Help Wanted: Grocery Saving Ideas

I made the decision yesterday to start being a smarter grocery shopper. It’s a novel idea, I know. Don’t get me wrong -- I love finding a good deal and I almost never buy anything full price…except when it comes to groceries. I think it’s because we buy them every week, and there are always so many items. I mean, it’s a lot easier to search around for a good deal on a pair of shoes or a sweater than it is an entire list of food and toiletries.


But since we’ve moved to one income, I think it’s time to get more serious about frugality in the grocery department.


Since I got married almost 4 years ago, I have considered myself to be a “coupon clipper”. Now, what you might think when you hear that is that I regularly cut out and use coupons at the local grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc. What it actually has meant up until this point is that I regularly cut out coupons, filed them neatly by category and date in a mini file folder, and promptly forgot about them. Until the next time I clipped out coupons at which point I usually would say, “We had a coupon for paper towels? I just bought some!” Sometimes on my really ambitious days, I would pull out my little coupon file before I went grocery shopping and gather a stack of coupons I could use…only to realize to my dismay (usually in the checkout line) that they were all expired.


So Step One: actually start using coupons.


Step Two: my friend Laura told me about a website (http://www.afullcup.com/) that has a “Target Coupon Generator.” Basically, store coupons for Target that you can print from your computer – the best thing is, you can use a store coupon AND a manufacturer’s coupon at the same time. So – double the coupons, double the deals.


Step Three – look for really good deals on the big stuff we buy – meat, diapers, etc. – and if the deal is good enough, deviate from my normal favorite store and grab the good deal at HyVee or Fareway or wherever.


Sometimes I tend to get an idea in my head and jump in headfirst, usually only to burn out a couple of weeks later – so I’m really going to try NOT to do that here. Because I can see myself very quickly getting to the point where I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off to every store in town and obsessively writing down prices, trying to do the math in my teensy weensy brain to make sure I’m getting the best deal on absolutely everything. I don’t think that would be the best use of my time, money, gas, or sanity.


So I’ll probably still be doing most of my shopping at good ol’ Wal-Mart with their “Everyday Low Prices” – let’s face it, nobody shops there for the customer service ;)


I'm curious -- what works for you all? Anyone have any good grocery shopping tips to share with me? Leave me a comment and let me in on your secrets!!