Saturday, September 10, 2011

How to Get the Best Buy

With regards to your grocery shopping, there are several ways to help you get the best buy. 

1. Use a loyalty card, this helps you accumulate points and rewards, and sometimes triggers coupons geared towards your shopping habits at the register.
2. Clip and use coupons for the products you like. These are available in the Sunday newspaper, online from your grocer or super store, through sites like red plum, through facebook, through manufacturer's websites or through your email. See my favorites links to the right of this blog.
3. Read your grocers weekly ads and buy the things they are running a special on, especially meats and fruits and veggies. Look to see what else they have on sale then go through your coupons to double save.
4. Look at not only the price posted, but more importantly at the price per unit or ounce. That is the fastest way to compare sizes and national brand to store brand. For example, the other day I had a store coupon for $1.00 off of bagged coffee. There were two flavors side by side that had the same price on them, but one bag held more coffee, so therefore it was the smarter buy.
5. Look for manager's specials in the produce and meat aisle. These are items that are very close to their expiration date and they get marked down. If you use them within a couple of days you can save quite a bit.
6. Look for the clearance shelf, usually at the back of the store. Here you will find baked goods ready to expire, discontinued shampoos and toiletries, odd lots of paper plates, seasonal items or discontinued goods. I always take a peek!

I hope that you will try some or all of these tips. They have become a regular routine for me!

Ta ta for now...