One questions I get from a lot of people is:


My answer is:  

• It depends on how you currently shop.
• It depends on the types of food you buy.
• It depends on how much you want to save.
• It depends on how busy you are.

Frugalicious Shopping consists of two parts:

• Stockpiling when things are on sale for a rock bottom price
• Stacking deals (stacking sales with coupons and / or rebates etc) for increased savings.

Our Grocery Shopping Tools tell you when something is on sale for it's rock bottom price before coupons. 

Can you save money with just that information?  Well, it depends.

It depends on how you currently shop.
If you already shop with a list, only buy essentials, and track prices on your own or have a fairly extensive Price Book, you won't save much more by using the Grocery Shopping Tools.  However, if you don't shop with a list, don't track prices, and just buy whatever you need each week, you should be able to cut your grocery bill by about 30%-40% by using the Grocery Shopping Tools without using coupons.

It depends on the types of food  you buy.
While there are coupons for organic and whole foods, they are less common that other coupons.  They can also be a little more difficult to find.  So, if you buy a lot of these types of foods, you will save less than someone else, but you will still save.


It depends on how much you want to save.
If you want to cut your grocery bill by 60%-80%, you will need to use coupons.  If you are comfortable with saving 30%-40%, you should be able to accomplish that without coupons (as long as you really focus on stocking up when things are on sale for a rock bottom price)

It depends on how busy you are.
"Couponing" takes time.  Personally, I believe it is well worth my time, so I have made time for it.  However, everyone's situation is different.  You may not have time to add it to your life right now; it may not be worth it for your family right now.  You can still save money.  I have a good friend who is extremely busy right now.  She simply glaces at the Current Deals List right before she goes shopping.  She filters it to show just the store she is planning to shop at and checks just 2-3 items that are on sale for a rock bottom price.  She stocks up on just those 2-3 items and does the rest of her shopping just like she normally would.  She has been doing this for almost a year now.  She has slowly built a nice stockpile of food without spending much time and without using coupons. Her grocery bill has lowered by about 15% from where it was 1 year ago and she has a nice stockpile of food.

• There are many coupons for the following: snack foods, cereal, baby supplies, frozen foods, canned goods, and boxed/prepared food, cleaning supplies, personal care items, medicines, cheese & yogurt, condiments, baking needs, and paper goods.

• There are occasionally coupons for these categories (more so if you use online coupons): produce, milk, eggs, bread, fresh meats, and lesser known organic or health food brands.

• If you choose to try and match coupons to sales on your own, it can take hours each week. If you choose to use the Grocery Shopping Tools provided here at Frugalicious which do most of the work for you, you should only spend 15-30 min a week on average.

• The average coupon is worth about $0.90. The Current Deals List database tracks coupon trends and suggests using about 60-80 coupons each week.
• Of the 60-80 recommended coupons, there will still be many for things you do not need, but even if you are very conservative and only use 1/8 of the suggested coupons (8-10/week) would save you $30-$40 a month. If you use multiples of any coupon (which you should if you are stocking up), you will save significantly more.
• Most people use 15-25 coupons a week on average, bringing their savings to $50-$90 a month.

• You can get a newspaper subscription through www.discountednewspapers.com for as little as $4-$8 a month. Even with multiple subscriptions, you will save significantly more than you spend.