Helpful Ideas to Save a Few Bucks When Grocery Shopping

We can all agree that everything costs more these days. The cost of fuel skyrockets, which causes the prices on nearly everything else we buy to go up. Grocery shopping is one thing that we all have to deal with. Most of us do not enjoy it, but it has to be done. I have come up with a few things that can help stretch your dollar when it comes to groceries.

Grocery stores generally have weekly sales. They send out flyers, advertise on television and the radio, and have in-store specials. These flyers can be your ticket to saving money. In my area, there are several chain grocery stores; most of them have a preferred shoppers program. Customers can sign up to get a card, usually with a barcode it, the card is scanned when you make a purchase to receive discounts on certain products.

Preferred customer cards can be an annoyance to some people, but the savings you can receive can add up. If you find yourself in line at the register without your card, ask the cashier if they have an extra one they can scan. Some stores prohibit cashiers from doing this, if that is the case, ask someone in line with you to borrow theirs. Some grocery stores will allow you to enter your telephone number into the credit card machine to receive your preferred customer discount. Some stores will allow you to bring your receipt and card back at a later date to have the amount you would have saved by using your preferred customer card refunded to you.

Some grocery stores offer price matching. This means that if a competitor advertises an item at a lower price they will match the price. This can mean great savings if you pay attention to the flyers. Shopping this way can mean a little extra work. You will need to mark the items you are interested in and take the flyers with you. This will require you to pay special attention to brands and sizes so that you can receive the price match. Shopping this way will mean extra time spent in the check out line making sure that you receive the price match for each of the items.

Another option is to do your grocery shopping at several different stores. This option only makes sense if the stores are in close proximity to one another. If they are scattered all over town you will use more money in fuel than you will save by multi-store shopping. I did my grocery shopping today, and this is the method that I used for this shopping trip. I visited four different stores. I spent about $115.00 and I got enough groceries to last my family of four for two weeks. Shopping using this option can be tiresome but you can save some serious money this way. The first store I visited had a sale on lunchmeats, five packages for $5.00. Normally costing nearly $2.00 per pack it was well worth my trip just in the savings on lunchmeat. The next store, ironically enough had a five for $5.00 sale on boxed dinners and their hamburger meat was the cheapest in town. I was able to get the boxed dinners, but they were sold out of the hamburger. Knowing they had another store on the other side of town, I visited the other store and was able to get the ground beef as well as finding an in-store special on frozen pizzas and breakfast foods. The last stop I made was to Wal-Mart. I do not particularly like shopping there, but they definitely have better prices on some items than any other store. I bought things like dog food, potato chips, and bread.

Make a list of items you need before you go to the store. Stick to your list. If you have trouble with that, take someone with you who will help you stick to you list. Make sure you have a full stomach before you go grocery shopping. Studies have shown that shopping when you are hungry results in a higher grocery bill. If you plan carefully, check your local sale papers, and shop wisely, you can save money on your grocery bill.