After arriving from Germany to Texas we have been fighting the endless battle of how to live on much smaller checks with much bigger bills. I watch the extreme couponing shows and it makes me sick how much these people hoard items that will go bad long before they ever even get used, I hope they watch their expiration dates carefully and at least donate some but I doubt it. Not only do they buy stuff they will never use but they don't have much in the way of meals except things like spaghetti. My family and I like meat whether is red, white or ground up we have meat in some way every night. Where I am in Texas there are no stores that even offer doubling and tripling coupons which is how much extremers get so much bang for their buck so going extreme isn't even a possibility. So I just go to the store smart, not extreme. Here are some tips I have come up with to stretch every dollar I possibly can and still be able to feed all 4 of us plus two dogs 3 times a day on $150 every two weeks.
Tip #1- The best store in central Texas to shop at and get more bang for your buck is HEB. They are amazing between their sales, coupons and free item offers. NEVER shop at HEB on a Wednesday because that is their sales transition day so they have very few coupons out an their sales flyer runs Thursday to Tuesday so there are little to no sales on Wednesdays.
Tip #2- Take inventory of what's in your pantry, fridge and freezer before you make your shopping list. Most people go to the store and just buy groceries with no rhyme or reason and by the time you get home you can't even remember what all meals you planned on making or if you even got what you need to make said meals. I bet if you take a long hard look to can find at least two meals that you didn't even know you had in there just because you forgot you bought it.
Tip #3- Make a VERY detailed grocery/meals list. We go anywhere from 14-17 days between paychecks but my budget for groceries stays the same. When we are on one of the extra long payday stretches that inventory you made in tip #2 is going to come in very handy. Here's how I make my shopping list: I take a piece of paper, on the front side I write down all the meals I know I can make with what I have leftover in the fridge, freezer and pantry. Next step is thinking up cheap but still good meals we feel like making for the two weeks, make sure you plan a meal for EVERYDAY (this comes in later as being extra important). Tacos and pizza are usually always two of the meals I have planned because we love them and have yet to get sick of having them once every two weeks. Once you have you list of meals flip your paper over and write down every ingredient you need for each meal. This is going to be your actual shopping list so make it pretty lol. Once your have written down everything you need go to your pantry, fridge and freezer and cross off all those little things that you already have like cans of cream of chicken soup, seasonings, maybe you already have a can of corn. If you notice there is a particular meal that needs a lot of stuff and you have none of it come up with a back up meal for that day so once you get to the store and see how much everything needed for that meal will cost you can stick with your cheaper back up one. Also if you have a meal that calls for say...a box of bisquick or something try and get to meals out of things like that since they aren't always cheap. Maybe you can make biscuits to go with dinner and pancakes for breakfast and still have more left that you can use for meals the following payday too.
Tip #4- Now that you have a list of meals you will actually like to eat you can start hunting for ways to save money on them. I pay a $10 fee per month to use http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ for my HEB shopping. This website lists all the sales going at my local HEB, it lists all the coupons they have available in store and tells you what percentage you will actually save when you take advantage of these deals. HEB is great with doing "meal deals" every week where you can buy one or two items and get all kinds of free stuff with it. For example when I went to the store yesterday the meal deal for this week's ad was when you bought one of the huge Stoffer's Lasagnas you got garlic bread, salad and a few other items free with it. This means that for only the cost of your main "ingredient" you can get everything you need for the entire meal. These deals can be amazing but here's where paying attention to the Grocery Game comes into play, I saw that deal and the lasagna they offered was enough to feed my entire family for two days but the lasagna was $11 and the free items offered with it didn't have much value to them since the garlic bread was only worth 99 cents and so on. The grocery game showed me my percent of savings on this particular meal deal was only about 30% and since we don't really like lasagna it wasn't worth spending $11 of my budget on this particular deal. Most weeks the meal deal is definitely worth it because it is something we would enjoy eating and the savings is great but not this week and that's ok since a new meal deal will be out in just a few days that we might benefit from better. When you are looking at the deals and coupons on the Grocery Game they highlight the deals with the best savings percentages for you can you can focus on those to get ideas for breakfasts and lunches (trust me I know that I hadn't included those yet :) You can also adjust your grocery lists to add in a meal deal and maybe take out one of your meals that you don't see any savings on. Once you click on a deal it tells you how many you have to buy to get the deal, what your final total will be for each offer and where the coupon is that you will need for it i.e in store or online on coupons.com, red plum. After you click on every deal you might be interested in click the gather coupons tab. This tab shows you if there are any manufactures coupons that can be used with anything you picked out from the sales list. You can find a link to the coupon sites where these can be printed on the website as well. Now print your list of the deals you picked out. Your list will show the breakdown of what each deal offers and what kind of coupon you need for it.
Here's an example of how to combine meal deals with manufactures coupons:
This week for each box of Nature's Valley Granola Bars that I purchased there was a in store coupon to get a free HEB 2L soda with purchase. I also found a manufactures coupon for 50 cents off of 2 boxes of these same granola bars. Sooooo when I bought 2 boxes of granola bars (which my husband loves) I also got 2 FREE 2L sodas and saved 50 cents! How's that for savings!
Tip #5- Coupons!!!!! It's time to hunt down those coupons you saw on the Grocery Game that were NOT in store ones. HEB posts all their in store coupons directly in front of each item that the coupon can be used on so you never have to worry about hunting for those just grab them while you shop. http://www.coupons.com/ and http://www.couponmom.com/ are sites that you can use to pick and print coupons for free. Each coupon can only be printed twice and making copies of coupons is illegal so print your two and only use those. Now if you find ads you can clip and use as many as you want, we don't have very good coupon sections in our papers here so I just stick with using the online sites. Only print coupons you know you'll use and watch the expiration dates because there is no sense wasting ink and paper if they expire in two weeks and you can't fit these items into your list. If you have 2 cans of condensed soup on your grocery list make sure you print the coupon for how ever many cents you can get off when you buy three. <<<<<That right there is how you build a usable stock pile. See come next payday when you need condensed soup for a meal that can be one of the things you cross off the grocery list next payday. Or if you need 4 cans next payday you still have that extra can of soup AND that extra coupon for savings off three cans so your still coming out ahead. Never be afraid to do google searches for coupons because sometimes name brands only post them to their websites or print in ads and do not allow online places like coupons.com to access them.
Here's another example of something: I saw on Grocery Game that my Tyson frozen chicken was supposed to have a coupon from the Red Plum on Sept. 23rd but since I don't clip coupons from the paper I didn't have it. Coupons.com didn't have one either so I just googled it and found the coupon on their website so printed it from there. Easy peasy!
Now take a break and breathe because as complicated as this sounds it's really not that hard and it's totally worth the work when you can save anywhere from $25-$60 at least on your grocery bill every payday.
Tip #6- You are never to good to use store brands. A lot of people shy away from store brands thinking they are not as good as the name brand products and when buying at Wal Mart I agree with you but that is not the case at HEB. There are two store brands HEB carries, Hill Country Fare and the actual HEB brand stuff. I have never had any problems with Hill Country brand items not being just as good as the original name brand stuff they are knocked off of. The HEB brand is still good for canned items and such but I do not like it as much for things like cereal. Since these are in house items they don't go on sale as often as name brands do BUT they offer more coupons on these things.
Tip #7- Buy a bag of chicken every payday. We eat a lot of chicken so this is a no brainer for me but having frozen chicken around can save your budget all the time. For a family of 4 you can turn almost any boxed side dish into a full meal with only using 3-4 chicken breast. Most of the time there are a few breast in the bag that are thicker and would take forever to bake or grill so these ones are the perfect ones to chop up and through in a box of shells and cheese along with a can of rotel (hint hint recipe for some cheap mexi mac). A $10 bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts can give you about 3 meals.
Tip #8- YOUR READY TO HEAD TO THE STORE!!!!! Grab your Grocery Game sales list, your stack of coupons, a pen and clear your head so your ready to focus. While you are in the store the meals you can make up as you go along finding savings are breakfasts and lunches. My kids take their lunches to school everyday and breakfasts need to be quick but filling so I always get stuff for sandwiches, waffles, pancakes and our snack box we keep. When you first walk into the store you walk into the fresh fruit/veggie area I grab whatever is on sale for that week that my kids will actually eat. When fruit and veggies are on sale it is either because it's their peak season and they are the freshest possible for the year or because they are going out of season so the store wants to sell them off. Obviously fresh is best so you always want to buy in peak season but my kids are picky so I bought cantaloupe this week because it was the only on sale fruit they will eat lol.
Once you have your fruit and veggies go down every aisle of the store grabbing EXACTLY what's on your list and scouring for those yellow in store coupons for any other helpful deals that you can make magic out of. You might find some amazing stuff that wasn't listed on the Grocery Game and you can either nix one of your preplanned meals to get it or add it in and trim something elsewhere. See when you go shopping with a precise list you get exactly what you need to make actual full meals for dinner which is typically the most expensive and biggest meal you spend money on. When you find little deals here and there you are either stockpiling which gives you extra savings next payday or you can use those extra meal deals as lunch or breakfast deals.
Tip #9- Did you survive the savings process???? Well if you did then there is a big fat smile on your face right now because you saved your family a buttload of money, made your shopping trip faster and then handed the cashier a gaint stack of coupons to make your total a true success. Do you remember how I said planning a meal for EVERY night was important....well that's because you know darn good and well after exhausting days like today you are going to eat out at least once this payday and since you bought a meal for everyday this paycheck you now have one meal already ready to go for the next pay period. So post up your meals list on the fridge, go out and enjoy being the proud shopper you are. OH it wasn't it nice of the baggers at HEB not only bagging your groceries but also offering to take them to your car for free!!! They get paid hourly so no tips allowed just pure nice service.
I am in no way shape or form endorsed by HEB or The Grocery Game, but I wish I could be lol :)
No comments:
Post a Comment