Save Money on Groceries WITHOUT Clipping Coupons

You’ve heard some of the excuses before. In fact, you’ve probably used some of them: I don’t have time to clip coupons; I don’t get the paper; I can’t ever find coupons for the things we use at home.

There are definite advantages to shopping with coupons, but that’s not the only way to save money at the grocery store. Just ask Joyce. She saved $95.41 at Tom Thumb this week, and she had absolutely no coupons.

“I shopped the sales,” she said. “You can save a ton of money by buying things when they are on sale instead of waiting until you need them.”

For example, fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast was buy one package, get one free. The normal price was $3 per pound, which is pretty expensive for chicken. Getting a second package free knocked the price down to $1.50 per pound. Joyce bought four packages, separated each piece of meat and froze them individually. She won’t need to buy chicken for several months.

“Some people won’t do this because they think it’s too much work to wrap all that chicken individually,” she said. “It takes me less than 15 minutes, and I can cut the meat to whatever size I need it to be if I want to.”

Drinks were another great bargain. Tom Thumb was offering a special deal: buy two 12-packs of Dr. Pepper Products and get three additional 12-packs free. The regular price was $4.99 per

12-pack. The special offer knocked that price down to $1.99 per twelve pack.

“This is how much the store brand usually costs. I got name brand soda for the store brand price. We’re having a party at our house next month, so I stocked up now,” she said.

Joyce even fed another family at a discounted price. Tom Thumb was offering a special deal on pasta and sauce: buy two jars of spaghetti sauce and get two boxes of pasta free. The sauce was already on sale from its original price, so she saved $.89 cents on each jar, plus $1.50 per box of pasta.

“It was our turn to bring a meal to friends with a sick child, so I grabbed a bag of frozen meatballs, also on sale, and made them spaghetti and meatballs. I fed their family of five for next to nothing,” said Joyce.

She offers these tips for saving money without coupons:

• Plan ahead. Buy things when they are on sale, not when you’re out of them.
• Know your prices. Be sure the sale prices at one store are not above the regular prices at a cheaper grocery store.
• Take 15 minutes to read store circulars either online or when they come in the mail so you can determine where you’ll get the most savings on a given week.
• Don’t assume it’s not on sale if it’s not in the circular. Most stores offer a lot of unadvertised specials.

Shopping with coupons could save you even more, but you can still save a fortune by shopping smart and shopping sales.