It took me almost a year to perfect my grocery shopping technique and for the sake of time I'm going to spare you all of the steps I went through. This is a very simple strategy that works really well for Trey and me. You may want to keep in mind that we use the Dave Ramsey system for our budget, so it is almost essential that we "plan" our groceries. I wrote a post a year or two ago on my old blog about how we use Dave's system... I may re-post here if any of you are interested. Here's how Trey and I eat for about $10 per week. This is a really long post, so let me give you some motivation

***my "record" on grocery shopping/coupon savings is $99.00. That's A LOT of free money***

***Just last week I saved $55 on coupons alone***

***If you bring your reusable grocery bags to Kroger, they give you 30 cents off per bag.****

AND

I will be giving away 5 of these reusable bags and one really cool coupon organizer. Just leave a comment on this post about how you use coupons and how much you've saved.

1. I buy groceries/household items 1 time every 6 weeks.
Sometimes we make it 8 weeks, but most of the time we try to stay on a 6 week schedule. We go to Kroger. I've taken a pen and paper and compared prices at Harvest Foods (in EE) and Walmart. Kroger is the cheapest... Plus they have a few other perks that I'll discuss later. I keep a running list in my pantry of things that I'll need on my next trip. For example, this time I ran out of every staple (flour, sugar, brown sugar, oil, ect...) so, instead of running to the store to pick it up, I did without and put it on my list. This also saves time as I don't have to make a complete list right before shopping. By the time we go, my list is pretty much already made.

2. We don't plan our meals, but we plan what meals to have.
Trey is gone to work or riding horses an average of 3-4 nights per week, so I actually COOK about 3 meals per week. The rest of the time we eat leftovers or something simple. I know that for 6 weeks, I need to have ingredients for about 15 meals. So, I write down a list of what we have ingredients for already (like spaghetti or tacos), and put the leftover ingredients on the shopping list (including meat). This way, at any time during the 6 week period, I know that I have all the ingredients for at least 15 meals. This saves me from going to the store to "pick up something for dinner."

3. I buy chicken at Sam's and Beef at Kroger -- both in bulk
I buy the biggest package of ground beef and divide it into 1 lb. sections and freeze it. I do the same with the chicken. The breasts at Sam's are really big, so I freeze one per bag.

4. Every few months I stock up on spices and non-perishables at a place called Closeout Foods.

It's on Asher and University (yeah, a really great part of town). They sell everything. Most of the items are there because they were in a box that was damaged, but the individual boxes are not actually damaged or dented. It is DIRT CHEAP. Two things: don't go there alone, and don't go after dark.

5. COUPONS! 

They are like free money. I clip coupons from the paper every sunday and also from the weekly mailer from Red Plum. Here are a few tips:

• Clip coupons for items you use, even if it's not the brand you typically buy. Almost 100% of the time you can buy a name brand item for less than the store brand. example: I bought zip lock brand bags for $1.00 less than the Kroger brand because I had a coupon, and it could be doubled. More on doubling later. It is not true that coupon clipping will cause you to buy things that you normally don't buy. They will help you get the cheapest of the options for things on your list. If the store brand is cheaper, even with the coupons, buy it and throw your coupon away.

• Save coupons for one month after they expire. Kroger takes expired coupons even though they don't advertise it.

• K also doubles coupons up to 55 cents. But here's a tip: the register automatically doubles the 55 cent or less coupons BUT if you take the time to put your coupons in two stacks (under 55 and over 55) you can get them Quadroopled! Tell your cashier "here are the coupons less than 55 cents for you to double and here are the ones that are not to be doubled." She'll scan them two times each, making your savings on a 55 cent coupon $2.10! This lets you get things for free sometimes.

• K also lets you use more than one coupon per item, they just don't advertise it. So, clip every coupon you can for the items you need. For example, there are always a LOT of crescent roll/biscuit coupons in the paper. Even if they say "55 cents off when you buy 2" you can still use it on one item. So, just spread them out in your stack and use them all. You can actually make a profit this way.

• Also at K, you can use some coupons even if you don't buy EXACTLY what the coupons says. Example: this week at K when you buy 3 12 packs of coke products, you get 2 FREE boxes of Ritz crackers. I had a coupon for Ritz bits, and they let me use it! So, I made a $2.10 profit on the Ritz!

• If you can, be flexible on the brands of personal products you use. If you typically buy a certain brand of shampoo because it is cheap, look out for ALL brands of shampoo coupons. When you get to the store (Kroger), look around at the different shampoo's that you have coupons for. You may find that you will be able to try something new for DIRT CHEAP. Example: I had a lot of coupons for Pantine (which I happen to use anyway). Kroger had all Pantine products 2 for $4. I also clipped a coupon for a FREE stying product of my choice. So, I got a deep conditioner treatment (6.00 value) and two bottles of shampoo for about $1.00 (after coupons). Suave's price can't even beat that.

• When you make your list, go through your coupons and put a * by the items that you have a coupon for. This will help you find the coupons in your organizer as you shop. 

• Stop before you check out and go through your coupon organizer one more time, making sure that you did not miss one. 

That's about it for my grocery shopping techniques.... I told you it was simple. Any questions? Comment back and let me know how much you have saved!