Grocery Store Hop

One of the challenges of being a coupon shopper is knowing where to shop for the best deals.   I have a process that I go through each week that helps me narrow it down and I also have a couple of resources I wanted to share with you that REALLY help!

First I check my monthly menu plan that I created at the first of the month(or whenever I get around to it.  HA!)  It helps me to know what I am supposed to make and what I need to pick up as I do my shopping of the weekly sales.

The adds come out on Tuesday but I wait until Wednesday to look at the adds because that is when we get a free paper.  I just quickly go through the add looking for obvious sales that I will want to not miss out on.  I jot those down on scrap paper under the name of the store.

My friend Gwen has started a new site, The Savings Jungle, that has been a wonderful help in deciding which stores have the best deals.  She even has a “If you make it to only one store” post each week.  This has helped streamline my shopping.  These posts are meant to be specific to our local Columbia, MO stores but I am sure they apply to other stores around the country also!

This past week I was able to get lots of cereal & cheese at low prices and those hints came straight from The Savings Jungle!

(17 bags of cheese for 25 cents each!)

Another resource that I just found was a printable that is based on the idea that you will be going to several stores for the best deal.  It has 4 places to jot down the items you want with the price beside it & even a place to check if you have a coupon to go with it.  I love this idea!  Going to try it out this week.  The link to that printable is below!

http://printables.yourway.net/home-management-notebook/weekly-deals-roundup/

If you are asking yourself why would I bother going to more than one store--much less go to 4 stores.  Well as I said I got shredded cheese at one store for 25 cents per 8 oz bag.  I also got cereal for 88 cents a box.  Now our family doesn’t eat a lot of cereal.  Too much sugar, not enough staying power for growing bodies.  However on Saturday’s it is a special treat. 

This was cornflakes not frosted coated sugar bombs—there are some foods that I rarely buy!  So I now have enough cereal that if there are no more sales we have a stash that would probably last 5 or 6 months.  Yeah that is a lot of cereal but hey if I’d paid full price it would have been $3-4 a box! 

Oh and did I mention when I bought those I got Catalina’s for 4 gallons of milk for free?  YEP—that is why I went to more than one store last week.  It was worth every penny of gas money.  Not every week is that good but every little bit of stocking up & saving is a drop in the proverbial bucket.

So what do YOU think--it is worth it to go to more than one store?