Joining your grocery store rewards programs can net savings

Last week, I was in my local Food Lion store when I happened upon a new mother. She was checking the prices on diapers and wipes. I casually mentioned that since the diapers weren't on sale, her best bet would be the Dollar General Store down the street, which would save her a few dollars. She smiled and thanked me telling me that she was new to the area. I asked her if she had heard of the Baby Steps program? Nope. What about Pet Perks? Same deer in the headlights look she had given me for the previous question. This poor girl was missing out on some serious savings and I spent the next few minutes cluing her in.

Food Lion has a Baby Steps program for moms and dads and a Pet Perks program for pet owners. How does this work? You don't need to join, per se, but printing out coupons and using them will get you onto their marketing list. When you joined Food Lion, you gave them your address, right? Using the coupons and scanning your Food Lion card alerts them to market these products to you via mailings to your home and catalinas that print out at the register. Be sure to check out the Baby Steps coupon page if you have a baby or toddler and the Pet Perks page if you have a cat, dog or both!

Additionally, I highly recommend signing up for Food Lion's Shoppers Companion. Each week on Wednesday, I receive an email which allows me to access their ad. An added bonus is the Food Lion printable coupons, which vary each week. Many times they are paired with sale items and you can get some items very inexpensively. I have friends in different parts of my state and sometimes the coupons vary by region, so we make use of the "Share with a Friend" link and send a copy of the email to each other so that we all can share in the coupon savings.

Don't forget to sign up for the Food Lion panel, as this is an excellent way to provide feedback for your store. They run these surveys as a sort of sweepstakes and one time I won a $25 gift card. The surveys are usually very quick to do and worth the effort to get a chance of winning a gift card.

Most of the time, stores don't heavily advertise their available programs. So if you are serious about coupon savings, Google your grocery stores' sites and check to see if they offer any special programs that meet your household needs.