Learn real money saving techniques from Jenny Martin: entrepreneur, mother of three and expert deal seeker for her blog, Southernsavers.com.
Brilliant Money Saving Ideas
From experience I can tell you that comparing grocery deals can be way more burdensome than beneficial, especially with the time and gas it takes to compare ad fliers, drive to the different stores and scrounge to find any relevant coupons. That’s why I shop around for the best grocery store prices and coupon match-ups in the comfort of my own home on my computer and still save more money than I ever had before on groceries.
The grocery budget for my family of five is $50 per week. The budget includes all food and beverages (e.g. meat, dairy, produce, bread, nonperishable items, etc.) needed for an entire week. The allowance also includes starting and replenishing stockpiles of things I know my family will use, like rice, cereal, juice and canned veggies. (Did I mention that three of the five are picky eaters?) My secret to keeping within the weekly budget isn’t just buying generic products or simply going without. More times than not, it’s buying at least $100 worth of groceries for only $50 out of pocket. How do I do this, you might ask? Research. Coupons. And a little help from my favorite frugal blog.
My number one, go-to frugal website for finding grocery deals is none other than SouthernSavers.com. In my opinion, this website is by far the best resource in the Southeast for planning out your grocery trips. Jenny Martin, the author and founder of the site, mostly focuses on grocery store deals and other deal alerts for various places you can pick up food and beverage items. She is also a stay-at-home parent of three and was once an amateur “couponer” herself, so all of her advice about saving money is that which she would take herself.
Southernsavers has recently done some major renovations, and I must say, the finished product is a website that is ridiculously easy to navigate. At the top, there are sea green colored tabs for Printable Coupons, coupon Tutorials, coupon Workshops and Jenny’s newest endeavor, the Coupon Database (somewhat resembling the infamously intimidating coupon trading system at hotcouponworld.com, only on a much smaller, less intimidating scale). Just below the larger tabs are the smaller, pale green, store tabs (you can’t miss them). They are all lined up, and separated into Grocery Store Deals and Drug Store Deals. The grocery store tabs on immediate display include only the most popular ones. For those, you’ll find Bi-Lo, Harris Teeter, Kroger, Publix, Target and “Other” all lined up. If you click on “Other”, you’ll find Food Lion and Winn-Dixie among a cluster of other, lesser-known grocers. For drug store deals, you’ll just find the major three: CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens.
The types of posts made for each store vary. For instance, I clicked on the “Publix” tab today and several different posts came up, including links to Printable Kraft Coupons, Menu Ideas based on this week’s sale ad, and then the plain old sale ad. Though I found that if you want to skip certain types of posts, you can hover over the store tab (instead of clicking it), and the different sub-categories (if there are any) magically appear below your curser. Keep hovering, then click on the type of post you want to read, and voila!
Not only does SouthernSavers provide each store’s weekly ad in bullet-point format, it also includes, right under each and every sale item, a full list of coupons to use. The types of coupons listed include the Sunday paper coupons, printable coupons (my favorite, because I don’t buy the paper), All You magazine coupons and even coupons found in various brochures that stores put on display. This site is the reason I have two subscriptions to the All You magazine. Navigate the grocery deals for five minutes, and you’ll see what I mean! Jenny even includes posts on extra, rock-bottom deals based on coupons. It’s unbelievable until you get your first freebie. Her penny-wise advice literally comes from every angle.
When it comes down to it, yes, I love this blog for its simplicity and unique formatting. But I have to admit, what keeps me coming back each week isn’t just the style of the site, its that distinctly exhaustive, budget-enabling type of information that SouthernSavers provides on a daily basis.
Want to start saving money on groceries now? Here are a few quick links to get you started:
Publix
Winn-Dixie
Harris Teeter
Food Lion
