupons. I will also make more of an effort to bring my lunch to work and limit eating out at lunch to one day per week, or $15 per week.
One of the challenges is that I am a vegetarian, and I don't eat many prepared foods, which is most often what the coupons are for. I buy my produce fresh and prepare almost all of my meals from scratch. So, I will will see how much of a dent coupons are going to make in my grocery store spending.
Action Items from Couponmom.com:
-start using a grocery price book where I track the prices of the items we use regularly
-remember to bring this book (and use it) as I shop for groceries
When I reach these goals I will be able to add $170. additional to my house fund.
For those who are also interested in finding creative, easy ways to cut their grocery budget, here are a couple of sites that I have found to be useful. If you know of any others, please feel free to share them.
http://www.dreamlinesavingsolutions.com/grocery-savings.aspx
http://www.couponmom.com/
Taming the Grocery Budget Beast
March 26th, 2008 at 04:40 pm
March 26th, 2008 at 05:02 pm 1206550922
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March 26th, 2008 at 08:14 pm 1206562467
March 26th, 2008 at 08:28 pm 1206563290
In winter, well, it's tougher. More frozen food, more pasta and beans and rice, and the fruits and veggies are just expensive and not as nice. Still worth it though. I predict you'll do a lot better during the warm weather.
March 26th, 2008 at 09:42 pm 1206567721
http://hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php
These ladies in the site are professional coupon shoppers. They saved a ton of money for me. The best thing about this site is, it's FREE!!
I checked couponmom site before, but I didn't find anything new there.
One thing about coupons is that coupon themselves won't save you much money. They work the best when combined with store sale/promotion/rebate, etc.
For example, Kellog had a rebate form for their Special K products. You buy 4 items, and get $10 back. I had $4/4 coupons for Kellog cereal, and Rite Aid had Buy one get one free sale for Special K. I bought 4 boxes, paid $5.94. ($4.97 for 2 boxes x 2 = $9.94 - $4 coupon = $5.94) And, I am getting $10 back by Kellog rebate. On top of that, Rite Aid is sending me $5 coupon that is good for next Rite Aid purchase for anything. So, I made $9.06 by buying 4 boxes of cereal.
This is one of very nice cases that I can triple dip (Kellog coupon, Kellog rebate, and Rite Aid rebate) the deal, and the reason I love couponing.
March 29th, 2008 at 01:54 pm 1206798874
March 29th, 2008 at 06:25 pm 1206815150