You may find yourself frazzled over finances, no matter what your money situation. Problems with finances make up nearly 40 percent of major stressors. And stress is a huge downer when it comes to our body, and beauty. CEO of TheGroceryGame.com and author of “Shop Smart, Save More,” Terri Gault, shares with Betty Confidential her best tips for saving big.How to save money grocery shoppingThe number one place to focus on saving money is on food. Too many people think of food costs as a given. You can eat the same food as always without paying full price! Here’s three simple strategies that could cut your food costs in half (no coupons required):1. Invest!Yep! Food purchases should be viewed as an investment. You’re going to buy it anyway. So why buy high? Take a look at everything you have in your pantry and fridge. Let me tell you it all went on sale at one time or another. You should have bought it before you needed it while it was on sale. That one new mindset alone will be life changing for your bank account!2. Read the expiration datesI buy three or four packages of tofu when it’s on sale, but not because I’m going to eat four now! I check the date and if it’s good for a few weeks and if it’s on sale, I stock up on what we’ll use in that time period. The same applies to honey, yogurt, peanut butter, pasta, oatmeal, organic cereal, butter, orange juice, and more. Start looking at dates. If it’s on sale, and the date is three weeks out, ask yourself “How much of this do I normally buy in 3 weeks?” Doing anything to the contrary means you’re saying, “I’ll just buy one now, and come back next week and buy another at twice the price.” Huh???? By the way, January is National Oatmeal Month, and the sales are as low as they’ll be all year on oatmeal. Don’t let me catch you buying only one! Check the date, and stock up accordingly, and you won’t pay full price on most of your food from this day forward!MORE FROM BETTY CONFIDENTIAL: New Year, New You: 5 Celeb-Inspired Life Makeovers3. Cut back on eating out without having to cook!January is National Diet Foods Month. Now’s the time to stock up on lean, low carb, high fiber frozen meals at great savings. For $2 or less and a simple salad, it’s a lot cheaper than $15 out. Find meal replacement shakes at great savings and coupons to go with lots of those sales, making them 67 percent off or better! Stock up for months to come!How to save on cosmetics and skin careSave on cosmetics in unlikely places. Skip the department store and check out your drugstore cosmetic deals! Lots of us have learned that Maybelline, L’Oreal, Cover Girl to name a few, are comparable, if not the same as the department store counterparts that cost four times as much! Drugstore brands know they’ve been taking some market share on this due to this economy, and they are stepping it up even more! So I expect through 2012 we’ll see even more great sales, and coupons to go with those drugstore sales!Stack the beauty deals even further in drugstores. All the big chains, CVS, Walgreens, and RiteAid have rewards at the register. They’re instant rebates that spit out of the register to be used like cash now or later to come back and buy more eye shadow, mascara, facial wash, and anything else you want to buy! And the best part is, buying on sale with coupon and the instant rebates, sometimes you get it all for free or better! Let TheGroceryGame figure out the deal stacking for you! And you’ll want to kiss someone with your new free lip gloss!Online shopping is taking over the world, and will continue in 2012! Even when buying clothes, I try on in stores, but often find better offers for the same thing on the web. Start online shopping by linking through Ebates for killer money back deals. This one is SO easy! Before you buy on any website, check to see if you can link through Ebates for that extra benefit! Then, look for even more deals.Don’t check out online until you search for a promo code. Retail Me Not is my one stop place for promo codes. Even when I go through Ebates, I can usually also stack in promo codes! Many sites let you use a promo code on top of a sale or even clearance. If a site allows only one promo code, and you’ve found several, plug them into the checkout one at a time, and let their shopping cart software show you if the free shipping promo code saves you more than the extra 15 percent percent off code. If they allow more than one promo code, load them all in and watch your total drop!MORE FROM BETTY CONFIDENTIAL: 8 Tips for Eating Out Without Blowing Your New Year’s ResolutionsWeigh the benefits. When I bought my son’s Xbox 360, I started at Ebates, and there were about ten retailers I could choose from selling Xbox through Ebates. I chose , not because they had the highest Ebate offer, but because of all the other free stuff I got! One retailer had a little better price, but gave me WAY more free stuff that I used for more gifts! I ended up with these free add-ons: free shipping, $20 Xbox live card, $50 in Restaurant gift certificates, and $16 in “drugstore dollars!” If the benefits cause you to spend more to get things you don’t need, then skip it. But if it’s for things you can use or will eventually need, do it!This year, more and more retailers will be engaging shoppers through exclusive email offers. There really are deals in this marketing scheme that cannot be found anywhere else. So it pays to sign up for those alerts, especially with retailers that you frequent. I have my own shopping site with exclusive email offers that I love! Some of the alerts are for things you can find on the retailer’s websites. But it feels SO scandalous when I get an alert for an extra 20 percent off, and no-where else on their site is that deal found! Bwah hahahaha!!!How to get a deal in a “real” storeComparison shop and well… haggle. Before you go out to shop, use the web to compare prices. A great place to start with comparison shopping is Google Shopping. Now, if you want to buy in a store, and the online retailer is cheaper, print the online competitor’s info on that exact item. Bring it to the store and respectfully ask if they can give you a discount. Let them know you absolutely don’t expect them to match non brick and mortar online retailer’s prices, but in the same breath, ask if you can just show them something. Be ready to show where the online retailer gives free shipping, warranty, etc. All the while, respectfully acknowledge that you don’t expect a brick and mortar retailer to match the online price. In the end, I’ve had many who will match the price, or most often I get a nice discount.If the sales person on the floor can’t help you with a discount, kindly ask if you can talk to a manager. Follow them, and you need to ask the manager. My version of haggling is just asking. I’m very good at it, and actually making friends as I go. I’ve found that most retailers want to make you happy. More and more of this has been going on, and I expect to see as much or more in 2012. It never hurts to ask!The deals are out there for 2012. Make yourself a promise…you will not buy until you look for a deal!PLEASE don’t ever pay full price, and…Happy shopping!
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