Where can I possibly save money on Groceries!!!

I have been asking myself this question. I have shopping down to a science. I have been doing this for fourteen years and we have a family of five. I can say that groceries and household items cost me roughly about $100 to $150 a week. Now I have heard that I'm already doing great. I think a lot of families regularly spend twice that. So I decided to post some of my tips......in hopes that some of you will share yours.

1. First off, I don't get stuck on name brands. I try to keep an open mind and try the store brands. Often I find that the store or generic brands are just as good as or even better than the pricey name brands. Poptarts brand poptarts for example.....my whole family agrees that the generic are better....they have more gooey fruit on the inside.

2. I do not clip coupons....now don't misunderstand me. If I come across a coupon of a particular brand that I regularly use, then I use it....but I don't waste time clipping, or waste money buying a weekly paper. If you compare the price of a name brand with coupons to the generic with no coupons, the latter is probably still cheaper.

3. Yes, I do shop the wholesale clubs. I have a Sam's club membership and I have been known to visit Costco on occassion. Just be aware of your prices. Not everything is cheaper there. I had to start with just a couple things a week until I was buying most things from there. Even your staples like bread, milk and eggs are usually cheaper there. The downside is short-term it hurts because $100 only buys like 10 items, but long-term it's a whole lot less than what I would have bought for the same quantity at the grocery store.

4. Remember that when you shop for individual or ready-to serve portions you are paying for the packaging. This also is the case with namebrand vs. generic brands. Some things are necessary to buy in individual portions, especially if the larger container will just go bad before you consume it all. Other things either won't go bad, or are used so fast that it doesn't matter. I buy sliced sandwich cheese in a 5# block at Sam's. It cuts my cheese cost by more than half. Each slice isn't wrapped, so I have to portion 30 or so slices into ziplock bags. I have never had a problem with it keeping before we use it But if you are concerned or just don't use it that fast, then freeze it in smaller portions. When my family was smaller and the kids were younger we didn't go thru it as fast and I froze it all the time. I never had an issue with the thawed cheese. I also buy large bags of chips and various other snacks like trailmix, goldfish, chex mix etc and portion it myself into individual portions for the kids snacks. Not only does this save me on the packaging, but it ensures that the kids don't go crazy and eat 3 or 4 servings in a sitting.

5. Pay attention to the unit prices on the store shelves. I think ALL stores have unit prices on the shelves next to the item price. Most of these are broke down price per oz. Now, if you will look closely you will notice that not only do these prices vary greatly between brands, but sometimes they will vary between package sizes. We have even found cases where the larger packages are actually more expensive than the smaller package fo the same brand. I.e. it would make more sense to purchase 5 smaller packages than to purchase the larger package with 5 smaller units within it.

6. I pay attention to the circulars that come around. I look thru the circulars each week when they come and see which store is offering more sales on the things that I would buy and make sure that I wouldn't save more by just going to Sam's. Now, I don't waste gas or my precious time by driving around and going to 4 different stores. I pick one store other than the wholesale club to visit to pick up things that I don't usually buy in bulk. If I want to visit another store for a really good deal, then I only do it when I am already out and going to be in the vicinity of that store. I especially watch for buy one, get one free deals, soda 12 packs at exceptional deals, meat specials, especially specials on boneless skinless chicken tenders, shrimp and fish.

7. My last tip is to buy your bread from a local bakery thrift shop. I get 3 loaves of bread there for the price of one at the grocery store. Sometimes they even have specials on hamburger and hotdog buns. This past week ours had a special that if you bought $5 worth you got a free package of hotdog buns with your purchase. My house goes thru 3 loaves of bread a week. I buy 6 loaves of bread at a time and freeze half of it. This saves me the time of having to visit the thrift store weekly (got to save that gas!!). If you don't like to eat bread after it's frozen then you can freeze one loaf just for when you want toast or grilled cheese or for making french toast. When eating those items you won't notice the bread has been frozen.

I hope that these tips will help you as we all hunker down and try to make up the difference with the rising gas prices. What tips can you share??