Saving Hundreds Of Dollars Through Planning Your Family’s Menus And Using Coupons

I used to roll the grocery store and randomly grab products here and there until my car was full when it comes to feeding my family. Most of the time, I would open the freezer, refrigerator, and cabinets just to discover that I really did not have anything to put together a nutritious balanced meal when I get home and cook dinner throughout the week. Grocery Coupons

I know that sounds crazy – go to the grocery store to stock up, and then come home with nothing wholesome. I realized that I was not the only mom experiencing this strange phenomenon after talking with some friends. It seems like we are all so busy with our jobs, taking care of our kids and (sometimes even our own parents), running our kids to practice and events, and making time for ourselves that we fail to plan meals. 

I was watching the evening news while I was going through the cupboards to try and find something to feed my family a couple of weeks ago. The news story grabbed my attention. It was about a woman who lives in Texas, and she actually sat down and planned out her family’s meals. Not for a weekly basis. Not monthly. But for the whole year! 

Exactly how can you imagine what your family will eat every day for the whole year round? She said that being organized indeed saves money. Through planning the menu for the entire year, she said that it cut her grocery bill more than half. 

In the news story — which I found online here http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2010/01/21/dnt.planning.meals.year.ktrk.html Leslie Chisholm said, “It’s easier on me because I know what we are having.I don’t stress out and say what am I going to cook tonight, what am I going to cook tonight?” 

Oh, how I can really relate to her story! Every night, I tend to wonder what I am going to cook. Due to my poor planning, I end up making several trips to the grocery store each week. I know could save by planning out menus and just making one or two trips to the supermarket and made it part of my route home each evening. Discount Coupons

I must admit that planning the menus for a whole year seemed kind of outrageous to me, so I decided I would start out planning my family’s meals for an entire month. I took the advice of the woman in the news story and asked my family members if there were certain foods that they just could not tolerate, and also made a point of asking everyone for their favorites. 

With a couple of vegetables, I chose a meat or pasta entree for every night. Since we always seem to have certain foods remaining, I built in one day each week for leftovers. May they are for school, church or scouts, we are sometimes so busy hauling our kids to their functions and events, I also made it a point to make some room for eating out. 

Then my next step of the plan was to sit down at the kitchen and go through the coupons I have kept. Since I discovered SaveGroceryCoupons.com, a site that makes couponing quick and easy, I have been an avid coupon user. 

It the same anxiety I felt when I first heard about the mom who plan her menus for the entire year and when I first discovered Save Grocery Coupons web site. I thought it seemed like a lot of work to try to save a little money. Boy, was I wrong! 

In no time at all, I had mastered the methods of using coupons to save a significant amount of money off of our grocery budget. I just rely on SaveGroceryCoupons.com to do the research and then show me the coupons online, so that I can click, print and save. 

Then, my experiment planning menus for the month went well relatively. Though I must admit that I do not think that I will go as far as planning my family’s meals for the whole year. I opted to have some freedom to take a look at the coupons I have discovered and take advantage of the weekly sales circulars at my local grocers instead. Oftentimes, I have a coupon that I can use on top of a sale price and it makes me feel like I’ve won the lottery. Coupon Codes