How To Save Money on Groceries and More Week 1

Does it seem you are spending more money than you would like on purchases at the grocery store. Would you like to pay less for your health and beauty items? Then you have come to the right place. I will show you how to save money on groceries and household items with just a little planning and preparation so you can easily shave 50% or more off your weekly purchases.

How to Get Coupons

Let’s start out with the basic item you will need to save money – coupons! There are two main places to get coupons, from the Sunday paper and printable internet coupons.

The first way to start saving money is to subscribe to your local Sunday paper or if you have family and friends who already subscribe and don’t use their coupons, you could see if they would save the inserts for you. If you are a new subscriber to the paper find out if they are running any specials at the time or if they offer any kind of discount to new subscribers.

A few months ago I decided to find out how much money I save using coupons out of the newspaper inserts. Guess what I found out? You can pay or very nearly pay off an entire years Sunday subscription in 1 month! For the one month I kept track of every coupon I cut and used at the end of the month I added them up and discovered I used a whopping $99 worth of insert coupons. This number could vary from month to month but it definitely shows that a newspaper subscription is well worth its money.

How Many Newspapers Should I Buy?

In the Sunday paper you will find 1 – 3 inserts per week. The insert names are Red Plum, Smart Source and Procter & Gamble. Each week I list a Sunday Coupon Preview where you can find which inserts you can expect in that weekends paper. Coupons and their values tend to vary from region to region but the preview gives you a general idea of the included coupons.

A general rule of thumb is to buy 1 paper per household member. Personally I recommend starting out with buying 2 papers. The reason I suggest 2 papers is, my favorite kind of deals are Buy 1 Get 1 FREE and at my local grocery stores on these kind of deals I can use 2 $1 off 1 item coupons, thus making for greater savings than if I would only have 1 coupon.

Printable coupons found on the internet are also another source that will help you greatly reduce the total at the bottom of your receipt. My favorite sites for printable coupons are, Coupons.com, Red Plum, and Coupon Network.

When you print coupons here is a money saving tip. Print in black only, if you use color you will be be spending a lot of money on ink. Also check your printer settings and print in draft or a similar lower setting print. I print all my coupons this way and never have a problem with them scanning.

Next week I’ll show you how I organize my coupons and more.