Making Every Penny Count

My husband and I use a household budget to keep track of what comes in financially, and especially of what comes out.  One area that we really struggle with month after month, is our grocery budget.  The causes for this constantly puzzles me.  Although I admit that I do pick up an impulse buy once in awhile, we waste very little food overall.  For a small family our size though, the numbers never seem to add up--  We are spending too much!  For this reason, we decided that it was time to take try some new techniques that will hopefully make our grocery shopping more gentle on the wallet.

The first thing we have tried for this month is to create a Monthly Meal Plan.  In the past I planned our weekday dinners for the week (weekends I just left up in the air since our routine varies).  About a week before October 1st however, I printed a calendar online and started filling in the days with dinners and making my shopping list.  I marked several days with "Leftovers" or "Take Out", and tried to consider our work schedules and any events we will be attending.  Next, we made an enormous grocery trip for all of the ingredients we would need during the month.  I still planned a weekly trip to the store to pick up any fresh produce needed, but mostly we stocked our freezer and our pantry, and bought as many bulk items as appropriate.  

We are exactly halfway through the month, and things are going very well.  The meal plan has been a blessing in many ways.  It has reduced the stress of last-minute "whats for dinner?", and has also forced me to make less trips to the grocery store (thus reducing impulse buys).  I am already planning on trying to choose meals according to items on sale next month, to try to save even more money.

The second technique that we are experimenting with is coupon-clipping.  We decided to subscribe to the Sunday newspaper, and have started gathering coupons for items that we are likely to purchase.  I also registered with a few products that I am loyal to (Pampers, Target), so that that they would send me coupons, or notify me about sales.  I did not grow up in a family that uses coupons, and part of me still has doubts that $.50 off here and 1$ off there will make a big different, but I am willing to give it a try.  I honestly hope to prove myself wrong!

I do not think that we will hit our budget goal exactly by the end of this month, but we are making improvements, and I think that with practice we will get there.  I thought that it would be fun to share this adventure with other young adults learning the ropes of family life, and also ask-- What do you do to stretch your dollar?  Any additional advice for young families?

Deal junkie

I've recently become a deal junkie scouring the internet for good deals on things we are planning to buy. Three of my favorite sites are Groupon and Jasmere and Zulilly. Groupon has you pick your city then shows you one good deal a day. Today's happens to be awesome: discounted tickets to the SeaLife Aquarium at Legoland in Carlsbad. I'll be picking up 4 tickets for us - Ella is obsessed with fish so we'll take her there for her birthday :) Jasmere also has one deal a day, but theirs ranges from coffee to sheets to reusable baggies. On top of selling discounted products, they also sell vouchers. For example, you would pay $20 for a $50 voucher at their featured retailer. Zulilly is all for moms and kids and sells clothes, gear, and toys at a discounted price. It's an awesome way to stock up on gifts for the year. Enjoy!

My Grocery Deals. Com

I just heard about a wonderful website to help all of us save money on food while still feeling like we're "treating" ourselves! If you're anything like me I have my staple must-haves on my grocery list: bread, milk, cheese, tortillas, salad, turkey meat... etc. and everything else I buy, I try to get on sale or buy the store brand. Sometimes I feel like my shopping gets pretty bland - boy would I love to throw a filet mignon in that basket, but I'd also like to pay my electic bill! I've recently noticed the "special" meat section. This is the area where they put the food that will expire if not used of frozen by a certain date - there are quite a lot of cheap treats in there and I throw them in the freezer when I get home! That's how sometimes we get steak or last night we had a wonderful marinated whole chicken normally at least $10 on sale for $4. Enough chicken to last my husband and I for two meals - chicken, stuffing and vegis last night and chicken tacos tonight for $4!!!

So onto the promised website: Mygrocerydeals.com allows you to enter your zip code and find grocery deals at a lot of the local grocery stores. The website even categorizes the food, so you can compare all the "pork roasts" on sale... then if that's not great enough it lets you make your own grocery list where it tells the location and price of your item! I just found the website so I'm looking forward to using it next week.

Also, I just heard you should try to shop around for store deals as much as you can, if time allows, and it shouldn't waste too much gas but the savings should really add up!