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Posts Tagged ‘Grocery shopping’

  1. Just a Taste…

    June 22, 2012 by admin

    Can you teach your kids about food and nutrition, encourage them to explore new places, and have them enjoy the process of grocery shopping while expanding their palates-  all at the same time?

    Yes, you can!

    Many supermarkets have regular taste testing in the aisles.  Keep your eyes open and pay attention to what times/days offer the best tastings at your local store.  Then see if you can arrange for that to be the time you typically go shopping.

    A Madison store that we like, Woodmans, has cheese tastings in the mornings in the dairy aisle and pizza tastings at the frozen foods aisle most afternoons.  After chancing on these a few times, Bluey now looks forward to heading to this store.  He’s eager to see what they might have for a snack!

    We recently tasted and then purchased Renard’s Cheese, after meeting a sales rep at a sampling table.

    Trader Joes has constant samplings in the back corner of the store.  We head there first for a small drink and to see what delights they have for us to taste.  It’s a chance to talk about foods, flavors, and to expand our pallets.

    Our local food co-op also has tastings, especially in the afternoons.  We recently discovered a new type of mozzarella thanks to a sampling.  It became an instant favorite in our family.  This is exactly why stores have free samples—to create new sales!

    We never feel guilty about taking samples because we know we’ll make it up to the store in purchases.  We also use the free samples as a chance to teach our kids about being polite, taking only our share, and letting everyone have their turn.

    Any trip to the store can become a chance to learn and explore.  Who knows what you’ll find?

    Category Rambler Ramblings | Tags: ,,,,, | Comments Off on Just a Taste…

  2. What to Look for in a Coupon Website

    June 13, 2012 by admin

    There is a lot of white noise on the internet.  Narrowing down your search for freebies and/or coupons to the handful of sites that actually produce on their promises can be tough.  It is inevitable that you’ll spend a lot of time following links to expired offers.  Or links promising freebies only to find that you have to answer surveys and purchase magazines to get the offer.  It can be an incredibly frustrating process.

    So let us share the results of our quest for the best resources.

    What makes a coupon site ‘good’?

    *Ease of searching

    *Links that go directly to a valid printable coupon

    *Daily updates to offerings

    Here is a list of what we genuinely feel are some of the best sites for coupons and freebies.  We personally use these sites on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

    Hip2Save:  http://hip2save.com/category/coupons/

    Printable Coupons and Deals:  http://printablecouponsanddeals.com/

    Penny Pinchin’ Mom: http://www.pennypinchinmom.com/

    Frugal Coupon Living: http://www.frugalcouponliving.com/

    After a few minutes of visiting these pages, printing your results, and clipping them out for ease of use, you are on your way to simple savings.

    Have you found success using a different site?  Let us know!  We’re always in the hunt for a new deal!

     

    Category Thrifty Tips | Tags: ,, | 3 Comments

  3. Making a List and Checking It Twice!

    June 6, 2012 by admin

    We live by one specific rule when grocery shopping:  no weekly shopping without menu planning.  We can’t stress this enough.  Menu planning!  It is the single-most successful tactic for getting your grocery bill under control.

    We went through a time when we just couldn’t keep the grocery bill stable.  We were simply ‘going shopping’ with no list.  The bill fluctuated wildly and so did our bank balance.  Without the grocery bill managed,  there went the rest of the family budget and in marched the credit cards.  Ugh.

    So we created a template for the week where we list out each day’s dinner in a table.  We make notes about the week above the table:  incoming visitors, kid’s activities, birthdays, etc.  Below the table, we bullet point necessary items to make each meal or to restock the usual staples like toilet paper and coffee.  We cross off, or delete, ingredients that we already have in the pantry.

    Example:

    It isn’t purchased if it isn’t on the menu-planning page.  Nothing you do will save you more money than using a list and sticking to it.  Menu planning also allows you to search out specific coupons ahead of time to get the most out of your money.

    Don’t forget to include snacks (and adult beverages!) in your menu plan or you’ll blow your budget in between shopping trips.  Your list needs to be realistic in order to work.  This is true of your weekly and monthly budget, too, which we’ll get to in a different post.

    Keep track of estimated costs while you go through the store so you can jettison things if you go over budget.   We keep items that might be expendable in one part of the cart so they are easy to find and easy to remove if necessary.  We add up costs as we go through the store, rounding up.  Rounding up to the nearest dime makes the math easier and accounts for things like tax on some items.  Plus it guarantees that you will come in under budget.  We also make notes on about how much certain items cost for comparison to other stores.

    When you find a tantalizing item that your family would just love, make a note of its price, so you can work it onto next week’s list.  We find that by taking advantage of sales and watching prices, we can slip these extra yummies onto the list without breaking the budget.

    And if you have a little extra, don’t splurge on an unnecessary item.  Throw that bonus money into savings!  You’ll need it for special shopping trips later, like Thanksgiving and birthdays, so your monthly budget doesn’t get thrown out of whack.

    Menu Planning.

    Do it.

     

    Category Groceries & Meal Planning | Tags: | Comments Off on Making a List and Checking It Twice!

  4. Karma Karma Coupon

    June 3, 2012 by admin

    It happens sometimes.  We go shopping with a killer coupon, like $10 off a grocery purchase of $75 or more, and we’re unable to use it.  Typically, we find the grocery bill for our family of 4 ringing up right around $75.  We head to the store fully intending to hit the limit for the coupon.  But then it doesn’t quite work out—something was out of stock, for example.  On one such occasion, standing in line behind us was a woman with an overflowing cart of groceries.  A quick scan of her items easily tallied well over $75.  We offered this woman our coupon and she couldn’t have been more thrilled!

    And then there are times that we end up with two killer coupons and an opportunity to use only one.  If the coupon is about to expire,  we hand it off to someone nearby.  Or we tuck it onto the shelf by the item on special-  a pleasant surprise for the next person who also wanted the product!

    During the holiday season, many department stores run great coupons- $10 off a purchase of $30 or more- but good for one day only.  If we’re heading out to shop, we always bring as many copies of the holiday coupon that we have on hand.  Whatever we don’t use simply becomes another chance to spread holiday cheer!

    There is nothing better in life than paying it forward!

    Category Rambler Ramblings | Tags: ,, | Comments Off on Karma Karma Coupon

  5. We Eat the Food in the House

    May 28, 2012 by admin

    Yum!If you want your family to eat healthy, you have to buy healthy food.  It seems simple enough.  Yet we are often amazed at the conversations we have with parents concerning their family’s diet.  A parent will bemoan that all their child will eat for breakfast is Pop Tarts.  Or that their child will snack on Ding Dongs and Doritos all day long and then refuse to eat dinner.

    If you don’t buy junk food, your kid won’t have junk to eat.  And no!  It isn’t better for them to have a Ding Dong rather than nothing at all; your child won’t starve.  If you stock your house with a range of healthy options, eventually your children will gravitate towards those choices.  Our little one loves snacking on cashews and almonds.  And our oldest loves yoghurt and fruit.  Now we aren’t suggesting that you have a treat free household.  Everyone likes a little sweet nibble every now and then!  But choose wisely.  For instance, Breyer’s ice cream has a short list of natural ingredients.  Or find the dye free gummy bears at your local natural food store.  And make these sweet treats the exception to the supply of food in your home rather than the majority.

    Category Parenting | Tags: , | Comments Off on We Eat the Food in the House

  6. Chop & Save

    May 27, 2012 by admin

    chopped vegYou can easily save money whenever and wherever you shop for groceries by following this simple adage:  you do the work and you save the cash.

    Veggies

    When buying mushrooms, why pay an extra 30 cents for an 8oz. package because some machine pre-sliced the product? You can peel, slice, and dice your own veggies quickly and easily. It takes about a minute to slice 8oz. of mushrooms.  An additional bonus is that whole veggies stay fresh longer than those handled, pre-sliced, and over priced vegetables.

    Beans

    Boil your own beans.  Dried beans are about $1.25 a pound vs. canned beans which are about 90 cents per can.  But each pound of dried beans makes 4 or more equivalent servings of canned beans.  This fact equates to a HUGE savings for minimal effort.  It doesn’t take long at all to boil beans.  It is as easy as boiling water!  Cooked beans last for about 1 week in your fridge and for up to 3 months stored properly in your freezer.

    Juice

    Make your own juice from frozen concentrate.  It costs over three times as much to pay for juice in the bottle vs. frozen concentrate.  You are paying close to $4 or more per gallon for the factory addition of WATER.  And make no mistake: your prepared juice is just as good as the ready to go bottled variety.   They make the juice in the bottle the same way.  The company adds water to concentrate at their facilities.  So why not do it yourself and save some serious money?  Plus, if you have concerns about sugar intake or just want to stretch your juice further, you can add more water than recommended and the juice still tastes great.  Our kids never noticed when we switched to frozen concentrate and we always significantly dilute the juice with no complaints!

    Cheese

    Shred and slice your own cheese.  Blocks of cheese typically average half the cost of the pre-shredded varieties.  For our family of four, it takes less than a minute to shred all the cheese we need for a meal, be it for lasagna, burritos, or anything else.  It’s rarely worth it to buy pre-shredded cheese.

    Tip:  Remember to watch store sales for the rare exceptions! Every once in a while shredded cheese goes on a terrific sale- like around Super Bowl Sunday.  Always keep an eye on prices as you go through the grocery store.

    When you do the work, which only takes a minute, you’ll see your grocery bill go down.  Saving 30 cents here, 50 cents there, or a few bucks when it comes to cheese—it all adds up.  You can even spot savings on items like olives and pickles (Whole vs. Sliced), or garlic (crushed vs. chopped by you).

    Category Groceries & Meal Planning | Tags: | Comments Off on Chop & Save

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