Grocery shopping (& Consumer Reports)

[richlevy]

I admit that I do sometimes buy 'impulse items'. Sometimes there are 'opportunity buys', like meat department items marked down because they are about to expire.

My personal favorite is rainchecks. I love it when an item is out of stock. It's a lot easier to store a piece of paper than make freezer room.

Right now I'm sitting on BOGO (buy one get one free) rainchecks for sirloin steak burgers for my next BBQ.

Watch the register for ringing mistakes. I buy a lot of stuff on sale and I have found an error rate of up to %5 on sale items due to the computer not being updated or their failure to take the sale shelf tag or sign down. Most supermarkets give you the first item free and any additional items at the sale price. So in addition to making sure you don't get ripped off, you can get free stuff.

Check expiration dates. Last week I found some frozen gourmet sausages tucked away in the freezer section of a local market. The sell by/freeze by date was Jan 2007. Now technically they were frozen, but the freeze by date is meant for the consumer, not the store. I pointed this out to the manager.

Use momsview.com for coupons. There are a lot of coupon sites on the net, but I like the variety and quality there.

Happy Hunting