"It must be hard living on one income...part 3." Frugal shopping can be FUN!!!

I want to begin with a disclaimer: I am not the queen bee of super shopping. I do not have ALL the best ideas. There certainly are ladies out there in internet land who have way better systems and tips and experience than me. I'm simply going to share what I've found works best for me and my family. Hopefully, there will be one or two ideas that you might be able to pick out and try with your family. Maybe not. So, with all that being said, I want to share with you a little bit of the journey I've taken through the wild and woolly land of grocery shopping on a budget. Here are a few things I've learned along the way:

• Always, always know your budget.

I have found it always works best for me to know up front what I have to work with. Then, I'm not planning meals for the week or month or whatever that will blow my budget and then I have to start all over. Know how much you have first.

• Plan out your meals and snacks for the entire week or two weeks or month.

If you're in a menu slump, there are gazillions of websites out there that can give you some new recipe ideas. One thing I like to do is think through my week and see what is going on that week. I KNOW Sunday is crazy hard because of our church schedule, so I know I need something quick to prepare on that day. There are certain entrees my family would eat every day, so I know it would be a hit to have "Spaghetti Night with Dad" every Monday night because Daddy is home from work that night and he loves a hearty, tasty pasta dish too. So that takes care of Sunday and Monday. We have to eat fast on Wednesday evening too because of mid-week church services, so hotdogs work great for us that night. You can figure out what works best for your family in a similar manner. Write it down and keep that menu plan handy. I have found a GREAT website called the "Hillbilly Housewife." There are some terrific menus for a budget of $45 a week for a family of four. Go look around there and see if there are some ideas you could use too.

• Find recipes that use lower cost ingredients. Learn to enjoy simple foods.

As I've mentioned before, we RARELY eat red meat. It's too expensive. I almost exclusively cook with ground turkey. I can get 93% lean ground turkey at Wal-Mart for $1.98/lb. That's

25 cents per person in my family when I make a recipe with just a pound of ground turkey. Anymore than that, and it's too much meat for us. We also use lots of peanut butter. My children love peanut butter and jelly, so I make that nearly every day for lunch. We also use lots of pasta. It's cheap and makes large quantities. You can mix all varieties of veggies in your sauces, and get those vitamins in that your children might normally squawk at. My children love oatmeal (remarkably!!) and it's relatively cheap to buy the big container of generic quick-oats. You can cook it up in the microwave in just 2 minutes and add your own sweeteners and fruits to it. Lots of fiber and nutrition that way too!! Cooking with dry beans and legumes is cheap too and has lots of nutrition, but unfortunately there is not a soul in my family who likes beans. Believe me, I've tried all different kinds and recipes and end up throwing it all away, so I don't do beans anymore. But YOU might have better luck.

• Now, grab that menu plan and make your grocery list. Learn to STICK WITH THE LIST!!
  

Remember to include everything you might need for each recipe/entree, and include beverages, condiments, etc. Take the list, and then stick with the list!!

• Check out the sale flyers for anything on your list that might be on sale, and use coupons!!

Before I had 6 children, I would find some really great deals at several different grocery stores and save some money stocking up with these deals. But now that my time schedule is different and I have less time to shop because of my husband's work schedule, I have to be more efficient and get more done in less time. So I don't shop at several different places anymore. But I can still use some of the systems I learned and save money. The first thing you need to do is start saving all the coupon inserts you can from the Sunday papers. There are several brand name inserts you need to know about: Valassis, Smartsource, Red Plum, and Proctor and Gamble. Save them all. Do not cut out anything. Write the date of the insert on the front. Find a box or space where you can stack or file them. Second, go to Coupon Mom, and click on "Deals by state." You'll need to register, but it's free, and soooo worth it!! Once you've registered, you can then find your state and the grocery store they have matched up the sales with all the available coupons in your coupon circulars!! Check out how you can click on the arrows at the top of the list and change how the deals show.......from highest percentage saved (free items) to lowest percentage saved. You can also arrange it so the items show up in alphabetical order. Then you can check in the box at the far left and print off ONLY the items you want to purchase. But especially what you want to notice is how they take the items on sale (from the sale paper for the week) and match up the coupon available for it. This is where the stack of coupon circulars come in. The coupons will be listed next to the item by the DATE it came out and by the NAME of the circular. For instance, under the heading "cpn. out" it might say 7/26 RP. That means you want to find the Red Plum (RP) circular that came out on July 26 (7/26). You then can easily find that coupon for that item listed because you have it filed or stacked by date, and you know what kind of coupon you're looking for. Now, just think if you bought the double issue for the weekend and have two or more of the same circulars? More coupons, more savings!!!! Some stores have these great sales where you buy 10 items and get $5.00 off the purchase, thus making each item a terrific low price. Add a coupon to those items and get them for just pennies. What if your store isn't on the "Coupon Mom" list? Then check out the "Pinching Your Pennies" website. Here you will find an alphabetical listing of EVERY coupon available in all the circulars. You should never have to shop without a coupon AGAIN!! Remember though, you have to be saving your circulars or these websites will do you no good.
I would determine my budget, check the sale flyers, check coupon mom for any coupons I could use with the sales, and then shop. It usually meant I would hit two or three stops before my shopping was done.
I know some people suggest looking at the flyers first and making your grocery list based on what was on sale. But even then I sometimes found I couldn't afford the red meat or other items that were on sale. My husband changed jobs also, which changed the times I could shop as he was the primary babysitter. That's another thing. It's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to shop with coupons and sale flyers AND toddlers or babies in tow!! I try NEVER to shop with anymore than 3 children at a time if possible. I work my shopping schedule around my husband's schedule so he can babysit; we don't have a lot of options for childcare. That's just what works for me.
And now that we do have a larger family and less time to shop, I've even left some of that coupon shopping behind. I've discovered that it does truly save us more money to buy in bigger quantities at the warehouse store (Costco for us) and to use price comparisons at Wal-Mart. Did you know that if you see a terrific deal at your local grocery store, you can take that flyer to Wal-Mart and they will match that price for that item?? So if I see Kroger has bananas on sale for $.33/lb, I can take my Kroger flyer to Wal-Mart and get that price on Wal-Mart bananas. I save lots of running around that way. Now I have found that I'm not always crazy about Wal-Mart's produce, but if it's decent I'll take it!!!
So, now at this stage of childrearing, I shop on Fridays to beat the Saturday crowds. I take three of my children to our local bread outlet store and Costco in the morning. We head home at lunchtime, where the two oldest children have been working on schoolwork or chores or playing with the youngest while daddy was home. Then in the afternoon, I head back out to Wal-Mart.
I have my lists in hand, and am able to get all my shopping for the week done in those two trips.
When you have to keep running out for one or two things, you inevitably end up picking up more things you think you need and end up spending more money that way.
Again, there are certainly better ways to save money and shop smarter than I do. I don't have the luxury of a deep freezer right now, or I would find ways to stock up on the items we use most when they are on sale. We never eat red meat because of it's cost, but I know people who buy meat by the side or the case because it's cheaper that way. Some day when I have more storage space, I will start learning how to shop once a MONTH!! Once a MONTH??? I can't even imagine that. How's that for simplifying your life??

• Plant a garden and learn to grow your own produce.

Now here I'm being a bit hypocritical because I don't do this. I grew up in the farmlands of Northwest Ohio where having an acre garden was typical. But I don't live on farmland anymore, nor do I live where the temperatures and land are very conducive to good growing. I also remember VIVIDLY how time consuming such a large garden was, and with toddlers and babies, I just don't have that kind of time right now. Maybe later, when I'm in the bigger house with the deep freezer and large storage room. And please don't talk to me about potted tomatoes on my patio. I HATE tomatoes. I have given an honest effort in my 39 years to TRY to like tomatoes, but I just can't hardly gag them down. The snot-like insides with the seeds are just too much for me. Now, I do like a good tomato product such as spaghetti sauce or pizza, but not whole tomatoes.....sorry. And, no, I'm not allergic to them.....already been tested for that along with it's cousin the ragweed to which I AM highly allergic.

In my final installment to this series (and YES, there's more if you can believe it!!), I want to talk about stocking up on things so you can GIVE more. This is an area of living on one income that I think is highly overlooked, but vitally important. I believe that the Bible commands us to be givers. But how to you give to the needs of others when you can barely scrape by yourself? I've learned a couple other things along the way that I'd like to share......but that's for next time. See you then!!