My family likes to eat healthfully and as naturally as possible (no we aren’t perfect), and our grocery budget for the week averages around $90 for three people.  For everything.  Here’s how I achieve those savings and don’t have to spend a lot of time.  ‘Ain’t nobody got time for extreme couponing!

1)  Meal Plan:  This is the single most important element of saving on groceries.  Sit down with your store flyer (or find them online) and find what meat is on sale (provided you eat meat).  Plan everything around that main dish.  Chicken on sale that week?  Grab your favorite recipe and make sure you have all the ingredients.  I have our family’s favorite recipes in a recipe binder so I can easily meal plan and I know the go-tos that everyone will love.  You can see more on meal planning here.

2)  Go meatless once a week.  This give huge savings in and of itself.  Get creative with beans, mushrooms, peppers, cheese.  There are lots of yummy meatless meals out there that will save you at least $7-10 on your grocery bill every week.  Here are a few of our favorites.

3) Stock up on good meat discounts:  If there are really great meat markdowns, buy a few and freeze some, that way when chicken isn’t on sale, you have a stash of meat on hand.  No coupons required.  Just a small amount of advance planning.  Check when your grocery store does markdowns.  There will usually be a daily markdown, and a big weekly markdown (I usually aim to go to the store this day).  We store extra in our deep freezer.  You can see how I organize our stash here.

4) Download the FREE ibotta app.  There are TONS of cash-back rebates on fresh produce (not joke) and other products you were probably going to buy anyway (lots of natural options.)  You complete an easy task (like answering a poll, watching a 30 second video) and after scanning your store receipt, they credit your account with cash, and you can get giftcards, or straight up cash to paypal.  I have been using this app for years and I have earned hundreds of dollars in savings.  There isn’t any prep work.  Just have your phone in store with you as you shop, and do it as you go.  No extra time required.  Click here to get the app!

5) Shop by BOGO.  We plan most of our grocery trip around By On Get One (Free) sales.  And word to the wise: you don’t have to buy two at most stores to get the savings!  Lots of times you will find that these BOGO sales align with what is already on ibotta.

6) Stacking.  Here’s where you can get a little fancy if you want.  I don’t extreme coupon, but I do bring in 5-7 store coupons for additional savings (many that I can stack with what is on ibotta).

HOW TO GET COUPONS

• Subscribe to your Sunday newspaper for ad inserts.  There are three types: Red Plum, Smart Source, and P&G.  Label these with the date, file, and you can use them as you need!  (Note: The best deals usually come from circulars from the previous weeks, not the current one).
• Visit online sites that do all the work for you.  Find the grocery store you shop at, and these sites provide links to online coupons that you can print at home, circular match-ups so you know what coupons to use, and even ibotta deals on top of that so you know what the best scores are.  They take the guesswork out of eveything and align the great sales for you.  Then you pick the few you are interested in! You can get coupons on loads of different items, we recently used cashcoup and saved so much money! I highly recommend checking them out.
  • www.southernsavers.com (what I use, for Southern states)
  • www.krazycouponlady.com
  • www.hip2save.com
• Dr. Google.  Need a coupon for a specific item?  Google that product and the word “coupon.”  I usually can find what I need this way if you are having trouble!

8)  Stock up for 6-8 weeks.   More sales will be there.  I promise.  The next time the store has a sale (in about 6-8 weeks) you are ready to stock up again.  And buy what you are actually going to use and eat.  Otherwise you aren’t saving, you are just spending.  See my point?  There is always another deal and another day.

I hope this was helpful to you so you can see how I meal plan and get the most bang for my buck.  Here is a video that walks you though how I use ibotta and stacked deals with coupons this shopping trip:

*YouTube has been such a blessing and I am fortunate to get to work with many brands that I love and use daily!  I have been using Ibotta since 2013 and have saved hundreds using this app, so when the company approached me wanting me to share my rebates and grocery savings, I was really excited.  Thanks to Ibotta for sponsoring this post and video.  As always, all opinions are genuinely my own.*