Now that I have started on the frugal lifestyle kick, I must admit it can be quite addictive. I now methodically write down every single penny that I spend at the grocery store so that I know how much I am saving every month, and I cannot tell you how excited I have been to see the end results. I have learned through this entire experience that I am really not giving up anything, but just finding creative ways to save on my budget.

As I mentioned in my last column, my grocery store shopping is the newest area I have worked to pinch pennies. I would like to continue to teach you a few simple tricks that I have found helpful to save money during your next trip to the grocery store.

One of the most important lessons I could teach you is to go through your grocery store circulars. Typically I pick an average of three grocery stores that I shop at on a regular basis. All three stores are in fairly close proximity to my house. (I must save on gas too.) The stores put out a weekly circular telling you about the savings going on in their store that week. At two of my grocery stores I can find their circulars on the stores’ websites, which saves me from having to run out and get them and I am also staying green. Once I have the circular, I look at what coupons I have or which store has the best deals on the products I need and then plot out a menu for the next few weeks.

On some occasions, I will make a trip to all three stores because they are all in close proximity to each other and each store offers great savings on things I need.

Another tip I would like to recommend to you is to pay attention to prices. Just because a grocery store is having a sale on an item, it does not always mean they are offering the best price for the product.

I discovered this recently when participating in a grocery store’s double coupon day. For a frugal shopper, double coupon day at a grocery store is like Christmas. I was so excited. However, as I marched into the stores and started whipping out my coupons, I realized the store’s prices were so inflated in comparison to the other stores’ regular prices that even with the double coupon discount, I was still spending more at this particular grocery store. You can imagine my disappointment as I walked away with very little from my double coupon day.

My last bit of advice about saving money at the grocery store is to receive a preferred customer card. Every single grocery store that I shop at has one of these cards and they have cost me nothing. These cards provide you extra discounts on products and typically will e-mail you special savings or make you aware of specials.

For example, I am a preferred customer at one store and frequently receive between $5 and $25 gift cards after I purchase a certain amount of diapers, paper towels and baby wipes from that store. For me, these free gift cards came in quite handy over the holidays.

This is all for me this week, but please join me for my next column as I discuss how to save money on children‘s toys and clothing.

I hope this column once again has been able to provide tips on how you can save money in several different aspects of your life.

If you know of great money saving tips and would like to share them with the readers, please email them to localnews2005@yahoo.com.