I am not a serious coupon collector, though I have been in the past. It was ALOT of work and for those that have the patience for it, Mazeltov!! For me (and we all have patience for different things, don’t we?) I couldn’t maintain the amount of time/work it took.

Still, I do like to save money.  So as noted in some of my previous posts, we try to shop smart.  One thing I do often is buy items we use regularly on sale and freeze or store them.  I do try to NOT buy them unless they are on sale.

I prefer to shop at Harris Teeter and Costco, both offer quality products, especially meat & produce.  Between the two I can get most anything I need at a decent price.  Sometimes a fabulous price.  I keep an eye on sales at Costco via the sale book that comes in the mail.  We then plan our lists based on what is on sale.

We shop enough at Costco that the more expensive executive membership is worth it, as you earn points from your shopping dollars.  Those points amount to a coupon that pays for the membership every year, often with some left over to put towards shopping. Even with going only about once a month, its worth it. We will buy all our meats, paper products and more here.

For Harris Teeter I will usually spend about an half an hour or so per week tops going through the sales.  I get an email weekly that I look through because it will offer up coupons and sales just for me (ie, they are applied to my savings card but not offered in store so you won’t know to buy them, unless you read the email).

For instance, I LOVE Michael Angelo’s family eggplant parmesan.  The 30 0z package goes for $10.99 normally.

This week, it is on sale for $6.99 which is a GREAT deal.

However, the email I received noted a very special extra discount for my e-VIC card, bringing the price down to $5.47 with a limit of four.

And BTW, if you EVER find an awesome sale like this and are sorely disappointed because the item is sold out….STOP….march to customer care and they will give you an IOU allowing you to come back & purchase the item when it is in stock at the same sale rate!  It is a good idea to snap a photo of the item tag in the aisle so the folks that help you know exactly what to look up when writing out the IOU.

I know many feel that Harris Teeter is an expensive store but I don’t find that shopping elsewhere saves us that much. We like what we like, and while we will try new brands & products, I have found that shopping sales is where we save more.  I will do a post on buying/freezing.