Welcome to Surviving The Stores!
NBC Dallas originally aired a story about saving money by using blogs and now that story is being aired across the nation!
What you saw in the segment on couponing can happen for you too! It might seem overwhelming at first, but after a few weeks of practice, you too can be getting groceries for next to nothing (and with the economic times as they are, that is VERY helpful!)
I began Surviving The Stores in September 2008 as a way to keep myself accountable in grocery budgeting. I was not raised in a couponing family, so the whole couponing world was very new to me. I mistakenly thought that people who used coupons ended up paying more for items than those who bought the off brands.
After getting the hang of it and saving us literally THOUSANDS of dollars I thought that maybe my experiences and finds could be helpful to others. With the economic times as they are, more and more people are trying to cut back and figure out ways to “Survive The Stores.” I am here to help!
How can Surviving The Stores help you save $$? (and LOTS of it!)
The first place to start is by clicking on “Where To Begin” on my left sidebar at the top. That will give you all of the information you need to get started couponing!
Then, click on the store(s) that you have near you to find the deals and coupon match-ups for that store. I find the weekly deals for:
Tom Thumb (which generally the ad is the same for all Safeway stores including Randalls)
Texas Albertsons
Texas/Louisiana Kroger
CVS (nationwide)
Walgreens(nationwide)
Couponing at CVS and Walgreens has a strategy all of its own. To be honest, it took me a little while to get the hang of it. But now I don’t pay for make-up, toiletries, over the counter medicine, diapers, some food items, CHOCOLATE 
, and the list keeps going! I recommend reading my CVS and Walgreens weekly posts for a couple of weeks until you feel comfortable with how it works.
If your local grocery store is not one of the ones listed above, make sure to head over to The Grocery Gathering to find a blog that does the coupon match-ups for a store near you!
I also post about Target and Walmart when you can get a really great deal there! (Most of the free items generally come from CVS, Walgreens and the grocery stores, though).
Although there tends to be multiple posts each day here at Surviving The Stores, these are the weekly staples:
Monday: Menu Plan Monday – We have saved SOO much money by me just sitting down once a week and planning out what we will be having. I provide links to the recipes that I use as well as reviews of some of the recipes that we have had previously
Tuesday: Helpful money-saving articles
Wednesday: Grocery store coupon match-ups
Thursday: CVS and Walgeens weekly deals posted
Friday: Fun Friday Freebies! – Each week I post a list of all of the freebies that I have found online the previous week. I have gotten lots of really neat stuff for free including DVDs, TONS of magazines and food! You can check out all of the freebies from previous weeks HERE.
Saturday: Super Savings Saturday – What did I find at my local stores and how much did I spend?
Sunday: CVS and Walgreens trips
If you are already a blog reader, I recommend adding Surviving The Stores to your blog reader (such as google reader) so that you don’t miss out on any great deals!
You can also subscribe to Surviving The Stores for free through email and you will get an email at the end of each day with the posts for that day.
Please feel free to email me or leave a comment with any questions you may have!
Want an easy way to start earning a little extra now? See my post HERE about a neat opportunity called Swagbucks!
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