Okay first and foremost I am not anywhere near like an extreme couponer..Not even close.. My method of saving on grocery shopping is fairly simple, nothing too crazy or complicated. I'm not even sure if it's blog worthy either, but it saves me money so I figure most people like to save money right? So why not share!
It all starts with making a plan, I sit down and write out a meal plan for the month. Yep a whole month! It includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Once I have my meals planned out I write out a grocery list of all the things I need for meals and such. I then look over all the ads and ad match the things I have on my list with the things that are on sale.. Make sense? It does in my head haha If something is on sale but not on my list and it just happens to be a super good deal and something we use I get it! After the ad matching I go through my coupons and clip coupons for items I will be purchasing. I think what saves me the most money is a good chunk of items on my list are on sale AND I have a coupon for them! Double savings right there! I won't lie it does take time and patience... and trust me being a mother of two young girlies I don't have a lot of either :) But when you're on a tight budget you do what ya gotta do!
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So at the end of my shopping trip I spent a total of $160 for a full months worth of groceries! That also includes all of our paper goods, cleaning supplies, diapers, and hygiene necessities. Another tip that helps me out a lot is I buy my meat in bulk, then I separate it into freezer bags and freeze it. Then when I need it for a meal I just pull it out of the freezer and have the quantity I need all ready to be defrosted for dinner. I also freeze my milk, bread and tortillas and just pull them out as needed. It works really well! A lot of what I buy is store brand, which I don't have a problem with. Some things can't be bought store brand it just doesn't taste the same. But you would be surprised how comparable a lot of it is to name brand stuff! That in itself saves a ton! When it comes to produce there's no way I could stock up on that and have it last a whole month. I try to get fresh produce every week to week and a half. By the end of the month I only end up spending an extra $10 on it. So all in all I will spend about $170 on groceries this month including produce. There are 3 places I shop that sell produce for SOOO cheap! Superstition Ranch Market, Food City, and Pros Ranch Market. You literally can get bags and bags of produce for dirt cheap! So there ya have it my way of grocery shopping in a not so nut shell :) I know the extreme couponers out there may look at this and laugh and think what a joke it is in comparison to what they save. But I do what works for me! Hopefully this helps out anyone who wants to save on groceries!! I'll say it again, it can be time consuming but in the end SO worth it!!
Happy shopping and saving to you ALL :)
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