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Store Circulars: Shopping for Savings

In our quest for saving the greatest amount of money on our groceries, let’s start by becoming familiar with all the stores in our community. Not just the grocery store, but the discount stores, drug stores and dollar stores as well. We may shop there each week, but how much do we really KNOW about our local stores? Begin by learning the following information about the shops in your area:

Do they have a circular? When/where does it come out?
Do they have a website? Is there a mailing list or newsletter?
What is their coupon policy? Do they double coupons? Do they offer store coupons?
Do they have a day of the week when they offer ‘super savers’ or other specials?
Do they have a loyalty card program? Can you apply online or in-store only?
Do they offer extra incentives or rewards on certain products? (i.e.- Walgreen’s Register Rewards)

Once we’re familiar with all of our shopping options, we need access to sales circulars from our local stores. Most chain retail stores now have their weekly flyers online. These can also be found in the local weekly paper, as well as Sunday newspapers. Consider signing up for each store’s email newsletter as they often provide additional deals, coupons and specials just for subscribers.

Grab a pencil, a multi-store shopping list and begin browsing a sales flier. At the top of our list we’re going to write the store name and the dates of the sale. As we browse the flier, the first thing we should make note of are ‘buy one, get one’ offers, items listed as ‘hot savings’ (or something similar), and store coupons. Jot these items down with price and page number. Be sure to make note of the item size and whether or not there is a limit to how many we can buy at that price.

The front and back pages generally feature some of the best deals available that week. Next, make note of any items we regularly purchase and determine if a savings is actually offered. This is where a price book comes in handy. The last thing we look for are items in which we have coupons. These may not be the brands or type of products we usually purchase but are items marked far less than what we would normally buy.

Now that we have a list of the best savings in that week’s circular, we will do the same thing with each of our local stores.

Keep in mind that we may or may not buy these items. As we browse each sales paper we may find the same item at better prices or once we get to the store find that another brand or size is a better buy. So for those who are thinking this part of the process may be a waste of time, the entire process of browsing circulars may take only 15-30 minutes, depending on the number of stores you shop.

The more often we do this, the quicker we’ll get. By making note of the deals, we’re conditioning ourselves to:

Always look for the biggest savings
Commit these prices to memory
Notice patterns of sales from both the manufacturer and the retailer

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Shari Waters

Shari is a freelance writer and speaker specializing in the topics of starting a home business, living richly on less, and the challenges of raising children while doing both.