Your grocery budget can be your most variable budget AND where you can save the most! We have 4 kids so we feed 6 of us and when I had to pay over $4 for a gallon of milk I KNEW I had to find a way to bring down our grocery budget before it got too far out of control! As it was we drink about 15 gallons of milk a month, and I knew it would only go up as the kids grew! So of course, the first thing I turned to, like many of you, was couponing. But with 4 kids, running a blog and homeschooling who has time to coupon like you SHOULD, to save the kind of money I needed to? Can I hire someone to do that? I'll give you $200 a month and after you feed my whole family what is left over is yours, any extreme couponers up for that?! Yeah, I didn't think so.
So I had to get creative.
The first thing I did was go to talk to my husband about what ideas he might have and I tripped over my first idea, literally. It was a toy my kids had left out, and also one they had 2 of the SAME toy. Why do they need 2 of the same toy? Being it was part of a Mega Bloks collection I thought ‘I wonder if I can sell this'? So I started listing toys, clothes, and craft stuff taking up room in our garage on Listia. Like eBay Listia is an auction site but UNLIKE eBay you don't bid with money. You bid with points. You list auctions and then take the points earned to bid on things you want. I am able to get gift cards on there to use for groceries.
Next I put my phone to work and watched videos on Perk and Swagbucks. These video play while I'm doing things like dishes, homeschooling the kids or even writing this post. I turn the sound down off and go! I then cash those gift cards in for grocery gift cards or free Amazon Gift Cards.
I also see what Rebates I might be able to get in Ibotta, Snap, Jingit and Check Out 51 and make sure to cash in on those after each trip. Also, after each trip, I submit my receipt to Receipt Hog and Receipt Pal.
Doing these things each month I am able to earn $100 in gift cards a month to put toward my free groceries (sometimes I earn more!)
If course I also still scan Coupons.com, Smartsource and Redplum for coupons but I don't take as much time to hunt coupons down as I once did!
I also get discounted gift cards for stores I shop at with Gift Card Granny.
Some really great ideas here! Thanks for posting them.
Checked out a few of your recommended sites! I hope they work. I’m always looking for something new. Raising and taking care of our families these days definitely is not cheep!
Why not just stop buying milk if it’s so expensive…?
Because i have 4 growing kid that need the calcium and we use it quite a bit to cook and you just can’t beat a good glass of cold milk with cookies 😉
Actually cows milk pulls calcium from the human bones. Humans have no physical need for cows milk, just like we have no need for human milk (after being weaned) 🙂
Anyway, I love ibotta and cant wait to try out a couple other of your suggestions!
That was my thought. We would move to it only with breakfast and if it was required for a recpie. We use a gallion every 2 weeks with 1 adult and two 6yr old.
Powdered milk is great for most recipes, will last a loooong time and is cheaper!! Just fyi
Great ideas! If you’re already doing swagbucks….print your coupons from their site. You earn 10 swagbucks which equal 10 cents for each coupon. I also print for friends and family and leave some by the product if im not using it. They process to your account after a month or so…… I basically feed my family on walmart GC from swagbucks!
This is awesome!!!! Thanks. I just went to a few of the sites. It may take a while watching videos and earning one credit at a time to get a gift card but hey its free money. I’m curious to see how much of a pain or just the opposite (a benefit), when I submit my receipts after I shop. I have heard of some of those sites before, so its worth a try! Thanks again for sharing!
MobiSave and SavingStar are great apps for saving money on groceries too!
Thanks for the helpful tips!
I do that I Botta but I don’t get much rebates cuz I buy all the generic brands. I would love to know your ways of saving. I’m a mom of 6 kids and my husband is the only one who works. I do work but on the side. I clean houses but it seems like everything I earn goes out the door. I don’t have the gas money to get to other stores cuz most of the stores that we could save more are 40 minutes away. We have a Walmart and an Edward’s cash savers. We do shop at both when stuff goes on sale.
On this post I shared how I keep our grocery budget so low.
https://www.thefrugalnavywife.com/feed-family-6-200-month-50-week-no-extreme-couponing/
I have tried I gotta which earned me 50 cents in 2 months. Other apps the same. Most stores are no listed. Big waste of time
Great tips!