Many readers ask me about ways to lower their monthly grocery bill, but they don’t want to use coupons. I will tell you point blank here—and you might be shocked—but I RARELY use coupons. It’s the truth! And I keep our grocery bill to less than $300 per month, usually about $50 per week.
If I don’t use coupons, you may ask, how do you keep your grocery bill so low? These are all questions I plan to be answering in upcoming posts. I also plan to explain how in the world my grocery budget INCLUDES my gas budget. Crazy, I know!
But for now, I’ll share one quick thing I did at Giant this week to get 3 gallons of milk for completely FREE. Now I do have to add, I did print 6 coupons to do this deal—all of which took me about 60 seconds to find and print, so I considered it worth it.
Here’s the deal:
Buy 4 General Mills Cereals or Treat Bars, Nature Valley Granola Bars or Yo-Plait Go-Gurt
Get $4.50 off your milk purchase
So this is what I did:
Buy 4 General Mills Cereals at $1.99 each
Buy 1 Gallon Milk (up to $4.50)
Use (2) $1/2 General Mills Cereals coupons
Receive $1/2 General Mills Cereal in your SavingStar Account
Pay $4.96 (milk rings up as FREE at register)
Buy 4 Nature Valley Granola Bars at $1.99 each
Buy 1 Gallon Milk (up to $4.50)
Use (2) $.50/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars coupons (doubles to $1/2)
Receive $.50/2 Nature Valley in your SavingStar Account
Pay $4.96 (milk rings up as FREE at register)
Buy 4 Yoplait Go-Gurt at $1.99 each
Buy 1 Gallon Milk (up to $4.50)
Use (2) $.75/2 Yoplait Go-Gurt coupons (doubles to $1/2)
Receive $.75/2 Go-Gurt in your SavingStar Account
Pay $4.96 (milk rings up as FREE at register)
I also used the in-circular coupons to get discounted toilet paper, and cherries. I did the Buy Theirs Get Ours promo to get a great price on the baked beans. And I did the gas deal for the burger and hot dog buns, making them just about $.80 a bag (perfect for the picnic we’re hosting this week!)
All said and done, I got all of these groceries PLUS $10 credit in gas ($.40 off per gallon) and I spent only $30. If you take my $10 gas credit out of the total, that means I spent $20 for 25 items—making my cost just $.80 per item. Lovely!
I very rarely buy cereal, so this deal wouldn’t normally attract me, but I felt Honey Nut Cheerios was a healthier option than some cereals. And I got the Lucky Charms for a fun summer treat (I’ll probably use it for a game or table activity instead of for breakfast.)
And the Go-Gurts I put in the freezer to use instead of popsicles on hot summer afternoons. My kids in fact do not prefer to eat these unless they are frozen! 😉
I got the toilet paper because it was a good price and I’m almost out. I rarely buy toilet paper because I usually stock up enough for a few months at a time. I don’t like cluttering my brain with trying to remember to buy things like toilet paper every week, so this system works well for me.
I also usually buy a lot of discount produce but today there wasn’t any on the shelf. Often times I can leave the store with a enough fresh fruits and veggies to fill up my refrigerator, all for only a couple of dollars!
Subscribe to find more ways to save in Lancaster!
[yikes-mailchimp form=”2″]