Yesterday, I shared with you How to Find Local Grocery Store Deal Blogs. Now you’ll be able to follow the sales cycles, learn what good prices are (for stockpiling), and grab the free/low-cost deals when you can.
Before you start matching up coupons, though, you may encounter some abbreviations and terms that look like hieroglyphics! Here’s a typical example of a coupon matchup from a blog that covers a grocery store’s weekly ad:
The blogger lists the product and its sale price from the grocery ad. Underneath, she’ll list the current coupon(s) that match up. That 4/10 SS refers to the date and the newspaper insert where the coupon was found. There are three newspaper inserts:
- SS stands for SmartSource
- RP is RedPlum, though I still see some blogs using V for Valassis (same company)
- P&G means the P&G Brandsaver insert that comes out once each month, usually the first weekend.
You’ll see that there are two similar coupons listed for the same insert on the same date. Why? Occasionally, coupons vary by region. One newspaper insert will offer a $1.00/2 coupon when another area gets a $1.00/1 coupon. That’s why I suggest that you find a local blog that covers your grocery store; they’re more likely to be reporting the same coupons that you are receiving in your home newspaper.
Here’s another example:
This refers to a printable coupon, and the abbreviations tell you that you can click on IE (Internet Explorer) or FF (Mozilla Firefox) for different versions. Some printable coupons don’t specify the browser, so you can just click and print.
In order to find a blog’s grocery deal matchup that works for you, I suggest you go to a couple of different blogs that list matchups for your grocery stores and see if you can read the matchups. Some bloggers use lots of detail, others use very little. Depending on your experience level, you’ll prefer one style over another.
