Take a big bite out of grocery bills

To clip or not to clip

McDermed and Lustro use different shopping strategies. As someone who used to work in grocery retailing, McDermed knows a handful of insider tips and tricks that help her to spend less. "Coupons don't play as important a role for me," she says.

On the other hand, Lustro is a devotee of the CouponMom Web site, a sort of miracle site that tells you which items are discounted at which stores in your geographical area.

Whatever cost-cutting method you use, both of these shopping mavens emphasize the following:

• Like any other diversion, the grocery game should be fun.
• By cutting back on your food expenses, you should save not only money, but time as well.
• With the time and the money you save, your life will become less stressful.
• You will not lose your mind and end up camping out at your local Piggly Wiggly to be the first in line for a 2-for-1 grapefruit special.

Here are their secrets:

• Get to know sales cycles. McDermed says stores reduce their products according to a 12-week cycle, give or take. Let's say your spaghetti sauce is normally $3.19 a jar; on sale it's $2.99. That's the phantom sale price, says McDermed, so hang in there while the price drops to two for $5. But don't buy until it hit the rock-bottom price of, say, 10 for $18 or BOGO -- buy one, get one free. That's when you buy.
• Know your rock-bottom price. McDermed recommends keeping a price notebook for a while so that you get to know the rock-bottom prices for most items. That way you're less likely to get sucked in by phantom sale prices because you know a steeper discount is around the corner.
• Spot the loss leaders. Those are the staggering deals -- Tropicana orange juice for a nickel -- that lure unsuspecting customers into stores, who then buy lots of other things they don't need. "If you see an unbelievable deal, scoop it up!" says McDermed. Just don't buy anything else.
• Shop off-list. Your mom told you to stick to a list in order to save, but Lustro disagrees. When she saw ground turkey on sale for $1 a package (a loss leader), she happened to have a $1 coupon for the same brand -- and got it for nothing. She may not have turkey meatballs for a month, but when she does, it'll be a free meal.

• It's OK to pay nothing. Lustro is the queen of ruthless coupon deployment -- going for doubles, triples and home runs -- but she says it pays to know the rules of each store. Some won't double the coupon if it exceeds the face value of the item. Asking is the best way to save. If you have a $1 coupon for Suave shampoo, which is $1.99, and it's double coupon day, yes, you can get it for free.
• Become a coupon collector. You don't have to depend on fliers (which Lustro organizes by date in a hanging file that she keeps in her car). Often supermarkets place coupons right next to discounted items. Lustro advises keeping the coupons, even if you don't need the items right then. She asks friends to send her coupons they don't use.
• Don't play silly supermarket games. If an item is on sale, six for $3, don't assume you have to buy all six, says McDermed. You can buy just one for the sale price of 50 cents.
• Stand your financial ground. Many Grocery Challenge shoppers note that hostile checkout people sometimes try to sabotage their savings efforts. The only solution is to talk to a manager -- and be willing to wait in line for the checkout people who cheer you on when your bill comes to zero (and many do).

I know. This strategy sounds too simple to deliver big savings, but the gals who are committed to the Grocery Challenge say the results are real. A reader in Texas notes that they don't get as many great grocery deals as other states, but nonetheless she has been able to cut her grocery budget from a range of $100 to $150 a week for two adults and four kids to less than $80 a week, just by signing up for the weekly paper. "We've since made our money back with all the coupon savings," she says.

Updated Nov. 13, 2009

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