Welcome bargin hunters!

I am creating this blog to inspire others to go out and take advantage of coupon clipping and grocery sales. I've recently started playing the grocery clipping game and I will be documenting my bargains and freebies. Did you know that if you match certain sales with certain coupons you can get things for FREE? The goal is find the best deals and save as much as possible on weekly deals.

Every week I'll be posting what the latest bargains are and my overall total savings. So hop on the bargain wagon and join me for some fun.

To get started I'll go over some of my shopping tips:

• To find the best savings I usually go to more than one store. I live in an area where there is a grocery store on every corner, so I wont have to travel far to hit 4 stores. Most of my bargain shopping will be done at Stater Brothers, Ralph's, Henry's (great for fresh fruit/veggies) and occasionally Von's and Wallgreens.
• I receive all the local grocery store adds in the mail around Wednesday. I will quickly glance through them and then set them aside until Saturday night or Sunday when I match my shopping list up with the local sales. It is important to keep these weekly adds because there are a lot of in store coupons and sales that can be matched up with manufacturing coupons this adds up to max savings. Keep in mind a lot of times the sales advertised in the stores adds are only available for Club Card Members so be sure you are signed up for their membership (usually they are free). Ralphs has come out with a new Membership card and they pay you to shop. For every $1 you spend you get one point. Once you have earned up to 500 points they will send you $5, and every 100 points after you receive another $1. This last week I received a coupon for $9 off my next purchase.
• Next I'll make a list of items we need. I usually have a running list through out the week because I tend to forget. Making a list is the most important step because it helps you keep on track instead of wondering the isles throwing anything and everything that looks good into your cart. I know we are all guilty of doing this.
• Once I have my list I will go through the weekly adds and find out which stores have my items on sale. I usually find other sales that I can't pass up which I add to my list. I also note which store these sales are at and what the sale is is, just in case I find it cheaper at another store. A lot of time the weekly adds don't have all of their sales printed.
• On Sunday I buy the newspaper and collect all the manufacturing coupons that match up with items on my list. The key is to find something on sale with an in store coupon and a manufacturing coupon. Most stores will accept both coupons. Some stores, such as Ralph's, will even Double Coupons, that’s Double Savings!
• Since I mark the price of each item on my list, I like to roughly guess what my total will be so I know how much I'll be spending. I try to stick to my list unless I find some in store sales that I just can't pass up.

That about covers all my tricks of the trade. If you have any questions or have some tips you'd like to share please let me know and I will add them to this list.

Now lets get our pennies on...

Happy Savings!