Saving Money on Groceries

A couple of weeks ago, I was standing behind a woman at Shopper's Food Warehouse, getting more and more annoyed at how long it was taking her to check out. That is, until I started paying attention. This woman (I'll call her The Amazing Coupon Lady) was using a stack of coupons and -- I kid you not -- brought an over two hundred dollar grocery bill down to under eighty dollars. Sure, I shop for Safeway house brands and pay attention to the sales, but I am a complete novice compared to The Amazing Coupon Lady.

I resolved to try and emulate her coupon-using habits and turned to the Sunday inserts in my Washington Post. I was certain all I'd have to do is get out the circulars and a pair of scissors and get snipping, but no -- something happened to all those ad circulars. Like the economy, they seem to have dried up.

Next stop: the Internet. I found this article on Yahoo! Finance that reviews the best online coupon-clipping sites. I plan to try out their top pick -- The Coupon Clippers -- over the next few weeks and see how much money I save. Amazing Coupon Lady, the competition is on! If you're lucky, you won't be behind me in the grocery store.

What are your top recs for saving money on groceries? If there were a Super Bowl between Safeway and Giant, who do you think would win? Let all of us know. In these tough times, we have to stick together.