I remember the first time I tried to go shopping with my first baby.  I composed a meticulous list and tried to plan it around her nap time so she would fall asleep in the car and would slumber peacefully throughout the shopping trip.  I envisioned triumphantly returning home with a trunk full of groceries and bursting with pride that I could tackle the grocery store while my baby was in tow.

It didn’t happen quite like that.  In fact, she woke up the second I put her carrier in the cart and she screamed through the whole thing except for when I threw my hands up in resignation and plopped down in front of the freezer case to nurse her (true story, really).  When I got home my husband asked me what I had bought and if I remember right I burst into tears and replied with, “I don’t know!” I hadn’t used my coupons and had discarded the shopping list pretty early on in the trip because I couldn’t attend to her while also shopping from a list.

I look back on that with amusement nowadays, mostly because that same baby is now five years old and can actually help me at the store.  I also try to go shopping by myself as much as I can because I find there is a direct correlation to the number of family members I have with me and the total amount I spend on groceries.

For example, the other day I managed to get to the grocery store by myself and wasn’t in any sort of rush.  I wrote a list of groceries I needed for an entire week and was armed with a bunch of coupons.  I took my time, compared prices, and walked out of there with having saved almost $20 in coupons on a $100 grocery bill.

Part of the reason I saved so much money was because I had the time to look at prices since there were no kids to stop from smashing jars or running down the aisle.  I think a lot of it also had to do with the fact that nobody was standing there asking me for treats.  Nobody begged for a certain type of cereal, nobody screamed and pointed at the goldfish crackers, and my husband wasn’t there to glance lovingly at the expensive steaks in the meat department before batting his eyelashes at me in an attempt to get me to buy the pricey meat.

I always save money on groceries when I go alone.  While it’s true that there are many other things I would much rather do when I have the opportunity to have someone else watch my kids, in the long run I know it’s going to save us money.

Scenario 1: Take Toddler to SuperTarget. Toddler wants to “help” push cart, in reality crash it into other shoppers and large thanksgiving display. Toddler refuses to sit in cart. Toddler runs away and starts collecting random items to throw into the cart (cereal that I know he doesn’t like, moth balls, on-sale Halloween merchandise, valiant but ultimately frustrating effort to pick up bag of kitty litter. We don’t have a cat. Or moths.) Toddler nears tantrum when I try to prevent him destroying a bunch of sunflowers. Toddler detonates when I refuse to let him roll grapes across the floor. I forget what we needed to buy.

Scenario 2: Take Toddler to SuperTarget. Head immediately to bakery, where bakers dispense free cookies to children. Get cookie. Fank ooo! says Toddler to baker. Is it good manners, or has he learned the drill off by heart? Toddler sits in cart and eats cookie and sings a song about frogs while I shop. I buy a week’s worth of groceries.

As well as SuperTarget, a couple of other grocery stores near me, hand out free cookies to children, which is a genius marketing plan since I spend $100 more in Scenario 1 than in Scenario 2.

So what do you think about bribing children to shop? No, it’s not ideal. Yes, in a perfect world, children would learn patience, and parents would be able to invent impromptu games for them to play in the store to keep the child delighted and occupied, while simultaneously remembering to get everything on the list.

Trader Joe’s, which is spreading across the US, gives out balloons to children, and their stores have tasting stations which almost always have something more healthy (but less bribe-worth) than cookies. I can manage to shop at TJ’s with the promise of a balloon but I also can’t afford to do all my shopping at Trader Joe’s.

So right now, we have one cookie a week at SuperTarget and get the shopping done with the minimum of fuss. The cookie has all gone by the time we get to the tempting displays of Nemo-shaped candy, USB sticks, celebrity magazines and matchbox cars at the checkout, so we have to deal with that but that’s usually manageable. Usually by wiping the chocolate off his sweet chubby cheeks and having him help me get my card out of my purse and give it to the cashier. I swear he knows my PIN number. That’s got to be a portent of doom….

So is one cookie harmless, or am I teaching him bad habits?

It’s a financially tough time for many, if not all, of us. If you don’t get your local Sunday paper, it’s worth spending the $1.50 or so per week, just for the coupons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if you can be informed and actually read some of the paper, too, but the coupons and store circulars featuring weekly sales, can lead to big savings.

Before going grocery shopping, look over your supermarket’s circular. Ours is delivered to our mailbox each Thursday. (Circulars for other stores, including pharmacies, Kmart, Target, AC Moore, etc, are in the Sunday paper.) This week, I added some ‘Buy one, get one free’ (or BOGO) items to my shopping list and, in addition, clipped a coupon for the items. I got two boxes of frozen soft pretzels for less than the cost of one! Granted, these aren’t a necessary part of my kids diet but they love hot soft pretzels, and the only way I’ll buy them at this point is at a very reduced cost.

Also, you can pair store coupons with manufacturer’s coupons. I’ve been putting off buying an expensive moisturizer I need. This week, though, I’ll pair my ‘$3 off’ manufacturer’s coupon with an in-store coupon from Rite-Aid and save a nice little chunk of money.

If there are certain cosmetics you buy from the drug store such as mascara and lip gloss, or toiletries, such as a certain shampoo or conditioner, keep an eye out for BOGO sales and stock up. You can regularly find manufacturer’s coupons for these things and get those BOGO bargains for less than the cost of one!

Another way to save money on your grocery bill is to substitute store brands for name brands. You may not always be satisfied but it’s worth trying. I have found that for me, some things, like oatmeal, are easily substituted; I don’t ‘taste’ a difference. But when it comes to mayo, only Hellmann’s will do.

I have also switched to store branded medicines, both prescription and over the counter. Just look at the labels and the active ingredients are exactly the same!

I’m wishing I had an extra fridge or freezer to stock up on things like meats and frozen foods when they’re on sale. I plan two meals ‘in my head’ when buying ‘BOGO’ meats. If ground beef or turkey is the sale du jour, I plan to make spaghetti with meat sauce (or meatballs) one night, and tacos another night. If I’m not sure if I’ll use both packages in the near future, I freeze one.

I have yet to venture into the world of buying in bulk from places like BJ’s and Costco, but with three growing boys, I’m sure I’ll be looking into what kinds of savings I can find there (plus, larger quantities equal fewer trips to the store!). This kind of shopping may really require an extra freezer in the basement.

I’ll continue to keep an eye out for ways to be thrifty in these tough times, and always!

I’m not the kind of person who looks for things that are wrong with the merchandise I buy or the services I pay for, but I’m also not the kind of person who ignores things that are blatantly wrong. After all, when you have young children you’re probably already working hard to stretch your dollars, so when you pay for something naturally you’ll want to get what you pay for.

I wholeheartedly think that when you buy something and it isn’t what you paid for then you need to let someone know. Here is an example from today…I bought a 12 pack of soda from the local grocery store and when I got it home and started to unload it into the fridge I noticed something weird: one of the cans was completely empty, even though it was sealed.

At first I thought it was a quirky, fun thing, but then I started thinking to myself about how I paid for that soda, so I was entitled to the soda. I called up the toll-free phone number on the side of the can and talked to a very nice man who apologized profusely and explained the semantics behind how these things happen. Then he took my address down and told me he’s sending me a coupon for a free twelve pack.

I had a similar situation with a box of fruit chews. For one reason or another one of the packs only had three pieces in it, which resulted in a huge fit with my toddler. I called up the phone number on the box and they sent me a envelope stuffed with four coupons for free boxes. About two weeks later I got another envelope with four more coupons for free boxes.

You don’t want to be rude when you call these companies, but you should call them. You need to get what you paid for, and whether it’s one can of soda or a few fruit chews you shouldn’t feel apprehensive about calling and telling the company when there is a problem. You never know when you might get an envelope full of coupons as a result.

About a month ago I was reading one of my many monthly magazines I subscribe to and I came across an article about saving on groceries. So, of course, this piqued my interest since I’m always up for saving money!

The article talked about a website started by a single mom of two. She tracked categorical sales of supermarkets and drug stores and paired coupons, mostly from the Sunday paper, with the best sales.

Teri Clark, the mom who started www.thegrocerygame.com, has a different method of shopping than most. She creates a list that is color-coded. Black items are to be bought only if needed, blue items are stockpiling items, and green items are free! She states that you won’t see all of the true savings until you’ve shopped using her lists for 12 weeks because that is when you start to see the real payoff of stockpiling.

Since I have always budgeted for groceries I was curious to see how much this could save our family. So I did a trial 4 week subscription for just $1.00. And now I have continued my subscription, which costs $10 for eight weeks. I’ve found that it’s well worth it after you see how much you save!

At this point I have been shopping with Teri’s List for five weeks and I am already seeing great savings. I have spent $437.89 on groceries and saved a total of $220.71 between store savings/sales and coupons. This averages to just under $90 a week in groceries for our family of four. This is not drastically lower than what I was spending before (I was spending maybe $20 more a week), but I am purchasing more food for less money due to Teri’s stockpiling idea.

If you want to start budgeting better on groceries or already do but want to save more, then I would definitely suggest checking out www.thegrocerygame.com. You’ve got nothing to lose and lots of money to save!

We’re all looking for a way to save a dime and grocery shopping is no different. You know not to go to the grocery store hungry, but did you know the most expensive items are placed at eye level? Companies pay premium placement prices to get you to grab their stuff.

The less expensive items are placed in inconvenient places – low on the shelves so you have to bend waaay over to get them. That little stretch will not only loosen up your ligaments, it’ll help stretch your dollar.

Make a list and stick to it. Impulse buys can kill a budget. Not to mention if you forget an item, it’s back to the store which means more gas and time.

Pay sharp attention to the checkout screen. Pricing errors happen and it can cost you cash. The Federal Trade Commission stated scanners accounted for 4.82 percent of all pricing errors.

Avoid the bakery until last. The smell of bread is yummy, yummy and makes you hungry, hungry so there you are – in the middle of a food oasis with all of your shopping ahead of you, including the cookie aisle! Hit the breads last and save yourself the agony.

End of the aisle displays. They say sale! sale! and they are really pretty. They are also some of the most expensive items. You’ll often find a better deal in the aisle.

A few simple tips to stretch your dollar – who doesn’t love that?