Saving Money

In these tough economic times it seems everyone is trying to save money. There's a lot of questions about ways to save money on Mamapedia and other places.

I know for me ever since deciding to be a Stay at Home Mom a little over 3 yrs. ago we cut down costs -decreasing our cable bill and saved as much $ as we could-etc. So the economic trouble is like a double whammy! Although currently we're doing a little better thanks to a tax refund, and my husband getting a promotion/small raise. But, I'm sure like a lot of you out there we're caught in the middle class crunch. And even though I've read plenty of articles about saving money some advice just doesn't seem to apply-Once I read cut down or not take your annual vacation-to which I said HAHA! -What annual vacation?!!

So I hope this is good advice for those families like mine: One of the main cost concerns is food/groceries. And being in the middle class crunch we don't necessarily "qualify" for any assistance even though sometimes we all could use a little help-Right?! One thing we have found is the Angel Food service -where you can get a package of food at a discounted price and EVERYONE qualifies! (Check their website for more info. and see if it's available in your area.)
Another thing our family does is use a dry-erase board calendar where we write in our weekly menu before we go shopping. Of course there's also clipping coupons-Depending how much time you have you can save and clip coupons from your newspaper-etc.,the more you do the more you can save! There's also various websites you can get coupons -1 I recommend is Coupons.com. Again depending on the time you're able to spend comparing prices at different stores-etc.-You can always find good deals! If you're like me and just want to go to 1 store and be done with your shopping -Don't forget some stores like Wal-Mart do ad match prices. We've always been pretty devout Wal-Mart shoppers ever since we we're newlyweds and at the time we could utilize my husbands employee discount. :)
To close: Having a game plan by writing a menu,incorporating what we may get thru Angel Food and clipping coupons has really helped our grocery bill! Also as far as the weekly menu-Of course you can always go with the flow and switch things around. Or order pizza when you're just too busy too cook-Just be sure to be on the lookout for good discounts/deals when you do! ;)

P.S. For more money saving tips -Check out the previous post-Happy Earth Day!