Another tip.....

FYI: If you are on facebook - that is another good place to get free coupons! I just went and "liked" Minute Maid and got $1.00 off coupon! I was able to print two of them - so if you have certain items on your grocery list that you need/want coupons for you may want to go check out facebook pages of brand names to see if you can get coupons by "liking" them.

Can I make it?!

Yes, of course I can.

I tell myself that on those days I'm completely unmotivated to go grocery shopping and we're not totally out of food. The only major thing we need is tooth paste, but we have baking soda - so there. Baking soda works just as well and we have mint mouthwash if needed. Food is still ok for right now and I can still make quite a few meals with what we have on hand. I'm totally feeling NO pressure and needless to say, I'm not going grocery shopping until either tomorrow morning, Friday afternoon or Monday. I really don't want to go out on the 1st of the month since that is when so many people get money and then raid the stores leaving little on the shelves. Besides, my coupons from ebay were just shipped out yesterday and therefore I'll probably get them in the mail either tomorrow or Friday.

At anyrate, today I've been sitting here planning out my list, printing off coupons, double checking food items in the cupboards, and deciding where to go shopping. I actually was dreaming about coupons in my sleep last night! Last night, I had to come up with a meal off the top of my head. My brother-in-law was here for supper and is GF, so I had to figure what I could make without using any gluten. Easy. I decided to make cornbread waffles topped with chili, sour cream, and cheese. Yum! I opened the cupboard, read through the list of ingredients on the cornmeal box - wheat = gulten product. Sigh, that wasn't going to work. Well, I then I decided that I could have sloppy joes since he had brought his own gluten free bread, but I didn't have any thawed meat to add to my huge can of sloppy joe sauce. Well, who says that you have to have cornbread with chili?! I got out my large pan, opened my cans of beans (with meat), added some sauce, and heated it up! I also heated up some tater tots that I had in the freezer. My husband decided to create a new recipe and put the tater tots in his chili! That is so good!!!

New recipe - add tater tots to your chili for a new style chili. It's really good! I also added lettuce in my bowl of chili to make it like a taco. We didn't have any dessert because we were so full by time we were done eating the chili! I made a batch of waffles up the other day to put in the freezer. I made plain waffles, chocolate chip, blueberry, and chocolate chip/blueberry waffles! We had them yesterday morning for breakfast with some wonderful maple syrup that my grandparents gave us from New York.

What are you doing to prepare for your upcoming grocery shopping trip?

Coupons and more!

Yes, this is another blog post about coupons. Yesterday, I was talking with a friend about the great deals he had gotten for only 1 cent! Bags of Chex mix, pretzel M&Ms, vitamin waters, ect. and various other odds and ends. THAT my friends, is called good couponing! My frugal-want-to-be blood was going high! I want to try this month to see just how much I can save buy using coupons. I will only buy brand name things if the price is lower than the store brand.

What were his tips? To buy grocery coupons off of ebay. If you don't get the newspaper and if you want to do couponing get on ebay and browse their grocery coupons. I just placed a bid this morning on ebay for a package of 100 coupons for $4.00, which ends up being 25 cents per a coupon. If I save at least $4.00 I will of made some profit by buying these coupons. I know I probably should of tried to find a better deal to bid on, but I wanted to try it and see what happens. Most of the coupons will ship for free, which is really nice. Have you ever bought coupons off of ebay? If so, how did that endeavor turn out and did you stick with it?

As we prepare for our April grocery shopping, let me share some really quick tips that I have learned from my 1st shop-once-a-month shopping trip in March.

*We go through more milk than I thought - ended up having to get another gallon of milk.

*Toothpaste didn't quite last a month

* Get fresh fruit 2x a month - it doesn't quite last for a whole 4/5 weeks.

*Spending $30 extra during the month to host a total of 40 people in your home within two weeks isn't really that bad.

*Allow for spending flexibility. This is a MUST for at least the 1st month! You're suppose to have fun grocery shopping and seeing what money you can save, so don't beat yourself up when the total comes to $180 or whatever.

Start slow and work up to your budget amount. Saving money takes time. It takes time for money to build in your savings account, so why should it be different when saving money while grocery shopping. I know that there are others that I can't think of right now, but those are a few of the items that stand out to me when I think about shopping for a month and what items I need to buy 2x a month instead of 1x.

I'm going to shop 1x a month (minus for those things that one needs to buy every 2 weeks) and cook meals to freeze for at least 1 month or at least try to freeze meals for a few weeks. I'll try to share with you the recipes I plan on trying this month and keep you posted on how that adventure turns out. :)

Do you have a shopping day in mind for the month of April? I always like to shop on Mondays. Last time, I ended up shopping in the POURING down rain! I was happy over the fact that my shopping was all done and I got to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather the following days that week. I'm planning to do my shopping next Monday on April 4th. I can't wait!

I can't believe it's almost April!

Step 2 - COUPONS!

Step #2 - COUPONS!

Last week we figured out our menu and what recipes we wanted to make for the upcoming month. This week, we're going to take that list and search for coupons. If you get the Sunday paper, then you probably have a good collection of coupons, but what happens to those of us that do not get the paper??? We can still save money through couponing as well thanks to wonderful coupon sites and our trusted printers!

This is a very relaxful approach to shopping - using the whole week to complete 1 task. I have learned that a person shouldn't wait until the day OF her shopping trip to sit at the computer to find coupons, because that will take HOURS - time that she could be spending at the store shopping and time she could be at home making meals to freeze after arriving home from her shopping trip or whatever. When a woman is organized things run much more smoothly - in and out of the home.


Tips:

*Create a coupon email - this email address is separate from your personal e-mail address.

* If you're on facebook "fan" pages of those companies that you usually buy the most products from.

* Do NOT sign up for anything, unless you feel comfortable sharing that personal information.

*Use TRUSTED sites. For example, if a lot of friends or bloggers are talking about a certain site from which they print off coupons, chances are it is a good and trusted site. Use careful judgement in determining what is right for you or not. If you don't feel a peace signing up for something and/or sharing certain info. don't do it.

* Browse the "official" sites of companies and stores that you will be shopping at in order to find coupons and special discounts. For example, Krogers has a really nifty little tool for their customers, where you can browse through the coupons on their website and upload them to your Kroger Card, which means easy shopping.

*Sign-up to receive emails from your local grocery store to get the upcoming week's deals.

*Ask a friend who gets the Sunday paper if they will be using the coupons. Chances are there are a few people out there that do not coupon at all and therefore their coupons go to waste and will gladly give you the coupons.


Here are a few of my favorite coupon sites:

- http://www.coupons.com/ -----Sign-up for swagbucks before printing coupons from this website, because then you'll be able to earn "bucks" to help you with adding points to get free giftcards. Swagbucks is free and it really does work!!!! It's the coolest thing to browse online and earn points (bucks) for just using their search engine and then being able to get free giftcards! What could be better than going on a free coffee date to Starbucks with your spouse or good friend for FREE?! Or to save up points for an amazon gift card to use for Christmas shopping later in the year?!?! It's free! It's good! And it works!

"Earn 10 Swag Bucks for every coupon you print and redeem at your local grocery store!
Just check the box of the coupons you want to redeem, print them at home, redeem them at the store,
save money, and earn Swag Bucks! It is 100% FREE to print coupons, so don't delay - the sooner you print, the sooner you SAVE!
*Swag Bucks are only awarded for redeemed coupons. Will take up to 8 to 12 weeks after redemption for Swag Bucks to show in your account."

***You may be required to download a printer download for the coupons.com website in order to print the coupons, don't worry it is safe! **


-Red Plum has a bunch of free printable coupons, including coupons for restaurants, drugstores, and coupon codes.


-Smart Source - enter your zip code for coupons in your area


Now, make your list of what items you will need for your shopping trip and go check out those websites for coupons related to your list. Then print ONLY the coupons you will NEED. Remember to check to see how long the coupons are vaild. Then on the evening/day before you go shopping make sure you do a quick run through of your list and of your coupons and check the coupon sites to make sure you don't miss out on any great deals!

Another really good tip is to have a meal planned out for the day you go shopping. You throw your meal together and put it in the crockpot, then grab your list & coupons and go to the store! That way, you'll not be so rushed when you get home to plan a wonderful meal for your husband/family and you can kick your feet up and relax for a little bit after all the groceries have been put away. Keep that in mind while making your list. :)

Tonight, we're having beef stew in the crockpot, sweet potato bisicuts, and peach cobbler! I'm busy working making waffles to put into the freezer. They make wonderfully quick & easy breakfasts! Especially on the weekends when you just want to stay in bed a little longer. ;)

Whatever do you do with plastic bags?!?

BAGS! BAGS! BAGS! BAGS!

Do you ever have that problem of plastic shopping bags stuffed under the kitchen sick?!? Throw them out with the trash? Use them for dirty baby diapers? Use them to line bathroom trash cans?

Here are some neat little craft ideas that you can make to help with that mess to keep things neat and organized!

*Making a Grocery Bag Dispenser from an old shirt!


http://www.vanillajoy.com/was-old-shirt-is-plastic-grocery-bag-dispenser.html


*If you prefer to have a fashioned bag holder that can be tailored to your own style/colors check out this site:
http://sew4home.com/projects/storage-solutions/502-nature-brights-kitchen-plastic-bag-keeperdispenser




*Or, if you prefer to just buy something check out these nifty bag holders from Bed Bath & Beyond that are just $9.99:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=12977425


The one below can also be found at Bed Bath & Beyond for $6.99. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=13955239



How do you store your plastic grocery bags?

Figuring it all out....

~ STEP 1~

Plan ahead for once-a-month shopping!

It's only March 16th, but let's begin to plan for our April grocery shopping. Start this week by finding all the recipes you wish to have for the month of April. Browse online, through your cookbooks, and magazines to compile your stack of favorite recipes and including the new recipes that you would like to try out. Make sure that you have slow-cooker recipes, dishes that you can freeze and meals that are quick and easy to make that you can whip together in a moments notice in your pile of recipes. Going through recipes can be a lot of fun, but also very time consuming when you're trying to find just the "right" meals to make that are good and healthy.

If you happen to have some extra time after deciding what recipes you'd like to make you may want to check out these free printable recipe cards to write all the recipes you want to make this month, so you can have them all in one place instead of in various places in many recipe books/or websites. Check out recipe cards at: http://tipnut.com/free-printable-recipe-cards-a-nice-collection/

Making grocery lists and going grocery shopping can be overwhelming at times, but if you take the time to plan and organize your list you'll find it much less stressful.

I actually was in our local Walmart Super-Center today for the 1st time since I did my monthly shopping back on February 28th! My sister-in-law and I were out and she needed a few items from the store, which is the only reason we were in there today. I did end up buying a few items today - like a jar of sauce, hand soap, and some plums.

Welcome!

Welcome to Once A Month Shopping for Couples!

Are you feeling that you spend way too much on groceries for two?

Do you want to save $$ but not sure how that would be possible?

Ever wonder how you get free products?

Not a coupon-clipper?

If you answered, YES to any of the questions above, then this blog is for you! This blog has been designed by a newly-married stay-at-home-wife who is learning how to save money through monthly grocery shopping.


If you would be interested in sharing a post on how you save money on grocery and would like to be a guest blogger send an email to: treasuredmemories@juno.com -tips & advice are always welcomed!

Remember to check out the links on the side of the page where you'll find recipes, list making tips and much more!

Let's help each other out as we learn how to save money through our money menus!