Smarty Tips to Save $

A smarty tip to save time and money – can’t beat that! I’ve got a 2 year old with special needs, who would be a handful in and of itself, but I also work full time, as does my very helpful husband. When I went back to work after our son came home from his 11 week stay at the NICU, things were crazy for a while when it came to grocery shopping, meal planning and house keeping. I tried a wide variety of tricks, but nothing worked – we would spend hundreds at the store, and I was always disgusted when I cleaned out the fridge with the amount of wasted food. I also would go to clean the shower and realize that there is no cleaner to be had – my husband cleaned last and did not tell me we were out of Tilex. I finally found something that worked for me, with a little help from my girlfriend, Vidalia, in Raleigh. It started with housekeeping. I keep a magnetic notepad on the side of the fridge, with a pen next to it, to make the shopping list. I also bought a pad of weekly calendar sheets that are magnetic, where you fill in the month and date, but you can also write appointments, activities, etc., on each date. My current calendar has 40 weeks of pages, so I sat down and wrote in the next 40 weeks of dates one afternoon when my son was napping during a Wake Forest football game. Honestly, that’s the most tedious part. First, I took the house cleaning, including laundry, and split it up into 7 activities, with some repetition (vacuum the upstairs, vacuum the down stairs, dust upstairs, dust downstairs, clean bathrooms and mirrors, clean the kitchen, and laundry). I then spread the tasks over 2 weeks, Monday through Thursday, with laundry being on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I found that if I tackled 1-2 loads of laundry two days a week, and one household task each night, I did not spend my weekends cleaning my house. I do have changing sheets and towels as one Saturday activity, and the other Saturday is poop-scooping the yard (daylight is needed for that task). Some times the task doesn’t get done, but on average, my toilets are cleaned once a month, and I’m best about the laundry so that I’m not spending my weekend folding clothes. When I am low on a cleaning supply, I put it on the list on the fridge. And by having the list of “tasks” posted, my husband knows what needs to be done that day too, and he is more likely to help! But the bigger money saver and time saver was with menu planning. I sat down and came up with 4 weeks of main courses (25 – weekends we have time to ponder or be creative, weeknights we do not!) and spread them out over 5 weeks on that same calendar. (if you want it, please feel free to respond and I’ll give you my list) For example, in our house, Monday night is always pasta night. We can all come up with 4 different ways to eat pasta, even if it is just 4 different pastas or different sauces! We also eat breaded chicken patty sandwiches (baked, not fried, it’s cleaner and healthier) with French fries twice every 4 weeks (once plain, once with buffalo sauce), and hot dogs with mac-n-cheese too. If I try something on a weekend that works, then I add it to the rotation, either taking something off, or just adding to the list, and I have more food to choose from. When I stared I only had 4 weeks of menu options, and now I have 5, and I’m trying to work on a 6th! My “task” Friday night, every week, is to make the grocery list for the next week. I look at what the next week’s menu is, decide what sides will be served, and look to see if we have all of the ingredients for each meal, and if not, put them on the grocery list. Then I transfer the menu from the current week to the next empty week on the calendar, and every 5th week we’re eating the same thing, but it’s spread out enough that it doesn’t feel like we’re eating the same thing over and over My most recent addition to the process is to check to see if I have a coupon (my husband clips them on Sunday) and mark the items on the list where we have them because many grocery stores, like Harris Teeter, do double coupons $0.99 and lower, and this way I know in advance if I need to look for a particular brand of item. Saturday morning after breakfast I take my list and head to the store. I’ve gotta say, it has made a world of difference in our food budget and our health. It saves time because I’m not having to think about what I’m feeding everyone for the week on Saturday morning while I’m at the store, and by essentially creating the menu weeks in advance, and money because I shop by the list. Hope this is helpful! Betsy (PS – I couldn’t get the comment to post with my name and email, so if you have any questions, you can email me at betsysprenger@carolina.rr.com)

I recently signed up for “The Grocery Game” at http://www.thegrocerygame.com. Each week it generates a list which combines coupons and grocery store specials (I linked my account to Harris Teeter) to show you when and how to get items at very low prices or for free! Also lets you know when certain coupons are about to expire. Saves me a ton of time and membership only costs a few dollars a month (you can do a 4-week trial for $1). We have cut our grocery bills in half.

Buying groceries at Super WalMart (multiple locations in Chlt.) is a HUGE money saver for our family. We used to always shop at Harris Teeter and now are literally stunned when we are back at HT and we compare prices on items. WalMart truly has nearly everything that HT does and the savings is unbelievable. Example- $1.75 difference between Kashi cereal at WalMart vs. HT, almost $2 difference on BallPark Turkey dogs, $1.25 difference on Smuckers Organic Peanut Butter. Only downside is that while WalMart does sell organic milk (Stoneyfield brand), they don’t sell it in gallons like at HT and to buy 2 half gallons there is more expensive than 1 gallon at HT, so we do get our milk still at the Teeter. I can’t say that I am a big fan of WalMart’s corporate practices (big box store/wasn’t great abt health care for employees in the ’90s/etc) but these days, I pretty much have to ignore those feelings because the savings is so, so helpful to our family.

Wow- you ladies are really good! We get wine at Aldi (~$3 per bottle) and my hubby has been telling me that we need to shop for other stuff there. I will now give it a try! Thanks for the tips!

where is Aldi? i’ve never heard of it but am now intrigued!

Target will only let you make 2 returns a year without a receipt (for a purchase made on a credit card). I know this first hand as I always lose my receipts and was denied this last time because they said I had gone over the limit.

there is also an Aldi in Matthews. it is bare bones but very worth it. you can save soooo much money on snack foods and canned goods if you don’t want to try meats and produce. Teeter is definately a racket. I heard that they intentionally up their prices because they are targeting basically the stay at home mom who doesn’t have time to price shop and wants the store to look nice! no denying the looks and customer service of HT but so worth saving the major bucks to buy elsewhere! besides Trader Joes is fabulous for deals and great food of course!

I always use my Target card, which gives me 10% coupons throughout the year. You have unlimited returns without receipts for purchases on a Target card.