Money Saving Monday - Grocery

Money-Saving Monday!

Let's talk groceries! How do you save money on your groceries. As someone who receives food stamps and has extra kids to feed with my daycare, I definitely need to stretch my dollar for groceries. Here are a few simple things:

Packing lunches:

-Leftovers are perfect for lunches, packed or not, and make sure that you don't waste food (and money!) by letting it rot in your fridge!

-Try not to buy individual packets of food! They are expensive! If you do need to buy individual packets of something, try the clearance section at your grocery store or go to a closeout store like Big Lots, they will be much cheaper!

Don't buy what you don't need:

-You've probably heard this over and over, but it's true- when you have a list to stick to, you spend less money!

-Don't go shopping while you're hungry, everything looks delicious and you'll end up with a lot more food in your cart!

-Don't buy treats unless they're on sale. Sure, you loooove that fancy little cookies in those cute little fluted paper cups, but do you need them? No. Wait for a sale and stock up, you'll save in the long run and it'll help keep less junk in our houses anyway!

Plan, plan, plan:

-Menus! Plan a menu for the week around this week's grocery sales or what you have in your cupboards already, you might be surprised at how much food you actually have!

-Make meals ahead and freeze! Casserole dishes are great for this, take them out of the freezer and into the fridge the night before to thaw and cook it like you normally would. To find some good freezer recipes, Google freezer recipes or Once a month cooking.

-Set limits on eating out! Eating out is expensive! Look online for copycat recipes of your favorite restaurant meals and try them out.

Coupons:

-Last but definitely not least, coupons. Some people say that they don't have time for coupons, but using coupons uses as much time as you let it, you can buy a newspaper every Sunday and get great coupons! You can not buy any newspapers and find great coupons online! The key to coupons, is to only buy what you would buy anyway. Just because those pickled pigs feet are on sale and you have an awesome coupon making them almost free doesn't mean you need to get them. Control yourself and only buy what you'll use.

Merry savings to all and to all some spare change!