Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Saving Money - Food Shopping (Part 2)

Plan your meals.

Pull out your cookbooks (for fun, you can see some of my favorites here), or your internet browsing fingers, and create meal plans around what's on sale, what's local, and what is in season. My personal favorite recipe site is Recipe Source, but I've had good luck with Epicurious and Food Network as well. Be sure to plan for snacks, too.

Make a list.

You know how for real estate, they always say that the important thing is "location, location, location"? Well, for food shopping, it's "list, list, list"! Seriously.

After looking through your local sales papers, create a list of the groceries you plan to buy from each store. Include the sale prices (and any limitations), so that you can comparison shop at the other stores. Don't forget to put items you need, but don't find on sale on the list.

Impulse items can add as much as 50% to your total food bill. So, when you're at the store, DON'T DEVIATE FROM THE LIST. The list is your friend. Don't buy stuff that isn't on it. So: no toys, no snacks, no makeup, no magazines. NOTHING, unless it made it to the list. To help stick to your list, make sure that you and anyone you take with you shopping has recently eaten.

No comments: