Preparing for shopping...

You wouldn't go on a date without spending a little time to get ready. Grocery shopping deserves no less! Everyone needs to come up with their own shopping preparation plan that fits in with their lifestyle, but here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Don't just go blindly to the store. Always look through the ads first to see which stores have the best sales that week.
• When looking at ads and trying to decide what to buy, consider what you will be eating for the week and try and plan your meals around what is on sale and what you have in your storage. (This means that coming up with a menu BEFORE going to the store would be a very good idea!)
• Look through the ads and write down the items that are on good sale so you don't forget.
• Check your pantry and food storage before you leave to see what items you are short on to minimize trips to the store. (This saves on time and gas!)
• Go through your coupons and pull the coupons for any items that are on sale. Place these together in the front pocket of your coupon organizer.
• Pick a night each week that you will cut coupons and get rid of the expired ones. (I usually do this while watching my favorite TV show, that way I feel less guilty about watching TV :) )
• Budget each week to buy multiples of at least one item that is on INCREDIBLE sale... (most grocery stores have at least one item that they reduce drastically to get you to come to their store... this is how you can build your food storage).
• Some items are just cheaper regular price at one store than they are at sale price at another. Super Walmart is a good example of this. There are many basic items that I pick up here because they generally don't go on sale (or at least they don't go on sale for less than Walmart charges for them.)