Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sales & Coupons

Following the Budget theme, the next easiest step to saving money is watching sales and clipping coupons. Now, I'm not saying you have to not buy anything not on sale. If you did you WOULD save a lot of money, but it might take you several months/years to get that 60" flatscreen on sale.

Simply begin getting your paper. Watch the sale ads and every day they come out with coupons (we get them twice a week) make sure you save them. Every week (or two, whatever) whenever you make your shopping list, pull out the sale ads and try your best to shop for your food based on what's for sale. We make a menu plan for each week on Thursday/Friday and make a list of everything we need for the week. That way, when we're in the store we're not going "Oooh! that sounds good, and that, and that, and that." Next thing you know you have $300 in groceries and you're still having to eat out 5-6 times that week because you don't have any breakfast/lunch foods.

As for coupons, go meticulously through them and clip anything and everything you may possibly buy. Don't worry if you don't use them, it's better to have them expire than never be considered. We have a zip up trapper keeper that we put a bunch of baseball card holders in and dividers. Each section is labels, Dairy, Meat, Dry Goods, Health & Beauty, etc. We put the coupons in and every week we go through them and see what coupons we can apply to the shopping list. Just remember, just because you have coupons doesn't mean you have to use them. If you get to the store and milk is $3.00 a gallon and you have a $0.25 coupon, it may be cheaper to get the store brand for $2.00. Watch unit prices and don't buy the more expensive stuff just because you have a coupon.

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