Meet My Friend, VIC

Grocery stores can be some of the hardest places to save money, but when played correctly, you can certainly cut your spending significantly. Here's a little run down of things you should know when shopping my most frequented Durham grocery stores.

Kroger (sales in the Durham area run Sunday-Saturday)

• Sign up for a store rewards card!! NOW!! This card not only saves you money on your immediate store purchases, it also has some other great perks! By shopping, you accumulate rewards points. For each 100 points you accumulate, you can get $0.10 off each gallon of gas if you fill up at a Shell station. Every three months, your points are also turned into money back gift cards. Every 100 points = $1. I'm expecting a $10-$15 gift card in a few weeks!
• Coupons up to $0.50 Double, EVERY DAY! - For example a $0.30 coupon will deduct $0.60, a $0.50 coupon will deduct $1.00, etc. This can be a real money saver and can score you some free items, especially things like soap and toothpaste (Keep an eye out for the next P&G coupon insert on October 2 - lots of potential freebies at Kroger!)
• Prescription transfers earn store credit! - Kroger often runs a promo where you earn $25 in store credit for each prescription you transfer and fill at their pharmacy. I transferred two this summer and earned $50. I plan to keep watch for the next promo and transfer a few more! This is a great way to earn money on something you would have to buy anyway!

Harris Teeter (sales in the Durham area run Wednesday-Tuesday)

• Sign up for a VIC card!! This store card doesn't offer money back or gas points like Kroger, but it does save you money on in-store purchases. You can also go visit the Harris Teeter website to link e-coupons to your shopping card. The great thing about these e-coupons is that Harris Teeter will allow you to use one paper AND an e-coupon on the same item. For example, a few weeks ago, I bought body wash at HT. The body wash was $3.99. I had a $2.00 paper coupon from the newspaper, and I also linked a $2.00 coupon to my store card. The body wash was free, and the store gave me $0.01 in overage!
• Coupons up to $0.99 Double, EVERY DAY! - Be warned, Harris Teeter's prices are a bit more expensive to begin with, so even with doubling up to $0.99, you might still be paying more than you would at Kroger.
• Super Doubles Promos - Every few months, HT runs a special where they will double coupons up to a value of $1.99! This means a coupon for $1.50 will deduct $3.00. Super Doubles = lots of free or almost free products. This is the best time to use coupons with a value of over $0.99. You are allowed to super double up to 20 coupons PER DAY. You can only use 3 of the same coupon each day.
• Triple Coupon Promos - On occasion, HT also runs triple coupon promos. They will triple coupons up to $0.99 in value. Triple coupons will be happening next week, starting on Wednesday, September 14. Check Southern Savers-Harris Teeter info to find out match-ups for free or super cheap items!

Reader Response: Which grocery stores do you shop most often? Why?