My Steps to Saving Money

The last time I posted about my steps to saving money I talked about how important it is to have a good plan. You can't expect this to work for you if you aren't putting a decent amount of prep work into it. As with any job, its all about the tools! Just ask my husband. It is true in this case also. I have three tools that I could not do without.

The first tool I have in my toolbox is my cookbooks. The cookbooks are so helpful because I'm just not all that creative in the dinner making area. So I look in the back for an ingredient I have on hand or know that I'll be getting really cheap on sale like hamburger. Then I choose one of the recipes that I have most of the ingredients on hand. This way when I go to do my grocery shopping I am buying mostly things that are on sale and not a bunch of things I need to complete my meals.


I go through my cookbooks on Sunday night usually and put together a meal plan for the week. I only plan out dinners because we basically eat the same things for breakfasts and lunches, cereal, eggs, toast, smoothies, sandwiches, soups, and leftovers. With only dinners to plan it doesn't take too long. I try to plan dinners based on what I may already have on hand. This way I won't need to buy everything to put the dinner together.


Now I should say that it takes a couple of weeks of doing things like this before it starts to really work. The deal is that instead of buying a bunch of stuff you need, you're buying things on sale for supercheap, or free and stocking up on them. If I can get cereal for close to free or free I'll buy as much as I can. This happened for me a couple of months ago. And although it seemed like I had cereal coming out of my ears, I haven't had to "buy" any for months. And I still have about 8 boxes left. That's something I got for free and haven't had to add to my list in a long time. Leaving me money to stock up on other things.


When I come across a deal that free or close to it and I know we'll use it within the next couple of months, I'll buy as much as I can store and use. It may seem odd to have 10 bottles of mustard, but I got them all for free with coupons and I won't need to buy any for a year! It is something we need and will use that I was able to get for free. When I don't need to spend my grocery budget on things like mustard I am free to spend more on other great deals that come up.


Next time.....Coupons!


*Kristie*