10 Ways to Save on Groceries and Start a Stockpile!

I fully believe in the power of  Stockpile. I've kept stockpiles for years, unfortunately lately I haven't been able to add to mine, but hopefully, I will soon!

Here are 10 ways to save money on your groceries and start a stockpile!

1. Coupons. Yes, you all know I'm a huge fan of coupons and here is why. You are able to find discounts of up to 75% off normal prices. Buy the Sunday paper, ask your friends and family that DO buy the Sunday paper if they wouldn't mind giving you the coupons. You can even purchase coupons from coupon sites such as Klip2save. You can also look for coupon machines (these are little red boxes typically in the aisles that spit out coupons!), peelies (a peelie is the coupons that are stuck to products on the shelves) and hang tags (hang tags are attached to a product by a string or rubber band). Here is an example of a way to stockpile.

2. If you follow my blog at all you know about my Coupon Campaign. For 10 days each month I email at least 10 companies my thoughts on their products, I get a lot of coupons and sometimes even FREE PRODUCT COUPONS which is amazing.

3. See Something Say Something. If you buy a product and it's wrong, let the company fix it. If your taco shells are broken, if your detergent is clumpy...if something is wrong don't sit on it. You paid money for that product do not let it go unnoticed. Always reach out to the company via phone or email and attach some photos. Let them fix the issue, you will be surprised by their response. Here is an example. We had some pull up diapers for Tristan from Pampers and I don't know what happened in production but the backs of some of them had sliced holes, we didn't even notice it putting them on him, but you sure notice when that nasty jelly stuff is all over your floor and you can't get it up. I contacted Pampers and they were very gracious and sent us a $25 Visa gift card. You can't beat customer service like that!

4. Grow a vegetable garden! How much of your grocery bill is spent on produce? Quite a bit, I'd say. You can get seeds for as little as .20 and live plants for as little as $1.50. If you don't have a lawn don't worry about it, just get some nice containers and plant away. You will have more veggies then you know what to do with! You can freeze them, can them, meal prep with them...it really just takes a few dollars to feed your family for months. If you have EBT you can even buy seeds and veggie plants on your EBT card! I have a whole list of things you can do with your EBT card here.

5. Don't throw away leftovers. I know people who refuse to eat leftovers. I'm like, Really??! Get some nice meal prep containers at Amazon and prep the leftovers for lunches for work. You can easily freeze these or stick them in the fridge and you are set for a few days. Don't throw leftovers away!!

6. Download these apps and use them religiously: Checkout 51 and Ibotta. What are these apps? They give you cash back on groceries! It's super simple, you either upload a receipt or connect yo ur rewards card and if you buy items on their list then you can get rebates back via PayPal for your purchases. Super easy to use, just follow the instruction and use it on items you purchase anyway.

7. Look for anything that says "20% MORE Free" or "Bonus!". Those are typically the same prices as the smaller version but you are getting more food or a bonus item for free. This makes that savings more valuable and can definitely help you on that budget.

8. Shop the sales! Always, Always check the store paper before you go to the grocery and make a list...and stick to it. Do not overbuy, do not buy items at the register it's a trap. Check the grocery stores online ad and find the sales! I love when Harris Teeter does their buy 2 backs of shredded cheese get 3 free. This makes each pack about $1.25 and you can freeze that. While you are looking at that add, check out Coupons.com to see if there are any corresponding coupons that make that savings even greater. Look for BOGO sales!! I also recommend going to SouthernSavers website. This is one of my favorite coupon matching websites, she also has an amazing Coupon database that lists coupons from product websites, newspapers and so on. I check her every day. Those are maximum savings.

9. Go to each grocery store that you shop at and print out their coupon policy. Know what their policy allows and doesn't allow. Some will give you a limit as to the number of coupons you can actually use, some stores will limit just printable coupons. Even the Dollar Tree takes coupons! Coupons are just paper money. It's a way to pay for items that you are going to buy anyway so why not maximize that savings and use them?

10. Treat shopping like a game. That's what I do. I want to see how much I can buy utilizing all options available to me. It's like a giant game of Monopoly. How far will $20 take me at the grocery store using sales, markdowns, and coupons? I bet if you watch what you buy you will see a pattern. You will see a sale pattern. Every few weeks something will go on sale that you buy quite often, buy it at that time.

And for a bonus...

11. Look for anything on closeout pricing. I just picked up 4 cans of Cream of Chicken for .38 each! That's a great deal. I only bought 4 because that's all they had left. Look for closeouts in meats as well. I've bought chicken for a little as $1.50 for the whole pack. Just look for those little yellow stickers or tags and do the price comparison. I also look for produce that is marked down as well! You will see a lot of great savings!

12. Register all your Store cards on the companies websites and watch your emails. A lot of grocery stores have coupons you can load onto your grocery card and sometimes there are FREEBIES. Food Lion just did one for a free 2-liter soda, Kroger has Freebie Friday where they always have a free product in the form of a clipable coupon and a couple of times a month Harris Teeter gives one or two products that they automatically LOAD onto your card for you!

Good luck and let me know if these tips are helping you out!

Have a beautiful rest of your day!

How to Get Some Printable Coupons Mailed to You

There are a ton of coupons on the internet that you can print at home. You even get a ton of coupons via email just for signing up for some Newsletters. Kellogg's is one of my favorite newsletters because not only do I get printable coupons but I also get Shutterfly coupon codes from them ALL THE TIME! It's amazing! But sometimes I may be running low on ink, or I may not need a coupon right that moment so it's nice to have another option to receive that coupon. You can actually request some coupons be mailed to you. Wait...what? Yes, you read me right, you can request that some coupons be mailed. 

The coupon has to be a Bricks coupon to do this. Kellogg's emailed coupons are always Bricks and you can easily request those be mailed. Here is how you do that!

1. You receive an email (or click a link to see a printable coupon). Here is one that came to from Kellogg's today. Click the coupon exactly as if you are going to print it from your computer.

2. You will see the Coupons.com/Bricks page pop up that lets you know your coupon is waiting for you to print, but instead of clicking the Print button or filling out that submit box, click look at the bottom and click "Help". If you aren't sure whether you can do this, by clicking help this will let you know if this coupon can be requested. 

3. One of 3 pages will pop up. Either you will see a form for you to enter in your mailing address, a Welcome to the Troubleshooting guide page that has a Mail My Coupon tab OR just the Coupon Troubleshooting guide. If all you see is the guide you cannot request that coupon via mail. Like I stated above some let you do it and some do not.

 4a. If you see the Address form just fill that out and select mail my coupon. You will receive your coupon in a few days. Now here is the kicker, you can usually print 2 coupons off right? Well with this method you can request 2 as well! Just go back and click the Help option again, the second time you won't see the Form you will see the tab that says MAIL MY COUPON. Click that and the form will reappear.

 4b. If you don't see the Mail Request From but you do see the Mail My Coupon tab then just click CLICK HERE to see the Mail Request form.


Simple as that! Again if you don't see either of those options then you can't request that coupon by mail, but I have always been able to request the Kellogg's emailed coupons. Good luck and happy saving!

Where do I Print Coupons? HERE!

So here is the list I promised regarding where I get my coupons, how to get them and where to print. :) Good luck!

Coupons.com - This is one of the major sources of online coupons, you want to put in your own zip code and also put in zip codes like 90210 as sometimes the coupons are "regional" and not all coupons will show up for all zip codes.


Redplum - Click on Grocery Coupons and you will get a cool listing of nice coupons to print out, now there isn't as many as are on Coupons.com, but you do get some real good ones here from time to time.

Smartsource - Another major coupon database. You will be able to print off some really high value coupons here. Again this CAN be regional so play around with the zip codes. I always stick in 90210 and my own zip code.

All You - Now most of the coupons you see here will be replicas of coupons.com, however the difference being that All You 1.) gets EXCLUSIVE coupons that you don't see anywhere else and 2.) You can also buy a print copy of the magazine at Walmart, they always have a TON of coupons inside the magazine, and is well worth the $2 you pay for it.

Kraft First Taste - This is a panel you joining. They've sent me print coupons for free products or high value coupons, as well as sending me samples and coupons in the mail. So be on the lookout in your inbox, typically they will send you an email regarding a coupon offer once you join.

Facebook.com - Even if you don't use facebook and never ever want to use facebook, please make a dummy account just for your coupons and freebies. I've seen most of the freebies and some awesome coupons go up on facebook. You just "Like" the company and bam you are in. I recently received a full size "Sample" of Tide Tablets by clicking like. (Current coupons: .75/1 Crackerful,  $2/1 Dial Lotion)

Pillsbury - From Cereal to yogurt if Pillsbury has their hand it in you may find coupons here. You do have to create an account to print, however it is worth it as some of those coupons are just AWESOME.
 
Pretty much any major company either has a program, or their products have coupons on their product page or their facebok page, just search around. Also EMAIL the company's and tell them how you like/dislike their products, if something works for you or doesn't and why. You can receive some awesome coupons by doing this. Of course there are a TON of places to print coupons, but please make sure you are printing from a legitimate site, fraud coupons are becoming a problem. Also check out Recyclebank, you do little quizzes and earn points and those do turn into coupons :) Some pretty awesome ones!

SniqueAway - Putting the Away back in Snique...

I love the name it's totally cute. Anyway as you all know and as I've mentioned before, I am a bzzagent. What is that you ask? Well, it is a group (and a website) of people who review things and spread the news by word of mouth...and type of key. The newest thing I signed up to take a look at was SniqueAway which is a website that gives you great discounts on doing exactly that...sneaking away for a quickie Vacation and in todays economy who DOESN'T need a vacation...or a discount.

Here is an example RIGHT NOW the have a discount on this AMAZING hotel in Tarrytown, NY called Tarrytown House Estate (Reportedly haunted, but that is for a different post) anyway it's a beautiful hotel, and usually a standard room is $199 a night (yeah I know, that's a lot) but if you use SniqueAway you get a great deal at only $135 a night, that is easily a $75 difference there per night. That's a nice dinner or a car rental. Here is how the saving's breaks down.

If you book through the Tarrytown House Estate website you pay this:

Hotel: Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center
Arrival Date: Friday, February 25, 2011
Departure Date: Saturday, February 26, 2011
Rooms: 1
Nights: 1
Adults: 2 Children: 0
Room Type: Deluxe King
Rate Type: Valentine's Escape

Room Charges: USD 199.00
Package Total: USD 0.00
Resort Fee: USD 0.00
Tax: USD 20.65
Total Rate: USD 219.65

However if you book through SniqueAway this is how it breaks down:
Deluxe Double for 1 nights


Check-In: Feb 25, 2011
Check-Out: Feb 26, 2011
Subtotal: $135.00
Taxes & Fees$16.72
Credit: $0.00
-----------------
Total: $151.72
 
Um, yeah!! So you see the different here? You get the same room, at a very discounted price.
 
Oh and just in case you want to know, here is the hotel:

 
But seriously this isn't the only deal out there, this is just one of them. I chose t his one because honestly the house reminds me of a castle and I'm totally all about haunted castles. SniqueAway is part of Smarter Travel Media, a TripAdvisor Media Group company. If you have ever traveled somewhere and did any type of research on your destination you more than likely wound up on the TripAdvisor website. I know it has been my number one go-to website for feedback on hotels, dining, etc when traveling. 
 

 So check out SniqueAway, I haven't found the perfect Vacation spot for me yet, but I know it's just a click away! http://www.sniqueaway.com/