9/25/2010
As promised, here is my first money saving post. I have no idea how many posts this will end up being but I'll start with this. There are literally hundreds of blogs that list deals, give tips on using coupons and share tons of money saving help. I had several sites on my Google reader but easily became overwhelmed. I've found that I can look at what works for someone and figure out which pieces work for me.
Here is what I know DOES NOT work for me.
- I'm not a several store shopper. I do most of my shopping at Target and do a little shopping at Whole Foods.
- I don't do the drug store game. If you read many money saving blogs they often talk drug store deals. At this point, it's not something that I have time to figure out and we are using more and more natural toiletries. There are rarely deals on these products and I have no desire to add another store to my route.
- I don't use coupons to purchase products I wouldn't normally buy. I found that I spent a lot of money to save $0.25-$0.75 on products.
First, I look in the fridge and see what's there. I know it seems like common sense but I do it every week. I can't tell you how much money this saves me. I forget week to week what I've purchased and I often forget that I have the ingredients for at least one meal left over from the week before. I also see what ingredients I have and might only need a few things to make a complete meal.
Next I look at what's on sale that week. Once I have an idea of what I have and what's on sale I create a menu plan. A lesson that we learned early in our marriage is that if we don't have food at home that we are excited to eat we will avoid it and eat out. I make it a priority to change up our meals every week and use our tight budget to create exceptional food. This helps us save money as well which has allowed us to drastically cut our eating out budget.
Once I pick the meal plans, I create a grocery list. Once that list is created I double check that I'm not buying anything I already have by checking the fridge again. I know that sounds ridiculous! But after seeing that I had 6 boxes of butter because I kept buying never remembering if I had already purchased it, this became a mandatory final step!
I think this post is long enough! I'll post soon with the next steps. Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!
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