PHOENIX — The price of everyday items is up and one major impact is food. The timing couldn't be worse as the holiday season is in full swing.
ABC15 Smart Shopper went to the experts and found a way to cut the bill down to save money on holiday feasts.
Star Smith has been couponing for years. She’s gotten so good, her Thanksgiving meal for her family was essentially free.
Smith said, “I feed a family of six." And when asked how much that would cost her, she replied, “It's not costing me anything personal.”
It was all paid for with coupons and rebates.
With Hanukkah underway, and Christmas and Kwanzaa around the corner, ABC15 connected with her to see how much we could save while putting a meal together.
Her first recommendation is to make a plan before you go shopping.
“Create a master list of all of those items that you need,” Smith advised. Then, she said to download a cashback reward app, something like Ibotta or Swagbucks.
The best deal was to do the shopping at Walmart.
Ibotta had a $15 money-back coupon on a turkey deal in the app. ABC15 found a good-sized turkey for $12 and after uploading the receipt into the app, we received the full money back so the turkey was essentially free.
It’s time to tackle the sides. “You can go in and you can get the mashed potatoes. It's $1.88 at Walmart you get the family size pack. Ibotta is going to reimburse you for $1.88,” Smith said.
We picked up potatoes, soup, veggies, a pie, and a liter of Coca-Cola. The total bill for the food was $22 and we received Ibotta sign-up money, so the food was completely covered and the account had a surplus of $2.
This is huge savings for so many families.
Smith said, “Oh, my goodness, inflation is really. Even the cost of turkeys is up right now, and if people only knew that these savings were available, I feel like a lot of people would be taking advantage of this.”