Think of it like the specials at the end of the aisle at the grocery store. Yes, sometimes they are good deals, but many other times they are simply big “bargain banners” with product that isn’t priced all that well. Most people think it’s a deal just because the grocery store claims it’s a deal. Since you have your price book, you know when it really is a deal and when it’s not despite the big banners.

Black Friday has turned into these end aisles at the grocery store displays in a lot of ways. Stores have learned that if they put out a flyer with “bargains” written all over it, a lot of people will just assume that they are getting a good price. More and more they aren’t.

So do as you would do when shopping at the grocery store. Do some online comparison shopping to see what the product is selling for before you assume that its a great Black Friday deal. Your wallet will thank you for it.

The grocery store business is quite competitive and offering double coupons is one way that grocery stores compete against one another. That being said, double coupon policies tend to change quite frequently. While we do our best to keep our double coupon list up to date, we rely on the readers to help us keep it current.

If you are aware that a grocery store on our list which no longer offers double coupons, or know of a new grocery store that does, we’d greatly appreciate it if you took a minute to email us so that we can keep the list as current as possible.

Double coupons are a great way to maximise your coupon savings and we want to be able to help everyone locate a store where shoppers can take advantage of this perk.

Fruits and vegetables you should store unwashed in a single layer:

Blackberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Strawberries

Fruits and vegetables you should store unwashed in a plastic bag:

Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Corn
Green Onions
Lettuce
Peas
Radishes

Fruits and vegetables you should store in a paper bag:

Mushrooms
Okra

Fruits and vegetables you should keep away from other fruits and vegetables (these will produce Ethylene which will make them ripen faster):

Apples
Apricots
Avocados
Bananas
Cantaloupe
Figs
Honeydew
Nectarines
Peaches
Pairs
Plums
Tomatoes

Follow these simple storing rules and your fresh fruits and vegetables should last a lot longer.

It seemed pretty obvious to me that any dedicated couponer could come out of the grocery store with the needed ingredients for under $10. But before I could give it a try myself, someone went ahead and did it even without any coupons. A bit of good shopping and a willingness to cook for yourself can make the same meal for under $8 as a post over at grist.com shows:

I rounded up everything I needed for chicken, biscuits, and mashed potatoes with gravy and totaled my costs, accounting for ingredients that were a fraction of a cent (small amounts of spices, for example) by rounding up to $0.01. I must admit I don’t know the seven secret herbs and spices, but as a professional chef, I know you can do an awful lot with salt and pepper. The bottom line? The KFC meal, including Iowa state sales tax of 6 percent, is $10.58. I made the same meal (chicken, four biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy) for $7.94 — and I got three extra pieces of chicken and a carcass to use for soup.

How much lower could you go with the help of coupons…?

If you think you might be interested in this position, please email me with “coupon blogger” in the title and some basic information about yourself and your couponing knowledge.

Fruits and vegetables that should be stored in the refrigerator:

Apples (if will be kept for more than 7 days)
Apricots
Artichokes
Beets
Blackberries
Blueberries
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cherries
Corn
Figs
Grapes
Green Beans
Green Onions
Herbs (with the exception of Basil)
Honeydew
Lima Beans
Leafy Vegetables
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Okra
Peas
Plums
Radishes
Raspberries
Spinach
Sprouts
Strawberries
Summer Squash
Yellow Squash
Zucchini

Fruits and vegetables that should be stored on the counter top:

Apples (if will be kept for less than 7 days)
Bananas
Basil
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Garlic
Ginger
Grapefruit
Jicama
Lemons
Limes
Mangoes
Oranges
Papayas
Peppers
Persimmons
Pineapple
Plantains
Pomegranates
Tomatoes
Watermelon

Fruits and vegetables that should be stored in a cool, dry place:

Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash
Onions (not in the vicinity of potatoes)
Potatoes (not in the vicinity of onions)
Pumpkins
Spaghetti Squash
Sweet potatoes
Summer Squash

Fruits and vegetables that should be ripened on the counter top and then refrigerated:

Avocados
Nectarines
Peaches
Pairs
Plums
Kiwi

Control Portions: My dad is well educated but he is far from a philosopher. That said, among the best advice he ever gave me was “Enjoy all things in moderation.” That is sound advice. When it comes to eating, the best way to enjoy your food and drink in moderation is by enforcing portion control. In order to do this, you need to be honest with yourself and know what a portion really is and then take the time to measure it out.

Interestingly enough, while I was at the grocery store this morning, I compared portion sizes for various cereals. Some cereals (usual the really unhealthy cereals) had a serving size of ½ a cup. Other cereals indicated that a serving was ¾ of a cup and still others allowed a full cup per serving. If you take the time to measure out your servings you will find that (i) you can’t deceive yourself about how many calories you are eating, (ii) you eat less food, and (iii) your box of cereal will truly give you 22 servings instead of the 6 or 8 servings that you were probably getting before you started using a measuring cup. That will save you money and it will save you calories!

Look for Minimally Processed Foods: The more a food has to be processed before it gets to your grocery cart, the more expensive it is likely to be. Moreover, foods that are minimally processed tend to be healthier for you. Even minimal processing adds cost and can deplete vitamins, as when lettuce is pre-chopped and bagged. Buying a whole head of lettuce will cost less than chopped and packaged lettuce and the whole head should have more vitamins and nutrients as well.

Cereal also provides a good example for consideration. If you want to eat cereal to start your day, a hot bowl of oat meal (not the instant kind) is probably the healthiest bowl that you can have for breakfast. A canister of your store’s generic oatmeal will last you for at least a few weeks and will cost you less than half the price of most boxes of cereal that are gone in a week.

Do Not Buy Packaged Desserts: You do not have to give up desserts completely but you should not purchase them. Cookies, candies and cakes have their place, but they just add empty calories to your diet and increase your grocery bill. If you want to enjoy a treat, you should force yourself to make it yourself. The ingredients for a cake will cost you less than the cake itself and, unless you spend all of your time in the kitchen, you will have fewer desserts, and thus fewer empty calories. My wife always makes biscotti without butter or oil, which are better for us and cost her very little to prepare.

Do Not Eat Anything but Fruit after Dinner: Tell yourself that you will not eat any snacks after dinner and that if you must, you will eat a piece of fresh fruit. Fresh fruit generally costs less than most packaged products and it will usually fill you up better than packaged products. You will save money and you will need fewer calories to actually feel full.

Drink Water or Decaffeinated Tea: Water is free if you drink water from your tap or from your refrigerator (assuming you have a built in filter). Most tap water in the USA is perfectly fine to drink and some bottled water is nothing more than tap water, so do not fall into the bottled water trap. If you drink water or tea when you are thirsty, each drink will cost you a few pennies, as opposed to 30 to 50 cents per glass if you drink soda or juice of some other bottled beverage. If you substitute water or tea for alcoholic beverages you will save even more. You will also reduce the caffeine, sugar and chemicals that you take into your body each day.

Eat Breakfast Every Day: Regardless of what time you have to get up to do it, eat a balanced breakfast every day. If you eat a good breakfast, you will eat less throughout the day because your body will not run out of energy and that will help you to avoid costly snacks at work.

Bake Your Own Quick Breads: There are few culinary delights as wonderful as freshly baked bread. You can make your own quick breads (which do not require yeast) at home very inexpensively. They take very little time to prepare and they add a great texture and flavor to your table.

Basically, you read the question and then click on the answer that you think is correct. If you are correct, $0.50 in coupons are donated to military families living overseas. If you are incorrect, the correct answer will appear, but no amount in coupons will be donated. You can get up to 5 correct answer making a donation of $2.50 in coupons per day. Get a few friends to help as well and you can send hundreds of dollars of coupons a month while testing your coupon and grocery store shopping knowledge.

Why do military families living overseas need coupons? While military commissaries overseas accept manufacturer coupons, it’s difficult for these families to get coupons since the normal means of coupon distribution aren’t available there. The site’s mission is to send manufacturer coupons to bases overseas where the families living there can choose the coupons that they want to help reduce the amount they must spend on food.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone, so the next time you need a 10 minute break, test your coupon smarts and help military families reduce their grocery bills at the same time.

If you have read articles about “Coupon Queens” who are able to save 50% or more on their groceries using coupons, you may have wondered if these results are possible for the average person. If you have tried to use coupons in the past, you likely failed to get the savings that these people are able to accomplish. The reason that most people fail is because they are conditioned to use coupons the way that the manufacturers want rather than to their advantage. Here is a rundown on the way that Coupon Queens are able to get such huge savings and how you can as well if you adopt these methods.

Stack coupons

Most people use a coupon soon after they find it. To get the most out of it, however, you often have to wait a bit so it’s possible to save more than the discount on the coupon. The strategy is called “stacking coupons” where the coupon is used in coordination with other discounts that are available.The average consumer uses a 50-cent coupon when he or she happens to be in the store, has the coupon and needs the item the coupon is for. If that item costs $2, then the shopper would use the coupon and buy the item for $1.50. While that is better than getting no savings, it’s not the best way to use the coupon.The best option is to wait until there are multiple discounts that can be combined for huge savings. For example, waiting until that $2 item is on sale for $1.50 and shopping on a day when the grocery store is doubling coupons to get the item for only $0.50. There may also be a store coupon that can also be used making the item free or even a rebate which might mean that you can make money buying it.

Look beyond Sunday

Newspaper inserts account for 82% of coupons, but newspapers aren’t necessarily the best place to find them. The problem with many Sunday newspaper coupons is that the coupons are usually for new products and probably not for brands that you already buy. There are a large number of other places that coupons can be found, including eBay, the Internet, the grocery store, magazines and junk mail. You can even contact the manufacturers directly to find savings.

Stick to what you know

A simple shopping rule when using coupons is to only use coupons for things that you usually buy, unless it’s something that you can get for free. If it isn’t something that you use, it’s usually wasted money no matter how much you save. Instead, use any coupons for products that you don’t use to trade with others who do want them.One of the biggest mistakes that people who first begin to use coupons make is buying products that they would not normally purchase just because they have a coupon for it. This is exactly what the manufacturers want you to do, but it’s not the way to get large savings since you are buying extra items beyond what you would normally buy.

Create a price book

A price book is a book you create where you keep a list of the lowest prices you paid for all the items you usually purchase. This will allow you to know the best price of the products you frequently purchase so you know when a good price is available. Grocery stores use numerous tricks to make you believe you are getting a good deal when you really aren’t. By knowing what price is a good deal on everything you regularly purchase, you can ignore all the “sale” and “bargain” advertising and seek out the true deals by simply looking in your price book.

Hidden coupons

One of the greatest secrets of those who save a lot with coupons is that they know there are coupons for groceries that you may have never though would have coupons available. For example, most people aren’t aware that there are coupons for meat and fresh seafood. Many beer and wine companies, however, have special coupon offers on meats and seafood to encourage you to buy their product and try it with such foods. Another example is that cookie companies sometimes have promotions where they give away coupons for milk. By learning that these coupons are out there if you keep your eyes open, you can reap savings on grocery items you never realized had coupons available.

Many years, several jobs and two children later, the thought of all those instant noodles horrifies me. I ate dreadfully during my younger years, because of my mistaken assumption that I was saving money by eating nutrition-poor food. Yes, processed food prices can be hard to beat, but over time, the habit of eating poorly is likely to cost more in medical bills, weight issues and general health.

I still occasionally slide a frozen pizza into the oven to feed my dear family, but more often than not, I find I can find nutritious food and without breaking our family budget.

Patronize Farmers’ Markets: The boon of spring, summer and fall is the Farmer’s Market. Local farmers bring their wares to a central location and sell it for less than the retail stores. What could be better? Shoppers can count on finding really good quality produce, jams, jellies, honey, salsa and more. Our local market also shares recipes and has a customer reward punch card.

We eat a lot of produce these days, and this is also a great way to eat from the local economy without putting a mile (or too many miles, at least) on the car. We have stayed close to home this summer like many others, and are able to walk to a Farmer’s Market without getting in the car and driving to the farms surrounding our town.

Buy in bulk: My local, fancy grocery store has surprisingly good deals on its bulk food items. Despite its lovely cheeses and designer breads, this store offers a good break on the items it sells out of the bin.

For the uninitiated, stores can offer bulk foods in bins that allow shoppers to fill a bag and tag the item with the bin number. The checkout clerk weighs the item on a scale and charges the price per pound for the item. The concept is designed to offer shoppers a financial break while getting rid of some packaging.

Some of my favorite foods to get from bulk foods are nuts, spices, pasta, oats, beans and dried fruit. Of course, there are several things to ask yourself:

• Is this item actually cheaper than its packaged alternative?
• Is this food that your family will eat by the time it reaches the end of its shelf life?
• Do you have room to store the food until it is eaten?

Use the slow cooker: Even though I work from home, the last thing I want to deal with is cooking dinner at the end of the day. My lifesaver is the slow cooker. Happily, this can also save money.

It helps to be consistent about planning a menu around items that are on sale at my market. If I have shopped well, I can put the meal in the slow cooker at the beginning of my workday so it is ready at dinnertime. I can add a salad and vegetables from the produce I bought earlier that week, and whole-wheat bread I bought at discount at the day-old store.

On the unplanned nights, I find I make unscheduled trips to the store to pick up something quick and convenient. This is usually the night the frozen pizza makes it into the oven.

Bartering with friends/neighbors: One neighbor is an exceptional gardener and another raises chickens. If you’re so lucky as to have talented neighbors like this in your town, why not ask if you could barter some of yours for some of theirs?

Perhaps you make great bread or jam? Did you just pick a flat of berries that you’re willing to share? In our case, our family likes to fish, so can offer salmon, trout and sturgeon to our neighbors to trade. It can take a little negotiation to come to a fair “price,” but it is worth it to just walk down the street and trade for a dozen eggs from chickens you know.