Frugal Living Tip: Groceries

The Grocery Store – this is definitely one place where lots of money can be saved. In order to save money on groceries, you need to plan your shopping trip, use coupons, and meal plan. Below is a step-by-step guide to follow to make the most of your grocery shopping and save money!

Create a budget for your grocery shopping.

Whether it’s one hundred dollars of three hundred dollars, it’s important to not go over that amount. Be sure to bring a calculator to the store to keep track of your expenses. A good rule of thumb is just put the price on the tag in the calculator and watch that total then you’ll end up saving more at the end once you use your coupons and special discounts. Be sure to add everything into the calculator so there are no surprises at the checkout counter!

Before you get going into saving money tips at the grocery store, think about how often you like to shop. Do you like to shop each week, daily, twice a month, once a month? Determine this before going forward. If you like to shop once a week, take the total amount for groceries that you have budgeted for the month and divide that by the number of weeks in that month. That is how much you can spend at the store each week.

If you have two hundred dollars a month for groceries, and four weeks in the month, you have fifty dollars a week for groceries. Another tip: if you have fifty dollars to spend and only use forty-five dollars, take the extra five dollars and put that into savings. Don’t save it to buy more groceries or think that you can go get a burger and fries. Be frugal and save it!

The next step is to make an inventory of all the groceries you currently have.

Go through your pantry, freezer and refrigerator and list what you have in stock. If you can do this on the computer, it’ll be helpful to update regularly. Create three columns: Item, Amount, and Purchase.

Put a list of all the products you have in the “Item” column and how many of each item you have in the “Amount” column. The “Purchase” column is where you can place a check mark when you run out of the entire item or you get very close to being out and you need to pick it up the next time you go shopping. Keep this list near the pantry or cabinet where you have all your groceries. Make the same type of list for your refrigerator and freezer as well.

Another step is to clip coupons.

I recommend having the Sunday paper delivered to your house each week. In the long run, you will be saving a lot more than the subscription price is worth. Take the time to clip coupons and create a good system for you for sorting them. Be sure to also check to see if a store doubles coupons. You save even more when stores do that for you.

You can also print coupons on your computer. Sites like Coupons.com and CouponSurfer.com are always updated with the latest coupons that are available. Just be sure to check your store’s policy and see if they accept printed coupons.

Join your grocery store’s frequent shoppers club.

Most are free and you get bonus coupons and deals by having the card when you checkout. With the way stores can keep track of what you purchase each time you visit them, they will begin to send you coupons based on your past purchases and when you checkout, they will print you off extra coupons for you to use on your next trip.

Create a grocery list before leaving the house.

Now that you have a list of deals, clipped coupons, a frequent shopper’s club card and a list of what you need from the store, it’s time to sit down and put it all together. Look over everything on your list, go ahead and get coupons ready and make sure you know exactly what you are going for while at the store. Going to the store without a list is detrimental to the entire process of living frugally.

Now that you are at the store, take your time. Never shop on an empty stomach – this will prevent some impulse purchases.

Read the sale ad and the tags on the shelf carefully- then compare prices to save the most money.

A good rule of thumb is to have a calculator or extra paper to determine what your best deal is. Have the ad from the paper as well to check out any special deals that are going on. Some stores have listed in their ads if you buy ten of these certain products, you will get three dollars off at checkout. The important thing with this is to look at the list carefully. If you need the products listed and they are cheaper than their counterparts, then it is worth it to get all those items.

Another thing to consider deals with the frequent shoppers club card. All over the store there will be signs stating that with your card, this item is “Buy 10 for $10.” So each item is one dollar each. For that particular item, this may be a good buy. But if you take a look at the generic item right beside it that is regularly priced at eighty-nine cents each, that is the better deal to go with. Don’t always be fooled by the signs.

Furthermore, “Buy 10 for $10″ could be misleading. You might not have to purchase 10 to get the sale price. With your card, you might be able to save a certain amount on each, regardless of how many you purchase. This is why you must read carefully to fully understand the sale.

Ever been told it’s better to by the family size of an item?

Don’t be fooled here either. When you see that you can purchase a family size box of granola box where you get thirty-six granola bars for five dollars, you might think that’s a good deal.

But then you see that you can get one box of granola bars with ten bars in each box for one dollar each. If you do the math, you can either get thirty-six granola bars for five dollars or get fifty granola bars for five dollars.

While this might be the case here, in other places, it’s more beneficial to purchase the family size. For example, frozen French fries. For one, these can be frozen so even if you are single, these will last awhile. If you look at the smaller bag of fries, you might get fifteen ounces for $1.99, but you can purchase the family size of forty-five ounces for $2.99 so for one dollar more, you get thirty more ounces.

When buying groceries, in most cases, buying generic is the exact same as buying the name brand product.

Try it and see if you don’t notice a difference or lack thereof. Generic is usually approximately thirty percent cheaper than name brand if not cheaper.

Again, you do have to look at in-store specials and coupons before determining exactly which product to buy. You will probably begin spending longer in the grocery store than before, but if it’s worth it to save twenty percent, thirty percent or more, then it’s worth the extra time.

One other thing to consider is getting a membership to a wholesale club.

At these stores you can buy in larger quantities and save money on the things you purchase the most. You’ll save more than what you pay for the membership. It’s helpful to have a place to be able to store the extra you have on hand and possibly another freezer or refrigerator. You tend to save twenty to thirty percent when you buy in bulk and it is beneficial when you have a large family or only wish to go shopping for certain items a few times a year.

Another part of the grocery scenario is meal planning.

One reason people spend extra money eating out is they fail to plan ahead. Meal planning is key to saving money on your groceries. It eliminates the last-minute trips to the store. It eliminates the dash to the fast food drive-through. When you plan your grocery shopping list, plan your meals too,

A good tip is to pick one day a week and spend it cooking meals for the week. It’s very easy to make several casseroles and freeze them and on any given day, all you need to do is pull the casserole out in the morning and it’ll be thawed out by the time you come home for dinner, ready to pop into the oven and cook while you wind down. Think about using recipes for the crock-pot that cook all day while you’re gone (or even while you’re at home) and it’s ready for dinnertime.

Saving money on groceries can be easy, if you prepare. So let’s recap what you need to do:

1. Create a grocery budget
2. Create an inventory of what you have on hand
3. Clip coupons
4. Join your store’s customer shopping program
5. Carefully read the circular and the tags
6. When you can, buy the family size or in bulk
7. Buy generic
8. Plan your meals

If you’d like more information on how to meal plan, I have a low-cost,  easy-to-read ebook that gives you a step-by-step formula for meal planning. Check out The Household Helper’s Guide to Meal Planning for Busy Moms.

Taking Stock Financially

There are a few steps that a person needs to go through in order to figure out what they need to do in order to live a more frugal life. It’s time to pull everything together and establish where you are financially.

This is an important step when it comes to establishing a more frugal life. This isn’t a step that you skip! Take the time to read over how to determine your financial stability so you can begin your new life. You will feel a lot better once you know where you stand as far as your finances go. There are three steps to this process: determine your financial health, create a budget and set financial goals.

Determining your financial health can be a simple process or a difficult task, depending on how much you have to work with. It’s best to start with a clean slate, gathering all relevant information concerning your expenses and income and using the following procedure to find out where you stand.

To determine your financial health, get a piece of paper and pen or pencil and have a seat. Make sure all your papers and information that you might need is handy. Make two columns on the piece of paper, one entitled “Income” and the other labeled “Expenses.” Draw a line between the two so you won’t confuse any numbers.

Under the “Income” column, write down all incoming cash that you have, your paycheck for example or if you own rental properties, write down the income from that. Also, if you have weekly, monthly or yearly income from savings accounts, IRA’s, CD’s, etc. write that information down as well. Total it up on a monthly basis if you can and then a yearly basis as well.

Under the “Expenses” column, write down all your outgoing monies. Electricity bill, rent or mortgage, cable, telephone, and credit cards are all examples of expenses. You’ll need to calculate this on a monthly basis, but also a yearly basis. You should also write down somewhere how much you owe in total on your house or car if you have those.

The purpose of this is for you to get a look at how much you have coming in each month and how much you have going out. If you have more money going out each month than in, there’s a problem. If your income is more than your expenses, then you are on the right track. The question is if your income is more than your expenses, what is happening with the extra cash?

For most, honestly, their expenses are going to be larger than their income yet somehow they keep living the high life even though they can’t afford it. This is due to credit card companies being very gracious and extending credit to those who really don’t need it.

Also, if some people find themselves short one month, they won’t pay something that month and then they get further into debt because they owe back payments. If that’s the case for you, the next two steps will help to remedy that problem.

Your next goal is to create a budget. This does sound scary, but it is something that can be done and followed as long as you are willing to make changes and follow through with it and not veer off in the opposite direction. There are several ways to create a budget, some use paper and pencil; others use computer programs, and therefore, whichever process you are comfortable with is what you should go with.

Let us begin with plain paper and a pencil. Lined paper is best just to keep things neat and tidy. It is recommended that you get a spiral notebook so you can keep track of all your budgets for each month or every two weeks. Start off by looking at how often you get paid. As an example, let’s say that you earn a check twice a month. For simplicity’s sake, you have a salaried job where you earn the exact same amount in each check.

Make sure that you have your other paper listing all your expenses handy. You’ll need that as a reference. To start, write at the top of the paper which check this is. If you get paid on the first of the month and the fifteenth, write the month, date and year at the top. After the date, probably right underneath the date and a few lines down, write how much your check is.

Now we will be deciding which check you need to pay certain bills out of. Also, we will work on helping to divide up some monthly expenses so they aren’t all coming out of one check. You are going to have a column of things that have to be paid out of this check or items that you will be placing in your savings to pay later in the month.

You’ll need to look at your expenses. Look at the due dates for your bills and rent and car payments. Take your rent or mortgage payment first. Divide that total amount in two. Write down “Rent” and then the amount a few lines below your income.

If you have a car payment, take that amount and divide it by two as well. These are two expenses that most people have that are paid once a month and they are the statistically the largest expenses a person has.

One objective in living frugally is learning how to save your money and figure out ways to earn extra money. This is one place where you can earn a few extra dollars. By taking half of your rent or half of your car payment and placing it in savings and leaving it there until you need it, you can earn interest on the money.

Most savings account do not earn much, but if you are able to get a month or so ahead, you can start earning a dividend each month. But that topic will be discussed in more detail later.

Once you have those two items down, take a look at all your due dates. Bills need to be paid on time or early, most companies appreciate an early payment and it also helps in the long run to have on time or early payments.

As an example, if the electricity and phone bills are due on the tenth of the month, you will need to pay for them out of the first of the month check. These are two bills that tend to fluctuate, so take the last five or six statements that you have, add up all the totals due and divide by the number of statements to get an average. This is the amount that you need to write down for the payment amount.

Do this with any bills that are due before the middle of the month. These are the smaller bills, if you do have other large payments due once a month, these will need to be treated like the mortgage or a car payment.

Once you’ve written these down, don’t forget to budget gasoline and groceries and it’s good to put aside some money for eating out or the movies. This is usually just titled “Entertainment.” Now that those items are written down, you need to total up the amount of expenses you have and compare those to your total income for that pay period. You want to make sure that you have extra money leftover. If you don’t, hang on and don’t panic. You’ve only done one pay period.

Do this exact same procedure for your next pay period. You’ll have the other half of the rent or mortgage and the other half of the car payment, but you’ll also have a different set of bills that are due.

You want to make sure that you set your budget up to where you will have extra money leftover at the end of the pay period. If there are problems achieving this, there are several things that need to be looked at. Are you able to pay for one smaller bill in a different pay period? You can call the phone company and request to have your due date changed if that helps you out.

The main goal in creating your budget is to make sure your income is covering your expenses. If your expenses are larger than your income, then expenses will have to be cut somehow. You might have to get rid of the digital cable and just have regular cable for a few months until you can catch up.

You might also have to change your cell phone plan in order to lower your monthly bill. This is not something that can be done in an hour or two. It might take a few days to establish a budget that you believe you can live with and follow through with. If you create a budget and know you will not follow it then you are wasting your time. Take your time to think through it all.

Once you’ve created your budget, it’s time to set goals for your finances. You wrote down earlier how much you had left to pay on your vehicle. That amount might be $10,000 and right now, you are paying $200 a month for a car payment.

One financial goal might be to pay off the loan in three years instead of the four that are left. How can that goal be reached? You have created your budget and realize that you have $300 extra each pay period after all the bills are paid and the car has been filled with gas and groceries bought and you rented a few movies on Friday night.

A goal would be to take the $300 and put it into a savings account and let it grow and earn interest. After six months, you would have an extra $3,600 plus the interest. For example, a savings account earning 2% interest each month would earn you a minimum of $72 extra after six months.

Make your goal to take the $3,672 and make one lump payment on the car loan. After six months plus the lump sum, you have paid off half of the $10,000 owed to the loan company. After another six months, the entire car could be paid off three years earlier than you wanted it to.

Using the above as an example, look around for other financial goals. Possibly you have credit cards to be paid off. Perhaps you are more concerned about paying those off than the car or your house.

Take a look at your extra money that you are putting back and determine what you’d like to do with. If it’s not bills that you want to pay off, but maybe you’d like to go on a vacation or world cruise.

It is very feasible to save the money necessary to do these activities by working with your budget and determining where you can cut expenses in order to achieve these goals. It is also helpful to type or write the goals out and post them where you will see them most often. This keeps a person on track financially.

Remember to follow these steps and take some time to figure out exactly what you want to do. If you’re married or have others to think about when creating the budget and working toward financial goals, let everyone interact and have a say in what is going on. If everyone is in on the plan, then the goals will be more reachable if you are going at it alone.