Tuesday Tidbits & Tips: Love-Hate Relationship With Shopping On Tuesdays...

So, I got home late from work tonight, frantically tried to print and gather all of my coupons, checked my weekly menu plan to see what few ingredients I needed, gathered everything together, and ran out the door with my hubby to do the weekly Publix grocery shopping...on a Tuesday night...with one day left of this current sale week.

I used to do my grocery shopping on the weekend. I would take a chunk out of Saturday morning for about an hour to leisurely get organized and get everything together. Then, I would go shopping either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I hate going shopping on weekday nights. It's so tiring and stressful after a long day of work, especially when I have a million other things on my to do list, such as cooking dinner, cleaning, blogging, working out, and spending quality time with the hub. Oh, and I usually try to snatch the CVS, Target, or Walgreens deals during the week, too! *Note: I never get it all done. Something always gives...

I tell myself every single week that next time I will not wait until the last minute to go shopping! The problem is that I've just gotten to where I truly cherish my weekends of down time. I don't want to go shopping on the weekend. So every week, there I find myself again...Monday or Tuesday night, trying to get it all done.

One thing I've learned, though, and thought I'd pass along as a tidbit of advice, is that shopping the end of the sale has its advantage!

If you haven't ventured into the Hot Coupon World forums yet, I highly recommend you do so. This is where I learned everything I know about coupons. I love it. Check out the grocery forums. Most weekly store deals with coupon match-ups are posted a couple of days before the actual ad. For example, the "sneak peek" Publix weekly ad is almost always up by Monday night. Yep, you caught me. I know the Publix deals way before Thursday every week. I just get so behind on my posts, that I never end up posting them until Thursday! But now you know...you can check out Hot Coupon World ahead of time! =)

Anyways, the advantage is that you can see the next week's sale before you go shopping for this week's sale! It has helped me out so many times! It's great! Tonight, for example:

I was going to buy the Yoplait indivudal yogurts, because we are down to the last 3 cups in the fridge, and my hubby was asking me about when we were going to stock up on yogurt again. I thought I would buy him a few to get him through the week, even though they were a little out of my price range for yogurts. They were $.40 - $.50 each. Well, I looked at next week's ad, and our favorite yogurt in the world is going to be BOGO! I love Yo-Plus yogurt. It is SO yummy, it freezes well, and there are always $1/1 coupons. With the coupons and BOGO sale, I never pay more than $.25 per 4-pack! So that's a huge price difference: $.40 per cup versus $.06 per cup!

Also, we go through a lot of shredded cheese. I buy it almost every week. We were out this week, so I was going to stock up on that killer Publix price of 3/$5. Well, I saw in next week's ad that Kraft shredded cheese is going to be that price, plus there are coupons! Therefore, I decided to only buy 2 packages of shredded cheese this week, and I will get more to "stock up on" next week.

Finally, I was going to buy General Mills Chex Cereal, even though it was a much higher price than my target price for cereal ($1 a box). It was priced at $2 a box, even with the coupon I had. Not too good. But, it's a pretty good price on Chex cereal, and I really wanted to grab 2 boxes to make yummy puppy chow Holiday treats this season (think peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar)! I looked at next week's ad, and the Kellogg's Crispix (exact same thing) is on sale next week, and I can get it for FREE after coupons! Needless to say, I decided against buying the Chex cereal this week.

Just thought I'd share that little tidbit of info with you! I recommend getting your shopping out of the way when it is least stressful for you. If you ever find yourself rushing to the store to catch the end of a sale week, though, go check your grocery forum at Hot Coupon World to see what deals might be even better next week! =)