Saving Money at the Grocery Store (Plus, a Chance to Win a $25 Kroger Gift Card)

Awhile ago, the Wall Street Journal featured an article about using coupons—advocating it as a serious (and worthwhile) way to save. And the argument was based solely on numbers:

The writer found that the average saving per coupon is $1.44. (Personally I’ve seen very few coupons for that much, but that’s what the research evidently says.) Assuming it takes you a minute to find and clip said coupon, you make $1.44 per minute. Translated into an hourly wage, that’s $86.40.

Okay, now you’ve got my attention.

“Very few of us ever do this kind of math, because we tend to treat low finance differently from high finance, and small sums differently from big ones,” the article states. “And the individual amounts of money may seem small, but they prove the old adage about tiny acorns and mighty oaks. Someone who saves $25 a week will save $100 a month, and $1,200 a year. Over a lifetime that can easily grow to $100,000 or more–even after accounting for inflation.” (Waste not, want not, right?!)

When my husband and I moved to Atlanta and our future financial stability was still unknown (as it was for many months), I started to dip my toes into this world of clipping coupons and shopping grocery sales as a way to save money in case we ever did find ourselves in a situation without income. (Fortunately, that never happened!)

I was impressed by the variety of coupons for high-quality products that could be found—ones for Seventh Generation cleaning supplies or Smart Balance butter, products we were already buying. So even though now that my husband has a stable job and I'm freelancing away, I still make it a point to use coupons and shop sales to get some of the products we would already be buying at significant discounts. Even if we only save $10 a week, that's more than $500 a year!

So how do I do it?

Personally, I don’t buy a weekly newspaper; instead, about once or twice a month, I’ll log onto websites where you can print out your own coupons from home. I especially like to use Swagbucks for printing my coupons, because you earn extra points for every coupon redeemed. If you want to learn more about using Swagbucks, you can read my article with more details here. If you're already using Swagbucks, you can find the Coupons section under the tab that says "Earn." You can also find print-at-home coupons at Coupons.com or Smartsource.com.

Then, usually at the beginning of each week, I'll log on to the websites for the stores I shop at most often and check out their weekly ads and make a note of any good sales I see for products we can use. And if I can use a coupon on top of an already good sale price, all the better.

One sale that's going on right now is at Kroger, where you can get a gallon of milk for free or a $3 credit off your total when you purchase four participating General Mills products. The sale lasts through November 26, and you can find out more about it here. If you routinely buy cereal and milk, this can be a nice way to put a little dent into your grocery budget. Add in some coupons, and you're golden!

Plus, in celebration of their current sale, Kroger is giving away a $25 gift card to one Life Blessons reader to use to really maximize their savings! 

enter this giveaway

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You may enter up to 3 times, by completing any of the tasks below. Please leave a comment on this post for each entry and a way to get in touch with you if your email address is not linked in your profile. 

1) Leave a comment and let me know how you save on groceries. 

2) "Like" both Life Blessons and Kroger on Facebook (please include your first name and last initial in your comment)

3) Follow both Life Blessons and Kroger on Twitter (please include your Twitter username in your comment)

details about the giveaway

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The giveaway will end at 11:59pm on Sunday, December 11. One winner (US addresses only, please) will be selected using Random.org from all valid entries. (Entries that do not follow the rules or cannot be verified will be disregarded.) The winner will be emailed and will have 24 hours to respond with their mailing address, and the sponsor will mail the gift card directly.

Disclosure: The Kroger gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by Kroger and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

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