Feeding Your Family for Pennies!

A trip to Meijer:
Coupons in hand from "All*You" magazine for
Buy three Kraft Items get a Wheat Thins free
Buy three Kraft Items get a Salad Dressing for free
Buy three Kraft Items get Crystal Light for free
Buy three Kraft Items get Oscar Meyer hotdogs
Buy three Kraft Items get Kraft singles
(in our example the shopper had 2 1/2 sets of these

And had other coupons for:
20 Meijers Pasta Sauce coupons from Meijer Mealbox
3 $1.00 Meijer chicken
$1.00 drinkable Yogart
Buy 2 Kraft Salad dressings get up to $1 worth of fresh produce free

Meijer specials were:
Buy 3 get 3 free Kraft Mac & Cheese
Carrots were 10 for 10 get 11th free
Pasta Sauce 10 for 10 get 11th free
Drinkable yogart was on clearance of $2.53 at 50% off
Milk was 2 gallon for $5
Grapes were on special for 99cents a pound

Final total:It cost $36 and some change

What she got:
Salad Dressing - 2 bottles of 16 oz - $1.68 bottle
Pasta Sauce - $1.00 jar - 20 jars
Kraft Mac & Cheese - 36 boxes (don't be afraid to use case boxes - easier to carry)
Yogart - 8 pack $2.58 (on clearance for this price)
Kraft Singles - 2 packages about $4.50 each
Milk - 1 gallon for $2.50
Chicken - thighs - marked down $1.74
Chicken - boneless/skinless breasts - $2.59 & 3.50
(on sale for 1.99 pound)
Crystal light-4 tubes - on sale for 2.50 each (but was a free item)
Carrots - baby carrots on the 10 for 10 sale so they were a free produce item
3 lb bag of Black grapes - 99cent a pound

Currently the Meijer coupons state they must be separate transactions. That works. You still save.

Each store has their own special rules. Take time and learn them - maybe over a few weeks. Say each week try to add another source and then every couple weeks add a store. Some of the rules and what you should know:

CVS - requires a card, puts out a monthly publication with the deals for the month to supplement the weekly ads, you accumulate special coupons when you check out and gain dollar off for a certain size purchase or Extra Care Bucks - use those on anything. Manufacture coupons can be used with the store deals, extra care bucks, and store coupons.

Walgreens - great deals show in their weekly ads, and get the monthly specials book to find out how many of something you need to buy to get the deal. These aren't always posted. Manufacture coupons can be used with the store deals.

Kroger - has done away with the weekly coupons in their flyer but you need a card to get the specials. At some Kroger stores you can get a 10 cent reduction per gallon of gas with $100 purchase in the month.

Meijer - you don't need a card but you should check Miejer.com for the specials they are running (some may be 'buy one get two free') and then check out the Meijer Meal Box for coupons they offer and you can add in manufacture coupons.

One local grocery in this area gives you Pump Perks - with a special card when you are doing your shopping they will have special items in the store marked '2 cents off per gallon' or '8 cents off per gallon' on different items throughout the store. They are common foods but vary through the weeks. By getting gas at a certain station you can get up to $1.50 off up to 15 gallon at one time. That does add up when the cents off are on common items like potatoes, tuna, yougart and milk.

In your area you might find other stores with more special deals. You can save substancial amounts of money. It is not simple and does take some work, but at the same time it is addictive!

say you get multiples of the weekly ad.... who knows where from, but you get them. take each one, tear the pages apart into stacks, like with like. then you staple each coupon together with the other ones of that kind.... making sure they are pretty well lined up of course.... then cut your coupons.... remove staple and file. i sat there and watched jessi do 8 or 9 ads in fifteen minutes start to finish,,,, after i had just taken about 10 minutes per ad to cut them, and then they still needed sorted.