Be savvy! 10 ways to save on groceries

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7. Use coupons (wisely).
Remember all those articles about women who go grocery shopping and get $300 worth of groceries for $2.67? They have many tricks up their sleeves, but their biggest trick is using coupons. Here are proven strategies for following this golden rule.

Read more, save more. If your Sunday newspaper offers a high-value coupon on an item that you buy often, it may be worth the cost to buy extra copies of the paper for the extra coupons, or to ask neighbors if you can have the coupon inserts from their papers. This is particularly worthwhile if you know that an item you want is a “buy one, get one free” sale; you can then get four for the price of two and have ample supplies in your pantry.

Trade and save. Have friends or family that you know use coupons? Offer to host a twice-a-month coupon-trading session over coffee. Even better, do your “swapping” long-distance over the phone, and then send friends and family their coupons through the mail. That way, the mix of coupons will be wider — the types of coupons on offer (and the coupons’ savings amounts) vary by region.

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Go online to save. More and more Web sites are offering coupons you can print out. Before you go shopping, log on to the Internet and in your favorite search engine, put in the names of a product on your shopping list, plus the word “coupon.” Chances are better than not that deals will pop up. Just be careful — some sites want lots of personal information in exchange for access to coupons or discounts. Read the fine print and be sure it is a reputable Web site before surrendering personal information.

Video
Saving at the supermarket
Feb. 12: Alyce Alston from Dollar Savvy magazine shares some tips that will help you save money at the grocery store.
Today show
Sort smartly. Organize your coupons the way you organize your shopping list: in the same order as the store aisles. Some people use a plain envelope, some people use recipe boxes with dividers — find the way that works best for you. If you are organized, you’ll find the coupons you want more quickly and will be less likely to overlook a useful one. As you clip them, put each coupon in a product category. Within each category, put them in expiration order, putting the ones closest to expiration on top.

Seek out stores that double or triple coupons. Some grocers double coupons up to $1 in face value; others triple coupons regularly (or on certain days of the week).

Know when small packages can yield the biggest discounts. Buying the largest size of most items is usually the thriftiest option, but calculating bargains might work out differently when using coupons (especially “two-fer” coupons that require you to buy two of the same item to get your discount). Using a coupon and buying two smaller-size items may yield you a better price per pound.

8. Save rain checks for a rainy day.
This rule works best when you shop at a popular, high-volume grocery store: Say the sales circulars come out on Thursdays for sales that begin on Friday. There’s a great deal on 12-packs of cola, but you don’t have the money (or the space) to stock up on it this week. If you go shopping on Saturday or Sunday, these sale items are probably already out of stock. Good — that’s exactly what you want. Ask for a rain check on the sold-out bargains, and you can cash in on those sales when it’s convenient for you.

9. Layer, layer, layer.
Use a manufacturer’s coupon with items already on sale at the grocery store. Some people call this “layering,” others call it “stacking” — but it’s really a simple way of “saving!” Say a $1.99 package of taco shells is on sale for $1.49. If you have a 50-cents-off coupon and the store doubles coupons, you’ll only pay 49 cents for it!

10. Watch the register.
You’ve probably seen those investigative shows that uncover just how many errors supermarket scanners make — the numbers are staggering. Knowing this, keep a watchful eye on the cashier’s display as the cashier scans each product. Make sure that discounts for sales and coupons are applied. Make sure that the clerk keys in the proper produce codes for perishables without price tags, so that you’re not paying for exotic mushrooms when you’re buying green peppers. And make sure that the register is logging items with price tags correctly — when there’s a mistake, many stores give you the product for free when you point out their errors.

And after you’ve confirmed that your purchase was correctly tabulated, be sure to keep your receipt. This is a good practice for a few reasons: If the item is on sale but doesn’t ring up with the sales price, you can bring the receipt back to the store for a refund. (Some stores may refund you the difference if that grocery item is on sale at a competing store, too.) If you get home and find out that one of your items is damaged or has a broken seal, you can easily return it. Finally, many register tapes are printed with valuable local coupons on the reverse side. Read carefully and keep saving!