On Wednesdays, I put on my game face. I know I have a battle ahead, and I have this one day to prepare. What happens on Wednesdays? The grocery store ads come out, and I am ready to pinch every cent I can out of our grocery budget.

Some things, I know where I can find the best bargains. I prefer to buy meat at Fareway. They give discounts for buying in bulk, and the quality is always good. Unless I see a ridiculous sale somewhere else on meat, that's where I go. I search the Hy-Vee ad. They are my go-to store for produce. I have found that they usually have the best quality and the best price on fresh items. They also run great weekly specials in their ads. Last week, 4 Tony's Pizzas for $10.00. So that covers our Friday night Pizza and a Movie at home meal for the next 4 weeks. That's a cheap date night for us!  Cheese is also a regular purchase. I notice that about every 6 weeks, Hy-Vee or Jewel will sell it at half price. That's when we stock up. When I see the price of canned tomatoes drop under $0.50 a can, I will buy a case. We use canned tomatoes in soups and pasta, and salsas. That is one staple I load up on, when the price is right.

I started cutting coupons a few months ago. I am not quite to the Extreme Couponing stage yet, but I think we do alright. I go through the ads, and figure out what we are buying, or if there is something on sale that I also have a coupon for. On average, we save between $15.00 and $35.00 in coupons, for every $100.00 we spend. I go to several online sites, such as Coupons.com, smartsource.com and redplum.com for printable coupons. A month ago I printed out 4 coupons for Ronzoni Smart Source High Fiber Pasta, $1.00 off 2 boxes. Last week that pasta went on sale for $1.00 a box. So I was able to get 8 boxes for $4.00. I was pretty happy about that. That means we are set on pasta for the next two months.  General Mills had cereal recently for $1.88 a box. I had 3 $1.00 off coupons. So I was able to purchase 3 boxes of cereal for under $3.00. Wal-mart is usually my source for box and can foods, and pet food and litter. Milk and butter is almost always cheapest at Aldi's. I also have a liking for their salad dressings.

The most important thing I do is make a list and stick to it. I write a list for each store we are going to, on the back of an envelope. Inside that envelope I have the coupons I will be using. This makes checking out so much easier, as I don't have to dig through my coupon caddy every time I see something on my list. Pre-planning saves time in the check out line. I put about 2-4 hours of work researching the ads, printing and clipping coupons, and making out my weekly grocery list. I figure this is a part time job, and the savings we have on our grocery bill is my pay. It's worth it.