13 Grocery-Shopping Tips for the Savvy Spender: Money-Saving Guide

I am always looking for more ways to save money, especially when it comes to grocery shopping. I know I am not alone in this. While reading the August issue of Woman's Day magazine, I ran across an article on grocery shopping and how extreme grocery shoppers optimize their time and money when buying food for the family. Here's a summary of some of the highlights.

Shop the sales - Grocery stores normally follow a 12-week cycle of sales. When something that you use a lot goes on sale, stock up and buy however much you will need until you think it's going to go on sale again. Doing this for staple items can cut costs drastically when you get it at the low sale price instead of buying it as you need it.

Don't be afraid of generics or store brands - More often than not, the store brand (generic) is just as good (if not better) than the name brand items and you're only paying a fraction of the cost. Give it a shot and see if you can tell a difference. If you can't, start including store brand items in your grocery shopping trips.

Make the rounds - Sometimes buying all your food and produce at one store seems like the best idea. In reality, you can probably make a few stops at different stores and maximize sales in order to get the most out of your dollar. Of course, this doesn't work if you're driving 50 miles in between stores.

Shop specialty and ethnic stores - Some specialty stores and ethnic markets sell items for a fraction of the price that you would pay in a mainstream grocery chain. Rice, spices, produce and other items can often be found cheaper if you can find a local ethnic market or farmer's market to purchase these items from.

Join a co-op - Although I don't know the availability of co-ops in your area, it sounds like a great idea. Essentially, you prepay dues of about $49 (per co-op) every two weeks and pick up a few large totes of 25-35 pounds of locally grown and certified organic produce. Go to localharvest.org to find a co-op near you.

Cook every meal - Making your meals by hand limits the amount of frozen and pre-packaged meals that you buy, which cuts costs because those meals are quite expensive.

Make everything at once - If you have the freezer space to do so, spend a weekend cooking meals and freezing them for the next few weeks or month so that you only have to prepare meals once a month and they are easy to pop in the oven and serve. This allows you to buy in bulk and take advantage of sales.

Look for markdowns - I often buy marked down meat and freeze it in serving sized freezer bags. You could do this with bread items too. Most meat can be frozen for up to six months, so even if you buy it a day or two before the "sell by" date, you can take advantage of the low price and freeze it!

Double coupons - Shop at stores that allow you to double coupons. I know Meijer sometimes does this and Kroger always does doubling on .50 or less. If you are able to combine sales with double coupons, you can really get some good deals.

Hold off - Some find that when saving coupons, many items often go on sale about 4 weeks after the time the coupons are published in the Sunday paper. So save your coupons and watch for the best sales!

Use the internet - There are blogs and forums online that pretty much do all the work for you when it comes to matching coupons with deals. Places such as The Grocery Game and Hot Coupon World have all the deals listed by store each week so you don't have to do the work!

Set a budget - Make a list, set a grocery budget and leave your credit cards at home. This forces you to follow the list and not stray and buy stuff that you don't need. You'd be surprised at how much this actually saves you in the long run. Plus? You don't have a kitchen full of junk/snack food that you don't need.

Menu plan - This kind of goes hand in hand with #12. Make a menu plan for the period in which you plan to shop for (I do this weekly). Go through each meal and write down what you need to buy. This becomes your grocery list (along with other items you may need such as milk, eggs, bread, etc). Using this list, you are able to stick to the plan and know you will have everything you need for all the meals you planned.