How to be a grocery ninja

Every week, i can’t help but gloat on Facebook about how much i saved during my weekly grocery run. I think my best yet was one where i paid around $100, but my savings were around $50. There were a lot of stock items (condiments, rice, flour, etc), but ultimately the food from that one shop lasted us about 2-3 weeks. Today i spent about $80 and saved $40. I figured i’d share some tips on how to get started, and how to keep up with it every week.

How to get started

First things first: get yourself a coupon organizer. I think mine cost maybe $3. It’s a plastic sectioned envelope type thingie, and came with alphabetized inserts for the tabs (i like to alphabetize by brand, but that’s just me). There are some nicer ones out there, but the goal is to save money. Hell, if a fancy schmancy coupon organizer is going to make you more inclined to use it? Go nuts. Whatever floats your duckies.

Make sure you get some decent scissors. Again, nothing fancy here. The trick is to keep them in the coupon organizer so that other members of your household don’t try to use them for something else, thus dulling the edges. Or if you already have some you can use, good times. If they don’t cut through thin paper very well, you can sharpen them up a bit by cutting through a layer or two of tin foil every now and then. Coupon paper tends to be pretty thin, so decent scissors are important, if for no other reason than keeping your frustration levels low.

Get a Sunday paper. Sometimes my local paper does a “double coupon” Sunday paper, but it doesn’t give you more variety of coupons, just more of the same. That can be nice for when you’re getting started, but it’s going to be more expensive than the usual paper, and not really worth it once you’ve built up a good stash of coupons.

The weekly process

I like to get it all done on Sunday: go out, pick up a paper, do my coupon bits (more on that in a minute), then go back out and do the shop the same day. But yanno, whatever fits your schedule.

Once i have my paper, here’s what i do: i pull out all of the store inserts and the coupons, and put the rest of the paper straight back into the plastic bag it came in. Go through all of the store inserts – the “less likely” ones first. I’m probably not going to need anything from Target or Best Buy, but sometimes you run across some good deals that way. (I recently had to get a new monitor; it was a President’s Day sale at Office Depot – $30 off the usual price. Score!)  Toss the inserts as you’re done with them. The grocery store inserts get put aside for later.

You’ll find some surprising deals in there. I have coupons for oil changes, restaurant coupons (buy one get one free at IHOP, hell yeah), eye exams – all sorts of stuff.

Next up are the coupons. They usually come in little unbound booklets. This is actually somewhat tricksy: you’ll see a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t normally buy, but oh hey there’s a coupon. I try to only clip coupons for things i would be buying anyway. You don’t want to get into the mindset of buying something just because you happen to have a coupon for it. Also, some of those coupons aren’t really as good as they might sound: any coupon that says “X amount off when you buy two”? Commits you to buying two of that item. Sometimes those are handy, but i’m inclined to ignore them, especially when the math just doesn’t add up.

Example: today i saw a coupon for a dollar off of Pringles… when you buy four of them. I’d be saving $0.25 per can of Pringles; around here, they go for almost $2 a can, pre-coupon – i’d be spending $7 and saving $1. Ew. Avoid “spending money to save money”, because nothing saves money quite like not spending it in the first place. I guess if you really like Pringles, it’s okay. If you must clip those coupons, try to combine them with in-store deals for a better bargain. Progresso soups are buy one get one free this week, and you have a coupon for $1 off when you buy two? Sweet!

Once you’re done clipping the coupons, file them away in your organizer. You can file as you go, but i find it’s more time-efficient to clip them all, then file them. You’ll notice that coupon expiration dates vary by quite a bit. Today i found some coupons that expired in 2-3 weeks, and a few that were good until July. In any case, just file them and move on. We’ll come back to the coupons in a minute.

Next up: the grocery inserts. Most areas have more than one large chain; around here we have Kroger, Publix, and Wayfield. Sometimes one store has better/more deals. They’re in competition with each other, so a lot of times, they’ll have sales on similar items.

Open Notepad (or any other text editor you prefer), and as you go through the store inserts, make a list of what sales you’re interested in from each store; be sure to list the brand and the deal in question. Example: “classico pasta sauce – buy one get one free.” Be sure to keep each store’s sales in separate lists, so you don’t get confused about what’s on sale where. If you want to be uber-ninja about it, you can split up your shopping at the different stores, but i usually can’t be bothered to go that nuts. So when you’re done, you can decide which store you’re going to be visiting this week, based on which one has better/more stuff on sale. As you’re going through the pages, come up with a mental meal plan.

Back to the coupons. With Notepad still open, go through each section of your organizer and look at the coupons; now that you know what’s on sale, you can try to combine the in-store deals with coupons for better savings.

An important tip: as you’re going through the coupons, take note of the dates on them. Pull out the ones that are going to expire by next Sunday; toss anything you won’t need to buy that week. This process is good for two reasons: first, it helps keep your organizer up to date, and free of frustrations ($5 off this awesome thing that expired a month ago, arg). Secondly, it can be a good reminder of the things you don’t always think about buying – light bulbs, batteries, a new toothbrush, etc. But if you don’t need it right away, and you have another coupon for it that expires later, just toss it. Be merciless. Coupons don’t have feelings.

The nice thing about doing your grocery list in Notepad is that you can then rearrange the items in the order you generally shop: produce first, random dry goods next, dairy products next, frozen foods last. Fill it out with things you might need to complete your weekly meal plan (e.g., if you’re buying hot dogs, don’t forget the buns). Then you can either write it down on paper or print it out, whichever ink you feel like using. Put the coupons you’re going to be using in a happy little pile somewhere, or stick them in your pocket/purse/whatever.

Tips for the actual shopping process

You can bring your coupon organizer with you, but i’ve found it a bit unwieldy. Also, it inclines me towards thinking, “oh, i have a coupon for that, i’ll just snag some while i’m here…” No. Resist temptation. Stick to your list. Do not stray from the path.

Don’t be sold on your coupons. Today i had a $3 off coupon for Prilosec, but the generic store brand was $10 cheaper, for twice the amount. Screw the coupon! A lot of your savings won’t actually show up on your final bill, because it doesn’t take into account when you buy a cheaper brand without a coupon. And the in-store deal of 10 bags of Green Giant frozen veggies for $10 sounds great, but not when you compare it to the store brand is selling for $0.89.

Pay attention to the fine print on the items’ shelf tags. Sometimes one brand of ketchup will cost more, but has a better price per ounce. I tend to go for things with a better price by weight or amount, especially with “stock” items – things you keep around the kitchen and don’t use up in one go (spices, condiments, rice, flour, etc). The aforementioned generic Prilosec was $17.99 for 28 tablets, but $18.99 for 42 tablets. You might spend a wee bit more, but you’re getting more for your money. If numbers make your face hurt, snag a calculator to bring with you on your store runs.

As you’re going, weed out the coupons that you’re not going to be using. That way, when you get to the register, you’re not having to stand there and sort through them, trying to remember what you have and haven’t purchased.

Final thoughts

Fresh produce is generally harvested before it’s ripened, which means that it’s ripening en route, be it in the back of a semi-truck or a crate in the back of the store. Canned or frozen produce is harvested and processed when it is already ripe – so it’s actually slightly better for you (which will make it more satisfying/satiating), and will last longer. Also, the prices on frozen or canned produce generally doesn’t vary by season, like it does with fresh produce. I generally only buy fresh fruits or veggies when they’re on sale, or when we just really want something you can’t get canned or frozen – apples, oranges, bananas, that sort of thing.

While we’re on the subject of produce… Organic doesn’t mean what you probably think it means, and the regulations on what can be labeled as “organic” are a bit stretchy. It’s also more expensive. If you really feel the need to buy fresh, organic produce, skip the grocery store and scope out your nearest farmer’s market. If you have a good farmer’s market nearby, see if you can get your spices there. The one we go to has spices in bulk for a fraction of what we’d pay at the grocery store.

Get over brand names. Seriously. Nine times out of ten, the cheaper store brand is just as good as the more expensive name brand.

There are a stupid amount of websites that have coupons you might not find in your Sunday paper. This sounds like a great idea, until you consider that it’s likely you’ll have to print them out. Considering that printer ink is insanely expensive, it’s probably not worth it for your weekly grocery shopping.

That being said, most large grocery stores have websites where you can look at electronic versions of the inserts you’d be getting  in your Sunday paper. So if you forget to pick up a paper, or just don’t feel up for going on on Sunday, you can browse the inserts online and just go through the coupons you already have.

The more you do this, the better you’ll get at it. My first week with coupons, i think i spent $100 and saved $20, and the food i got lasted just under a week. I was proud at the time, but looking back on it, i cringe. A few weeks ago i saw a story in the paper about a coupon-mad mom who feeds her family of four on $20 a week. Don’t expect that to happen right away. Also bear in mind that if you’re comparing deals as you’re shopping, not all of your ultimate savings will show on up on the final receipt. And don’t be discouraged: this really is a skill, and you will get better with practice.