Week 16: How I Saved 75% On Groceries

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Each week I share how I saved money, hoping that some of these frugal ideas could be helpful to you.

Check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!

If you’ve read other How I Saved posts, feel free to skip down to the deals.

If you’re new, here’s a little background about why I share my savings…

You’d be surprised how much money you can save when you really put your mind to it. It’s the accumulation of lots of small choices and habits that dictate the path your finances take.

The money that you save might seem meaningless in small amounts, but it truly adds up. It leaves more money in your bank account that you can use to pay off debt, save for the future, or do more of what you enjoy.

I absolutely love saving money and wanted to start sharing how I save each week. Not to show off, but to hopefully demonstrate different ways to save and maybe inspire you to want to do the same.

I strive to save on groceries, eating out, clothes, gifts, gasoline, etc. You name it, and I want to save money on it.

My main motivation for saving money is to pay off our mortgage in the next 2-3 years. Every dollar saved is in honor of that goal.

We’ve paid off thousands of dollars in debt over the past couple years. Wouldn’t it feel so awesome to be completely debt free? And get to keep most of your paycheck instead of immediately sending it away to pay bills? I think so.

I thought I’d share how much I save each week by using my favorite savings formula: combining sales and coupons. Or whatever other ways I come up with to be frugal. Hopefully some of these methods can be applied to your life.

You can get caught up and read the rest of the How I Saved posts here.

Related: Flat out broke? Try these 5 tips.

Here are my savings for Week 16 – April 16 – 22

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Related: How to create your own meal planning kit

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Grocery Savings:

This is the easiest way to save money. Each week, plan your shopping trip(s) based on what’s on sale. Then combine those sales with matching coupons to get the most bang for your buck. I always aim for at least 50% savings.

Related: Use one of these 5 easy meal planning strategies to make the most of your grocery budget.

I use coupon matchup sites to plan my deals. My favorites are Kroger Krazy, Meijer Madness, and Bargains to Bounty. They make it so easy by spelling out exactly what the sale items are, and which coupons to use. Such a couponing time saver!

The absolute best place to print coupons is coupons.com. It’s where I get all my printable coupons.

Here are the deals!

how to save money at Kroger

Kroger Shopping Trip:

They had my favorite Kroger-shopping scenario going on: a Mega Event! During Mega Event sales, they have totally awesome prices on certain items, as long as you buy a specific number of items. The signs will let you know how many participating sale items you need to buy.

My Mega Event savings included:

  • Crest toothpaste (FREE) – priced at $1.99 with a $2 off digital coupon
  • Secret deodorant (49 cents) – marked down to $1.49 plus a $1 off 1 digital coupon, and a $1 off coupon Kroger mailed me (I bought 2)
  • Stayfree feminine products (99 cents) – sale priced for $1.99, minus two $2 off 2 coupons (I bought 4)
  • Palmolive dish soap (49 cents) – on sale for 99 cents, with a 50 cents off each newspaper insert coupon (bought 2)
  • Minute Maid Strawberry Lemonade – (bought 2) priced at 99 cents each, and I received a $3.50 off my next shopping trip coupon. Essentially I profited $1.52 by buying them.
  • Green Mountain K-cups ($4.49) – on sale for $5.99, less a $1.50 newspaper insert coupon
  • Buitoni refrigerated pasta (99 cents) – marked down to $1.99, with a $1 off coupon Kroger mailed me
  • Newman’s Own Pizza ($2.99) – on sale for $3.99, minus a $1 off digital coupon
  • Screaming’ Sicilian Pizza ($2.99) – priced at $4.99, less a $2 off coupon Kroger mailed me.

I am trying to eat mostly from the pantry and freezer this month, but I couldn’t resist those pizzas at that price.

My non-Mega Event items were:

  • A loaf of bread from the ‘clearance rack’ for 59 cents
  • 18 large eggs – priced at 73 cents, plus a 40 cents off coupon that Kroger mailed me. (33 cents for 18 eggs?! I’m happy.)
  • 2 Free Friday items – a bag of kettle cooked potato chips and the new Tic Tac gum

how to save money at Kroger

Don’t forget to clip your digital Free Friday items every week! You have a couple weeks to redeem them, but they must be ‘clipped’ on Friday. If you sign up to get Kroger emails, they’ll email you a reminder on Fridays.

I always make sure to do the survey on the bottom of my Kroger receipts, because that gives me 50 bonus fuel points. You can do a survey once every 7 days, which ends up being 200 extra fuel points a month. That gives me 20 cents off per gallon of gas. I’d say 95% of their receipts have surveys, so be sure to check!

Amount Saved: $44.07 (plus $3.50 to use on my next shopping trip)

Amount Spent: $14.57

Percentage Saved: 75%

Related: Want some basic grocery savings ideas? Here are 5 ways to save money without using coupons.

Ibotta Savings: 25 cents on ‘Any Item’ at Kroger

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Miscellaneous Savings:

I’ve been wanting to spray paint the legs of an Ikea table/desk. I used a Michael’s coupon to get 40% off the can of paint. For some reason, I never realized Michael’s sold spray paint! I always buy it at Meijer or Lowe’s, but the 40-50% Michael’s coupons really bring the price down.

We also washed and vacuumed the car ourselves, instead of going to a car wash. That saved us at least $5.

Amount Saved: $8.20

how to save money at Krogerhow to save money at Kroger

 

 

 

Grand Total Savings for Week 16: $52.27

Total Saved Year-to-Date: $1333.22

You can read the rest of the How I Saved posts here.

Don’t forget to check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!

What are your tricks for saving money? How much did you save this week?

How to save money at Kroger

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