Groceries are the fourth largest expense for most American families --after houses, cars and credit. In fact, the average family of four spends $10,692 a year on groceries, according to the IRS. That includes food, personal care items and household supplies. Here's why this stat matters: where you spend big you can SAVE BIG! Below are a bunch of tasty resources to help you cut your grocery bills by as much as 80 percent.
CouponMom.com: Couponing doesn't have to be a time-consuming drag. Just save two months worth of circulars, whole and uncut. Then, this free website allows you to search for coupons for things you need, rather than randomly clipping coupons hoping you'll use them some day. Couponmom.com also matches up coupons with sales so you can double up on your savings �the key to successful couponing.
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MyGroceryDeals.com: You may also like the website MyGroceryDeals.com, which aggregates hundreds of store circulars all in one place.
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ShopLocal.com: You can use this website to search by product, find the store circular with the lowest price, and even print out the store circular page you need.
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TheGroceryGame.com: This is a subscription site that tracks sales and coupons at hundreds of grocery stores across the country. The site tells you when a product is so cheap that you should stockpile it. The key to stockpiling is to buy enough of a product to get you through until the next big sale. You buy groceries when they're cheapest instead of whenyou need them. This site offers a free trial.
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BeCentsAble.net: One way to save a bunch of money on groceries is to copy veteran shoppers who post "brags" online showing the best bargains of the week at your local store. This website aggregates dozens of those brag blogs. I also highly recommend the Be CentsAble grocery savings workshops, available around the country and as an online tutorial on the website.
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HotCouponWorld.com: This free website has a searchable coupon database. It's maintained by members and indexes some sources that CouponMom.com does not.
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E-Coupon Websites: The Sunday circulars are still the number one source of grocery coupons, but internet E-coupons are playing a bigger and bigger role. Here are several legitimate sites where you can find E-coupons your local store will accept. You will probably have to download a simple program that allows your computer to recognize and print bar codes.
Click here for CoolSavings
Click here for Coupons.com
Click here for RedPlum
Click here for SmartSource
Double Coupon Guides: One of the best ways to maximize the value of your coupons is to find a store that doubles them. Usually at least one more in each metro area does this to draw business. Here are two online guides to grocery stores that double coupons.
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Grocery Buying Club Guide: One great way to save money on organics is to start a grocery buying club with friends. You buy organic and natural foods directly from a wholesaler that normally sells to grocery stores. A huge truck pulls up to your house to make the delivery. There are wholesalers in all parts of the country who sell to buying clubs. Here's a guide to some of them.
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Grocery Auctions: In some parts of the country you can bid for groceries instead of buying them �at a grocery auction. These auctions usually carry surplus goods, scratch and dent items and foods near their expiration date. To find a grocery auction near you, check out the website of the National Auctioneers Association.
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