Each year, billions of dollars in coupons and other savings are totally missed by millions of shoppers due to not taking time to plan their weekly or shopping trips. I am going to show you a few ways to save 10 to 30 percent each time you visit the store.
There are a number of ways that you can get huge discounts; here are a few examples;
Look, for all buy one and get one free items, this is a 50 percent discount. In money terms, if the item is $2.50 then you have just made $2.50.
Look for store discounts that can be combined with coupons. This is a real winner; you can save 30 percent each time using this method.
Check the unit cost for the items you are buying, you could be saving 10 percent by just switching to a larger quantity.
Try different products, many times new products are introduced into the store and are offered at a deeply discounted price in order to stimulate sales. You can save 20 percent by trying out new products.
Look on the bottom and top shelves for product. Typically, the most expensive items are at eye level. You can easily save 10 percent using this technique.
Look for manufacturer coupons in the store; ask the manager if he has any that have not been put out yet. If you cannot locate any coupons in the store, you can write the manufacturers and ask for coupons. The manufacturers will be happy to give you some coupons just so you can use their products.
As for using coupons, and other promotions, to be very effective you have to be organized. Organization includes planning your trip, the coupons you will take with you and the products you plan to buy. Try not get caught up by the colorful product displays and big signs that do not result in big savings. Stick to your game plan and you will come out ahead.
Another effective way to get the most out of coupons is to have coupon swap parties. Have some friends over for tea, coffee, and have everyone trade coupons. Have some fun with it by playing some coupon swapping games. One game makes everyone take one of their most valuable coupons and one of their worse coupons and then have one person pick a coupon blindfolded, then the other person gets to do the same thing. The winner is the person who picks the best coupon and has the other person pick their worse coupon. Do this a few times and see who ends up with the most valuable set of coupons.
I hope that these tips have been helpful to you and that you will save a lot of money the next time you are at the shops.
There are a number of tactics and tips which you can use to ensure that your grocery bill is significantly reduced. I'm going to have a look at two particular ones now which can sometimes be overlooked. These two bits of advice are to do with something called loss leaders, and also thinking about the importance of the seasons.
You may have come across the term 'loss leader', and not been too sure what it means, or perhaps you have never come across the term. Basically, a loss leader is a product that a retailer sells at a loss. Why on earth would a retailer ever do that? That seems to make absolutely no sense at all, shops are there to make money, not lose it!
The answer is that it is a very clever ploy used by retailers to hook you in and get you to spend more money there than you intended, or even just to get you in the shop when you weren't planning on it. The retailer chooses a popular product which will attract attention, and marks it down in price dramatically so that it undercuts all of the competitors in the area and grabs people's attention. Shoppers may well be enticed into the shop on the basis if this one special discount, and then whilst they are there, have a browse around to see if there are any other bargains. The money which the supermarket loses is only a very small fraction of the amount it makes in the unplanned sales gained by having so many extra shoppers spend so much more time shopping.
However, if you are wise to this tactic, you can look out for the loss leaders (often these are advertised on large posters at the front of the shop, on television or in flyers that come through your door), and purchase these in bulk. Of course, this only works as a money saver if you would have purchased the products anyway. So, if the product being sold at a low price is beans, and you buy these regularly, go in and stock up on a trolley's worth! This will cut a good chunk off your overall bill during the course of the period you would have bought them anyway.
Naturally, if the product being discounted is either perishable, or something you never normally buy, then avoid it, and save your money for the next offer, which may well be better and is almost certainly only just around the next corner. Remember not to limit yourself to one shop - keep your eye open for each supermarket's loss leaders, and take advantage when you can.
As far as seasons are concerned - it makes perfect sense that during the winter you should not buy strawberries, since they are a summer/autumn fruit. Today we are too easily led to believe that any fruit can grow at any time of the year, and we have rather lost touch with the variety of fruits and vegetables during the natural year. Shops still provide these out-of-season fruits, but these are either cultivated in expensive greenhouses or shipped from abroad, all of which not only increases the price but also adds to environmental harm. Knowing what is in season, or about to come into season, will help you to look for those fruits and vegetables which are more locally grown and therefore cheaper.
Both Peter Engelbrecht & Victor Epand are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Peter Engelbrecht has sinced written about articles on various topics from Online Business, Work From Home and Online Business. Diagonal Street Business Services offers work at home articles and business ideas to stay at home moms. If you are thinking of starting a work at home business, visit