With the upcoming presidential election there is all kinds
of talk floating around about the economy. Whose fault it is, who can fix it, and
so on. I know this might shock some of you, but maybe it isn’t ALL our
government.. Maybe, just maybe WE have forgotten how to shop. We have become a
bunch of entitled brats and we really just don’t know how to shop anymore. The
economy stinks right now, but we can do something about it. If not on a large
scale, then our own little piece of it. To do so we are going to have to
rethink shopping. We need to go back a couple generations.
How did our parents,
our grandparents, and maybe a few of you youngsters (our great-grandparents)
shop during the depression and after the depression? Guess what folks, they
used COUPONS! Couponing is BIG right now! It is THE thing to do. It is becoming
the popular thing to do because people are searching for ways to save money and
ways to keep their family afloat during these hard economic times. Sound familiar?
I bet if you asked a few older folks around it would.
When I was little my mom used coupons. Not because it was
cool, but because she was trying to feed two teenage boys and younger daughter.
My dad hunted and we also grew a big garden. We traded meat and eggs for milk
and butter from the neighbors. We didn’t run to a big box store for neatly
packaged, overpriced items. We ate fresher foods and mom followed seasonal and
sale items at the grocery store to save every penny she could. Sure times were
hard. Some of you are facing just as hard of times now, but without the skill
to know how to fix it.
Sometimes we need to think outside the “box” or in this case
the big box stores. We need to learn how to shop in these modern times. We live
in a pretty rural area so big gardens and fresh meat isn’t completely out of
the question here, but we can shop smart even without that.
If you are new to couponing and really want to start seeing
a difference in your grocery budget alone here are some ways to start. I NEVER
spend over $100 a week on grocery and toiletry items combined. Honestly we
could live on a lot less than $100 but that includes our extra items as well.
Your budget can be half of that or twice that amount, but have a budget and
stick to it!
Once you know how much money your family can afford for
groceries, cleaning supplies and toiletries it’s time to make a plan. Do not
head to that store without a plan especially if you are taking your children
and/or husband. You’ll leave with 5 bags of chips and 3 packages of cookies and
nothing to eat the rest of the week. I know this from experience. First sit
down with the local grocery store ads. Find out what is on sale and where.
Build a menu around this. For example potatoes were on sale for an AMAZING
price this week so my weekly menu has several items that involve them.
While you have the ads out, double check to see if you have
any coupons that matches up with sale ads. This is how we get the very BEST
deals. My family LOVES pizza rolls for a quick lunch. This week they were on
sale for $1.50. I also have a coupon for $0.40 off that will double at
CountryMart making it $0.80 off. This is
the best situation, a coupon AND a sale price.
Once you have a budget, and a menu filled with items you can
get on sale and items you can use coupons for, are there any amazing buys that
your family uses a lot of? For example my family goes through a lot of tomato
sauce. I use it in my chili and the boys love macaroni noodles and tomato sauce.
A couple weeks ago it was on sale for $0.15. Since this is half of the price it
normally is, I bought up several extra. I do the same thing when I get good
sales on sugar, kool-aid and anything else that our family uses a lot of.
The idea is to stock
up on items so you don’t have to pay full price later. How many you buy depends
on your budget, how quickly it goes bad and how great of a deal it is. I always
buy a year’s worth of Kool-aid at the beginning of summer because it is the
lowest price it will be all year long. For just a few dollars I can buy enough
to last my family an entire year saving myself tons of money throughout the
year.
These are all ways our parents and grandparents shopped. My
Aunt says when her boys were little she always bought cereal on one Saturday a
month because the local grocery store would have it on sale and she could use a
coupon that they would double.
Couponing isn’t new. We have just forgotten how to do it.
Start small. Shop smart. Make a plan and try to match up sales and coupons. This
isn’t a reality TV show. This is real life and your money. You aren’t buying
1000 boxes of cereal that is going to expire before you can use it all, you are
buying things your family will use and you are saving a ton of money doing so.
