Avoiding costly grocery store mistakes

NBC
Published: October 7, 2008

In today’s touch economic times, the prospect of cutting your grocery bill in half seems very attractive. 

So how do you do it? 

Stephanie Nelson is known as the “coupon mom,” using her finance background to realize how much money she can save on her weekly grocery shopping by using coupons.

“This is a triple pack of toothpaste, and I have a store coupon that says if I buy the toothpaste along with mouthwash, I get five dollars off,” said Stephanie Nelson. “The goal should be to cut your grocery bill in half.”

And Nelson showed me how you can double up on your savings.

“You get the big bottle of shampoo, so you’re saving in bulk.  But I have the store coupon for two dollars off, and I also have a newspaper coupon for two dollars off.  So I use both of those.  Instead of paying $6.99, I’ll pay just $2.99,” said Nelson.

But remember that not all stores accept coupons other than their own.

“BJ’s is the only wholesale club that accepts coupons and have their own coupons,” said Nelson. “At the supermarkets, a gallon of milk can be as much as four dollars now, and some are more than that.  So a wholesale club has great bargains.  This milk is $2.62 a gallon.”

“I have a family of four so I can buy larger quantities.  And with something like ground beef, it’s almost one dollar a pound less expensive here.  And I’ll break it up and put some in the freezer for next week,” said Stephanie Nelson “and make your menus around what’s on sale.  That makes such a difference in your spending.”

Then at the register we scanned the items at the store prices and then tallied up our savings from the coupons.

“Originally it was $45.08.  So forty-five down to twenty-two.  So just a little more than half on good things, name brand stuff,” said Nelson.

Nelson says it may take a half hour or less to go through Sunday newspaper circulars and online coupon sites to organize all your coupons, but says the savings are well worth it.