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Groceries is one of the items on your budget that
you have control over. You
may not be able to change your car payment or mortgage payment but you
can certainly control how much (or little) you spend on groceries.
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Plan
meals in advance. I
plan my meals by the month. I
have a huge magnet calendar on the side of my refrigerator and once
a month I sit down and write each meal for each day.
I then shop by the month.
This allows me to buy in bulk and share ingredients. Others
will plan by the week or 2 weeks – figure out what works best for
your family.
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Once a month cooking (also known as
freezer cooking) can help you save money and time. Click
here to find out how to do it!
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Use
a grocery list. If you
can limit yourself to only what is on your list you will be able to
avoid impulse buying.
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Leave
the kids at home – if possible.
I always end up buying things that I don’t need because my
child will see something and ask for it.
I don’t give in to the cash register stuff like gums and
candies – but I usually cave when it comes to a bag of chips, or
cookies.
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Use
coupons with care. Coupons
can be great money savers if they are items you normally buy.
Don’t let a coupon be an excuse to buy something you
wouldn’t normally buy just because you’ll save .40!
Another thing to consider – coupons are generally for name
brand items. Many times
the off brand items are cheaper than the name brand items with a
coupon. Shop smart!
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Create
a price book. I use my
palm pilot to keep track of prices at grocery stores. For example when I need to buy diapers I can look at my
price book and see which stores sell my brand the cheapest.
It helps me to recognize sales also.
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When
you have leftovers freeze them to reuse in future recipes.
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Eat
less meat and fill up on vegetables and pasta.
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Plan
meals around what is on sale and what is in your pantry.
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Cook
from scratch
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Serve
bread with every meal
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I
try to stick to this price plan for meat:
I don’t pay more than $2.00 per pound for steaks, pork and
fish. I shop till I find it and then buy in bulk
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When
your store has a good sale on items you use a lot, stock up.
Recommended Books:
Not Just Beans: 50 Years of Frugal Family Favorites: Not Just
Beans is a collection of frugal recipes and tips from the cooking
expertise of three generations of Tawra Kellam's family. Using these
tips and suggestions, Mrs. Kellam shows how anyone can tighten his or
her food budget. In the book, Tawra shares the secrets of how she spends
an average of $125 per month feeding her family of four. Not
Just Beans is designed for the beginner as well as the more experienced
cook. It contains over 540 recipes and 420 tips explaining how to eat
well while slashing your grocery bill. The recipes are easy to cook with
ingredients readily found at your local grocery store. With hard-to-
find frugal recipes like buttermilk, enchilada sauce and granola bars,
classic favorites like slow cooked roast, hush puppies and apple crisp
and old-fashioned comfort foods like watermelon pickles, lemon bars,
rice pudding and fried green tomatoes, Not Just Beans has it all. Miserly Meals: Healthy, Tasty
Recipes Under 75 Cents Per Serving: Learn how
to prepare inexpensive, delicious and healthy meals that are easy to
prepare. The book includes main dish recipes, appetizers,
beverages, soups, vegetables and side dishes, the "Twelve days of
Turkey", slow cooking, breads and muffins, sauces and dressings,
mixes, as well as desserts and snacks.
Feed Your Family for $12 a Day:
This is an update to the authors book "Feed Your Family for $50
a Week." Contains a lot of the same information so you
don't need both books.
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