SI Money Savers

Once the menu plan and the grocery list have been written it is time to prepare for my shopping trip.

Usually on Thursday I check my favorite blogs or check what I have written up that week to decide what stores I plan to shop at.  Some weeks I just head to Kroger and Walmart and other weeks I shop everywhere.

Around Sunday or Monday I try and post my favorite deals at the stores that week and those are usually the items I am hoping to get.  Some other great blogs that I like to check out are in my blogroll on the right side.

As I go over my blog as well as the others one more time I determine what coupons I may need to clip and see if there are any online coupons I need to print.  After that is done I will skim through my coupon binder to see if there are any other coupons I may need to clip for this shopping trip.  However I always take my coupon binder with me in case I come across a great sale or clearance that I have a coupon for.

If certain stores are having some really good deals I will add to my list, go to Walgreens for this specific item or go to Target for this specific item.  This helps me to remember what deals are at each particular store I happen to be shopping at that day.

I realize that all the planning to shop may seem like a lot of work. Writing out a menu, a grocery list and preparing for the shopping trip itself.  I will admit that when I first started using coupons 1 1/2 years ago it did take me a little while every week to do this.  Now it is a breeze!  I can have all this stuff done quite quickly, maybe 30 minutes, if I have a lot of clipping or printing to do maybe a little longer.  The more you do it the easier it gets and the more it becomes second nature and trust me it is worth it.