1. Aldi! I was a brand name snob, but Aldi changed me. Their food is just as good, if not BETTER than supermarkets. $0.69 avocados? Sign me up!

2. I keep a list of things I buy on an app for the iPhone called GroceryIQ. It organizes things by aisle so shopping goes faster, and it has a notes section for each item, so I can record prices from different stores.

Your advice of saving your money on the newspaper is pretty boneheaded.

The newspaper not only provides the store circulars but tons of manufacturer coupons as well.

When I can save $200 plus on a grocery bill in one trip because of coupons, it is a no brainer to spend the $1.75 to get the Sunday paper.

"The Consumerist shares some tips from Consumer Reports for how to save money at the supermarket-such as choose store brands, use a bonus card, and clip coupons-but the comments from readers on how they save money are more informative and detailed than the post itself. Readers discuss their favorite stores, best store brand items, checking circulars in print and online, and more."

"Choose Store Brands: Look, it's the same as the name brand stuff, only 25% cheaper on average."

Probably true most of the time, but not always true. Definitely not the same when it comes to Cheerios/ToastyOs, ice cream, or soda.

@GiuliettaGanymede: Wow, that's much better than what I was doing. The scicors were scratching up my monitor pretty bad...

This week I got a 3 pack of Brita Filters and a 40 pack of Claritin for $3.

Claritin 40pk, $19.99 sale
Brita 3pack filters, $14.99 sale
$34.99 subtotal

-$5/25 Rite aid coupon
-$1 off any Brita Filter (printable from filterforgood.com)
-$4 off of any Claritin 30 count of higher, SS (smart source coupon) from 4/3 inserts
-$5 SCR (Rite Aid Single Check Rebate) for the Claritin
-$3 SCR for the Brita Filters
-$5 giftcard (RiteAid giftcard promotion on alergy medication)
-$10 gift of savings from previuos RA promotion
=$3.00 plus sales tax

See sometimes you actually can get good deals from RA, CVS and Wags. I am part of the reason why RA is probably doing badly lol.

Stack, double stack and stack-forward your discounts. Stack forward is to use extra case bucks or Register Rewards on items that generate a rebate or other offer. For example I bought $8 of items from Walgreens last week which generated $8 in Register rewards. Then I took those RRs and used them to pay for a bottle of shampoo which had a rebate to refund the bottle of shampoo. I just got $16 of crap for $1.40 or so (sales tax + postage for the rebate).

I'll bet that non-Catholic churches have the same sort of food distribution set-up.

No need to be a believer to help out your fellow man as you save money on food!

I have noticed for months that the big stores are making groceries more affordable with their sales and coupon allowances and even regular prices on many items is improved. I find the store brands only about 10% less though on average by item, but 10% is still less.

I think it's cool the stores are willing to extend a helping hand in essence.

I'm sure there are things that you pay money for and get value from (for example buying tickets to sporting events or spending $$ on a monthly cell phone package)that I would never, ever spend my money on because I don't care for sports or use a cell phone.

i work part time in produce. we really can't do any sort of volume markdowns at my store, but if you're having a barbecue or something and need a lot of corn on the cob - just let us know.

instead of you emptying our entire display on the floor, we'll just go in the back and get you a whole crate. since we sell corn by quantity, as long as you're nice i'll tell the cashiers that there are only 25 ears in the box (it's more like 45). it helps out both of us!

tell the cashier you 'forgot' yours.... they give you the discounts anyways.

2. i know a number of people who knew nothing about the "UNIT PRICE" when shopping. FIRST i look at unit prices across a given product, then consider the brand.

3.

Annoyingly, my local supermarket won't accept any "Internet coupons," meaning nothing I print out, even if it has a bar code on it.

The cost of buying better food is not the issue here. The issue is more one of time and cooking skills. Most Americans don't have real developed cooking skills anymore, so they don't know how easy and quick it is to cook real food. It takes a little more effort and planning than buying and reheating a frozen entree, but it's definitely NOT more expensive.

So, anyays, this isn't an ad for Market Bucket, but rather the moral of my story is: Explore all your local food shopping oportunities. Likely there is a store with better deals all the time than the store that has double coupons and a 'loyalty' card.

Occasionally we will use a coupon if we happen to come across one for something we buy regularly, but that is so seldom that it's not worth the effort to make a special point of looking for them.

And even if they don't have your personal information they do still get useful data-mining fodder out of your purchases just based on things like how much you spent, what set of items you bought together, etc. They then use this information to figure out how to mess with prices to maximize profits. This is why I'm suspicious of groceries that constantly change their prices.

The biggest disparity I've found is between Frosted Mini Wheats and the store brand. They're completely different! Also, Weight Watchers mozz sticks are delish (and only 50 calories!). Usually skim mozz tastes like crap. It's worth bucking up for the brand name stuff (when it's on sale).

Also, I find the meat and produce prices aren't worth it. I wish I could buy bulk chicken cutlets, but supermarket sales prices are cheaper. :-/

The other nice thing about boxed salads is the variety of lettuces and mixed greens you can get in them. I get tired of romaine after awhile.

I make out my list at night and drive to the furthest supermarket the next day, stopping at the others on the way home. I buy certain products/brands and look for them on sale.

ie: Weight Watchers ice cream bars are upwards of $6 full price at Waldbaums. I'll buy em for $3 on sale wherever. Frosted Mini Wheats are over $5.60, but I buy a few boxes when they're on sale for 2/$5. Cases of water full price are over $5. On sale for $3.33-$3.99. Just saved like $10 just on these examples, all for some time at night and a couple bucks in gas (less than 1 gallon).

I wish I could combine them with coupons though.. I'm kinda disorganized for things like that though...

Unprocessed lettuce can be a lot cheaper at some places. I still buy bagged spinach, though I get it on sale or at a local store that sells produce at ridiculously low prices.

It's not cheap if I don't eat it so I try not to buy too much at one time.

I have a book of all her Tightwad Gazettes all together, that I found at the flea market (she would be so proud of me). It's full of great ideas.

Usually, coupons in the paper aren't for anything I buy except for the Procter and Gamble ones.

What happened to the Star?!?!

Really not much more time. If you have 3 stores in close proximity to each other, you can get most of your stuff at one and have a list of especially good buys at the others and just make a quick run in to get them. By shopping this way I haven't spent more than $1.99 a pound for boneless skinless chicken or boneless pork loin in years. I mean I save some serious cash and I am only shopping for 2, after you have done this for a while you get an idea of what things should cost and will know instantly while shopping if something is overpriced, if you shop at one store exclusively you are not likely to know if you are overpaying for certain items.

I strive to eat healthily but I'm also a coupon clipper. I watch the circulars, but it seems like the best coupons for healthier foods are to be found online. I have a gmail account that I use almost exclusively for signing up for coupons, manufacturer mailing lists, etc. I've gotten coupons for things like Laura's Lean Beef, Dole boxed salads, etc. this way.

There are also certain times of year (New Year's resolution time, especially) when there are coupons for healthier foods. You've just got to keep an eye out. The Hot Coupon World forums are really helpful to me, especially when it comes to online coupons. Those people are hardcore about their coupon clipping.

With that being said I don't think the supermarket is out to save you any money. Their job is to get you in the store and get you to buy as much as possible while there in order to increase profits. When a supermarket puts something on sale they often raise prices on other goods to make up for it. When Wegmans announced they were dropping the prices on tons of items throughout the store like magic all the store brand items that we were used to buying suddenly went up in price 20-30 cents an item. Really aggravating IMO. So yes you are saving on some items but you will be paying higher prices for other items. This is particularly true if you are trying to eat healthy.

You can shop smart but you have to be willing to buy things only when they are on sale (buying only the loss leaders), and most people cannot do that because you need certain things that never go on sale like milk, bread and eggs. Also harder if you are trying to eat healthy and avoid processed and pre-packaged foods. Coupon items (food) are often sold out and unavailable here when you go to get them, although most of the time my family does do well with coupons. Walmart is a great place to use food coupons, since most people shopping at Walmart here do not use coupons. Not so great for toiletries though, as their prices on those are more expensive than other stores, but we don't usually have an issue with stores running out of toiletries so those coupons can be used wherever.

We have also been doing many of the things discussed here for years, instead of just doing them as a recession trend like many others. I am sure many others on this site are the same. We have always price shopped, always clipped coupons etc..

I do use coupons, mostly on soap, shampoo, and stuff like that. Saving money on toilet paper means more cash for better quality food.

However, if you are part of a large family and you're struggling to make ends meet you should check out Hill Billy House Wife. I don't share ideologies with the author, but the money saving tips and recipies are great. Not to mention all the nutritional info for the recipies is broken down.

There is a lot of money to be saved in cooking from scratch. Bread made at home cost cents per loaf instead of dollars. I know cooking from scratch takes a lot of time and when you are busy it's hard, but setting aside a couple of hours once a week for it will really help save money.

But, she also throws away coupons that require you to purchase two (or more) of anything, even if it's an item that she could reasonably purchase two (or more) of, because she's "not going to let them tell [her] what to do." Okaaaay...

Things like TP go and buy in bulk, it doesn't matter if you live alone or not but you will always need TP and having a big ol package of it will stop you from making an extra trip to the store when you need TP, saving you time and gasoline.

This. Saving money is great, but only if you're actually saving money. I get paid based on my productivity (transcription, paid per line typed), and there's only me and my son (and pets) in the house. My grocery bill is rarely over $200 for a month - and easily $50 of that is pet food. I tried making a detailed list, clipping coupons, and comparing circulars for a few months, and if I had spent that time typing instead, I'd have earned more than 10x the amount of money that I actually saved.

Ultimately, I compared to see which store had the consistently lowest prices overall on the items I use most, and shop there; only if there's some insanely great sale will I go elsewhere. I don't even look at the ads anymore - friends and family do the ad-comparison thing, so if there's something major, they let me know.

For the moment let's forget about the fact that I purchase the newspaper to read it.

I wouldn't really save the 50 cents by not purchasing it. I would have to deduct the cost of the toner, paper and electricity that I use to print out the coupons. Added to that is my time that is used in going to the various web sites.

If I used Time Warner Cable I might have to also factor in the cost of the metered broadband. :)

Now, if I add back into the equation the fact that I read the newspaper and get enjoyment and knowledge from it, plus the fact that I might see something else beneficial to me, can you still say I am losing 50 cents?

Those recipes share similar ingredients as well, which cuts down on waste.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles:

Some store brand stuff is made on the same line as the major brand. Some is contracted to the lowest bidder with product concessions to achieve a low price.

I agree about the paper plates etc, but disagree about the food products.

Krogers use to sell a house brand of cookies which were half to 2/3 the price of the major brand and a hell of lot better tasting as well. Found out one of the big boy bakeries was making the store brand for Kroger just to keep their production line rolling during slow times and hadn't changed to HFCS for the Kroger receipe.... instead was using real sugar for the creame filling.

Don't discount all store brand products... some are actually better products.

And yeah, I am picky and choosy when it comes to storebrand stuff. For things like personal products that I expect a certain performance, I keep an eye out for when my fav national brand goes on sale and stock up so I'm never without something I know I'm gonna need so I can get near-storebrand price. Other things, depends on price and quality... and which store's storebrand too.

@wardawg:

Buying in bulk is a good thing even when you don't want the big quantity, but can justify the purchase anyway..

I grabbed a box of granola bar thingies from Sams. Big monster sized box of 72 units for $8. The normal store boxes are 12 units for $4.50.

Even if I don't want/need 72, buying the bulk box is a better deal than buying two normal store boxes and once you hit the 3rd normal store box the bulk box becomes a great purchase. Sure, sure, I threw out the last dozen or so bars because they got too old. So what.

Same with iced tea. I bought a case of the big brew bags at Sams for $5 or so. Damn cheap. One bag makes a gallon of tea and there was 24 or 48 bags in the case. The normal store packaging is nearly the same price and has enough bags for maybe 1 gallon of tea. Once I hit my second gallon I was on a $ saving roll.

My Aunt came over and say all the tea bags. I ended up giving her half the bags. She is a big tea drinker and there was no way I was going to drink that much tea. She joined Sams just to partake in the cheap tea bags.

We shop at several stores depending on the deals and what we need.
We shop at Aldi, Wegmans, Walmart, Tops, Sam's, BJ's and others.

One place that will save you money is a bakery outlet.
Rochester has one in Henrietta, the Freihofer's Bakery Outlet.
We save tons of money buying all of our bread, rolls, bagels and other baked goods there. We freeze everything as well so it stays.

As for the Store/Generic brands vs. Name/National Brands.
It really depends on what you value more, money or quality.
While they say that the store brands may be the same, they can taste different due to a slightly altered recipe or ingredient.

For example, my wife has to have Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream whenever she wants it. However, with me, the store brand ice cream does it for me.

But somehow I don't think you should be comparing unit pricing on one ply toilet paper versus two ply. It's not like they're interchangeable just by doublilng up on one-ply. To use one over the other is a personal preference :-)

90+ lbs later so far, I look back wishing I was at least taught to eat somewhat proper. Unfortunately, the fast food/bad food addiction took months to finally break. For a big family, yes, it's cheaper to make a large meal. It's all about not going overboard which too many do.

Store brands are a great deal, and to most people, a big secret. I buy store brands all the time. The point of the store brands being the same as the national brands, however, I personally take issue with.

I've found that store brand substitutes are good for some products, but not for others. For example, you can't really go wrong with store brand paper plates or sandwich bags. However, I have found a large gap in quality between store brands and national brands for things like Mac & Cheese and taco seasoning mix.

It may seem that the 4 products I listed are pretty random - and they are - but I have done a lot of personal research (i.e. taste testing, etc.) for store brands vs. national brands. Suffice to say, at the supermarket, I ususally buy a mix of both.

Buying bulk pasta and freezing my own meat in ziplock bags saves me around $40/month vs buying at the grocery store, and I only have to make trips to the grocery store twice a month or so for milk and eggs and such.

Proctor and Gamble products on sale AND with cash rebates for buying certain ones in combination. Checked off everything I regularly buy from P&G and bought $140 worth of stuff.

Granted, we're currently stocking up on personal care items and kitchen-type stuff for the baby's arrival (running out of deoderant on a normal day is annoying; running out of deoderant when you have a newborn in the house is an unsolveable catastrophe), but I could easily see a family of four saving "hundreds" a month with the circulars. I think it'd also depend on how far apart the grocery stores are. Personally, I wouldn't be willing to drive "all over town," but we have two right across the street from each other in two places, and five I'm willing to patronize within about 2 or 3 miles of each other.

If you're cooking for a large family which consumes a large quantity of staple goods, it can be quite worth it, maybe up to $30-40 per week for an hour of clipping. So $30-40 an hour might be worth it to you, or not. It's higher than most salaries, but not all, and you might be a time stressed professional who will pay for the speed of shopping without clipping.

If you're cooking for just yourself it is much less fruitful, just because there's less to save on, and because of unit-sizing problems. For many staples, a single householder probably buys them too infrequently or in too small a quantity to make the time worth it. Probably more in the $3-8/hour clipping range for a single householder.

I shop my local Price Choppers here in NY- I stock up when things are on sale with coupons, use my rewards card, get the fuel advantage deal of 10 cents off/gallon for every $50 I spend- it helps when you have a pantry and extra freezer.

When you know how to spot the deals, you'll soon see that even Wal Mart can't beat them. Sure, you can bring circulars into Wal Mart and they can manually price adjust at the register, but that takes HOURS when you are shopping for a big family. I haven't been to a Wal Mart in a very long time, thank goodness.

Thanks for the great information! I never heard of a price book. Damn you consumerist from keeping that tip from me!!!

@bostonguy: Hey, I feed my kids that crap!

*on a side note: My parents were dirt poor and raised us on that "crap packaged foods" and I turned out O.K.

I'm sure there are better options, but if you are a single parent or a family of 5 just trying to get by- making sure you have enough food PERIOD is the main concern, not how healthy. I'd rather cut coupons, bargain shop, and use rewards to feed my family for a month vs. 2 weeks.

But seriously, I flat out don't believe anyone can save hundreds per month by spending an afternoon traveling from store to store. The Wegman's by me has consistently low prices (I just paid $1.69 for a gallon of milk this afternoon!), which is better that $0.60 off an item I wouldn't have bought in the first place.

I say "up to a certain point" because many stores won't double above a set amount, often a dollar. So, a 40 cent coupon is worth 80 cents, and 50 cent coupon is worth a dollar, but a 55 cent coupon is worth 55 cents. Which is probably why you see so many 55 cent coupons.

Double coupons are great if you use coupons, but that non-reimbursed .43 has to come from somewhere, and it generally comes as higher prices to people who don't use coupons/loyalty cards.

And it's *really* important to know if you are getting a good deal in the first place.

A "price book" is a great place to start: It took me a while to do one, but sometimes the base price at one place without doubled coupons is cheaper than the reduced price with them, and that's good to know.

I started a price book after reading Amy Dacyczyn's "Tightwad Gazette" years ago. Here's how to do it: [organizedhome.com]

(I spend much more than $26 a year on a daily subscription to a newspaper because I actually read the darn thing, too. It may not be worth it to some, but it is to me. There's just something about reading a newspaper, magazine or book in hand that cannot compare to a computer screen.)

I also like having the Sunday circulars spread out right in front of me so that I can compare. Makes my planning much easier.

Weis gladly jacked up everything else while the prices on those few items were "frozen" and when the price freeze came off, jacked those items up as well (some by a significant amount).

Another tip to remember...the marketing area itself will have an effect on regular and sale prices. Areas with fewer (or no) competition will often result in sky-high prices, while areas with lots of stores will often have prices significantly lower.

My tips are built around eating what I want to eat. We topped at $60/week for the two of us and are working our way down.

Find a farmer's market but know what produce goes for normally at the grocery store. In Kansas City the river market often has produce really cheap. The place was packed yesterday. I found blackberries are a good deal there right now as they come at 2x the size for half the price. A good deal for fresh fruit. There's also spice vendors selling cheap in bulk and spices can be outrageous. I know of a similar store in St Louis so I imagine there's bulk spices sold somewhere in every big city. Consider spending $5 on gas and get spices at a fraction of the grocery cost, especially if you spice heavily.

We buy a lot of store brand items where the quality is high and look across sizes on stuff that lasts for the cheapest per ounce.

Don't do what I see so many people do. They glance at the prices and buy whatever is cheapest.
Dry goods it's easy to buy bad, like toilet paper. Without a calculator can you tell me if a 12-pack with 200 squares per roll single-ply for $8.50 a better deal than an 12 pack of 150 sheet double ply for $9? Did you even look at what you were getting beyond the price and number of rolls? I found one day the walmart brand came with less paper on an amount-of-paper cost than the name brand.

Use discount stores where it will hit your numbers the most, not for everything. We countered a year's cost at Sam's club just with allergy pills and we were already buying the off brand. 60 pills for $16 multiple times a year vs 350 pills for $16 once a year. We found their breakfast bars are cheaper in the name brand than our regular store has in their store brand and we eat these a lot. We'll save $100-150 per year just with this.

Between the two, for most people that's 10 days working they just pulled off the food budget and that's nothing to laugh at.

And apparently butter is priced by random number selection. The variation on the cost for the same box o' Land o' Lakes was quite astonishing.

The only coupons I ever find useful are occasional ziplock bag offers, or cat litter.

I wish I were better at clipping coupons, but I don't get newspaper delivery.

PLUS there's the special savings for using the card...

We do have to get better at clipping coupons, but if there's one thing I'm good at, it's making sure that we make a shopping list and stick to it. My wife always wants to make impulse buys, but I almost never let her.

Also, shop around. I have found that Trader Joe's actually has the best prices on a lot of stuff I buy compared to the supermarkets and that some supermarkets in the same chain change prices from store to store.