What's for Dinner

            We’ve been on a tight budget lately, so I’ve taken it upon myself to figure out ways to save on groceries.  I have always been one for couponing, but this goes well beyond just browsing through the store sales and clipping coupons.  It took me a long time to put all of this together, but once I got going, it became easier. 

            The biggest money saver in your kitchen is cutting down on waste.  By planning out your family’s meals for a month, you will know exactly what you need to buy.  No more purchasing the two pack of hamburger buns, only to find that they’ve gotten hairy before you even get to use one.  Start out by taking a blank calendar page and filling in the meals for every day.  In our case, we each do our own thing for breakfast, we eat the same things for lunch most days, and we have more variety for dinner.  Therefore, I only put what’s for dinner on most days.  Make your menu to what fits your family, but include everything that will be cooked, whether it’s just for your family or if the in-laws are coming over for a family get-together.  The next thing I did was make my shopping list.

Something that I recently discovered is to shop for nonperishable items and frozen foods at warehouse stores that sell items in bulk.  Most of these stores do not accept coupons, but if you are eligible for WIC or food stamps, you can use those.  I purchase the majority of our meats from such stores.  Because they come in bulk, I divide the packages up into portions right for the size of my family.  They go into baggies and into the freezer.  Prices on meat are already very low, and you can score even lower prices by looking for items that are about to go out of date.  I once found a package of Italian sausage for a quarter of the regular price.

I tallied up how much I would need of the items from the warehouse store for the entire month.  That was my first list.  After that, I made a list for every week.  These lists include only what is needed for that week.  The only exception to this rule is if you have a coupon that requires you to purchase multiple items.  The only task left is to attach any matching coupons to your lists and voil’a.  I used magnets to put everything on the fridge.  Just seemed to be the most convenient place.

The last thing is to make sure you stick to your list.  If your husband or kids are going to the store with you, steer clear of the isles that you don’t need anything from.  There’s nothing worse than planning a fifty-dollar trip and leaving having spent double because of chips, soda, and fruit snacks. 

This will help you cut the costs of throwing out expired food, get rid of your stock piles from couponing, and clear out more space in the pantry.  Consequently, following this practice helped us to add variety to our meals.  We were able to see that we ate a lot more pork than poultry and not anywhere near enough vegetables compared to pastas.  So happy meal planning and grocery shopping.