Coupon guru shares secrets to help you save big on groceries

HOUSTON – Jen Morris, from Live Life on Less, is a busy mom of 5 that was featured on TLC’s Extreme Couponing All-Stars.

She teaches coupon classes for everyone who wants to save big bucks on their shopping list.

She shared with Houston Life great tips to stretch your grocery budget.

West New York, NJ (iStock)

1. Use coupons at the right time.

“The best time to use a coupon is when an item is on sale. It’s worth it to wait a little bit for the store to put something on sale and then come in and use your coupon on that sale price to gain a larger discount,” she said.

Shopper checking list in supermarket aisle (FangXiaNuo)

2. Understand how sales at the grocery stores work.

“Stores usually choose 10-12 items each week to price crazy low to catch your eye and get you in the store. So, to entice everyone to their store, they will make sure that every type of product hits a rock bottom low price at least once every 3 months. If you know the sales are coming, that makes it so much easier to hang on to those coupons until that right time,” said Morris.

Virginia Beach, Va. USA - November 14, 2013: A studio shot of multiple coupons for a various of different products from American manufacturers to take money off the items being purchased. This proves a great way for Americans to save on their spending budget. (Imagesbybarbara)

3. Check your grocery store’s website before using a coupon for delivery or curbside pickup.

“Couponing does look a little different with the popularity of delivery and pick up options. So it’s really important that you check your grocery store’s website for their most current coupon policy in your area,” she said.

“For H.E.B. I really liked their filter option to see all the items that have coupons available! That’s handy! They also will accept digital coupons on both home delivery and pick up orders, but not newspaper coupons. Those are only accepted in store.

For Kroger, not all items are available for all forms of delivery so watch out for that. Some things are available as pick-up items but not delivery, or only in store. For delivery and pick up you may have extra charges so that’s something to consider as well. Is that cost worth it? Will you save more than that cost simply by not wandering the isles? They will accept digital coupons on your purchase when you check out. Some of those digital coupons you can use multiple times... not all, but some. Buying multiples is a strategy that I teach in my webinars,” she said.

Mid adult Caucasian woman is using her smart phone app to pay for groceries in local grocery store. Employee is scanning smart phone with scanner. Woman is shopping with elementary age daughter and four month old baby. She is wearing her baby in a mei tai style baby wearing wrap. (Steve Debenport)

4. Use websites like flipp.com to check weekly ads, deals and online coupons.

“Sunday papers are typically where most people will find their coupons. But flipp.com is another tool. to look at local flyers and then you can use the coupon database on my website to match the items up with available coupons,” she said.

Morris has a free webinar happening on March 23rd. You can register here.

To contact Morris, you can visit her website, Live Life on Less.


About the Author

Beatriz is a producer for Houston life. She’s a dog mom who enjoys traveling and eating her way through new cities and cultures.

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