CNN has this story from MyRecipes.com today: Is the grocery store ripping you off?

This consumer affairs story is worth a read. Here are some of the story’s tips, with my comments in italics:

• Stocking up on a “great deal”. While a purchase may be a “great deal” in terms of dollar amount, it’s only a deal if the food actually gets eaten. This is especially true for perishables like milk, eggs, and produce. Yes, you do want to limit these purchases to the quantities that are useful for your family. I recently bought some produce tubs that will keep my fruit and veggies fresh for longer. For the milk, pay attention to when the prices are low and buy a gallon or two the day before the weekly sales fliers change over at your favorite store.
  
• Scooping up 10 for $10 “Wow,” we think, “4 soda packs for $10? That’s a steal!” It is, but does any one household really need 48 cans of soda? Not unless you’re helping host a block party that week. I disagree on the pop: I routinely pick up four or five cases of pop at a time on the bundle promotions. Will that pop really go bad before you drink it? Not in my home! A better example is the other stuff frequently listed on local 10 for $10 sales – there are some items I only buy when I have a coupon to throw on top of that sale because even at $1 each, I think they are too expensive.
• Clipping coupons religiously. We’re not saying coupons are bad. Coupons can save you money, but the operative word is can. They don’t save money if you use them to pick up expensive items that you wouldn’t buy normally. They don’t save money if you’re only getting a few cents off a $5 purchase. Studies show that if a shopper has a coupon in hand, they usually won’t check to see if what they’re buying is actually a bargain. So use them, but use them wisely. Head to Web sites like CouponMom.com and MyGroceryDeals.com to learn how to organize and strategize your coupon use. Here’s something to remember about coupon matching sites: Monroe County is an area where three Sunday newspaper markets overlap. Do you know whether the coupon site points you to the Detroit promotions or the Toledo promotions, and does that correspond to the coupon packets you actually get? I get the best results doing my own coupon matching with the sales fliers that arrive in my home-delivery edition of The Monroe Evening News.