Guest Author - Carissa Danette Ramirez

Ok, so you may have read the title of this article and thought yeah right. No, really you can save money every month on your grocery bill. Let me first put out a disclaimer that you may or may not save hundreds of dollars right away but I guarantee if you follow my tips you will save. I have been doing this for about 2 years now and I save anywhere from $200-$300 a month on my grocery bill.


1.Coupons Coupons Coupons!!!

I cannot stress enough the value of coupons. Yes, it may require some diligence in sorting through and cutting them out but trust me the payoff it worth it. I think of coupon clipping as a job. For example, last week I saved $54.00 on my grocery bill. On this particular day I was probably at the store for about a half hour, maybe for an hour, so to be fair let’s just say 1 hour. Plus, if you factor in the hour that week I spent clipping coupons, that means I basically made $27.00/hr just for clipping coupons! Not bad huh? Sometimes it may not seem like much $.25 here $1.00 there but come on folks it’s free money. If you saw a dollar on the street you would pick it up right? Of course you would. With coupons I am often able to get items for free. For instance if my local store has butter on sale that week for $.99 and I have a $1.00 of coupon I get it for free!!! So as you can see it really can pay off.

If you are just getting started in the whole coupon world it can be a bit overwhelming. I myself started with www.GroceryGame.com, this is a website that you can go on, (you pay a small monthly fee) and it will tell you what is on sale where, and where to get coupons etc. It really can be an invaluable tool to someone just starting out. I used it for about three months and then I figured out how to do it on my own. Now I am not saying you can’t figure it out on your own, but this is a good place to start if you are unsure.

2. Plan Ahead

If you have a menu planned out it is much easier to stick to a list and only buy the things you need. Now by having a menu I am not suggesting that you can’t have any spontaneity in your life. I have found that coming up with a list of 15-20 dinners that I make on a regular basis make it much easier to shop for. I also search for dishes that call for a lot of the same things, so I can often get several meals out of one single item. I know that I can get 2 meals out of one pot roast, that right there eliminates having to buy more things, thus saving me more money. I have also found that sticking to a list helps me avoid impulse buys. That freezer ready made meal may look yummy, but the mark up on the cost of ingredients can be up to 200%!

3. Look For Freebies

Yes, you can get food for free! So how does that work? I will tell you. There are several ways to get free food. I have found that many major companies such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Walgreen’s, Kraft, etc. have places on their websites to sign up for free samples of various foods. Of course if you are going to go this route you need to learn not to be picky, because you will get a variety of different things. A lot of companies will also reimburse you for buying and trying out a new product, all you have to do is fill out a short survey. This is one of my favorite sites for finding free food www.ofree.net/samples.

Another, and very much overlooked way of getting free food is by planting your own garden. Even in urban areas you don’t need much space to be able to grow a substantial amount of produce. You can even get your seeds for free at www.america-the-beautiful.org/free_seeds/index.php. So with a little bit of work you can grow your own produce. You can even go as far as to freeze or can what you grow so you can eat off of it all year long.

With the economy the way it’s very important to cut costs wherever you can. Remember every penny counts. As a stay at home mom myself I consider it my responsibility to save money where ever I can. I hope these few simple tips will help you stretch your dollar a little further as well.