Grocery Shopping Tips from a Non-Extreme Couponer #HormelFamily

Guess what?  There is an extra day this month!  Woo hoo for all those lucky people born on leap day!  They’ve waited 4 years for this day to finally come around again.

For the rest of us it just means another day to grocery shop for. LOL, doesn’t that sound dreary.  🙂  I didn’t mean it to, and really it is not dreary because, despite the fact that it is one day more than usually occurs in February, it is still a day less than most of the other months.

This week not only am I shopping for an extra day of meals, but I’m also preparing a dinner for a friend who just had a baby.  They are now a family of 5 so that adds to my shopping list just a bit.

I’ve never been an avid couponer.  Those days are long past when I had the time to shop at 3 different stores every week just so that I could match up all the coupons I’d spent hours clipping to the sales that were going on across the city.  Kudos to you if you have the time and energy to do that.  I don’t, but I still manage to shop smart.

Here are my Grocery Shopping 101 tips for the time strapped woman:

1. Make sure you keep a running grocery list of things you need.  Each time you run low, or completely run out of something, make sure to add it to the list.
2. Subscribe to the Sunday paper. Often times the newspapers will send people door to door to sell super cheap Sunday subscriptions.  For just $1 per week you can score $50+ in coupons. (I really have no idea how much $ savings are in each Sunday paper :)) If you can’t subscribe to the paper, make sure you keep the coupon inserts that come in the mail.  There are also printable coupons available on the internet.
3. I like to go through all the coupon packets as soon as I get them.  I toss out coupons I know I won’t use (over half of them) and then keep the rest, uncut, in my coupon stack.
4. Before heading out to the store sit down with your grocery list, the sale circular for the store you are going to, and your coupons.  If you shop at a commissary your can see the commissary sales at commissaries.com.  Scan the sale circular for the items on your grocery list.  When you find an item on sale that is on your grocery list write down the sale price next to the item name on your grocery list.  Then flip through your coupons to see if you have a coupon for that item. If you have it, cut it out.  This last step sounds like it might take a while, but you’ll get to know what coupons you have pretty quick.
5. If shopping with small children make sure you give them the “grocery store talk” before you exit the car to go into the store.  “Alright guys, we’re going to go to the grocery store.  I need you guys to be super, super good so that we can finish our grocery shopping really fast. If there is a lot of whining it will take a looooong time for Mommy to do the grocery shopping.  If you are super, super good you can have some crackers in the car on the way home.”
6. Stock up on certain food items that help in fast meal prep.  My family and I don’t eat out a lot–maybe twice a month–so that means I cook almost every day.  That picture below, that is me at 4:30 every evening.  I have a few secret weapons that I keep on hand for nights when I just can’t bear to stand in the kitchen for an hour. One of those secret weapons is Hormel canned chicken breast. I keep a stock of it in my pantry.  You can use this in almost anything you’d use frozen or thawed chicken for. Curry? Yep! Enchiladas? Darn tootin! Chili? Sho nuff!  When I whip out the canned chicken it cuts my cooking time almost in half.

Like I mentioned in the title I’m no couponing guru, but I consistently manage to save between $5-$12 each week.  That’s on things that I would normally buy, and (minus breakfast cereal) we buy minimal amounts processed foods–which is often the foods that coupons are for.

So, what did I end up making for my friend?  I made baked spaghetti.  And wouldn’t you know it, but “Miss Grocery Shopping 101” here forgot to get mozzarella–a key ingredient–at the store. Oy!

Oh, well, I guess I can’t be 100% perfect. 😉

Disclosure: I am a member of the Hormel Extended Family of bloggers. I received a gift card to facilitate in my grocery shopping for this post.  All the opinions, tips, etc., shared in this post are my own.  In writing this post I receive an entry into a contest for the Hormel bloggers.