If you want to save a great deal of money on groceries, try shopping at your local discount store, such as Grocery Outlet. For those of you who might think it is super sketchy, hear me out.

I am especially grateful to my husband, Michael, for two things. First, he treats me so well and makes me happier than I could ever have imagined. Second, he introduced me to Grocery Outlet. Grocery Outlet is our favorite place for a date night and to impulse shop. There are a lot of sketchy foods there, brands that I've never heard of and food that is expired. There is every type of food imaginable, and searching for what you want/need is part of the fun. Next to an expired no-name yogurt you might find a brand name one that doesn't expire for weeks! It's also a great place to try new things. I saw these fun Jello cups with sprinkles at Fred Meyer, but they were nearly $2 for two! A few months later (today) I found them at Grocery Outlet for $.50! Not every trip to Grocery Outlet is a success. Sometimes you'll find a lot of things, sometimes nothing. When we need something specific (that I don't have a coupon for) we try and check there first to see if we can get it there for cheap.

We are so excited about cheap Greek yogurt! We love Greek yogurt but it is so expensive. The single Oiko yogurts were 3/$1.00, the 4 packs were $.77 each, and the Chobanis were $1.99 each (normally around $6 at Safeway or Fred Meyer!). All of the yogurts don't expire until after Christmas. Another great find I had today was the Special K Meal Bars. They're awesome for blood sugar, and retail for about $6 for 5. I got 24 of them for only $12! I saved at least 60% on this trip. 

So here are your lessons for cheap groceries without coupons:

Don't be afraid to shop at discount stores. ALWAYS check expiration dates! A majority of things you can still get as cheap or cheaper with couponing, but it's a great place if you don't have the time or energy!

4 Gillette Gift Sets and 4 packs of Disposable Razors for +$3.62!

This is by far one of my finest purchases to date! Each gift set was $10 at Target. The disposable razors were $6.19 each. The total purchase rang up at $64.76
First, we handed over a coupon to recieve a $10 gift card with a $50+ purchase.
Next, we handed over 4 coupons for $10 off the purchase of a Pro Glide razor (the gift sets qualify because there is a razor in each gift set) when you buy any disposable or cartridge.
Finally, we handed over 2 buy one gillette men's disposable razor, get one free.
All we paid for was 2 of the disposable razors, which came to $12.38. We had a $6 gift card so we only paid $6.38 and received a $10 Target gift card! We are going to use it to get more boxes of cereal that have movie ticket codes on them :)

Challenge Butter: $6 for 6!

There was a great deal at Fred Meyer this week. Challenge Butter, normally $4.29 per, was on sale for $2/5. There was also an in-ad coupon for $2/4. You can stack a store coupon with manufacturer's coupon, so I printed out the $1/1 coupon available on Challenge's website. We got 6 for only $1 each! Butter freezes great, so we stocked up.

jcpenny: 2 shirts and 2 sweaters for $4!

If you don't know about the current JCP promotion, here is how it works: Every day between now and December 24th, you can go into JCP and get little buttons. You can get "two per day", but if you go to all the registers you can get quite a few more than that. You enter the code into the computer and can win prizes. You can enter 2 codes per day, but if you have multiple people in your house you can enter more. Michael and I have won more than $150 in the past week. This is a great way to get cheap clothes! The trick is you can only use one certificate per transaction (this seems to be the norm, however, I've also been told otherwise) Here is an example of one of our purchases:

The two sweaters were on clearance for $10 each and I used two $10 certificates.
The two shirts were on clearance for $5 each and I used a $5 gift certificate I won, and a %20 friends and family coupon. I only paid $4 in cash for all 4! Retail value is almost $100!

An Update and Albertsons Doubles Trip: 71% Savings!

As I am quickly learning, not everything in the couponing world comes free. While sometimes it is easy to get 80%-90% savings (thank you Thanksgiving sales), it doesn't always happen. In the past few weeks I've learned that 60%-70% savings is okay too, in fact, it's awesome! A few months ago I couldn't have imagined   saving so much on our groceries! This month is a little bit different. My grocery budget was cut (again) by $50. I decided to put $50 into a separate couponing budget, so I could use it for register rewards (Walgreens), UPs  (Rite Aid), or gift cards (Target). These stores often offer rewards for buying an item. If I buy something at Walgreens that is $4 but gives me back $4 in Walgreens money, that item is technically free. I can keep that $4 in Walgreens money and buy something else that produces more Walgreens money and so on. In order to do this I have to put some cash in. This is what the $50 is for. So far this month I have put $6 into Rite Aid and received $12 in Rite Aid money. Not bad! Anyways, this is all to say that I am especially watching the grocery pennies this month!

I am super happy with this Albertsons purchase. We LOVE Greek Yogurt, but it's so expensive! At .33 a piece, I went back and got 9 more today. We got to treat ourselves with the Brie cheese and got two for less than the price of one. The five boxes of cereal were about $.90 each! I am not going to break down this purchase unless someone asks. I have no idea how many people read this blog or if it's useful. If people want breakdowns than I am more than happy to do so, I just don't want to put in the effort if nobody but me sees it :).
Without further ado....

We paid around $16 for all of this (which is the cost of two of those cheeses, so one could say we paid for those and got the rest free :) ).