Monthly Shopping Update

Hello All!
Here's the Update to my monthly shopping journey, or should I say, Flop? Because of the Thanksgiving Holiday, I failed miserably. I did;however, manage to cut it back to every 2 weeks & only stopped in the store 2 other times & this is why:
Where I live, one of our grocery stores is Big Y. They were giving out $7 off coupons for Turkey. It expired on Nov.26. I received the coupon in the first week of November. Their Turkeys were too expensive. At our other grocery store, Stop & Shop, they were honoring the Big Y coupons and their Turkeys were .59/lb. The only thing was you had to purchase $25 worth of groceries to get the $7 off. Well, we needed to buy more for the Thanksgiving meal anyway, so we did meet the requirements. We purchased a 21 lb. Turkey for $5 and some odd cents!!! Wow!! Totally worth it!! Well, Big Y was giving them out again at the courtesy desk, if you didn't receive one in the mail, well, we did, but in my husband's name. I got another one, because "I" didn't receive one. (We're both savings card members). So, we used the coupon again & received another $25 worth of groceries plus the Turkey deal. Same price at .59/lb, this time spending $4 and some odd cents!! Wow!! On top of this, where my hubby works, the boss gives out Free Turkeys(approx.13 lb) every year. We used the first one we bought for Thanksgiving, we'll use the 2nd Large one for a meal in the Winter, & the free smaller one, I'll be bringing to my Mom's house for her Christmas celebration, as she only wants a small one because she makes a ham as well. That's my contribution to the meal. I'll be making 2 desserts too. ;) So I did run a few times to the store, but it was extremely worth it!!
The Groceries ran a little more than usual as we had my father over for a big dinner the day after Thanksgiving(that's our meal at our home so we have it the way we want it & have our own leftovers-we go to my Aunt's house for the actual Thanksgiving day meal). Our monthly grocery shopping ventures total came up to $562. Not bad for 2 Vegans(our kids) in the house, a Gluten free diet(me: I have Celiac disease) & a Holiday! Next month may be similar, but I feel we can do better. I'll rehash this subject next month.

 Note: I think for now, anyway, that Grocery shopping every 2 weeks works better for our family than the Once a Month shopping does.
 Any ideas for saving on groceries? What do you do? Do you shop once a month? Once every 2 weeks? Any Tips for Saving?
*I should also say that I don't use coupons as often anymore, as it's difficult to find coupons for our products, but I'm hoping to rectify that soon.
Tips:
1)A Monthly Menu helps
2)Pantry meals many nights help(use only what's in your pantry for a meal- you need to be stocked)
3)Grocery lists with coupons, if have any
4)NEVER shop hungry!
5)Try to shop alone, or with people who have the same goals in mind
6)Meatless meals more than once a week(Beans are great protein & fiber source & quite inexpensive)
Have a Great Month of December & Happy Holidays to all!!