Category: Frugality

Learn about a variety of ways to save money

Food

Supermarket Savings: Picking the Grocery Sales

Save money
Save money by picking the best sales

The term “cherry picking” refers to the concept that every week a grocery store will feature several sale items with extreme value pricing, so low it may be worth buying and even stocking up on them for rare dramatic savings. There may be a qualifying purchase attached such as “save $3.00 on a 12-pack of cola when you spend an additional $25.00” on your groceries that day (with reward card and coupon)! If you normally pay $3.99, this is a 75% savings on your purchase! If you can find several others like this kind of savings, it may be worth it to purchase some of your regular staples to get these deals.

There are numerous chains around trying to persuade you to shop with them. If you go to each store and “cherry pick” their best advertised sales, you will save many dollars more than using only one market that week. As long as you’re not buying things you don’t need or don’t use, or traveling outrageous distances wasting your valuable time and gas, I recommend you at least check out markets near your home and/or workplace to cherry pick.

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Food

Supermarket Savings: Deals on Meat

Chuck roast
Save more with certain cuts of meat

Meat is plentiful and often is a lead item in supermarket advertising. It always has a per pound price and is somewhat descriptive in its cut, sometimes even pinpointing fat content. When you shop, there are many aspects to be considered:

  • What minimum weight, if any, needs to be purchased to obtain the lowest price? Markets typically impose a 3-pound weight purchase to get the best deal. However, sometimes packages are made that may actually have less weight and still offer the better per pound price. Examine as many as are displayed if you don’t require a large amount. If you buy a large amount, consider freezing some to use at a later date.

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Food

Supermarket Savings: Self-Checkouts to Save Time

Self-checkout
Use the self-checkout to save time

Supermarkets are always trying to improve the speed of your shopping trip as well as keep the labor costs down and still provide you with a complete savings-filled trip each week. The self-checkout saves them money and it allows them to pass that on to the consumer in the highly competitive, low profit food industry.

The self-checkout has come to be a basic in most supermarkets after 15 years of growth. In most stores, a good 4 to 8 checkouts are now functioning for those tech-savvy shoppers who are in need of a quicker shopping experience for their very busy lives while still being able to offer all the discounts, coupon usage / distribution, and other perks.

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Food, Shopping

Supermarket Savings: Flowers that Don’t Look Cheap

Tulips
Finding the best bargains on supermarket flowers

When you think of flowers–bouquets, table arrangements, potted plants, or even corsages–most people tend to think of a florist before their local supermarket or grocery store. But not only is the supermarket convenient, it can be a great place to score cheap flowers. So with a little advice from my mother-in-law, a former floral department manager in one of our local supermarket chains, here’s what to look for:

If you want your bouquet to make a good impression, select one or two bouquets (or even three, especially if there’s a discount) and ask the floral manager what they can do to spruce it up at no extra charge. At most chain stores, the manager will gladly add some greens and baby’s breath (those tiny white flowers), arrange the flowers in a pleasing way, wrap it up in pretty curled ribbon, add a packet of preservative plant food and sometimes even offer you one of those little floral greeting cards to go with it. It never hurts to ask.

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Food

Supermarket Savings: Track Prices and Save the Most!

Sale
When is a sale actually a good bargain? There’s one way to know for sure

When is a sale really a sale? The best way to know if the prices you’re paying are the very best is to track the sales cycles of the stores you shop for the items you regularly buy. This will enable you to determine when the prices are the very best. Stores run their sales and promotions in cycles that can be from 2, 4, 6 or even 8 weeks in length. Often, this week’s “sale price” is higher than it was last week. Tracking will make you confident that you’re getting the best deal!

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Food

Supermarket Savings: Using Coupons for Big Savings

Coupons
Collect coupons for the items you use to get the best deals

Using coupons, or “couponing”, can save you thousands of dollars a year. To gain the skills needed, it takes practice, patience, knowledge and discipline. Follow these rules and you can become an expert:

  • Look for coupons in your daily mail, Sunday newspaper, online supermarket sites, and dedicated online coupon sites. You can even download digital store and manufacturer coupons directly to your supermarket reward card. When leaving for a shopping trip, always make sure you have your reward card as well as any coupons you might need.

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Food

Supermarket Savings: Two-fers, BOGO’s and 10/$10’s

BOGO
How to save money on the BOGO

Supermarkets have become strategy masterminds in their efforts to make you buy more and more each week. The traditional “sale”, that is, lowering a price temporarily to entice you to purchase, has been replaced in many instances by the “two-fer” the price of one, and/or “BOGO” (buy one, get one free or 50% off). Stores are also featuring 10 for $10 mix and match promotions. The word “free” lights up the eyes of most shoppers!

Stores love it because they are moving twice the number of items with this strategy and manufacturers love it because it basically shuts out their competition for a period of time. Cereal A is purchased (2 boxes) and thus Cereal B isn’t, for perhaps weeks at a time.

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