If you are like most families - with one to three children and a cat or a dog - you can save $100 a month on your groceries. Even if you don't have a pet, you can save $90. Single people can save as much as $40.
How do I know you can do it? For 13 years I have taught smart-shopping techniques to hundreds of thousands of shoppers, and each week I receive hundreds of letters from readers telling me how much they save.
The system is based on intelligent use of manufacturers' cents-off coupons. Many people tell me they don't clip coupons because they don't think the savings are worth the bother. But if someone offered you $50 an hour for your time, would you take the job? Well, here it is. It takes about two hours a month to cut $100 off a family grocery bill. There's nothing to mail, nothing to wait for. Just pick up your savings as your groceries are bagged.
If this seems hard to believe, consider how the couponing system works. Very few people know that there is a direct relationship between the products for which manufacturers issue coupons and the products that supermarkets put on sale. This is called the "double secret."
One recent Sunday, General Foods had a coupon in a color insert offering a free container of Cool Whip with the purchase of a can of International Coffees. Was it pure luck that the same week my local supermarket offered the coffee on sale for $2.99? Or how about the 35-cent coupon for liquid Tide? The supermarket ran a sale the same week at $3.59 for the half-gallon.
Finding coupons and sales for the same item is no coincidence. When manufacturers decide to promote one of their brands, they usually plan both a consumer offer and an offer to supermarkets.
Most consumer offers come in the form of cents-off coupons. The manufacturers offer the supermarkets a discount on the products, and, in return, the supermarket agrees to put those items on sale at least once during the several weeks that they receive the special price.
This marketing technique, discovered through years of experience, enables smart shoppers to get two discounts on the same item. Do manufacturers want consumers to know this? Not on your life! They don't want shoppers to be that organized. When I asked a spokeswoman at Kellogg Co. to confirm that the coupons and trade discounts were made at the same time, her comment was: "The timing of our trade (supermarket) deals and coupon drops is a confidential marketing practice."
