Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half! with Stephanie Nelson, The Coupon Mom

Today 5 Atlanta shoppers competed in the first “Coupon Mom Olympics” by shopping at Kroger to raise food for our local charity, North Fulton Charities’ food pantry.  In total, they bought $1,920 worth of groceries for only $240, an average savings of 80%.  Their shopping resulted in a donation of over 1,200  items to the food pantry!

How did they do it?  They used our Kroger Deals List on CouponMom.com as their guide using these strategies:

1.  Buy multiple quantities of the best deals.  Shoppers get multiple sets of coupons from friends and neighbors, and some shoppers admitted to raiding dumpsters for extra coupon circulars.  That’s what I call turning trash in to cash.

2.  Combine store promotions with coupons.  This week Kroger has a promotion that gives you $3 off when you buy 6 participating items.  There is no limit on that promotion, so in theory you could buy 60 participating items and you’d get $30 off your order.  You can find the Kroger Southeast Deals list here, and any other region’s Kroger Deals lists here.

3.  Take advantage of Catalina deals, giving you a checkout coupon for cash off a future order when you buy a participating item.  Some shoppers divided their order into several transactions to be able to use the checkout coupon for the next order.  One specific Catalina deal this week is for the Nivea Lip Balm single ct. on sale for $1.99 (regularly $2.99) at Kroger.  There is a $3 off two Nivea coupon, making the item 49 cents each.  When you buy 6 of the Nivea Lip Balm, you will get a $3 Catalina coupon, making the item free if you have 3 coupons.  An additional Catalina offer used was for Neutrogena.  When shoppers purchased 3 of the Neutrogena facial bars @ $2.19 each, they earned a $5 Catalina coupon.  They had a $3 off two manufacturers coupon for the Neutrogena bars, making the soap free with a profit.

4.  Use digital coupons from Kroger.com.  On Fridays, Kroger has a “Free Friday Download” which is a digital coupon you can load to your Kroger card for a free item. Today’s item is South Beach Diet Meal Bars 5 ct. which is on sale for $5.  Download the coupon today and use it within the next 2 weeks.

5.  Get Cash Back in addition to all other savings by using free apps like Checkout 51, Ibotta and Savingstar.  Shoppers earned cash back on many of the items they purchased.

6.  Print Coupons.  Find hundreds of printable coupons at CouponMom.com. Shoppers used printable coupons for General Mills Chocolate Toast Crunch cereal , General Mills Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, Hormel Pepperoni, and more items.  Use the Coupon Mom Kroger Deals List to find live links to available printable coupons.

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