I have a family of three, and I’m sure if you have a lot of people in your family, you do whatever it takes to save a few dollars.
Well, what you’re going to find out is that there’s something that most of us can’t get away from and that is food. Without it, how the heck are we supposed to survive?
Since grocery bills can easily reach into the hundreds every time you shop, I wanted to share with you some tips that I use to save almost 70% on my grocery bill. By setting a few minutes of your day aside before you grocery shop, here are five hacks you can use when using the internet and search engines.
#1 Search for coupon matchups
Coupon matchups are guides that people create to help you save a lot of money. What they do is take all the items on sale and match them up with the thousands of coupons on the Internet and in your local Sunday paper. So for example, if a can of soup was on sale for $1 and a coupon for $0.50 was out there, you could potentially get that soup for free if your store doubles. This is a great way to save a boat load of money by applying coupons to the sale items. To find these coupon matchups, simply search for “ coupon matchups.” Keep in mind that some store blogs are going to be way better than others.
#2 Search for forums
Aside from coupon matchups, another great way to find coupons is by searching for niche based forums that have people like you and I looking for deals. For example, let’s say you shopped at Kroger. Searching for something along the lines of “Kroger Coupons Messageboard and/or Forum” would bring up some amazing results. The top results are often updated regularly and have many great tips on how you can save for the week.
#3 Use real-time searches
Let’s say that you’re out of dressing for the week and your favorite dressing is Hidden Valley. Since you don’t want to pay full price, you’re wondering if there are coupons out there. Now, if you just search for “Hidden Valley Dressing coupons,” the top results are more than likely going to give you stale results that can often go as far back as a few years back. Keep in mind that these coupons are more than likely going to be expired. Instead of looking for stale and expired coupons, what you will want to do is look at the real-time searches on the left hand side of search engines such as Google. All you will do is click on “search tools” and change your results from “any” to “one week ago.”
#4 Look for nationwide deal blogs
As mentioned earlier, coupon matchup blogs are a great way to find local matchups, but what you may find is that nationwide stores such as Walmart, Family Dollar and others will have a larger following. Because of this, you may be able to find larger blogs that focus on deals. Searching for something such as, “Walmart Deals” or “Walmart Coupon Blogs” can yield some great results as well. Remember, when you find a great website, don’t forget to add them to your favorites so that you don’t forget about them!
#5 Take advantage of Twitter
As my last tip, take advantage of Twitter searches. Even if you don’t have an account, you can still search for deals. With Twitter’s search function, search for anything that you wish. Whether it’s a deal, a specific coupon or a sale nearby, a search can often yield some great real-time results. Again, using that dressing example above, you can search for “Hidden Valley Coupon” and see what people are tweeting about.
If this all sounds like too much work, try The Grocery Game – they do the work for you! The Grocery Game lets you know what's on sale at your favorite grocery and where to find the coupon…you just print the list and save on groceries!
As you can see, there are so many great ways to save! Test out these five tips to see how much you can save on your next grocery venture. Best of luck!
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written by Kathy
