Coupons | Grocery Guidance

Guidelines to Eating A Chili Pepper
I’m one of those few people that are gifted with the ability to eat spicy foods and not be affected by it! I just think it’s really funny how some people always brag about how they can handle their peppers but the minute that spicy pepper hits their mouth they start to turn red and [...]
Beware of these Midnight Cravings
Are you guilty from late-night snacking? I know I sure am! Everyone knows that eating late has its consequences. Research shows that snacking at night not only hurts your waistline, but can also affect your sleep. I’m not saying all snacks are bad before bed because there are some beneficial choices that can help get [...]
24-Hour Cupcake ATM
Baking has always been a secret passion of mine, but it’s no secret that cupcakes are becoming more and more popular. Who wouldn’t love those little, adorable cakes in a cup? I know I do! Cupcakes are everywhere now; they’re on clothes, key chains, and even as tattoos. I don’t know about you, but I [...]
Tofu, the Superfood!
Tofu. What is that stuff? You either hate it or love it or don’t even know about it. The off white, square shaped, squishy matter is supposedly really good for your health. Some call it the ‘superfood’ or ‘miracle medicine’. However, I just refer to tofu as something my mother made often while growing up. [...]
Aspirin Can Help You Lose Weight!
You always hear about how people are trying to lose weight and you always hear about how they’ve attempted to do it. For instance, I’ve heard of people only eating five-hundred calories a day or people taking diet pills; but this is my favorite one, I once heard of a person going on a beef [...]
Tainted Bagged Salads
Nowadays, we are all so busy with work and school that we often don’t have time to prepare and cook up a whole meal. We’re always going in and out of the house, and once we come home from a long day, we just want to rest. To stay healthy during these busy days, I [...]
Not So “Sweet” Corn
Are you aware of what’s in the foods you eat? I know that I’m not. I rarely take the time to look at the labels or search up the foods I consume. One of my favorite foods is corn. I love eating corn on the cob, canned corn, and anything made out of corn. Recently [...]

How to Cater to a College Student

Coupons, Grocery Store Ideas, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 082012

Being a college student who does not receive any financial aid, I try to save as much money as possible. Ever since my friends and I moved into an apartment after freshman year, we all couldn’t rely on our school cafeteria and just swiping our school ID to get food. Instead of having our food prepared for us breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we realized that we would have to be doing the preparation ourselves. This means driving to the grocery stores ourselves and buying ingredients for the meals that we’re trying to make. When we buy quick fresh produce, we usually go to Food 4 Less. Food 4 Less organizes their fresh produce to one side of their store so it’s a lot

Grocery store coupons

easier for us to find whatever we need. Additionally, Ramen Noodles are very popular when it comes to a college students meal.

Ramen is cheap, easy to make and also, a lot of them come in plastic bowls or cups so its very portable. Food 4 Less items are organized and fresh. They usually throw out the old veggies and fruits and supply us with new ones.

However, I feel like price wise, Albertson’s excels our needs. Every time I grocery shop at Albertsons, all the items I need are always reduced with the savings preferred card. Also, Albertsons is very neat all around the store. Each aisle is conveniently labeled so we don’t have to be going on a scavenger hunt whenever we grocery shop. Albertson’s also has a varied selection of frozen foods. Frozen foods are also

Costco grocery; large amounts of items for less money

really popular for college students because microwaving it for a couple minutes is fast and doesn’t waste our time when we’re busy with school work or in a rush.

Another big “hit” for college students is Costco. College students like me go to Costco because we can get a big amount of what we want for a pretty good price. Water Bottles at Costco come in a pack of 35 or more and it’s pretty cheap. By buying a big pack of water bottles, we don’t have to repetitively go to our school mini mart or even 711 just to get one bottle of water each time we’re thirsty. THE

MONEY ADDS UP! This also applies to other drinks like Gatorade or juices as well. Also, I like to buy my sandwich meats and sandwich breads here. Although the meat packages come in excessively amounts, with a apartment of 4 girls who love to eat, this isn’t really a problem. Along with the sandwich meat, the bread at Costco comes in bundle of buy 2 for the price of one. COLLEGE STUDENTS LOVE GETTING MORE FOR LESS MONEY!

When grocery stores are open 24/7, it’s also very convenient to college students. We often stay up very late to study, complete homework, and especially during midterms and finals week. Food keeps us awake and we need more grocery stores to be open at the time of our needs. Changing a stores open hours could potentially raise their grocery store’s income!

Do you have any other suggestions on how to cater to a college student? What attracts you in a grocery store?
Thank you for reading! leave comments below!

Benefits of Grocery Smart Phone Apps!

Coupons, Grocery Gadgets of the Future, New technology for Grocers, Uncategorized No Responses »

Feb 012012

Whenever I go grocery shopping, I always need to write down a list of things to buy. There are always too many items to be able to memorize it all and I usually come home forgetting a very important item. Since I jot down items on a small sheet of paper, I tend to misplace it sometimes right before I plan to go grocery shopping for the week. Besides being misplaced, the paper just gets crumpled and I throw it away thinking that it is trash or sometimes it falls out of my pocket without me knowing.

Recently, my family and I updated our phone plan to all get smart phones. My mom told me that she figured out a way to get rid of all the problems with a hand written list of grocery items. As she was searching for free Apps on her smart phone, she found great grocery apps. She even found apps that would benefit our grocery shopping experience aside from just an app for a more convenient shopping list.

Iphone Grocery Shopping List App

It can be really time-consuming to make a shopping list. That is why iphone apps like these will be handy for shoppers like you. You wouldn’t misplace your hand written list anymore! Nowadays, everyone has their smart phone with them all the time anyway so whenever you think of something that you may need at your next grocery purchase, you can simply add it to your electronic list. The App on the right even categorizes your produce so it would be more organized and less confusing. Also, at the top, it lists many different grocery stores since you may not shop at only one place.

Another beneficial smart phone app are the product search ones and the coupon ones. When you type in the kind of product you want, the app will show you many related products and will even compare prices. Also, for some apps you can simply scan the prices of goods in the store you’re at and then you can look up the prices of the same product sold in another store. That not only saves you time, but also the effort needed to go check up the prices yourself. The coupon app can save you a lot of money without you having to search through loads of magazines and cutting them out yourself.

Android Grocery Product Search and Coupon App

These Smart Phone Apps sure did help my family and I whenever we went grocery shopping at the end of every week. It could help yours too! Whether you have an Iphone or Android, these grocery assistant apps are available for all types of Smart Phones. Your shopping time will be a lot shorter and you can save a lot more money for each product than you ever thought! I suggest that you Download it, everyone likes free stuff right? It’s a win win situation, free app and it benefits your shopping experience!

Have you used these grocery apps to help your shopping experience? Are there any other apps that you use? Thanks for reading and make sure you leave comments!

How to save money on your next grocery bill!

Coupons, Eating Healthy No Responses »

Oct 242011

Groceries are a necessity, they are a daily part of everyone’s life. But, and I think I speak for everyone, we could do without the high grocery bill! Groceries are at an all time high, This last February the world saw the highest food increase in 36 years! The Agricultural Economic department of Purdue University has also stated that grocery prices this year are not going to decrease, but increase! And since the holidays are just around the corner, I thought I’d write about different techniques that can help you save money on your grocery bill!

Plan your meals!
1. Before you head off to the grocery store sit down for a minute and decide what meals you’re going to make this week.
Make a list!
1. After planning your meals for the week, write down every ingredient that you’re going to need. That way you don’t forget something and have to go back to the grocery store which increases the chances of you purchasing even more stuff.
Eat before you shop!
1. The main reason that we impulse buy is because we’re hungry when we go grocery shopping. And believe me, that cake or bag of potato chips, which you don’t need, looks a lot better on an empty stomach.
Join your grocery stores reward club!
1. Most grocery stores offer their products for a cheaper price if you’re part of their rewards club. Some of these grocery stores sometimes offer free items once you’ve gotten enough reward points.
Go when there are sales!
1. An important part to saving money at the grocery store is to know when your local store has sales. These sales can sometimes save you half of what you would normally spend. So know when these days are and take advantage of them.
Clip those coupons!
1. Coupons are your friend! Don’t be ashamed of using coupons at the checkout aisle just because you cause a little bit of traffic. Those extra minutes can save you hundreds of dollars annually.
Buy Generic!
1. Most grocery stores have begun to create their own products to mimic name brands. They taste the exact same and they’re cheaper.
Watch the Scanner!
1. This is extremely important! Not all scanners are set correctly so the store may say an item is on sale but the scanner might not know that. So on average Americans can lose up to one billion dollars on items that scanned the wrong price! So make sure you look at the scanner while your items are being rung up!

I hope these techniques help you, and happy food day everyone!!

Now its your turn readers, what techniques do you use to save money on your grocery bill? Leave your comments below!

The New Coupon Filled World

Coupons No Responses »

Mar 172011

So last Sunday I was at lunch with a few friends and we got to talking about the recent impact coupon websites have had on our lives, the main ones being LivingSocial and Groupon. Both Groupon and LivingSocial invested in two controversial Superbowl Ads: LivingSocial Ad, Groupons Ad in an effort to revolutionize the coupon world.

One Ad showed how their website enables you to explore your deepest desires because with their company it’s cheep enough – a rough biker becomes a cross dresser, and the other “exploits” the situation in Tibet to grab the viewers attention and then plug their brand. But despite the negative buzz about their advertisements these companies made a significant impact on the purchasing patterns of millions of Americans.

I went on to relay my experience:

Personally I have purchased 5 different Groupon’s for various things ranging from great food to fun dates (so guys if your wife or girlfriend tells you that you never do anything fun I would suggest going over and giving these websites a try). I used on of my Groupon’s last week when I took my wife to a 5 star restaurant. I left paying $30 for a $50 meal! Full wallet + satisfied stomach + charmed taste-buds + happy wife = priceless.

So the take away for grocers here is: consider using online coupon website to promote your store. Use a Groupon to get rid of that stock of expensive wine you bought or to give people a taste of how delicious your prepared foods are. The underlying goal should be to to get your name out there and to develop a loyal customer following.
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As we sat that talking about our experiences with these online coupon sites and how they changed our lives the television show “Extreme Couponing” was the next topic of conversation. I was intrigued immediately as my friend described “a woman who spent 5 hours each day going through coupon books. This woman would then go to the grocery store and would work off her binder of thousands of coupons… the result was $5 for $600 worth of groceries.” She spoke of this breed of people that lived, breathed and shopped coupons. These people had become experts even to the point that others would come to them to learn how to perfect this art. Saving money is fun to me, but to this extent it seemed extreme and tedious. Here is a brief snippet of a coupon saving extravagadist:

The grocer take-away here is: monitor your your marketing efforts carefully – especially your coupons. Know how many coupons you are putting out, and have expiration dates on your coupons. Even though the majority of these coupons are manufacture coupons it is still extremely healthy to have analytics in place. With the increasing popularity of this TLC series and the reports on coupon clippers it is clear that this trend is not going away. In line with monitoring your marketing efforts analyze your ad data using a POS system to track, monitor, and analyze all coupons that are being used.