12 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Grocery Bill

It is never too early or too late to reduce your regular expenses, especially one of the biggest ones, foo. Here are 12 easy ways that you can reduce your food bill, starting now.   1. Never shop when you are hungry (or with kids, if you can avoid it). Both situations will lead to overbuying, as extra things find their way into your grocery cart. You may have good intentions, but hunger and kids will usually prevail.   2. Look for stores that double coupons and be on the alert for triple coupon days.   3. Use your coupons … Continue reading

More Ways to Cut Your Grocery Food Bill

In my previous post, listed four top ways to cut your grocery food bill. But did you know that there are even more ways to do this. Practice all of the strategies, and you will really slash your bill. here are some more ways to save money on groceries. 5. Practice meal planning. I have to admit that I am not the greatest meal planner in the world, but I do make some meal planning concession. By planning out your meals, you can take advantage of groceries that cost less for that particular week. I’ll give you a recent example. … Continue reading

Beware of the Grocery Store Sales Aisle

Most grocery stores these days feature a sales aisle where you can conveniently shop all of the sales at once. While this seems like it could be so convenient, you just run in and pick up the sales and then go before you are tempted to buy anything else, it can actually sabotage your grocery budget and make you spend more. Her are my reasons to avoid the sales aisle at all costs. Oh the Temptation Hey did you notice that crackers were on sale? You just can’t pass that one up, even though crackers weren’t on your list. The … Continue reading

Five Little Grocery Shopping Tricks: Look Left and Right

When it comes to shopping for groceries, we need all of the help we can get. Rising prices and reduced coupon values make reducing your grocery bill by 70 percent a thing of the past. And those grocery stores have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to get you to buy the products they want you to buy and to buy as many of them as they need you to do. We’ve been going over the different strategies these stores use to grab your shopping dollar, Now here is a really sneaky one. Marketing research shows that when someone is … Continue reading

Tax Rebate Gift Cards

You may have seen some retail stores advertising bonus money or services when you purchase a store gift card using your tax rebate or stimulus rebate check. Is it worth it to take advantage of these offers? Let’s take a look. How do these deals work? It can vary according to the store, or it really helps to know upfront what exactly each deal is all about. The basic premise is that if you use your tax rebate or stimulus rebate money to buy a gift card or if you spend that money in the store, you will be given … Continue reading

Restaurant Food at Home

Since eating at home is less expensive than is eating out at a restaurant, it is amazing to me how all of we frugal people eat out and how frequently we do it. My family is no exception to this. In fact, I cringe every time we go to our favorite family restaurant. My kids usually offer a kids meal of Macaroni and cheese. It comes with a few slices of apple (about half of a small one), and there is no drink included, although it does include a small soft serve cone. These meals cost $4.99 each and contain … Continue reading

The Pros of “Paying Yourself” in Coupon Savings

Did you catch yesterday’s article, Should You “Pay Yourself” in Coupon Savings? It introduced the concept of paying yourself with money that you save from clipping coupons and taking advantage of bonus card savings. I talked about what “paying yourself” means, as well as different ways of doing it. But, paying yourself with your coupon savings might not make sense for everyone. And so, I’m going to examine the ways in which it can be a positive practice, and then later, in another article, how it can actually negatively affect your frugal lifestyle. Wanting to start out on a positive … Continue reading