Making Life a Little Less Expensive Every Week

Making Life a Little Less Expensive Every Week

Here in Orange County California we benefit from fierce competition in the grocery industry. Not only do they compete with each other (Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater Brothers, and Vons) they compete with various small market chains (Henry's, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, and a host of independent markets. In addition both Target and Walmart carry a limited, but well priced, selection of grocery staples. With so many choices it is easy to simply pick a store and hope you don't burn through your budget halfway through shopping. But, with a little effort and a little more driving, you can dramatically trim your grocery expenses. You can put the savings towards the ridiculous cost of housing.


Coupons

Making a Coupon Stockpile

The quickest source of coupons is the sunday paper. Each week there are anywhere from one to three coupon circulars (P&G Brandsaver, Red Plum, and Smart Source). The Sunday paper(Register or Times) costs $1.50.But they both also issue a weekend edition of their paper, which is remarkably similar, for 75 cents. I buy one of each (Register and Times) for a total cost of $1.50. This give two sets of coupons, which some weeks works out fantastically and some weeks not so good. But each paper has a diferent selection of ads (these vary from paper to paper and even from week to week).

Be sure to physically check the paper for coupon circulars since store-bought papers do not always get the same coupons as a home-delivered paper. The delivered paper may have three circulars this week but the one in the store could have one, two, three, or even zero coupons. So just be sure to check before you buy.

Alternately you can order subscriptions online. Though the Times wants $2.50 a week to deliver the Sunday paper. But a quick google search will often turn up deals or promo codes for a dollar a week. Recently in LA the Times was offering a year of Sundays for 19 cents a week.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Ralphs Has Adjusted its Coupon Policy

Ralphs has recently modified their coupon policy. I found this out when I went in to get my two boxes of Ronzoni pasta. The cashier rang up both boxes and took my two coupons. But rather than being free the total rang up as $0.45. I asked the cashier what happened? She explained that only the first coupon, where a customer uses duplicates of a specific coupon in a single transaction, is now doubled.
So the first coupon doubled to $1.00 and the second stayed at $o.55. Which means two boxes of pasta cost $0.45. This is not a bad deal but I’ll be damned if I shell out cash when I don’t have to.
I had her void the coupon and the second box. Then ring them up separately. There wasn’t a line so nobody was inconvenienced (as if I really care since it is my money). The cashier was not very pleased.
So from now on you will need to spread out your transaction to take full advantage of duplicate coupons at Ralphs. While I understand the company wants to boost profits this is an ineffectual way to do it.  I personally do not mind standing in line twice. It only takes a couple more minutes. That few minutes equaled about a buck and half.
All this does is waste the cashiers time which incidentally costs the company money. Personally I was happy with the limit of two duplicate coupons even though I often have three or four copies (two from the paper and two printed online).
Just be aware. If you generally have duplicate coupons you will notice your discounts being eroded.
Posted by Lindley C Himes at 1:29 PM
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