These days, everyone is looking for ways to save money on groceries — even if it means shopping at multiple grocery stores. With the price of grocery essentials like eggs still on the rise, coupons are more necessary than ever. Of course, you can check different websites and grocery store apps to cut costs, but it turns out the best place to find sales is that weekly circular flyer you probably toss in the trash.
The weekly circular is your guide for saving money on groceries for a variety of reasons — the biggest one being that you’ll plan your grocery list based on what’s on sale. That means you won’t be surprised by prices when you get to the store, and you can see how much you will be spending before you get there. Pricing your groceries first allows you to cut items if necessary to ensure you don’t exceed your budget. However, if you don’t want the clutter of having the weekly flyer either snail-mailed or emailed to you, the deals are usually available on your grocery store’s app. Plus, there are other apps that collect grocery store deals, such as Checkout51 and coupons.com, which you can download to get coupons from multiple stores.
Check your weekly grocery flyer before shopping
The first part of saving money with the circular is the ease of building a list that suits your budget, but there are other benefits. The flyer shows you everything on sale, so you won’t see unexpected deals upon arrival or fall into the grocery store trap of price tags that look like a good deal but could actually cause you to spend more money than you intended. To make the most of your weekly flyer, learn what day of the week your store releases it. Shopping on the day the flyer is comes out ensures that all of the items will be in stock, meaning you won’t have to pivot and unexpectedly increase your budget.
The weekly flyer also makes price comparing easy. While grocery stores won’t always have the same items on sale, you can use the flyers and grocery store apps to learn which stores sell certain products for less. Collect circulars from multiple stores to make the most cost-effective decisions. And finally, double check if you need a store loyalty card to take advantage of the deals. If you do, you can usually sign up for free right at checkout.