Most people use a coupon once in a while and feel completely virtuous over having saved a buck or two.  The truly smart and savvy shopper uses coupons to save much more than that, often half off or more of their monthly grocery bills.  Here are some tips to help you become a smarter coupon shopper and save big time on your grocery bill each month.

Match your coupons to what is on sale.  Sounds simple but so many people don’t take the few extra minutes needed to do this each week and they spend hundreds more each month than they need to.  If you match what’s on sale to what you have a coupon for and only buy those items, you’ll save a ton of money.  Of course, there are necessities that you absolutely must have each month and you may not always have a coupon but overall, if you plan your meals around what’s on sale and you have coupons for, you will eat a good variety but way cheaper than the non-coupon shopper.

Stockpile!  Some things last for years on a pantry shelf.  Toiletries, canned goods, cleaning supplies, paper goods, etc., are all long lasting goods that offer frequent coupons.  Match this with a sale price and get as many as you have coupons for.  After a few weeks of this, you will not have to buy anything without a coupon or sale price again.

Get as many coupons as you can.  Get extras of the Sunday inserts, join a trading or sharing group online and print as many free printable coupons as you are allowed.  Most free printable coupons will allow you to print at least two but some are unlimited – get as many as you can when it’s an item you use frequently.

Combine all three of these tips to really jumpstart your couponing habits and you will start seeing savings of 30%, 40%, 50% or more on your monthly grocery bills.  Here’s a few sites to find free printable grocery coupons – they change offers weekly so be sure to keep going back.  Some of them if you register will send you an email when there are new free printable grocery coupons available.

SmartSource
Coupons, Inc.
RedPlum