Plan Meals around Sales and Coupons

You don’t have to spend 40 hours a week studying sales flyers and coupons like the extreme couponers do to save money.  When you get your local grocery store flyer, take a look at what is on sale that week and plan your meals around sales.  After your list is completed, look to see if you have any coupons for items you’re already buying – but don’t make the mistake of buying something just because you have a coupon.

Buy in Bulk if it Makes Sense

If an item you use frequently goes on sale, it may make sense to buy several at the discounted price so you can avoid buying it at the regular, non-sale price.  Don’t buy extra of any item that you don’t have room to store or that will go bad before you can use it.

Stop Impulse Shopping

Grocery stores know exactly where to put items people are most likely to buy on impulse.  One way to decrease the amount of money you spend in the grocery store is to make a list before you go, based on what is on sale and what you have coupons for, and then only buy the items you have on your list.  You might be surprised to discover how many items end up in your shopping cart that are a complete impulse buy – and are not needed.

Buy Bagged Produce

When you buy a bag of carrots, the price is based on a pound of carrots.  If you were to weigh the bag, often you will find that there is more than a pound of carrots in the pre-packaged produce bags so you end up getting more for your money than you do when you buy loose produce that you bag and weigh at checkout.

Get More on a Tighter Grocery Budget was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

What is a recession?

A recession is when there is a decline in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade that lasts for six months or more. It spells trouble for all of us. Sometimes it’s hard making ends meet in the best of times, but trying to raise a family in the midst of a recession is doubly hard to do. It helps to stay optimistic in this type of a situation. We can tighten our belts a little and still share some quality time together as a family. Tough economic times call for finding ways to cut down on spending, but not on activities, even when we’re on a budget. After doing a little bit of research I’ve come up with a few ideas that may help to weather this recessional storm.

Saving Money in the Kitchen

There are lots of ways to cut back including in the kitchen so let’s start there. First, get rid of all prepared meals. Aside from being too expensive, they are loaded with excessive fat, sugar, salt and all kinds of preservatives. These are things that your family doesn’t need. Plan wisely and schedule specific meals for each day of the week. Do your grocery shopping once a week and get exactly what you need for each meal. Try going meatless twice a week. Do a little research and find recipes for low cost meals that you can make like pasta and vegetables or a home made veggie pizza. These are nutritious meals and won’t cost a lot of money.

Saving Money When Traveling

Even when arranging for a vacation or just family time together, put a schedule in place so that you don’t miss a minute of fun. Check with the local visitor’s bureau in your city and see what attractions they offer. Some cities sponsor summer festivities for a minimal fee or no cost at all. Spend the day at a local park; take along Frisbees, a baseball and bat and maybe even a set of horseshoes. Stop by your local public swimming pool one day for an afternoon of aquatic games. Even pack a lunch to serve up after the swim, picnic style, at a nearby park. Everyone develops an appetite after a day of sun and fun. This is an ideal way for a family to spend a day together. The next day, spend the afternoon watching a movie in your local theatre. If you get there early, you can get the matinée price. It’s another great way to spend the day, and see a great movie in the process.

Saving Money on Pampering

After this much activity, you deserve to pamper yourself a little. If you like to read, don’t go out and spend money on a new best seller, join your local library and read all of the books you want for free. Also, stock up on some inexpensive candles and some aromatherapy bath beads (you can get them at the dollar store) and treat yourself to a relaxing soak in the tub. If you close your eyes, you can pretend you’re at a fancy spa. You’ll feel any stress that you may have acquired from the long day begin to melt away.

You can find ways to cut back on spending and not on activities, it just takes a little bit of strategy and imagination. So plan to cut back, have fun and make some great memories to treasure for years to come.

Living In A Recession was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

People who are struggling now, and living paycheck to paycheck notice the increases in prices considerably.  If the cost of living continues to rise faster than our incomes, we must start finding ways to reduce our living expenses now – to make it possible to afford to live later!

 Reduce Household Expenses

Probably the easiest (and fastest) way to reduce your living expenses is to take a look at the money you spend on groceries and food.  The U.S Department of Labor estimates that the average family of four spends $709 per month (that’s $177 per person) on groceries.

Here are several ways you can reduce the amount of money you spend on groceries, and make that money available for the higher cost in gas or utilities for your home:

• Go shopping for groceries, paper goods, cleaning items and personal care items once or twice a month.  Less trips to the store means you spend less.  Studies have shown that when you stop at the store to pick up a few things for dinner, you end up picking up more than you planned and therefore spending more than you  needed.
• Plan your menus and shopping lists using the store sale ads when you’re preparing to go shopping.  Select coupons and use them with sale items to get even steeper discounts.  Don’t forget about double coupon day!
• Eat fruits and vegetables that are more perishable soon after your shopping trip and save the longer lasting fruits and vegetables for when they are gone. Bananas and grapes are good for about a week; pears, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce last around two weeks, and oranges, apples, cabbage and celery really go the distance and are still good a month after you buy them usually.
• Freeze bread and cheese to have it last longer.  Even milk can be frozen without a problem.
• Get an extra freezer to store items you can stock up on when they go on sale.  Turkeys go on sale right before Thanksgiving, hams go on sale around Christmas, etc. 
• Make a little extra and use the leftovers for lunches or dinner on another day. You can freeze completely prepared meals as well- so make a double batch of lasagna and freeze one for another day.  Saves time and money since you have all the ingredients out already.
• Ask around to friends and coworkers- if they just throw out their coupons, they could give them to you instead.
• Consider making a price book to keep track of the regular price of items you purchase regularly.  You’ll be able to tell at a glance if an advertised special is a good deal or not.
• If you live in an area where there are a number of retail and grocery chains competing, you should consider buying the sale items at each store, rather than doing a full shop at one location.  If you’ve limited your shopping trips to two a month instead of one or more per week- the time you spend stopping at a few stores in one trip will still be less than the hours spent on your more frequent shopping trips made previous to this change.

Not all of these tips will work for every family, but you might be surprised at how the extra effort spend planning and organizing actually reduces your overall time (and money!) on the household grocery bill.

Reduce Household Expenses: Chop the Grocery Bill was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

If you are in need of some extra cash and are not sure where you will find it, consider changing your family’s eating habits for one month.  If you typically spend $500 a month on groceries and could manage with a $150 a month grocery bill – you’re looking at $350 extra dollars to fix the car, buy a new front door for your home, or whatever else you  need it for.  You may have to eat slightly less than what you are used to, and agree to eat breakfast for dinner once in awhile- but if you’re up for a challenge, try the following menu for a month’s worth of eating in order to find an extra few hundred dollars:

• 2 Boxes of Spaghetti  ($2) = 16 Servings
• 2 Cans Del Monte Spaghetti Sauce ($2) and 2 small cans of diced tomatos or tomato sauce ($1)  to increase the servings to 16 servings per can of spaghetti sauce
• 1 pound lunch meat ($6) =  6 sandwiches
• 2 Loafs of bread ($3)
• Family pack of ground beef ($13)  = 3 different meals, meat loaf, hamburger and gravy, taco sald
• 1 Box of Bisquick, 40 oz ($3)
• 1 Cut up Whole Chicken ($4) = 5 servings
• 1 Family pack of boneless chicken ($13) = 8-10 servings
• 2 Bag Salads, Dole or other brand, complete with salad dressing ($5) = 7 servings
• Small jar of mayonaisse or mustard ($2) = 30 servings
• Raisin Bran, 15 oz box, ($3) = 7 Servings
• Yogurt – (can often get 10 for $5) = 10 servings
• 2 Gallons of Milk   ($4.80)
• 2 Cans green beans ($1.40) = 7 servings
• 2 Cans corn ($1.40) = 7 servings
• Taco seasoning packet ($1)
• bag of storebrand tortillas ($1.50)
• Fresh tomatoes ($3)
• Pancake Syrup, store brand, big bottle ($3) = 12 – 16 servings
• 18 Eggs ($3)
• Can of Gravy ($1.25)
• Bag of apples ($4)
• Bag of potatoes ($3)
• Bag of oranges ($4)
• Store brand Peanut butter, 28 oz ($2.50) = 25 servings
• Store brand jelly, 32 oz ($2.50) = 45 servings
• Store brand butter, small container ($2)
• Beverages (bottled water if you can’t drink your tap water, soda, iced tea mix, coffee, etc $10)
• 1 pound of american cheese slices ($4)
• 8 Rolls store brand paper towels ($10)
• 8 Rolls store brand toilet paper ($10)
• Dish detergent ($2.50)
• Bag of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese ($3)
• 3 cans of Tuna fish ($3)
• household cleaning supplies you have to have ($7.15)

The above grocery list is exactly $150.  You can obviously make changes to make it work better for your family, but here are some ideas of meals you can make with the above groceries.  This should help you see how you can make it stretch out for a month’s worth of eating:

• 6 Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches, with an apple
• 6 Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with an orange
• 4 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with or without tomato, with an apple
• 6-8 Tuna Fish sandwiches
• 4 Spaghetti dinners with side salads
• 4 Spaghetti dinner (no salads)
• 4 servings Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans.
• 4 servings ground hamburger and gravy over mashed potatoes and corn.
• 4 servings taco salad (hamburger with taco seasoning over tortilla chips, lettuce and tomatoes)
• 7 bowls of Raisin Bran
• 56 pancakes with syrup
• 4 Servings french toast with syrup
• 4-5 Servings of Oven baked chicken with bisquick recipe, baked potato, green beans
• 8 servings of chicken parmesean
• 2 Servings of boneless chicken
• 6 servings of scrambled eggs or cheese omelettes
• 10 servings of yogurt (great for breakfasts and/or snacks)

It may not be what you’re used to, and it’s not something anyone would want to do month after month – but it is a way to reduce your expenses for a month or two while still eating fairly healthy.

The prices in this article are estimated based on Price Chopper prices in Glenmont, NY, and sometimes reflect sale prices or shopping with coupons.  You can probably get lower prices on a lot of the items listed here by shopping carefully and finding more coupons or sales!

A Month of Groceries for a Family of Four – Under $150 was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

While there are quite a few inexpensive options for buying your lunch, it is most likely to be less expensive to bring your own lunch- not to mention healthier.  You could eat at many of the fast food locations, including Subway, McDonalds, Burger King and the local deli for about $6 a day.

If you were to bring your lunch, you could have healthier options, and more variety for $4 or less per day.  For example:

Turkey sandwich on wheat bread, with lettuce and tomato, light mayonaisse, handful of baked potato chips, an apple, and water would cost you approximately:

• Turkey sandwich on wheat: $1.30
• lettuce and tomato $0.50
• light mayonaisse $0.15
• apple $0.50
• handful of chips $0.30
• water (free from tap or water cooler at work)

total of packed lunch: $2.75

When you buy a pound of lunch meat, loaf of bread, head of lettuce and a few tomatoes, you will get several sandwiches from that purchase, which is how you can really help keep your costs down.  In addition, you can buy a bag of apples and a bag of chips to give yourself some “sides” throughout the week, as well.

For variety, you could have peanut butter and jelly, different types of lunch meats, and vary your fruit and vegetable selections.   Try chopping up raw carrots, filling celery with peanut butter or cream cheese, or buying canned fruit varieties.  You could also make healthy salads and bring to work to enjoy for lunch.  The result will be the same- a filling and healthy lunch for under $4 per day.

If you have dinner leftovers and a way to heat up your meals at work (microwave for employee use in the break room, for example) you have even more options for healthy varieties of lunches that save even more money.  If you consistently make just a little more for dinner than what your family eats, you could skip buying anything special for lunch and simply pack up some of the leftovers to enjoy over your lunch hour.

Work Lunches: Buy or Pack Your Own? was created by and is property of American Consumer News.