Grocery Savings 101 - Part One

There are a few things that you need to know and do before you head out to the grocery store of your choosing.


1. Know the seasonal sales in your area/region.

2. Understand your loyalty discount cards, grocery stores sales and ads.

3. Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!


Knowing the seasonal sales in your area/region


Every region and every store has a particular sale pattern. You crack that pattern and you can save lots of money on your weekly grocery bill.


For example in Phoenix, AZ the following pattern is pretty predictable for all our grocery chain stores.


Late February/Early March: Fish products tend to be on sale more due to Lent.

• My kids love frozen fish fillets and I can usually find great coupons and sales at the start of Lent.

March/April: Pick up your half/whole hams for Easter.

• I personally prefer spiral hams and am willing to pay a bit more for them. This year I was able to put an 11-pound half ham in my freezer for 69-cents a pound. This one ham will provide at least 4 different individual meals after the traditional ham dinner has taken place.

Early May: Cinco De Mayo.

• I love pulled-pork sandwiches and whole, bone-in pork shoulders are usually on sale because they are also used to fix carnitas for the Cinco De Mayo celebrations that go on here in Phoenix. In the past I've been able to get them for 69-cents a pound plus something free (like a box of crackers or a case of soda). However this year they were going for around 99-cents a pound, still an excellent price considering how many meals that can come from one pork shoulder.

Late May thru July 4th: Picnic and condiment items.

• BBQ season has started (it never really ends here in Phoenix) and now is the time to pick up your condiments. Everything from ketchup to usually expensive marinades can be bought for less than a buck. Mayo prices are slashed usually by half if not more too.


• Memorial Day & July 4th weekend celebration ads give you a wide choice of BBQ meats to choose from. This is where you stock up on hot dogs, hamburger meat, steaks, and sometimes the more expensive roasts.


• If you use paper goods then this is also a good time to find cheap paper goods such as paper plates, napkins, and sometimes bags, plastic wrap, and foil.

August/September: It's Labor Day and Back To School Sales!

• Last chance to stock up on the picnic supplies! Labor Day sales aren't usually as good as they are for Memorial or July 4th, but deals still can be had.


• It's TGSIS time! That's Thank Goodness School Is Starting for those of you without kids. This is when breakfast cereal is ridiculously cheap (I got a 18oz box of Cheerios for 75-cents last year) as well as those cereal and granola bars. Lunch fixings are a bargain too; that includes peanut butter, jelly, lunch meat, bread, chips/crackers, cookies, and other snack items.


• Plastic wraps, plastic and paper bags, and other storables are slashed during the back to school sales. How else will all those goodies get into lunchboxes?

November: Thanksgiving

• Starting mid-November you'll start seeing lots of sale items for every day foods. Not only does Thanksgiving Day begin the 6-8 weeks of over indulgence and over eating, but food pantries and shelters are trying to rack up donations as well. I usually donate to our local food pantries every time there is a food drive going on, but my biggest donation is at this time of year just due to the cheap prices of food.


• Turkey. Get them while their cheap and always stick one in the freezer for later (if you have room).


• Canned and boxed side dishes are ridiculously cheap too. Canned veggies going for 25 to 30-cents a can, boxed potatoes going for 75-cents to a dollar, stuffing mixes are at bargain discount prices as well.


• Baking season usually starts at Thanksgiving as well; sugar, flour, spices, etc. are on sale. Foil pans, non-stick sprays, and bake ware to discounted too. However I have found that the closer you get to Christmas the better the prices get on these items.

December: Holiday pig out!

• Didn't get that turkey at Thanksgiving? Well get one now, you'll pay a bit more but overall it's still a great bargain. Half and Whole Hams as well as your roasts are on sale too.


• The closer you get to Christmas the better the seafood sales will be. Fresh shrimp and shellfish are a bargain.


• You'll still find great baking ingredient sales.


• Canned and boxed food items will still be a bargain. Usually every week I walk out of the grocery store with a case of canned veggies, tomatoes, or boxed side dishes.


• Anything gourmet can be had at a bargain. Now is the time to stock up on those special occasion items like one of our favorites baked Brie.

Understanding your loyalty discount cards, grocery store sales and ads

Most grocery store out there have some sort of discount card that will get you even more savings as well as coupons at the register and the mail. Some think it's a nuisance to have to use these loyalty discount cards, but it pays off big time if you use them.

For example in this weeks grocery ad for Fry's they had Foster Farms whole chickens on sale for 49-cents a pound when you use your Fry's loyalty discount card. The price per pound without the card, $1.49. Just by using that little thin piece of plastic you saved a dollar per pound. So I got 4 whole chickens (4 was the limit per transaction) that weight approximately 5.5-pounds each for $2.69. Without that card it would have cost me $8.20 per chicken, that's the cost of 3 sale chickens! I put two in my freezer and two will be cooked on Saturday; one for dinner and one for the freezer for cooked roasted meat for a future dinner. My motto: why make/cook one when you can make/cook two and freeze one?

Next you need to pay attention to your grocery store sales and ads. Each chain has certain items that they rotate every few weeks for sale prices. For example your grocery store might have chubs of hamburger on sale every 6-weeks or every third week they'll have super cheap milk and dairy products. Over time you'll discover a pattern and be able to plan your meals and stock your pantry and fridge/freezer accordingly.

Pay close attention to those grocery ads too! If you have competing chain grocery stores they have the tendency to 'fight' each other in their ads during certain times of the year just to get your business. The grocery stores also usually tend to emphasize brand name items on sale rather than the store brand. For instance say Wheat Thins are on sale in the ad, you hit the store you'll discover (most of the times) that the store's version of Wheat Thins are cheaper than the name brand.

Lastly learn your stores schedule for marking down foods. Typically you can get great meat bargains late each night after the butcher has closed or early in the morning just as the butcher is opening and re-stocking the meat cases. Keep an eye out for dates but remember that you can stick anything in the freezer to prolong it's shelf life until you're ready to use it.

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!

You hate to clip, you hate to search, you hate to organize, but more importantly you'll hate yourself if you don't clip, search, and organize! Not clipping coupons is throwing money away. If you're fine with that concept then every week I challenge you to take a nice crisp $10 bill, wad it up, and chuck it into the dumpster. No? Well not using those coupons is just like throwing that $10 bill away.

Finding coupons these days are easy. Some are hidden in the junk mail that you get every Tuesday and Wednesday, you can clip online, but most are found in the Sunday edition of your local newspaper. Most grocers even give you coupons at the checkout register and mail you coupon books to your house occasionally.

The key to couponing is to only clip those coupons that you'll use, wouldn't mind trying (for the right price), or might use (i.e. cold and flu seasonal over the counter items). Using a coupon just because you have a coupon is a wasted effort and wasted money. It's okay to throw out coupons and it's okay to let coupons expire. I personally usually use only half of the coupons that I clip.

There are two types of coupons; store coupons and manufacturer coupons. You can stack a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on top of each other for one product item, but you can not stack store coupons or manufacturer coupons onto of one product item.

For example I get a coupon book for Target and they have a store coupon for $1 off Bounty paper towels. I also clip a manufacturer coupon for $0.75 off Bounty paper towels. When I go to the store Bounty paper towels are on sale for $10.99 (or $0.92 cents per roll) for a 12-pack. I stack my $1 store coupon with my $0.75 manufacturer coupon and that brings the price of the Bounty paper towels down to $9.24, or $0.77 per roll. That's a 16% savings!

I will expand on coupons more at a later date, however you can see how quickly the savings can add up when you clip and use those coupons.

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So there you go folks, your first sneak peak into my world of savings. Next time I'll talk about unit pricing, more coupon talk, and taking advantage of an over stocked pantry/freezer.