Grocery Shopping

I've recently rekindled my love of coupon shopping at grocery stores.  For a while, it was hard to want to make the effort- the newspaper inserts are ridiculous now- save 40 cents off 3 $8 each products is hardly worth the effort it takes to work the scissors.  It's definitely not worth rushing out to stock up on anything.

Thankfully, we've had some better deals come up.  My grocery store, Harris Teeter, just did a week of "Super Doubles", where they doubled coupons up to $2.  I was able to get pork ribs (already on mark down) for $1.30 a package!  I also stocked up on some things for Tim- quick meals, chili, etc.  We got a bag each of dog and cat food for much cheaper than I usually have to pay and saved around 60 cents a bag on shredded cheese.

Was it an amazing, stop the presses, call in the media kind of trip? No.  I did manage to save around 80% on my first trip and 60% on my second- plus I got 4 cups of Uncle Ben's rice as a side for Tim.  They were regularly on sale for $1 each... I paid a penny each- after tax.

The thing that I (and you) have to remember about coupons is that you don't have to hit it out of the park every single time.  If you save 80% on filler items like quick microwave meals, rice, etc., that is still money in your wallet.  So what if the sales aren't as good and the coupon values stink?  If you are going to buy it anyway or really want to try it, even 30 cents is helpful.

Pennies make dollars- and it works both ways.  Would you rather those extra cents be making money for you, or lining the pockets of CEOs?

-Kristen