How many of us check the local ads for sales in stores? I recently caught on the coupon bandwagon and took advantage of looking at our store sale flier. By using the sale flyer along with coupons printed from online I was able to save over $40.00 on a shopping trip on things that I really needed. My son has recently been asked to start drinking pediasure. If you have ever bought this supplement it goes for 9.99 for a six pack. Thankfully on the pediasure sight you can get a 3.00 off coupon and at our Giant Eagle store it was also taking a dollar off this item so I ended up with 4.00 off this product . What a great savings this was. So just saying keep an Eye on your local papers. In this day in age every cent helps.
In the last year, I've made it a habit to always grab the flyers when I enter the store. At Publix you can go to their customer service desk and get all kinds of coupons. Many grocery stores used to not have their ads available in the store and if you were lucky you could dig them out of unused shopping carts!
I tend to check the circulars online before I shop. I even try to make my menu out eat week based on what is on sale to save extra money. Unfortunately, I don't have very many options where I am so I tend to end up at Walmart for most of my items. For example, I love shopping at Kroger but unless an item is on sale I usually can get it cheaper at Walmart. Save a Lot tends to focus more on processed foods and canned goods, which we don't eat a lot of, but sometimes they run really good deals on meat products. It is a balancing act in some ways - What you can save in one week versus how much you spend in time and gas to take advantage of the weekly sales.
Honestly I haven't looked at store fliers in a long time. I feel like there are always a million things on sale that I wasn't going to buy, and that the things I want are not on sale. I feel like the store fliers are there to coax me into buying things I don't really need. I suppose though that if I were fastidious enough, I'd eventually find the things I need on sale.
