I decided I would share some of my secrets with you. I'm not going to lie, it involves a little bit of prep work so if you're one to do ALL of your household shopping at ONE grocery store, without a list, this post is not for you.
If you don't have a Publix in your area, that's unfortunate. Some of the same principles might apply, but chances are your grocery store isn't as awesome as Publix so you won't score as great of deals (I don't know what I'm going to do when we move back to the northeast....maybe have a career change and open a Publix franchise just so I can still shop there). I digress......
Step 1: The Flyers
The sales run Wednesday through Tuesday, our mailperson drops off the flyers on Wednesday (sometimes Tuesday if I'm lucky). I go through the Publix flyer paying particular attention to the items that are "Buy 1, Get 1 free" (or BOGO or B1G1), because these are where you're going to get your best deals. Fortunately, Publix rings up all BOGO items at half price, so you don't have to buy 2 of the same item to get the sale price.
Step 2: Coupons
Publix doubles manufacturer's coupons up to $0.50. Most grocery stores have this same deal, some only double up to $0.35 and some double up to $0.55. Also, if you buy 2 of the same item, you can use 2 of the exact same coupons (or 3 items and 3 coupons, etc etc). I wasn't aware of this before because on all coupons it says "one per item" and I never realized that you could buy multiple items and use mulitple coupons.
Sunday Paper - This is my main source for my coupons. I go to the dollar store and pick it up for $1 every Sunday. It's cheaper than getting the "weekend package" delivered. Thanks to wonderful websites/bloggers like this, you can often see beforehand what coupons are going to be in the paper. This way, if I see something that I know we will use (for example a $1.50/1 Kraft salad dressing coupon when I know it goes on sale at publix for 2/$3), I'll pick up 2 copies of the paper.
Internet - Let's see. Smartsource. Coupons.com. EatBetterAmerica. Betty Crocker. I don't usually spend much time, if any, perusing the internet coupon sites. Mostly because of awesome posters on other sites (see below) who have already done all of the internet searching for me. And not all places accept internet coupons anyways. Publix does, but there is this one cashier that is convinced that they don't, so I simply pass by her line whenever I'm checking out.
Publix Coupons - Yes, this store is so great that they put out a bunch of their own coupons. They have 2 monthly "sale/coupon" flyers that sit at the front of the store, and they also have a couple of their own magazines on different topics (family, enviro friendly, etc) that often have coupons in them.
Here is where you can score big. Publix allows you to "double up" 1 publix coupon and 1 mfr coupon on a single item. For example, I might have a Publix coupon for $1 off Fresh Express salad blend. I also happen to have a manufacturer's coupon for $0.50 off Fresh Express. Let's say the sale price is 2/$4. My mfr coupon doubles to $1 and when used in combination with my Publix coupon, I now have $2 off a $2 bag of salad = FREE :)
Publix also has a "Mystery Item" for sale every Sunday and Monday. It costs $0.01 when you buy $10 worth of groceries. They put a "mystery coupon" in their ad in the Sunday paper, and it can be anything from a loaf of bread to toilet paper to pasta sauce to sweet tea to pizza to soda to cereal etc, etc, etc. So awesome.
Competitor's coupons - The Publix I shop at accepts the Piggly Wiggly coupon that is in our "Birmingham City" coupon books. There are 6 PW coupons for $5/$25 and 6 for $5/$50. I've heard rumors that other Publix stores will accept all competitor's coupons (including Target, Winn Dixie, etc) but mine only accepts the ones from the Pig.Step 3: Other websites
After I skim through the flyer and mark what we need, I go to the Publix Forum on Hot Coupon World (dumb name, I know) where this wonderful poster has done all of the grunt work. She (at least I'm assuming it's a "she") types in all of the ads, then lists any available coupons (internet or regular) that are available for that item. Sometimes I won't have the coupons that she lists or I'll find some coupons that are not on her list, but for the most part, this is how I find the internet coupons available for certain items we need.
Let's recap: It's easier than this post may make it seem.
1. I look through the flyer (easy enough)
2. I go to the HCW website to see what coupons are available, then simply click "print" or pull them out of my coupon organizer.
3. I go to Publix, and use my $5/$25 Piggly Wiggly coupon.
4. I scan my Publix Upromise card so I can put some pennies toward my tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans.
5. I brag on my blog about how much I saved at Publix (Note: I don't really post about it to brag. Whenever I tell Tom how much I save he's like "You should Blog about that!!")
I also do other easy (although not always convenient) things to save money when grocery shopping like:
- Buy fruit & veggies that are in-season
- Buy household bulk items (paper towels, TP, dish detergent etc) from Sam's Club
- Buy meat (chicken, fish, beef, pork, etc) when it is super on sale and freeze it
- Buy milk, cream cheese, and bread from Aldi because it's super cheap and tastes the same
- Try to only buy things when they're on sale and store them in the pantry for later use.
One last question before I post this blog:
Have I turned into my Mom yet?!?! :)
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