Thursday, March 8, 2012

Shopping much?

     So, lots of my friends disparage shopping being naturally as spendthrift as the author of this blog. The worst complaint (from my friends who pay cash for groceries,) is the cost of food. I figured I'd throw out a few tips for grocery shoppers to cut costs.
    Tip 1: Meal plan, don't just indiscriminately buy what you're hungry for, plan meals. When I buy and cook chicken breasts I divide it in to three portions, that's meat for three meals. I plan meals that include chicken, usually one pasta with chicken, one salad with chicken, and one savory barbecue dish or casserole. If you know exactly what you need, your not going to grab everything off the shelf at random, and load up on cupboard place holders like fruit snacks or doritos. Also I use all my leftovers when I meal plan for new dishes, which means less waste. 

     Tip 2: Check your ads twice. Your grocery store puts stuff on sale all the time, only it's not ACTUALLY on sale. It's the same price it was last week with big bold sale letters on it, or it's a whole penny cheaper. This works for people who go "ooo what a deal we'll stock up!" Stores have been doing this FOREVER. So don't be fooled.

     Tip 3: Stock up ONLY if it is incredibly cheap. Stores run sales, like 5 for $25 or $20 meat sales. This is a good time to stock up. Other than that buy what you need and get out. The longer you linger the more stuff you don't need you'll end up buying. I spend roughly forty bucks a week, and then do one big stock up shop for dry goods, and meats for the month. When I stock up on meat my grocery bill including my weekly $40, is around $100. When I stock up on dry goods it's between $60-$80 that also includes my weekly $40.

     That means I spend around $260 a month on a family of three, mind you this is just on food. It doesn't include diapers, or toilet paper, or any of those types of things. I rarely use coupons, I use these tips and buy fresh fruits for snacks. My kids are light eaters too. I know how much they eat, I don't over buy for their appetites. I don't buy prepackaged treats and junk. I do however let them pick out a candy or ice cream every time we go shopping. Now depending on how much your family eats you may not get off so easy, but you'll definitely shave off more than pennies doing it this way.

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