Recently when I posted about this topic I received a few comments and e-mails like the one below.
Do you have any advice for people who cannot afford to purchase that much food at a time.... I would love to do this, have even tried to follow this, but I cannot afford to start....
Here was my answer:
I was in the same boat when I started a couple of years ago. Then I really focused on what I could get for almost free or even free with coupons. I just made it a priority to look up the deals on couponmom.com and then make stops at the stores when I was out. Even if you just buy doubles of something when they are cheap you are money ahead. Coupon using does take time and I don't do it as much now but if I have a really money tight week or two I will spend the time to clip and match the deals so I can bring home more for my money when I shop. Good luck.
Really it can be overwhelming to begin a grocery stockpile but it is a wonderful asset to a household for a few reasons:
1. You always have ingredients on the shelf to pull a home cooked dinner together. It may just be spaghetti but knowing you have the sauce and noodles is wonderful.
2. Say your car breaks down and you face a huge repair bill, it is nice to be able to prepare meals from your pantry and not spend money at the grocery store for a week or two. You may need need to pick up some milk and fresh produce but to skip all the other isles can save you a lot money until you recoup the cost of that transmission.
3. Say your kids invite a few extra friends like mine do all the time. We have an open dinner table policy. I love that I can head to the freezer to make some garlic bread or open up a couple cans of veggies to help stretch the meal.
If you don't have any extra grocery money to start buying extras then use coupons to stretch that grocery budget. You can follow lots of deal sites to help let you know where the freebies and real cheap buys are for the week. If I know I am going to Target or Walmart during the week I will take a few minutes to look and see what coupon match ups there are. Almost every week you can find a few items for free or pennies when you match the deal with the coupon. Start doing this once a week and you will start stashing away extras of odd items here and there but after a while you will see that you have two and three cans of this and bags of that or bottles of shampoo. Just continue doing this and when you find you are not buying the items you already have at what would have been full price you can then use those few extra dollars to stock up on the deals for that week at the grocery store or to buy some markdown meats and breads for the freezer.
Here is a list of my favorite deal/matchup sites:
couponmom.com
hip2save
save at home mommy
Linking to:
Sat. Night Special
Blog Party Sunday
Do you have any advice for people who cannot afford to purchase that much food at a time.... I would love to do this, have even tried to follow this, but I cannot afford to start....
Here was my answer:
I was in the same boat when I started a couple of years ago. Then I really focused on what I could get for almost free or even free with coupons. I just made it a priority to look up the deals on couponmom.com and then make stops at the stores when I was out. Even if you just buy doubles of something when they are cheap you are money ahead. Coupon using does take time and I don't do it as much now but if I have a really money tight week or two I will spend the time to clip and match the deals so I can bring home more for my money when I shop. Good luck.
Really it can be overwhelming to begin a grocery stockpile but it is a wonderful asset to a household for a few reasons:
1. You always have ingredients on the shelf to pull a home cooked dinner together. It may just be spaghetti but knowing you have the sauce and noodles is wonderful.
2. Say your car breaks down and you face a huge repair bill, it is nice to be able to prepare meals from your pantry and not spend money at the grocery store for a week or two. You may need need to pick up some milk and fresh produce but to skip all the other isles can save you a lot money until you recoup the cost of that transmission.
3. Say your kids invite a few extra friends like mine do all the time. We have an open dinner table policy. I love that I can head to the freezer to make some garlic bread or open up a couple cans of veggies to help stretch the meal.
If you don't have any extra grocery money to start buying extras then use coupons to stretch that grocery budget. You can follow lots of deal sites to help let you know where the freebies and real cheap buys are for the week. If I know I am going to Target or Walmart during the week I will take a few minutes to look and see what coupon match ups there are. Almost every week you can find a few items for free or pennies when you match the deal with the coupon. Start doing this once a week and you will start stashing away extras of odd items here and there but after a while you will see that you have two and three cans of this and bags of that or bottles of shampoo. Just continue doing this and when you find you are not buying the items you already have at what would have been full price you can then use those few extra dollars to stock up on the deals for that week at the grocery store or to buy some markdown meats and breads for the freezer.
Here is a list of my favorite deal/matchup sites:
couponmom.com
hip2save
save at home mommy
Linking to:
Sat. Night Special
Blog Party Sunday
