With food costs reaching new highs all across the board, it’s likely that you’re revamping your menus to make those shopping dollars stretch. People who used to find it too much trouble to be shopping all over town for the sales and collecting coupons for food for extra savings, now have found a new hobby!
Prices on chicken have doubled over the last couple of years. Chicken is a mainstay of the average consumer’s meat locker. While it’s still affordable, when compared with the price of a steak, it’s no longer extremely economical. It’s the same no matter where you look at the grocery store. Prices of produce are enough to knock your socks off!
In addition to shopping the sales, using coupons for food is no longer just for your geeky Mom, who’s been using them for years. Granted, collecting, organizing and using coupons for food does take a little time, effort and a system, but now the savings are no little deal for your budget. If you save several dollars each week, by presenting these little papers at the checkout, it adds up quickly.
There are so many places to find coupons for food, once you make the effort to start collecting them, you’ll go right out and get a food coupon organizer to keep these money saving gems handy.
Start with your daily newspaper. Your typical newspaper contains the weekly sales flyers twice a week, once on Sunday and again during the week, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday. Check for coupons in the main body of the newspaper as well. Here you’ll find the coupons for the local farmer’s market, as well as the occasional half page ad for one of the supermarkets. Look for the coupon doubles too, usually with restrictions on use for certain types of products as well as the days they can be redeemed.
Ever notice those red coupon dispensers attached to the store shelves? These are usually for name brand products. At first glance, it may appear that there’s no savings over the normal price of a generic brand. The trick is to wait for the item to go on sale and then use that coupon for food.
There are also coupon exchange boxes in some supermarkets. The idea here is that your neighbor found a bunch of coupons for foods she normally doesn’t buy. She collects them anyway and contributes them to the exchange box, while searching for ones others have discarded, but that she can use. A win-win for everyone.
Look up some of the many websites with coupons for food online, which you can print out or have mailed to you. Manufacturer’s sites are another good resource.
Now, a word on organizing. If you take the trouble to initially file them by food categories, with the earliest expiration dates at the front, it becomes an easy to maintain system. Go through the ones you haven’t yet used each week, but which are due to expire soon. If you can’t use it, give it away or toss it.
Once you get into the swing of using these valuable coupons for food, you’ll have a smile on your face every time you check out!
