I have a secret to share. I almost never buy the store brand at the grocery store. How un-frugal is that? I must be writing for the wrong section. Could you please direct me to the Un-Frugal Living section?
Actually when I first sat down to write this article it was going to be focused on the five or so items that are best bought as store brands. That idea was a failure from the get-go since I couldn’t find more than two store brand items in my house (canned peas and orange juice).
And yet, I’ve cut my weekly grocery bill nearly in half by buying name brand items. Seriously? Oh yes, seriously. Here four keys to my success:
1) Look for Loss Leaders- Every week grocery and drug stores slash the prices on a handful of items, mostly popular name brand goods, to get shoppers in the door with the hope that these folks will buy more than just the half-price ice cream. These are usually splashed across the front and back covers of the weekly ads.
Know Store Coupon Policies- In today’s economy, most everyone is cutting coupons, so for the sake of space, I’ll skip over the “Cut Coupons” bullet. Some stores double coupons, some triple. Know the policies of each of your stores by heart to be sure you get the absolute best deals on everything on your shopping list. Another reason I buy name brands, I never see any coupons for store brands!
Buy Smaller Sizes- That’s right, when you have a cents-off coupon, buy smaller sizes, not larger sizes. Particularly when coupons double or triple, your price per unit can be much less when you buy the smaller size.
I’m a mom who buys Pampers and have several coupons that save me $1.50 off one package. It’s usually the smaller packs that get discounted over the big boxes (which I used to buy because I thought I was saving money!), so when they’re on sale I buy with my coupons and always end up with a better per-diaper price on the smaller packs.
Be Brand Flexible- I bought Secret deodorant exclusively for years, but boy did that change when CVS ran a buy-one-get-one-free deal on Sure deodorant and I had a fistful of buy-one-get-one-free coupons that made both free in the deal. Needless to say, I walked away with A LOT of free deodorant, and I smell pretty good too.
So tell me, what’s your frugal confession?
Erin Gifford is a deal seeker and a coupon lover who writes at Coupon Cravings.
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I totally agree… you can't be a "brand name snob". I use brands now that I never did before because I can get them very very cheap… and I've even found brands I like BETTER that I may never have tried if I wasn't a 'savings specialist'!
I agree!! I can get better deals on name-brand items by combining sales with coupons than I can on store-brands. I recently stocked up on roughly a years worth of Campbell's chicken noodle soup (just one example of many) for $.19/can – can't get store-brand for that!