My mom rarely went to the grocery store and during the 1950's my dad would do the grocery shopping at the A&P in our home town. Sometimes he would let me or some of my siblings tag along. He didn't have a list but simply bought what he thought would be needed by the family. Mostly basics such as sugar, flour, cornmeal, coffee, and other items we normally ate in our diet. He never used a coupon or read labels to see content of ingredients, fats, sugars, or chemicals used as preservatives.I suppose he did the best he knew how and we never went hungry.

My wife is a great grocery shopper and when we go to the local store, she has a little coupon folder which she has put together expecially for grocery items she will be purchasing. I think she is the smartest person I know when it comes to buying the foods we will be eating. She always knows when there will be a triple coupon day and often buys multiple items of the same thing to store on her pantry shelves or in the freezer to be used later. If the grocery chain is out of stock, she immediately sends me to the customer service desk to ask for a rain check on the out of stock items which can be redeemed at the advertised price when the sheives are restocked, we got four of these our last grocery shopping trip. By using the coupons she will save us around 50% of our expenses on groceries. I have heard on some coupon users actually getting money back when they have used coupons when paying for their groceries but I think these are rare occasions by experts who really know how to cash in of the system.

Our grocery shopping trips are never hurried and we have come to make it an outing. This is something new for me because I have always been a list maniac. Give me a list and I can go get what is on that list and be out of the store on my way home in a flash. I think most of us men are that way, it is part of our masculinity. Get the job done and find another, but the extra time taken buying groceries my wife has been teaching me is well worth the extra time and effort proven many times over and what fun to see those coupons deducted right before your eyes on the digital cash registers.

My wife also like to cash in on early morning markdowns in the meat department. Ground chuck or other meats can be purchase at a very much reduced price. You have to be an early bird though because these don't last long. Fortunatel for us she has a sister who is a care provider at night and can swing by the grocery store on her way home and take advantage of these mark downs for us, we reimburse her expense and this works out nicely for all parties. Once frozen, the meat will last a long time.

The Sunday paper in our town will have a whole lot of coupons each week, if you have such Sunday paper, you can acutally save the price of your newspaper subscription many times over by taking advantage of clipping coupons to be used in your own grocery shopping. Some are available on-line and with a little effort can be printed off your computer. Today with our economy in such a sad state of affairs, we all need to take advantage of any possible ways to save money and saving at the grocery store is simple and requires only a little effort.