posted by 3kidsmom on Money Saving Tips

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Everyone agrees that our economy is in a sad state right?  Well, my hubby is always asking……how can we save money and reduce our debt?  We try and review this several times a year and I am so thankful he is a lot like my dad in that we don’t buy it if we don’t have the money!  It has helped us immensely to reduce our debt as a family.

I want to share a change we recently made as a family to save money…..We all have to grocery shop right?  We have always done this as a family.  It isn’t always a stress free experience for me because my darling husband pays for the shopping and tries very hard to keep us within his budget.  We all know how challenging this can be.  I remember when our daughter was born and we had to buy diapers and wipes and all the little extras that babies need…..I thought he was going to go over the edge!  He wanted the budget to stay the same even though we had a new person to feed and take care of.  In the blur of it all I think we actually did it, although I don’t know how!!

The latest challenge was when the gas prices skyrocketed causing the price of groceries to go up, up, up.  We were at that time shopping weekly.  I suggested to my husband that perhaps we start shopping every two weeks and see if it doesn’t save us a bit of money.  Like most we tended to buy a lot of the same things  sometimes when we didn’t really need them ( I am not the best at checking the cupboards before making my list ), just out of habit causing our bill each week to be over $100.00.  My thought was if we shopped every two weeks and tried to keep it around $200.00 then we would be ahead and if it was less that more the better! More money to play with!

We started doing this and we really have saved money and have been able to keep a “pantry” of staples as well.  We occaisionally run out of milk or fruit and have to stop in between for those items but overall we are ahead of the game.  We always shop from a list, we have a basic list on our computer and we go through it and mark what we need for that shopping trip adding additional items as we have need and since we save it each time I can see what we purchased previously and know from that whether we need it again or not.

Shopping from a list is important too! It may seem a bit rigid and basic but it really prevents shopping on a whim which can cost you a lot when you get to the checkout!  I think we all want to provide nice meals for our families but also have enough money left over to do fun things with our families as well…..like go out to eat! Which is one of my favorite things to do!

Our new schedule has made our shopping less stressful for all of us, we have a blast doing it as a family and we don’t have to go to the grocery store every week!!!  It’s all good!

Question:  What kinds of things do you do to save money at the grocery store?  I would love to hear your ideas….

Happy Shopping!!!

Grace

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Tags: Family Budgeting, family time, Money Saving Tips, Saving at the grocery store, shopping for less