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December's Total: $272.58 in Free Groceries

I wrote this article at the end of December, so there were more free grocery opportunities than normal due to Christmas gifts and holiday specials at the stores. I also had some saved up rewards points on my credit cards, so I can't save this much in groceries every month. But even for December, I think I had a pretty good haul!

Here is a summary of how I acquired $272 in free food in December, $437 if I include Christmas gifts and gift cards I can use for food in the total.

My December Free Food Summary

1. Free Sam's Club Gift Cards - $150. I use a Discover rewards card with 1% cash back rewards for groceries, utilities, restaurants, etc. I pay the card off each month but I pay for as much as I can by charge cards for the 1% back.

Instead of just getting cash back, Discover also has special offers where you can get gift cards at various merchants at a discount. For example, you can redeem $45 in points for a $50 J.C. Penney's gift card or $40 in points for a $50 Lands' End gift card.

As of this writing, you can use $40 of your Discover rewards for a Sam's Club membership gift card and get a $10 free gift certificate. However, if you read the fine print, if you already have a Sam's club membership, you can use the membership card like a gift card. I had been saving up my points for awhile, so this past month I redeemed them 3 times for the Sam's Club membership offer. In return I received three $40 gift cards and three $10 bonus gift cards for a total of $150.

The rewards cards are a good deal on their own, but getting an extra $10 for $40 in points is like earning 25% on your money. I used some of the gift cards so far to buy staples at Sam's Club, like rice, nuts and tissues.

2. Free Raley's Grocery Coupons - $30. Raleys/Nob Hill grocery stores had a special this past month, buy two $30 iTunes gift card packs and receive a coupon for $10 free for anything in the store. Getting $10 on $60 (for two packs) is like earning 17% return on your money. I bought three gift card packs for Christmas gifts and three for myself, since I am an avid iTunes user and will easily spend this amount on iTunes in a year anyway. In return I received $30 in store coupons.

The store coupons had an expiration date in two weeks, but if I hadn't been able to use them in that time I could have bought a gift card with no expiration date with the coupons.

3. Bringing my own reusable bags store credit - $ . 60. Hey, every penny counts. Many grocery stores will give you a 5 cent credit per bag if you bring your own bags. I keep a stack of cloth grocery sacks in my car to use whenever I go grocery shopping. After I unpack my groceries I put the bags right back in the car so I have them when I need them.

4. Drugstore Rewards Deals - $9.50. Drugstores like Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS often have specials where you can buy sales items and get a store credit to boot. For example, buy two boxes of tea for $3 each and get $2 back in store credits. You have to really watch the prices at drug stores because often the merchandise is over priced to begin with so their "sales" often just bring the prices down to regular Costco prices. However, sometimes you can get good deals this way, especially if you combine the "buy one, get one free offers" with coupons and store rewards points.

This past month I have gotten for free:

One small container of orange juice - $1.50
One bag of pecans on sale - $3.00.
Two Ramen noodle packs - $ .50
One bag of prunes on sale - $2.50
Four containers of spices on sale - $2.00

Total Value: $9.50.

Whenever I have drug store reward points to use I always use them to buy more groceries on sale to stretch my dollars even further.

5. Coupons - $3.60. I don't spend a lot of time on coupons since they are hard to find on whole foods like apples and celery, but I do find some good deals with little effort at www.grocerysmarts.com now and then. Grocery smarts lists weekly sale ads for grocery stores by geographic area, plus they link to coupons shoppers can use in addition to the sales. It is like the Grocery Game site but Grocery Smarts is free to use. They also have stars by each sale item so you can tell how good a deal the sale is, at least in their opinion. Sometimes with sale prices and coupons you can get stuff for free or just a fraction of the original price.

6. Free carton of eggs - $2.90. Safeway had a special where customers could get a coupon for a free carton of eggs simply for registering at their web site.

7. Free shrimp plate - $7.99. Nob Hill has a Friday freebie for registered users with a $20 minimum purchase. Lately is has been something more modest like carrots or popcorn, but prior to Christmas one day they had a spend $20, get a shrimp plate for free.

8. Raley's Store gift card - $15. Nob Hill had a special offer one week that if you spend $75, get a $15 coupon for free groceries. I stocked up on weekly special items and organic foods that I can't buy cheaper anywhere else.

9. Free reusable shopping bag - $2.99. My son's orthodontist was giving these out for free. They have an advertisement for his practice on the sides. He gets free advertising and I get the free bag which I can use to earn $.05 each time I go to the store.

10. Chase / Amazon Rewards Credit - $50. Besides my Discover Card, I also have an Amazon Rewards card. I get 3% back on Amazon purchases. I saved up my points and in December received a $50 credit on my charge card, allowing me to charge an extra $50 in groceries for free.

11. Christmas gifts - $165.00. I put chocolate on my wish list this year and received 3 boxes of chocolates worth and one pie worth about $15.00. I also received and $150 in gift cards I can use at restaurants or grocery stores.

Other Ways to Get Food for Free

1. Send for free samples - use Roboform to fill out request forms quickly. Use a free email account for registration and use P.O. box, if you have one, for the address.

2. Look for restaurant happy hours with free food.

3. Check out the free food samples at places like Trader Joe's and Costco.

4. Check out the deals at www.grocerysmarts.com. Sometimes after sales and coupons you can get food for free or close to it.

5. Replace your lawn with an edible garden. Or if you are really serious, try urban homesteading. We know several city dwelling families with back yard chickens for fresh eggs.

6. If you don't have a lawn try container or herb gardening.

7. Sign up for free restaurant meals on your birthday.

8. Buy an Entertainment book. Buy one restaurant meal and get one for free.

9. If you have a low income, check out programs you might qualify for, including soup kitchens, WIC, food stamps, food bank programs, etc.

10. Look for buy one get one free (B1G1) specials. Be sure to keep a price book to know if you are really getting a good deal. Some stores buy one get one free prices may not be as good as Costco or Sam's Club regular prices. Usually B1G1 free can beat warehouse store prices if you can add coupons and store reward points to the mix.

11. Plant fruit trees in your backyard. We have neighbors that had so much fruit, with just a suburban sized back yard, that they literally could not give it all away. They even had a hassle with the trash pick up service because the excess fruit they had to throw away made they garbage cans too heavy for pick up!

12. If you do have friends with a garden surplus, take whatever you can get and freeze or dehydrate what you can't eat for future use.

13. Sign up online for loyalty programs at all of the drug store and supermarkets' web sites. They may send you special offers not available to the general public, or offer you a free gift just for signing up.

14. Make a cool web site or blog on how you save money on groceries or get food for free. I save money on our family groceries while doing research for this site. Plus. I make enough money from my frugal web sites and blogs to pay for a significant portion of my family's grocery bills each month.

15. Use a cash back rewards card for all of your grocery purchases. It is like getting 1 - 2% of your groceries for free. As of this writing, Fidelity Investment has a an American Express rewards card that pays 2% back with no annual fee. (This only works if you manage your credit cards carefully and pay your bills off in full each month. If you aren't instrinsically frugal, you might be better off simply sticking to paying with cash).

16. Bring your own grocery bags. Many stores will give you a 5 cent credit per bag. So don't skimp on the number of bags you bring in to the store and don't use oversized bags.

Frugality includes all other virtues. ~ Cicero