Groceries You Should be Getting Free

Hey y’all, Tiffany here.

When you hear the word “couponing,” what do you think of?

Some people think of the TV show “Extreme Couponers” and see tons of people getting their groceries free. DId you know it’s true? You can get free groceries!

For me, I remember my mother sitting every Sunday evening at the kitchen table, intently pouring over the weekly ads and clipping the newspaper coupons. She spent hours each week preparing and executing each shopping trip, only to save a few dollars. (Although, a couple of dollars was quite a lot of money back in…..well, let’s just say that when I was kid, it was quite a few years ago!)

This image is what came to my mind several years ago when, at a church activity focused on emergency preparedness, a woman in our church raised her hand and stated she used couponing to help build an emergency supply of food to have on hand in her home.

I started to tune her out until she said, “I haven’t paid more than $.50 for a box of Cheerios in years, and I always get my toothpaste and shampoo for free.”

In fact, she got most of her groceries for free, and I wanted to know how!

After that meeting, several of us surrounded her and begged her to teach us her ways. At the time, I had been deciding to go from being a full-time math teacher to staying at home with our first child. This decision was being forced on me a bit. 

Why I Needed Free Groceries

I had always planned to be a SAHM when I started having children, but this was definitely a surprise pregnancy. It was our first year of marriage, my husband was in his last year of undergrad, and I was going to be the breadwinner!

All of our plans were falling apart: in addition to a difficult pregnancy, I had spent the year before in and out of the hospital with severe health problems. Instead being excited to stay home with my daughter, I was feeling nervous. We were going from two incomes to one, and we now had expensive medical bills to pay off.

I was looking for ways to shrink our budget and keep to a $42 weekly grocery budget by any means necessary. I braced myself for hours of work, repeating that it would be worth it. Imagine my surprise when our first meeting with her took less than 30 minutes, and I ended up saving over 50% on my groceries that week – some of the grocery items were free!

Now it’s been two years, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve saved!  But what I can tell you is that I’ve discovered a trend with some types of items.  Every few months, a sale and a coupon will coincide and these groceries will be free (or close to it).

Groceries You Should Be Getting Free

But in the meantime, here is a list of items that I rarely pay anything for, along with the store I purchased the pictured items at.  And every single item on this list I have gotten for free (or very close to it) multiple times, with different brands.

To learn how to coupon and get these groceries for cheap or free, check out our couponing post here. You can also get discounted groceries on Amazon by joining our Facebook group.

Toothpaste and toothbrushes

Dental floss

Mouthwash

Deodorant

Feminine care pads and tampons

Body wash

Disposable Razors

Shaving Cream

Body lotion

Shampoo and conditioner

Face wash

Hair gel and styling products

Fruit Snacks

Chocolate

Baking Mixes

Pasta

Pasta sauce

Peanut butter

Beans

Cereal (not just Cheerios)

Goldfish (and other similar snacks/cookies, like Oreos or Nutter Butters)

Rice

Plastic bags

Drink mixes

Laundry detergent

Air freshener

Sunscreen, cleaning supplies, and hand soap

Baby wipes (the diapers I get for less than $2 per bag)

(and if you’re having twins, it’s important to save on diapers)

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