Save Money Before Coupons

So you won’t to save money but aren’t really thrilled with the thought of clipping coupons.  Maybe you really don’t mind the coupons you just forget that they are in your purse or even better, you leave them in the car. Well here are some things that you can do to cut your grocery budget.

1. Eat your leftovers. We waste so much food. If you have cooked a pot roast and your family didn’t eat it the next day, you can freeze and have it next week.  OR If you made pot roast with potatoes and carrots, then a couple of days later have open faced roast beef sandwiches with brown gravy.  (This is a favorite for my family.)

2. Use your freezer. Put leftovers in it (not everything freezes) but remember to use up what you have in there as well. I have 3 bags of corn from the garden that spoiled because one was simply there too long.  And the others because they were in there long enough that the seal was broken from being moved around.  If I had just cooked them sooner, they would taken place of some other side that was honestly not as healthy as a great fresh grown vegetable.

3. Rotate your pantry so that  you only buy items when they are on sale.  Almost everything rotates to be on sale every 8 to 12 weeks.  So if you can do without it simply wait for the item to be back on sale.   You can see great savings with this simple test.

4. Eat proportionately! OK don’t roll your eyes at that. :-)  It is not written anywhere that you must clean the bowl.  It is ok to have leftovers. They will keep for a few days – but then make sure you go back and finish them up a few days later.  I will admit this step and eating your leftovers are both habits.  Our grandparents and great-grandparents would laugh at the fact that we need to be told these things.  For them these steps were a way of life.  If they didn’t do these things, they didn’t have enough to go around.  With this economy we would do well, to borrow some of their habits.  :-)

5. Plan your meals by the sale paper. This will also help you to stick to Step 3.  Planning your meals by the sale paper of your local grocery can be a great way to stick to Step 3.  You can combine this with what’s already in your pantry and really save.   Suppose meat is on sale in the paper and you have rice and a vegetable in your pantry.  Go to allrecipes.com, and type in your ingredients. It will give you some options of dishes you can make.

6.  There is a thing such as downloadable coupons.  In certain areas of the country (unfortunately not everywhere) you can download coupons directly on your grocery’s loyalty card.  For me this is Kroger.  I download coupons on my Kroger card at ShortCuts.com.  When I check  out at Kroger and scan my Kroger card, the coupons are automatically deducted for the corresponding products that I bought.  I print off a list of what I’ve downloaded and keep in my purse, so that I can remember what coupons are on my card.  This is very easy, nothing to keep up with but the list in my purse.

It may sound a little too simple, but I can testify it works.  If you have your own tips, please share in the comments, we all need to learn from one another.