Using Coupons for grocery shopping

I've found I get the best deals just by watching what my supermarket puts on sale in store. I went to Safeway last night and I spent $38, but saved $21!! And I only had two actual coupons. I just shopped brands for deals, and I'll go to my 2 different grocery stores (Harris Teeters and Safeway) once each week to see what each has on sale. When it's something I eat often, I stock up when possible (minus quick perishables). That's how I find things like veggies and fruit on sale. 2 for 1 strawberries, discount corn on the cob, etc. Then I use coupons to fill in when I can (the best deals are when there is a store sale and you have a coupon for it). Those are my tricks, it REALLY helps.

yes it is hard to find coupons fro non-processed foods. They are out there. I would personally never pay for a coupon site. There are too many free ones out there. My tips for couponing.
1. Buy the Sunday paper at least once a month.
2. Sign up on the website of brands you like and trust. Driscoll's (the berry people) occasionally sends coupons. So do egglands best.
3. Sites I like are; mycoupons.com , hunt4freebies.com, ebates.com to names a few.
4. Search your area for produce markets or farmer's market. I can often get produce much cheaper there. My produce market sells eggs 3/$3.75
5. Learn your market's cycles. For example I know ACME has 10 for $10 sales monthly, Whole Foods offers special every Friday and gives you 10% off any case of items you buy. Use that to your advantage.
6. I also buy quick sale produce and cook & freeze. For example last week they had roma tomatoes in a pack on quicksale for &.69. I bought them and counted the pack. There were 16 medium sized tomatoes in there. I made tomato sauce, used some for dinner and froze the rest.
7. Buy in bulk. Not extreme coupon levels but keep maybe 2 or 3 of items you use frequently. Buy them on sale and you should have enough to last until they go on sale again.
8. If there is a brand you like, send them a letter and let them know. Make sure they know you are a loyal customer. Share a tale of what you make using there product. Sometimes they will reward you with coupons.
9. Don't get discouraged if there aren't a lot of coupons for fruits and veg. If you can manage to save on housewares, you will then have more money for freash fruit and veg.

I do a bit of couponing, but mostly rely on price matching. I have a grocery list app on my phone so I go through all the circulars that I get and jot down the cheapest price. Usually WalMart doesn't need the actual circular, and most of the time they're used to people asking for the price match that they already know the sale price. That's how I also plan my meals. I also used to go crazy and think of a recipe then go to the store to buy the stuff. Now, I see what's on sale and plan my meals that way. 2 weeks ago I spent about $180 (darn dog food), but Friday I only spent $80 because I still had stuff left over. And I could have gone under $80 but I bought some treats for my husband and kids.

My printer isn't working right now so I can only rely on coupons I get in the mail, but I'm totally looking into those sites once it's up and running!

Grow your own veggies. Since you live in the hot south, you'd have good luck putting in a crop of bush beans (green beans) now. My fav is Blue Lake 47 Bush--they require no supports and practically grow themselves. I have a row that's about 10 feet long and last week I picked about 5 pounds in one day. That's $10 saved each week. Lettuce is another good starter veggie. The savings are similar for all my veggies,and you can typically preserve the surplus. I freeze bec I don't have time for traditional canning. You can save even more if you have a longer growing season and want to buy seeds instead of live plants. If you are new to the whole gardening thing, I'd recommend burpee.com as a place to start searching for what to plant. Even if you only grow basil in a pot on the windowsill, you're still saving money. Good luck.