shoppingonabudget

I was playing around with Procter and Gamble’s website today looking for coupons and free product samples, when I learned about their eSaver Program. Unfortunately, I can’t participate, as none of my local stores are involved in the program.

To me, it looks like the AOL ShortCuts program. You can upload coupons to your shopper’s card. I love this idea. I was so disappointed to learn that AOL Shortcuts was not available for my stores and now I am with Procter and Gamble’s program too. Hopefully soon.

I haven’t found a direct link to the program. You can click here. Then, look on the right hand side of the page. There is a blue bar with links inside. You want to click on the “Online Coupons with P&G eSaver,” link. If you already have an account with Procter and Gamble log-in, otherwise you need to create a free account.

As of January 30, 2009, these are the stores participating in the program. They are Carr’s, City Market, Dillons, Dominick’s, Fry’s, Genuardi’s, JC, King Soopers, Kroger, Pavillions, QFC, Ralphs, Randall’s, Safeway, Smith’s, Tom Thumb, and Vons.

If you want to save money on groceries, you will hear many people saying you should cut back on meat consumption. Yes, this does allow you to save money, but it doesn’t work for everyone. If you want your meat, avoid precut meats.

As a kid, my family use to love eating chicken speedies. I always remember my parents buying the tub that came with precut chicken and it was already mixed with marinade. The first time I attempted to buy this, I was shocked at the price. I got a large package of chicken (and used less than half for the chicken speedies) and then went to the marinade section to pickup a jar of marinade. It was much cheaper. Don’t pay someone to cut or marinade your meats for you. It is a lot cheaper to do it yourself.

Also, don’t do the counter shopping at the meat department. At my store, it is called the Butcher Block. It is cheaper to get the prepacked meat.

I love using coupons. They allow me to save a lot on groceries. Once this blog first got started, I received a comment from a reader urging me to checkout a website called Taylor Town Preview. I did and I have been going back since.

They have a number of features on the website, but look in the middle column under the heading of “Preview Pages.” This page tells you what coupons you will find in your local inserts. I have been monitoring the website for a while now and they are right on. The coupons they have listed are what I find in my newspaper inserts.

Today, I checked out the website and saw there were many coupons listed for this week. So, I ran out to the store. It is Friday, but one of my Friday newspapers has the coupon inserts. It costs .50 cents. I knew there were many good coupons; therefore, I bought two papers. I was glad I did. Many coupons do not expire for at least two months, so I can fit in a couple of shopping trips.

In short, there are 3 easy ways to save money with grocery coupons.

1 – Visit TaylorTownPreview.com to see what coupons you will find in your inserts.
2 – Buy the Friday or Saturday papers with coupons, as they cost less.
3 – If the above mentioned website shows a lot of good coupons, buy two or more papers. You get more coupons.

My daughter loves drinking Juicy Juice and so do I. Unfortunately, I find their price to be high sometimes, so I am always on the lookout for moneysaving coupons. You can occasionally find these coupons in the weekend newspaper, but right now there is a coupon available on the Juicy Juice website. I am not sure about the value or how long this coupon will be available, but you can get the process started by clicking here.

You want to look under the “Savings for You,” section. Also, if you look over, you will see that they have freebies available for registering for a free account.

I was searching for moneysaving coupons. At the website for Fiber One, I found a link for a coupon, but it took me to another website. That website is titled Eat Better America. There, I did find a few Fiber One coupons, but there were more.

What did I find?

NOTE: These coupons were listed on January 2, 2009. Their availability and value is subject to change.

Save .60 cents on 2 Green Giant Frozen Boxed Vegetables
Save $1 on 8 Yoplait Yogurt cups
Save $1 on 32oz Yoplait Yogurt
Save .75 cents on Wheaties cereal
Save .75 cents on Total cereal
Save .75 cents on Fiber One cereal
Save $1 on Any Cascadian Farm Product
Save $1 on Any Muir Glen Product
Save $1 on Fiber One Boxed Muffin Mix
Save $1 on a 28.3oz Fiber One Pancake Mix
Save $1 on 2 Cheerios Snack Mix
Save $1 on a 5lb or larger bag of Gold Medal White Wheat Flower