AVON, Ohio — There’s just a few days left until Christmas, and if you haven’t finished picking up things for your holiday gathering – don’t worry, its not too late! And you don’t have to spend a fortune in the process.
When it comes to getting a good deal – Rachel Krych is the master.
She runs her own couponing blog called Couponing with Rachel and suggests a strategic approach to holiday grocery shopping.
“First thing you need to do is get a list together. Don’t go to the grocery store without a list. Have your meal planned out, know what you need, what you buy. Also, go through your pantry, you’d be surprised at some of things you probably already have that you don’t need to pick up yet,” Krych said.
“What I do is take my list and I compare it to whatever’s on sale," Krych said. "Sometimes I may even be able to tweak my list a little bit because of what’s on sale. For instance, if you were going to have maybe roast beef, but you see ham is on sale, you could switch that up easily."
On sale this week at Meijer: Cook’s spiral sliced ham. It's just 89 cents a pound.
“It even comes with the glaze so its easy to cook and you know what’s nice is because these are such a large size, you know what that means, leftovers!" Krych said. "Which everybody loves leftover ham!”
Make sure to check circulars for promotions in-store that don’t require any extra work. Also, most stores offer coupons you can “clip” on their mobile apps.
But it's not just store specific apps that can save you money, there’s also the Ibotta app which gives you cash back for certain items at a number of stores.
RELATED: Too busy for couponing? Try these money saving apps instead
“So what I like to do is I will shop from what’s on my list, but when I go to the register I will see if there’s an extra savings. And all you have to do is clip it and add it to your account and then you’ll be able to upload your receipt and get that money back,” Krych said. “And there’s so many stores, just about any store is going to be on here, so it’s a really great way to save if you’re not a couponer, it’s a really great way to save a little bit at the store.”
Jade Jarvis is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
