As good as I've been able to do shopping lately, I think I can make it a bit better. We've only got Safeway and Walmart's superstore available to us on a regular basis. We went to Walmart the other day, trying to save money, and even though there were a few lower prices on stuff we regularly buy (Safeway's prices, even sale prices, are higher than normal right now), because there's no flyer for groceries to plan with, no card to swipe with pre-loaded eCoupons, and paper coupons are only worth face value (Safeway raises all coupons under a dollar up to a dollar), I ended up hardly saving anything at all, even with the lower prices.
Our new habit is that instead of shopping on Wednesdays when we go to town for banking and other errands, we'll shop almost exclusively at Safeway - but on Sundays after church. Here's why:
Safeway runs regular Wed. through Tues. weekly ads like most stores, but they also run mini sales on items "Fri - Sun only". Sometimes they're items on sale throughout the week, but they're even cheaper on the weekend. For example, we went on a Wed. a few weeks ago. I needed shredded cheese for something and it's almost $4 when it's not on sale. That week, it went on sale for $2.99. On the weekend, it was just $1.99 - now cheaper than Walmart's price of about $2.29 or so. If it happened to be a brand with a coupon, like Sargento, then I can use a 50 cents off coupon, which they'll raise up to $1, and now the almost $4 cheese is just 99 cents. Half the price of Walmart's cheaper product.
Safeway also runs a 3rd mini sale with it's own flyer almost every week. It's for items "Sun, Mon & Tues. only". I know it seems strange, but I guess it's so they can offer low prices but for a shorter time than a week. I'm sure many people think to themselves when shopping, "I have to get _________ because it was in the flyer for a great price," only to find out when they get to the store that price isn't until tomorrow, or ended yesterday, but since they planned on getting it, they buy it and pay a little more.
We'll shop there this Sunday instead of Wednesday, which allows us to take advantage of all 3 sales on the same day. That should maximize what we can save. As for Walmart, we'll go there once in a while when we have to save on something, but it won't be part of our regular weekly shopping trips.
By the way, CVS & Walgreen's are new additions to our weekly errands. I have found you can peek at their sale flyer a few days before it's published, which gives me time to prepare. I figured out that although in the beginning I have to pay cash at CVS for a few things, they offer a bonus bucks back type of reward on many items that also carry coupons, so after a short while of smart shopping, I'll be able to use my "bonus bucks" to pay for the personal care items I need, and use coupons (both theirs from their flyers and my paper ones), and will get to walk out with products without cash out of pocket for most of them. It's more time-consuming to plan and track, but worth it when you've got so little income to stretch.
I'll keep you posted on what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and what I matched. Take what you can from my experiences and make them work for your family. Good luck!
