The key to saving the most money is stockpiling. This is kind of a new concept for me. I'm used to buying enough to last, but only so I don't have to make so many trips to the store. For instance, we shop at Sam's Club and I would buy enough oatmeal and applesauce (two things we use a lot of) to last over a month. But the idea behind stockpiling is buying enough of something when it's at it's lowest price to last 12 weeks. Why 12 weeks? I've been told that's the length of the sale cycle. It will take approximately 12 weeks for a specific type of item to hit rock-bottom prices again.
So what exactly is rock-bottom price? It's getting the best sale price (usually 50% off or BOGO) and combining it with the best coupon. That seems like a lot of work, right? Well, thankfully, all of that work has been done for me. There are plenty of sites that list the weekly sale ads, matched with coupons, and that tell you what is a good price. So between reading the sales ads myself, checking the websites, and using the coupon database, it takes very little time at all. Yes, I've been spending a lot of time on this lately, but mostly because I'm still learning the ropes, getting familiar with the websites and which ones are best for my stores and my area, and having fun searching through all the different printable coupons.
To shave the most money off your grocery budget, only buy items when they are at their lowest price - whether you need it or not - and buy enough to last until they will be at their lowest price again. For instance, today I bought Mitchum deodarant for $.99 each when I usually spend up to $3.49 each. I bought 6 to make sure we have enough to last. Once you have a big enough stockpile, you won't ever have to pay full price for those things again!
