Areas of patchy fog early. Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 71F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..

Clear skies. Low 47F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.

Dear Jill: I am dismayed by the coupons that come in my newspaper each week. So few of the coupons are for any kind of food at all.

What are we supposed to do? Grocery prices are higher than I ever have seen, and it seems all of the brands I reliably give my business to have stopped giving coupons back to me.

It has made me so angry I’ve stopped buying some of my usual brands and gone to the store brand. — Art L.

We are indeed living in a strange time during which the coupons available to us are far less plentiful than we’re used to. In May of this year, we had a coupon insert without a single coupon for any kind of food item. It was the first time I can recall that happening since I began couponing at this level — with intent focus on cutting my grocery bill as much as possible — since the early 2000s.

However, the truth is relying solely on coupons to cut your grocery bill simply is not the most effective way to cut the bill down — even when we had a plethora of food coupons to play with. Using coupons in conjunction with a store’s pricing cycle is the optimal way to cut one’s bill down as much as possible. We look for the lowest possible sale price for an item, and then use any coupons available to further drop that low price.

Did you know that grocery stores generally fall into two types of pricing structure: “High/Low” and “Everyday Low Price.” High/low stores have prices that fluctuate all the time. They typically have higher shelf prices than the everyday low price stores, but the sale prices often dip lower than those at the Everyday Low Price retailers.

For example, a box of cereal might sell for $3.99 at the Everyday Low Price store. The same box of cereal might sell for $4.49 at its regular price over at a high/low priced supermarket. However, when the same supermarket has a sale, that cereal’s price may drop to $1.99.

It’s these lower sale prices that we want to chase.

Now, in this example, if we have a coupon to further reduce that $1.99 sale price, of course it’s the right time to use it. But in the absence of a coupon, $1.99 is still a much better price than $3.99 or $4.49.

Now, my reader brought up purchasing store or house brands. When we’re shopping solely on price, house brands are also a factor that should be considered. If you need an item right now and want the lowest possible price, look both at the name brands and house brands. However, be prepared to be surprised — if the name brand is on sale, its price might be lower than the house brand, too.

A family member recently asked me to pick up a box of bran flake cereal. Without a coupon or specific deal in mind, I headed to the store to see what the best deal was. The store brand was $2.29, but one of the name brands was on sale for $1.89. Of course, that’s the one I added to my cart.

As much as I would have liked to have had a coupon to further drop the price, I knew it was the best possible deal available at the time for the product — and that’s the perspective we need to embrace when coupons are not currently available for every item we’d like.

Jill Cataldo, a coupon workshop instructor, writer and mother of three, never passes up a good deal. Learn more about Super-Couponing at her website, jillcataldo.com. Email your own couponing victories and questions to jill@ctwfeatures.com.

Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription

Would you like to receive local business offers? Sign-up today!

Receive our daily headlines. Sign-up today!

Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.

Check your email for details.

Invalid password or account does not exist

Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.

Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.

A receipt was sent to your email.