Save money: clip coupons

Becoming a savvy grocery shopper can save you thousands of dollars every year from your food budget. Clipping coupons, both from your local circular and from online, is a large part of those savings, and you can find coupons other places too. And most coupons are for the name brand food, the good stuff, so you're not only saving, but eating well too. A conservative estimate of savings you can get using coupons is 15% savings off your food budget every year. If you spend $100 a week on groceries regularly, than means you could put $15 per week into your cash reserve because of coupons you clip and use at your local grocery store. That's $780 per year. And that is a conservative estimate!

Information saves you money. If you are always the one to find out about a good deal after it happens, then you need to get informed. Browsing the newspaper or local circular for coupons on things you regularly buy can save you at least 10% off your grocery bill. If you are spending $50 per week per person in your family on food, you could be saving at least $5 per person per week in your cash reserve by browsing the local circular. If you were planning homemade tacos this week for dinner, you could have saved $.39 per pound with the coupon to the local grocer. Tacos for four take about two pounds of hamburger meat, so you could pay $2.60 with your coupon, or $3.38 without. That's a savings of $.78. If cheese, beans, rice, tortillas, lettuce, and tomatoes all have similar coupons in your circular, you would easily save 10% or more on your entire grocery bill.

Some chain grocery stores will print coupons on the back of your receipt for use at a later date. You can get buy-one-get-one-free on Lawry's Marinade, 50% off Freschetta frozen pizzas, and save $5 when you purchase two 24-packs of Pepsi brand soda all on the back of the same receipt. If you used each of the coupons on the back that receipt, you could save around $15 off your next grocery bill. That means you can put $15 in your cash reserve. Pillsbury biscuits regularly have a $2 off the purchase of three packages stuck to the top of the can that you can use when you check out. If you're planning biscuits, get three cans and save without even lifting a finger.

Signing up for a service like Coupons.com or Pinchingyourpennies.com sends the good deals to your inbox so you don't have to do anything but print the coupons that you'll use. If you like Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, right now you can save $1 on the purchase of two boxes by clipping a coupon off of Coupons.com. If you get that for your kids and want something a little healthier for you, you can save $1.50 on two boxes of Kashi cereals like Go Lean Crunch from the same website. In the same grocery shopping trip you can save $.50 on La Victoria salsa, $1 on Rhodes Bake-n-serv rolls, and $1 on One-A-Day vitamins. You can print as many coupons as you want and if you plan your meals around the deals for the week, you can save as much as 20% on your food budget, which is over $1000 a year you can put into your cash reserve.