Saving Money Grocery Shopping

In this time of rising food costs, I try to do things to save money. I always do comparison shopping. I use some coupons but not a lot as they always seem to be for processed foods. I go online and look at the weekly store ads. Because although we shop mostly at Wal-Mart as it usually ends up being the cheapest -- I can still find some deals better then Wal-Mart by keeping an eye on the weekly grocery store ads. Really I can always get meat cheaper at the grocery stores instead of Wal-Mart because of the sales.

When things are on sale we try to stock up. I buy meat on sale plus buy in family packs because they always seem a little cheaper too. We wait for meat to be on sale. We won't get a roast even if we were craving it until it goes on sale. Then we stock up and maybe grab 2 or 3 (depending on the room in the freezer.) Family size packs of pork chops go on sale quite often. There are just 2 of us so I will break the packages down into little packages of 2 and freeze. Same with ground beef buy a big 5 lb package and then divide into some lb and 1/2 lb packages. Also our Safeway has a clearance section and we have gotten good cuts of meat there - steaks and such really good prices. As long as the meat has good color we pick it up.

We get quite a few things at Sam's because it does cost less. Not everything there does of course but there are some things we have found saves us some money...such as tortillas, bags of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cheese, bagels, all our over the counter meds are less expensive there. My name brand migraine med at Sam's - 300 pills for $3 more then the wal-mart equate brand for only 100 pills.

We get shredded cheese at Sam's and then I take and fill quart ziplock bags and freeze them until needed. But the price of cheese just keeps going up so I have gotten blocks of cheese and shredded myself as it is become cheaper that way.

We use a lot of generic or great value brands. Master likes the flavored coffee creamers and has even went to the great value brand of that. Buy dried beans instead of canned beans. Make my own stuffing instead of buying a box or bag. Bake bread instead of buy it.

I clean with bleach, vinegar, baking soda and tea tree oil and the only thing I splurge on is Mr. Clean Erasers.

I cook for almost all meals. And meal planning helps make sure those things that are needed are what is one the shopping list instead of just grabbing things. We don't go out to eat often but when we do we will get cheap chinese take out.