Supershopper shares her game plan
Posted
Feb 06 2008, 05:22 PM
by
Karen Datko
Like a veritable Bill Belichick (oops, or should we say Tom Coughlin), Lynnae at Being Frugal leaves little to chance when she plans her weekly grocery shopping. In several posts recently, Lynnae has shared the details of her method. It works: She spends $100 or less a week to feed a family of four as well as stockpile, and she thinks she can eventually reduce her spending even more.
Every Sunday morning, Lynnae browses The Grocery Game for coupons. The Grocery Game in a paid site -- it's $10 every eight week for each store you pick, and Lynnae swears her savings make the subscription price worth it. (She describes the benefits of The Grocery Game and two free online coupon sites -- The Coupon Mom and My Grocery Deals -- at a separate post at Being Frugal.)
After church and lunch, Lynnae grabs the two Sunday newspapers she buys, her coupon binder and laptop and beats feet to the bedroom to plan her menus for the week. If she's short on time, she relies on Menus4Moms to plan meals. Then, she says, "I make two to four lists, depending on who has what on sale that week."
Lynnae consults Money Saving Mom for deals at Walgreens and goes through the Rite Aid flier. She generally shops at those stores only when she can get free items after rebates or register rewards. She hits Albertsons for sale items, and the local Winco for "non-sale items, because it's one of those bare-bones stores where the prices are typically much lower than the big-name stores," she says.
Of course, each list is attached to an envelope containing the coupons for that particular store. She heads to town Monday morning after putting a cooler in the van for refrigerated items.
Reminder: Don't forget to cast your vote for the "Superbowl of Personal Finance" MVP at Being Frugal or I've Paid For This Twice Already, and while you're there, read paidtwice's thoughts about the Patriots' "pursuit of perfection."
