By even putting this in writing, I risk sabotaging my success in it. It seems like just as I make my resolutions or goals know to the world via this blog or facebook, I become destined to fail in it. I'm not sure why I do that...but I hope I can change this trend this time.
So - first up - an admission. I pay full price for my groceries most of the time. **GASP** Sure I try to take advantage of BOGOs (Buy One Get One sales)... I dutifully cut out coupons each week and put them in a pretty little carrier that typically stays right where I put it when all the coupons have been filed according to type of food. I cringe each time I check out and see how much I spend...and how little I save (Publix is so nice to put that on their receipts). But I quickly forget...until we look at our budget at the end of the year and see how much we've actually spent on groceries for our family of four. Do I dare put it in writing?? Uggg...this is going to hurt. We average approximately $250 per week on groceries...that is over $13,000 PER YEAR!!! Is everyone else getting as sick as I am getting right now???
Second - what am I going to do about it? I am very fortunate to know several women that are pretty much experts at using coupons and sales to pretty much pay NOTHING for their groceries. I know a woman that said that if she HAD to say what her weekly budget was for groceries, she would say $40 a week....but that it probably wasn't even that high!!! Another friend that I sat down with a few days ago said that she probably spends about $60-70 per week on groceries...with SAVINGS of between $200-300 per week!!!
"Sure" you say..."but they can only buy junk food and no meat and fresh produce can be included in that bottom line." WRONG!!! The number above includes meat, fresh produce, toiletries, DIAPERS for her 1 year old...EVERYTHING!!!
"Time then" you say..."they must be putting in hours upon hours upon hours at the store and researching" WRONG!!! She actually works on her grocery list/plan about 2 hours each week...then goes to the grocery store on average 3 times a week for only 20-25 minutes for each visit.
So what is the negative? Well...storage... You see - the trick is to "stockpile" the items your family uses on a regular basis to last through the sale cycles (usually around 6 weeks) or in some cases, to last for a year if you want... Which means, in some cases, 8 jars of peanut butter...10 boxes of cereal...etc.
Also - getting multiple copies of the Sunday paper each week so that you get multiple copies of the coupon inserts to be able to have ready and available to take advantage of. Oh- and knowing how the coupons work (for example, you can use BOTH a manufacturer's coupon AND a store or competitor coupon for EACH item that is BOGO). This means....if a $4.00 item is BOGO, then essentially each item is $2.00...then if you have a manufacturers coupon for $1.00, and a store coupon for the same item for $1.00...then you "buy" two BOGO items with 4 coupons...and they are free. So...if you can get two items free...why not 4 or 6 or 8 if you have enough coupons? And then you hold on to them and you won't have to buy the item again until it is on sale again and you have coupons again. Clear as mud?
Am I going to be as successful as my friends? I don't know...but I'm sure going to try. IF I can do as well as my friends above - then I can expect my grocery bill at the end of the year to only be around $3500!!! However - just starting out I don't plan on setting my goal to be THAT high... So - my goal is that by the end of the year - using this technique - that our grocery bill budget will be only $8000. That is a savings of $5000 a year...or about $100 a week. I think that is VERY doable...and I hope it can be more...but I also realize that my life is pretty busy...and I can get lazy...
I plan on putting updates on my blog as to my success in this endeavor...but it will be a while before I start to see any big changes, as I don't have a "stockpile" of coupon inserts yet... But - it is only a matter of time...
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