Coupon and Grocery Shopping Tips and Tricks

To contact us Click HERE
So since I started being a "couponer" I get a lot of teasing from friends and roommates. But in all reality, I'm sure they are just jealous. As a college student in a small town it is a little bit more of a process to find the best deals on groceries. So I have decided to share with you a few tips and tricks that I have found work excellently for me so you can make all your friends jealous!! Please check out my College Student Saving post as well to find out more great ways to save!

To find coupons you need to invest in time and a printer. A few coupon data bases that are free are as listed:

• Coupons.com
• Red Plum Coupons
• Smart Source Coupons
• Cellfire E Coupons

These are great places to print coupons, but the newspaper carries the best coupon inserts. As college students, buying the newspaper can get pretty expensive. I have survived and still found awsome deals without it.

The best resource for grocery shopping is Grocery Smarts. The password for Utah is g84cjt.

1. Enter the password in the space provided on the right and then select the stores that you shop at or that are near you in the middle of the page. This will take you a list of the store's weekly ad and deals. The next page will look like the picture below.

2. Click on the start button on the top right.
 The lists will then be gray and your page will look like this:

The arrow above is pointing to the stars that mark how "good" the sale is. If it is 4 or 5 stars (red) it is a really good sale and time to stock up. If it is 3 stars (black) it is an ok sale and better than regular price. If ever the stars are all white or you can't see them, usually the item has a green FREE in that box. Definitely check those deals out.

3. You can then click on the items you want. They will highlight back to white.

After you have gone through the entire list, click the "shrink" button at the top by the "start" button. (See step 2 to find out where it's at). Your list will then look like this:
All of the sales that you clicked on now visible.

4. You can then print this page and have your list by clicking the "print now" button up by the "shrink" and "start" buttons. You can also add notes to your list like: how many of an item you want, which store this list is for, what other errands you need to run, etc.

5. You can then "un shrink" your page and find the coupons that match your selected items.
Click on the coupon links to see what coupons you need to print. You will need to install a free coupon printer software on your computer the first time, but after that, you can print as many coupons as you want.

These lists are updated every week for every store. A great deal of time goes in to these to match up sales with coupons.The coupon databases are changed all the time so make sure you print a coupon that you want as soon as you see it.

If you need help or don't understand something, please let me know. Also Deidre over at CuckooForCouponDeals made a great How to Become a Couponer resource.


I usually go shopping on average about once a week. I make sure to check all the ads, deals, policies, and coupons for what I need every week and do it all in one trip. Sometimes it takes more, but one trip usually suffices.

Many bloggers post about the best match ups for coupons and store deals. These are some of my favorites but the lists are pretty much the same on all three.

• Freebies2Deals  
• CuckooForCouponDeals 
• ClippinWithCarie

I also always make sure to check out the ads that come in my mail. You can find in-store coupons, local restaurant coupons, and more in the mail.

Recently, a new show came on TLC called Extreme Couponing. I just want you to know that it is called EXTREME for a very good reason. It looks awsome to get $1,000 grocery bills down to $5 but it is not very likely. It is exaggerated for TV and even though you can save tons of money by couponing, you probably won't see that kind of result.

Couponing takes a great deal of time, but it is so worth it! It is like a game and is very exciting to slowly see your grocery bills shrinking month after month!