Learn how to keep your kitchen stocked for less $$!

I'll flip through the coupons, but far more often than not I find myself buying something that I don't really need or want and that I wouldn't have normally bought just because I had a coupon. Kind of defeats the purpose.

I work in the grocery industry, so I know a thing or two about store brands. If you're buying the "first label" store brands (not the value stuff), it may or may not be the exact same product as the national brand with a different label (as one other poster mentioned...there are companies out there who produce only store brands, plus formulations often need to be different due to various proprietary issues, etc), but the quality standards will be the same as the national brand. If you have a taste preference, that's ok, but if you're worried about quality, no need to avoid store brands.

I also prefer to shop the edge of the store. I have a few bagged/boxed/etc things that I buy, but they're a small portion of my bill. I reduce my bill by stocking up on meat when it's on sale and freezing it, stocking up on pre-packaged staple items (pasta, canned beans, rice, baking staples, etc) when they're on sale, and - and this is the BIGGEST one - basically only buying produce that's in season. It tastes better, first and foremost, but there's no mystery why a pound of strawberries costs $2 in June and $4 in November. For example, fall and winter we eat a lot of citrus, hard squash, apples, etc. Spring and summer we practically become 80/10/10 vegans (haha, not really, but it feels like it) from all the produce I buy. Also, I'm not afraid to spread my shopping around. I do buy a lot at the farmer's market (around here some stuff is cheaper and some isn't), plus (for example) I know that the prices on cheese at Trader Joe's are usually equal to, if not better than, the sales prices on cheese at the chain grocery store, so all my cheese gets bought at TJ's.

Here in Southern California we have 99 cent only Stores. I live about 2 blocks from one and I think I lived here for a whole year before I visited for the first time. Where I came from on the East Coast, 99 Cent or Dollar stores only ever had junk. This one has food (and junk, too) - real bargains. Some of the things I've purchased 99 cents:
1 lb container of Breakstone cottage cheese
8 oz package Crackerbarrel cheddar
1.5 lb bag of organic baby Kale - we now know we don't like Kale, no matter how it is prepared
bag of 4 large yellow and orange peppers
8 oz packages of Oscar Meyer deli meats
1 quart containers of vanilla Almond Breeze
32 oz containers of plain greek yogurt
3.5 oz bars of Lindt 85% dark chocolate
An entire carton (12 bars I think) of Luna bars - they were close to expiration date, but still good

I could go on and on. This is a list of some of the best bargains I have gotten there. You can never count on getting any particular item. It's a total crapshoot. You do have to be careful to inspect things like strawberries to make sure they aren't getting a little furry, some of the vegetables look a little sad and need to be used promptly, but others are fresh and just as good as what I see in the supermarket, and you have to look at expiration dates.

We shop here first on our Saturday shopping trip, then we go to Costco or one of the supermarkets for the things we couldn't find elsewhere. It makes menu planning a bit of an adventure and we have been trying new things, some of which we will not buy again (kale and chayote)

Thanks for the great post! Budgeting, buying in bulk and couponing are all great methods to save on groceries. If you have the time and patience it's amazing how much money you can save. I was weary about it at first but have seen a big difference in spending since I've started. Thanks for the input!

As other people have mentioned, the coupons many times are for processed food.

However, there is one great way you can save money on fresh produce, and that is by price matching. Some stores (like WalMart, for example) will honor the sale prices in competitor's ads. I get the Sunday paper ads for all of our local grocery stores, and I find their sales on fresh fruit, veggies & meat. I save quite a bit by getting all the sale prices on these items. Granted, Walmart's quality on these items isn't always the best, and I also am not buying "certified organic," so if that is what is important to you, it's not going to work. But it is what my family can afford, and I am always happy when I can walk out of the store, having met my budget, with a large variety of different kinds of fresh fruit & veggies for an entire week that I was able to purchase for relatively low prices.

As other people have mentioned, the coupons many times are for processed food.

However, there is one great way you can save money on fresh produce, and that is by price matching. Some stores (like WalMart, for example) will honor the sale prices in competitor's ads. I get the Sunday paper ads for all of our local grocery stores, and I find their sales on fresh fruit, veggies & meat. I save quite a bit by getting all the sale prices on these items. Granted, Walmart's quality on these items isn't always the best, and I also am not buying "certified organic," so if that is what is important to you, it's not going to work. But it is what my family can afford, and I am always happy when I can walk out of the store, having met my budget, with a large variety of different kinds of fresh fruit & veggies for an entire week that I was able to purchase for relatively low prices.

I've never really cared for the price matching thing at Wal-Mart. I'd rather just go to the store that is offering the lower prices and give them my money. They are the ones offering affordable food to everyone, and the quality of what I buy is generally better there.