This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.
“How do I shop for healthy foods while still saving money and being frugal?” This is a common question that many health minded individuals ask. Eating healthy and taking care of your health is always the goal, but it can seem like everything healthy is so expensive. These seemingly high price tags on healthy foods discourage people from eating healthy, but I have found that eating healthy can actually be really inexpensive.
One of the best methods to save money when buying healthy food is by “coupon stacking.” Coupon stacking is when you utilize multiple coupons and offers to achieve HUGE savings. The best way to do this is with digital coupons and offers.
Along with coupon stacking, there are many other tips and tricks that you can utilize to increase your savings. If you are interested in learning more tips that I use to save money at the grocery store on a college student budget, you can check out that article here.
“But I’ve already tried couponing and it is too much of a hassle.”
Paper coupons are great and can offer incredible savings, but I have found that digital coupons are just so much easier to use and I am able to save just as much, if not more. I prefer digital coupons because I can coordinate these savings straight from my phone, and not have to worry about cutting coupons and carrying them around the grocery store.
The principal of coupon stacking and using apps to save money from your phone can be applied to almost ANY grocery store. Each store will have different specific strategies for saving the MOST amount of money, but in this article I will be talking about my strategies for saving money at Target.
Target has been my favorite for grocery savings because it is so easy to save! And you know the old phrase,
“A penny saved is a penny earned.”
Here are the 3 best methods I have been using to save big while grocery shopping at Target.
Saving Big While Shopping Healthy at Target
1. Cartwheel coupons
Target makes it very easy to save with their Cartwheel coupons. By downloading the Target app and browsing through their digital coupon offers, you can knock 5-50% off the price of hundreds of items.
This can be done by either “adding offers” to your digital wallet prior to checkout, or by using the scanner feature on every individual item individual items. Either way, when you pay using the digital wallet feature at checkout, these coupons will automatically be appliedI
I prefer using the scanner feature when I am in the store instead of adding things to my cart ahead of time. I like doing this because I am coupon stacking, and I am already scouting for specific products that I have previously added to my Ibotta offers. Once I find the product that I am looking for that qualifies for an Ibotta rebate, I will then scan the product with the Cartwheel scanner to see if there is also an additional store coupon for it.
Using Cartwheel will generally save me $7 ~ $12 per shopping trip. For me, one shopping trip will last 1-3 weeks of food, and is usually around $100.
Using simple math, you can see that Cartwheel provides an average saving of ~10% on my grocery bill!
The Cartwheel platform also has additional coupons and offers on the front screen that can add HUGE savings for items you may need to purchase anyway.
This is just one example of how to use coupons to easily save money when buying whole plant-based foods. Let’s look into how I exponentially increase these savings!
2. Target Redcard
Because of the savings potential that Cartwheel provides, I became interested in finding other Target savings that I could take advantage of. It is no surprise that with my love for credit cards and “credit card churning,” that I was soon drawn to the Target REDcard.
The Target REDcard provides a ravishing 5% savings on ALL purchased made at Target. When I heard this, I knew I needed to sign up for one immediately.
The process of getting the card was extremely easy. To qualify for the card you only need a credit of around 615 or higher, and the process to sign up for the card was fairly straightforward.
I have my REDcard linked to my Target wallet, so when I checkout using the Target app not only do my Cartwheel coupons get applied, but my REDcard savings are immediately applied as well! You can also pay using the physical card, but it is much more satisfying (and easy!) to connect your card to the app and pay using this feature.
With the REDcard, I generally save around $5 ~ $7 per shopping trip, and although it may not seem like much, this 5% really adds up over time.
One additional reason to love the Target REDcard is for the bonus coupon that sometimes comes with the card. When I signed up for my card, Target was running a promotion that included a “$35 coupon when spending more than $70.” This is one of the BEST coupons that I have EVER seen! They also just ran an offer for a $40 coupon during the month of July!
Be sure to keep your eyes open for limited time offers such as these, that make the REDcard just THAT much more lucrative!
REDcard is also great for the following reasons:
-
5% off your entire purchase at Target & Target.com
-
FREE Shipping on any size order at Target.com (this is great for when you see clearance items or only need one item)
-
30 extra days for returns
-
10% off coupon as a gift on your REDcard anniversary each year
-
Early access to special events, products & promotions and exclusive extras
Last quick note, the 5% REDcard savings is applied to your total *after the Cartwheel savings have been applied.*
3. Ibotta
I am an avid fan of Ibotta. I have completely been converted to the Ibotta lifestyle because it is one of the easiest ways that I have found to make FREE money. Now every time I go to the grocery store, I always utilize my Ibotta app, and get a thrill knowing how much cash I am going to make from SHOPPING!
Think about it, you get paid to shop for food and products that you love… It really doesn’t get much better than that!
The best way to get started is to go through the Ibotta app FIRST before you go to the grocery store. Generally the day before my shopping trip I will scroll through the product options on the app, and add items that I know I will need.
From there, I shop like normal. I remember which products I added to my Ibotta list, and make sure that I am buying the same products that had offers on the Ibotta app. When I get home after my shopping trip, I will upload my receipt on the Ibotta app to receive my cash back.
Pro tip: When uploading receipts on the Ibotta app, it is important to verify that it found all of the “offers” that you added and purchased. If it missed items, click “add offers” and you can easily add the offers that the app missed the first time. Often times the app will miss some of the deals when just uploading a picture of the receipt.
How much do I make with Ibotta?
This is a hard question to answer, because it will vary greatly from each shopping trip. For an average size shopping trip, with smart utilization of the app I generally make ~$20 using Ibotta.
This is before including many of the bonuses and incentives that Ibotta provides to their users. Here’s a couple examples of bonuses that I received on my last few shopping trips:
-
$20 welcome bonus – I received this bonus by redeeming 10 offers within my first 14 days of opening my account
-
$3 Weekend Warrior – $3 – This bonus was for redeeming 10 offers during the weekend.
-
$28.70 Cool Off With 100K Pot – This bonus was really fun! All it required was inviting 3 friends to the app within the month, and I was entered into a $100,000 prize pot!
-
$10 sign up bonus – I actually MISSED OUT on this bonus offer because I signed up for Ibotta without using a referral link 🙁 but I WOULD HAVE gotten this bonus if I had just done research before signing up! You can avoid making the same mistake I did by signing up using this link!
How I saved almost $100 on my last Target grocery trip
My last shopping trip at Target, I was able to use the above couponing stacking methods to save almost $100! This was a HUGE milestone for me, as I have been working towards saving money on my grocery bill while still buying high quality plant based foods, for a long time now.
Here is the breakdown of my largest savings grocery trip and how I saved ~$100. To make the breakdown easier, I have rounded these figures into whole numbers.
Total grocery bill without any savings applied – $244
Target Cartwheel savings – $13
Target Redcard savings – $9
Target coupon that came with Target Redcard – $35
In Target savings alone, I have already saved ~$57! That alone is incredible, over 20% savings!
Now let’s see how much I was able to make in additional *cash back* by using the Ibotta app.
Ibotta cash back – $39.55
This brings my total savings on this grocery trip to $97! That is 40% savings on my grocery trip!
How long did all that food last me?
You may be asking, “how long did all that food last you?” For this trip I was able to stretch it out for about 3-4 weeks, meaning my food bill this month was only about $150 altogether!
I usually shop every 2-3 weeks for groceries because I like to have fresh produce, but when I can stretch out my food, I usually do. This trip was larger than normal because I was very very low on food, and because I wanted to exemplify the power of coupon stacking and how much money you truly can save on groceries.
Why Coupon Stacking is About More Than Saving Money
The best part about coupon stacking is that it solves the problem that most people face with eating healthy… “It is too expensive.” By using these methods, along with other saving techniques, I am able to buy healthy whole foods while saving money, all on a student budget!
Frugality is important, but our health is always top priority. That is why being able to save money while still buying healthy food is a HUGE win-win for me!
