Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Frugal grocery shopping anyone?

I LOVE frugality. Seriously, my kids think I'm the cheapest woman in the world(Yes, I wash out my plastic baggies and reuse them!). I grew up the oldest of 4 daughters. My mother stayed home with us and dad owned a small sign shop. We lived well on little. Mom sewed our clothes, we rarely ate out(it was a big big treat), and we learned how to shop the sales. Mom's motto was "never pay full price, everything goes on sale eventually." I've taken those lessons to heart. When I buy groceries, I plan a few meals, make my list, and take a 100.00 bill to the store. I add up the items with my calculator. When I get near 100.00, I stop--that's it, no more in the cart(okay, I do cheat sometimes when we need household items). What gets left out? We don't buy sodas, individually packaged snack items, we buy store brands etc. It is a fun challenge and I feel like I'm beating "the system." My sister told me about a popular budgeting tool that her Life Group friends from church are all using. The website is http://www.e-mealz.com/ and it is soooo cool!!! You sign up for $5 a month and tell it which shopping plan you want to be on(I chose the family plan at Wal-Mart). Every week you get a meal plan, recipes, grocery list, and current pricing for the needed items. I'm so pumped to put it into action. I can see it really helping me with meal planning and saving money. Check it out!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Lib - we were just laughing about washing baggies last night! Frugality rules at our house right now!
    Jeff's cousin w/3 boys does the e-mealz and loves it!
    Susie

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