Planning

The key to saving the most at the grocery store is to plan for your shopping trip.  No matter where you are from it is important to check your store ads.  After you have completed your lists of menus and items you would like to create a stock pile from you should be checkng the ads. 

In the town of Ionia I can tell you that no store will double coupons.  I have emailed the Meijer Store in our city about this and have not heard a response from them.  The ads that I check each week are for Meijer, Walmart, Family Dollar, Dollar General, Walgreens and Rite Aid.  I will point out that Walmart does not list many grocery items in their ads.

I have learned the following techniques to maximize my savings and I will list those below.

On Wednesday each week or Thursday of each week I check the Sunday Coupon Preview website to see what coupons are coming out in the Sunday paper.  There is a link to this site down at the bottom of the page. 

On Thursday night or Friday morning Meijer will post their ads for the next week on Facebook.  I will check the ads to see what will be going on sale that I typically buy.  I then compare to what sales are going on to what I already have coupons for or ones that I can order online. 

If you are going to order coupons online the best time to place an order is Saturday morning especially if you are planning to buy coupons that are coming out in the Sunday paper.  If you order them Saturday and you are from the Ionia area you should receive them by the Thursday of next week.  In my next post I will discuss the difference between buying the sunday paper for coupons and purchasing coupons.

At times I will revise my grocery list if there is a better deal on the item I need to purchase in the new ad.

You can also view the Walgreens circular in advance by going to http://www.iheartwags.com/.  I have not found a site to preview the rite aid ad in advance.  It is also important to note that Dollar General and Family Dollar do not post new ads each week.

For those who live in the Ionia area, the only places that double coupons are in the Lansing area.  The Meijer stores in the Lansing Area, DeWitt, Grand Ledge, Mason and Charlotte will double coupons up to .50 cents.

You shoud also become familiar with each stores coupon policy.  You can ususally find the coupon policy online at each stores website.  I will also be posting links to those policies.

Also, the Kroger store in St. Johns doubles coupons.  You can also go to their website and clip coupons electronically.  You will need their Kroger card in order to do this which you can pick up at their store.  You can also earn points when you shop at Kroger that will earn money off gas when you purchase gas.  That can be used at the Shell station in Ionia.

Well that is it for now.