Friday, December 7, 2007

Frugal Grocery Shopping

If you've been reading my posts, you know that I sometimes talk about other ways in which I'm trying to lower our cost of living, besides just paying off existing debts.

For example, I've worked on lowering our electric bill, and I was able to lower our phone bill as well.

Well, today I am writing about groceries. The truth is that although they're a necessity, we don't have to pay as much as we do for them. Case in point, there are specific items that we ALWAYS buy (whether weekly, monthly or what), and if we buy them in bulk when they're on sale, we keep some of that money in our pockets.

Here are the things I was able to save money on this week:

Pork Sirloin Chops 1.99/lb Usually 4.49/lb.
Chicken breasts 1.68/lb Usually 2.99/lb
Bagels 2.50, Usually 3.69 (we like the really good ones)
Frozen blueberries 2 for 1
Toilet paper 2 for 1
Paper towel 2 for 1
Etc, etc, etc.

The point is, if I just bought what I needed this week/month, then I am going to pay more money for them the next time I need them b/c I can't count on them being on sale. So, I buy mass quantities of what I can stock up on. Then, I do it again the next time these items are on sale.

Doing this means you have to budget so much into your groceries for stocking up. You can do it, it just requires planning. A helpful website for planning is www.sundaysaver.com. You can look up your local grocery store's Sunday ads pages, click the items you are interested in, and print a list for that store. Then, you won't get distracted by other items in the store. Just stick to your list!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

$100 paid

It's not a big payment, but it's chipping away at that debt nonetheless. I made a $100 payment to the credit card. Ahh, it feels good to be knocking this sucker out, one payment at a time, until it's gone!!