Small everyday expenses for food, soap, drugs, pet supplies and greeting cards are sneaky. It is only fifty cents here, a dollar there, but before you know it you are talking about thousands of dollars, in fact, well over $5000 a year for the average family.
To really grasp what you pay for a product, you need to calculate how much it costs you per year (annualize). For example, in the event you buy a national brand cereal for $4.15 and switch to a store brand for $2.19, you would not just be saving $1.96. Assuming you bought one box every week, you would save 52 X $1.96 which comes to a yearly total of $101.92. Now we are talking real money! (This is an actual example.)
Keep in mind that you will find strategies you can use to obtain the very best deals!
Meat
I keep a (mental) list of stockup costs for meat and then watch for specials and markdowns that meet my criteria. A couple weeks ago I stocked up on chicken leg quarters for $0.69/lb (Publix) and entire chickens for $0.88/lb (Sam's Club) and my stock up cost for lean hamburger is less than $3/lb, but an easy rule of thumb is to look for deals on meat at about 75% of their regular price and then stock up. We typically purchase the majority of our meat (with the exception of lunchmeat) at one time during the month when we're planning a freezer cooking day, so the menu is usually based on Winn Dixie's BOGO meat sales for the week or the best deals on family size packages at Sam's Club.
Milk
I lately did a post that listed five tips for saving on milk which you can take a look at for more strategies, but my favorite factor to do is simply keep an eye out for the best deal, purchase extra and freeze it. For example, a couple weeks ago CVS had a special on milk for $3.19/gallon with a limit of 2 so I bought 2, hubby bought 2 and we put half within the freezer. Gas is too costly to make any unique trips (or additional trips) so I just check around at the three or 4 places I usually shop. If there aren't any sales to be discovered I can pop into Sam's club for cheap milk if I'm in the area.
Create
Even though they're rare, you are able to discover coupons for fresh fruit and vegetables. This morning I discovered a $1 off fresh fruit coupon on a box of cereal and also the cereal was on my list anyway so I was thrilled to also get the cheap bananas. Some large distributors like Driscoll's have email newsletters and will send out coupons, but for probably the most component the produce coupons are sponsored by other businesses like with the cereal deal. Last week I used Publix coupons to obtain free tangerines and inexpensive green beans when I bought Oscar Mayer meats.
We've tried having a big garden and growing lots of the things we like to eat, but it has been too time consuming and costly for what it turned out to be worth for us so this year we strategy to continue buying most of our fresh fruit and vegetables at nearby farmer's markets and when they're in season and on sale within the grocery store. We also plan to do some container gardening of tomatoes and strawberries this year and enlist the kids' help in watering and caring for them.
Bonus Tips!
Additionally to the 60-80% we've knocked off our grocery budget through shopping the sales, matching coupons and stockpiling the basics we have also managed to take an additional 10-15% off via the use of menu planning and freezer cooking. By "shopping" our own stockpile and basing the weekly menu on what we have on hand and what's on sale we have greatly decreased our waste simply because we know what we have and we use it. Freezer cooking has also helped in those areas, and has the added benefit of taking a lot of the tension out of the every day dinner grind so we no longer dread the "what's for dinner" question!
Maintain to purchase in bulk when it makes sense. In the event you can save cash, over the course of a month or two, by purchasing in bulk, plan to do so. But make sure that you are going to use all of it before it gets poor - it isn't cheaper to buy in bulk in the event you don't use it.Usually Use Coupons to Save Big
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