Save Receipts for a Month and Save Yourself 30% or more!

Reading Amy Dacyczyn's compiled newsletters was a life-changing experience for me.  http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tightwad-Gazette-Amy-Dacyczyn/dp/0375752250/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287015048&sr=8-1 (do not buy it, libraries have it!)

Before this book, I hadn't realized how wasteful I was. Yes, some of this book is outdated and extreme. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny. But the tips within--there are so many. Amy has transformed my life! I do not say this lightly!

One of the topics she talks about is managing your food spending. Food is essential, this is a need area, but we don't need to blow our budgets. We can eat well and spend less. Save your receipts for the month. You will notice patterns. We all tend to buy much of the same food week-to-week. I have a notebook and each page has a different section of the grocery store: Produce, Bulk Goods, Baking, etc. I record what I paid, for example $2. When I find the same item for $1, I record this in my book, cross out the $2, and note where I got the item for $1. I will never pay more than $1 for that item again. Sales always come around again. If I sometimes get coupons for the item, and I get the item for 25 cents instead of the original $2, I make note that on sale and with a coupon, I can get the item for 25 cents. That is my new standard price. And I will only stock up like mad if this is an often used item and I can get it for 25 cents. You can see how multiplied, this strategy could save you an insane amount of money per year. And it does not take long. Roughly 2 min post shopping trip to log. Now I have most regular purchases in my head, so I don't use my book.

Even if you don't have time to log everything, note where your largest spending happens. In our house, it is in Kevin's lunch meat-- $7.20/week simply to fill his sandwiches (starting point, we have brought that down to $3, most weeks). We also spend fairly heavily on dairy--sometimes $10/week. The areas you spend heaviest on are what you should focus on first.

Harness the power of coupons. I don't mean clipping in your weekend paper. You could do that, if you want. I mean searching Ebay. You will find you use the same brands over and over. Check to see if Ebay has coupons for your items. If they aren't currently being sold, do a saved search. Ebay will let you know when the coupons are listed again. This is particularly helpful for allergy friendly foods, flour and other items where coupons aren't usually as plentiful. You can buy packets of 10 to 40 coupons (typical price is 8 cents per $1 off) and really save. My favorite are the Marcal 100% recycled t.p. coupons. $1 off one 1000 sheet roll. Then you get toilet paper for less than 15 cents/roll and it is better for the environment than regular toilet paper. Who wants to waste money on toilet paper? NOT ME! I have trips to plan ;)

You don't have to sit around and wait for auctions either, thanks to http://www.auctionstealer.com/
They have a free version and you can have it bid on up to 3 auctions per week for you.

http://www.forthemommas.com/ Does coupon and sale matching for MD/S. PA stores like Weis, Giant PA, Giant, Safeway, SuperFresh--if you aren't in these areas, find a blog that does it for you.

http://www.mygrocerydeals.com/ For a personal touch, sign up for this free site, you put in your favorite grocery stores and you can search for what is on sale. I often look up these brands: (in parenthesis are the best sale/coupon deal I've found): Stonyfield ($2.49 half gallon milk), Organic Valley (Yo Baby 4 pack, 89 cents; 6 oz, less than 17 cents) and Kashi (now that I got organic cereal for 50 cents/box, I want to try to stick with paying that!!).

Make up your book, take advantage of these free services, hoard your coupons (I just shove mine in a quart ziploc in my purse--lean and mean!) and pounce on a sale. I prefer to save at least 65% per shopping trip. But when buying bulk goods (often the cheapest), sometimes it is only 30%. I'll take it, because buying with my own containers is not only environmentally friendly, it is usually as cheap as you can get. I can't wait to hear how much less you are spending on groceries!!!