"A woman's best protection is a little money of her own."

                                                                                         -Clare Booth Luce

How to Save Money on Your Groceries

By Angela Daugherty

With 6 people to feed, I am always looking for ways to cut back my grocery budget and still have a variety of food. It really IS possible to feed your family healthy and tasty foods without breaking the bank! It just takes a little organization and time.

Always keep a list of items you are running low on. When you go shopping, make sure to take your list with you. It is time consuming to wander from aisle to aisle trying to remember what is on the list that is sitting on the counter (or in the drawer) back at home. Something is sure to be forgotten. Resist the temptation to add high priced impulse items to your cart.

Shop the perimeter of the store first. Grocery store chains spend thousands of dollars to learn how to maximize their profits with the store layout. Staple items such as milk, bread, produce and meat are almost always spread out far away from each other. Why? These are items that just about everyone purchases. By spreading them out, you will have to spend more time in the store, be exposed to more products as you walk the length of the store and (the grocery store hopes) spend more money than you planned.

Don't be brand loyal. With the exception of dish and laundry soap(we use unscented, natural products due to asthma), I have no qualms whatsoever using different brands. I buy the least expensive brand. PERIOD.

As a general rule, the most expensive brands are set at eye-level. Companies pay premiums to have their products set at eye-level, the spot where most shoppers will reach for just because of its proximity. Look to the very bottom shelf for the lowest priced items. Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce for .99 tastes just as good to my family as Newman's Own Marinara. (Yes, I know, he very generously donates all of his after-tax profits to charity. Consider donating a portion of your grocery bill savings to the charity of your choice at the end of the year.)

Less expensive does not mean less quality. Many of the generic store brand items are manufactured by name brand companies and are just labeled generic.

Coupons vs. Store Brands

Coupons are great! They can save you lots of money, but there is a time factor to consider. It IS time consuming to cut and organize coupons. The best way to save money with coupons is to have them doubled on items that are on sale. The best coupons are those that are cents-off on one item (not .50 off 2 boxes of cereal). For instance, if you have a .50 off one can of Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce and it's on sale for .99, guess what-you just got it for free!

Coupons don't always get you items for free, but you can save money with them. I only save the coupons for items that I normally use.

Another great way to add to your grocery savings is by refunding. You may get cash and/or free items from companies. In the past, I have gotten cash, free t-shirts, books and many toys that I then used for Christmas and birthday gifts. My favorite resource for refunding is Refunding Makes Cents, a monthly newsletter put together by coupon/refunding expert Michele Easter. Michele has been publishing it for 20 years. It is available online (www.refundcents.com) or in print. It is well worth checking out.

For the few items that I am brand loyal about ( my natural toothpaste and natural laundry soap) I take the time to write a letter expressing my pleasure with their products and request coupons. For the price of a stamp and a few minutes of my time, I now receive coupons regularly from Tom's of Maine (maker of my toothpaste) several times a year. Most products have an 800 number and/or address on the label. If not, I suggest looking them up online.

Figure out what staple items you need for at least five different meals and make sure to have those items on hand. You will never get caught not having the makings of a meal again! Make a list of your staple items and stock up on them when they are on sale at their lowest price.

Some of my staple items:

hotdogs (freeze really well)      frozen ground turkey

tunafish               peanut butter

pasta      jams and jellies

macaroni and cheese      canned soups

rice      canned and frozen vegetables

canned chili      eggs

spaghetti sauce      refried beans

Here are just a few examples of my best prices:

3 boxes of macaroni and cheese for .99

hotdogs, .79 for an 8 pack

frozen pizza, $2.50 each

toilet paper, 24 roll package for $3.99

Buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season. Usually a few items will be priced very low-loss leaders-each week. Some weeks seedless grapes may be on sale for .88 per pound (regularly $1.69/lb.) So we eat lots of grapes that week. Likewise, if watermelon goes down to $2.99 or lower, then we eat lots of nice, ice cold watermelon (beats icecream in my book any day!!) .

If I am going to use a certain vegetable right away, say a red or orange pepper (usually about $1.50 each where I live), then I search through the pepper display and find 2 or 3 that are not obviously fresh. Since I am going to use it right away, it doesn't really matter. I then find the produce manager and ask if he's willing to mark it down. I usually end up with 2 or 3 peppers for $1.00.

Never purchase vegetables or fruit from the salad bar! You are paying $5.99/pound for the fruits and vegetables that were no longer fresh enough to be sold whole. Is it worth paying that much more to have someone else wash and chop for you?

Many cities have at least one outdoor farmer's market during the summer and early autumn months. If you don't know of one, call your local Chamber of Commerce for more information. You can usually get better than grocery store prices on fresher, grown closer to home produce.

Another excellent source of fruits and vegetables is your own backyard! If you don't already grow some of your own vegetables, consider starting a vegetable patch. It's a great outdoor activity that your entire family can be a part of. My favorite place to shop for seeds is Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com). I have been buying all of my seeds from them for the last 12 years. The quality and service is outstanding.

Don't have space for an in-the-ground garden? There are many great books on container gardening. (Or simply go to www.google.com and look up container gardening.) Don't think that container gardening limits you to just tomatoes and peppers! You can now find many compact, bush-type varieties of cucumbers, squash and even miniature pumpkins! Many fruit trees are even now available in dwarf sizes that do well in large containers. At the very least, you can have a kitchen window herb garden. (Just think how delicious your pesto will taste with your home-grown basil!) There is simply no need to be limited by a lack of space!

Stay away from expensive pre-packaged convenience foods unless they are on sale at a lower price than what it would cost to make it yourself.

Example: Stouffer's Frozen Family-Size Lasagna. The regular price is $12.99. It occaisonally goes on sale for $7.99. I simply cannot buy all the needed ingredients to make a family size lasagna, so I go ahead and buy it.

When it comes to bread, I must admit that I am rather particular. The brand that I prefer to feed my family is Brownberry, which is usually priced at $2.79 a loaf. (One loaf does not last very long in our household!) Check your phone book to see if there is a bakery outlet for your bread of preference. You will typically pay slightly less than half of what grocery stores charge. In addition, many bread outlet stores offer special cards that they stamp each time you make a purchase and when the card is filled you get an item free or a certain dollar amount off of your total purchase. Many outlet bakeries also have a special bonus day each week, where prices are even lower or you get double stamps on your card. You just can't go wrong with bakery outlet stores!

When it comes to meat, consider changing the focus of your meals. Many people view meat as the main course. Consider cutting back on the number of meals planned around meat. You will be saving money And eating healthier! Check out ethnic cuisines such as Mexican, Chinese and Japanese. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised. Any of the wonderful vegetarian cookbooks written by Linda McCartney are also wonderful.

When I do purchase meat, I Never pay full price. I always look at the marked-down meat first. You can generally tell by looking if it is still fresh enough to eat. If you have any doubts, then pass it up. If the sell-by date is the same day, then only purchase it if you are going to prepare and eat it that same day or you are going to freeze it immediately. I often freeze marked-down meat and have never had a problem.

If you have enough freezer space, then stock up on chicken and meat when it is on sale at its' lowest price. My lowest price for whole chickens is.29/lb and .59/lb for whole turkeys.

Get a membership to a wholesale warehouse club like Sam's Club or Costco. It is well-worth the $35.00 per year fee. You can save A LOT of money here, but you still need to compare prices with regular grocery stores. Don't just automatically assume that you are getting the best price.

Example: A 24oz. Package of solid cheese regularly sells for $5.99 at Kroger. Sam's Club sells a 5 lb.“brick” of cheese for just under $8.00. So I buy my cheese at Sam's Club. Conversely, I consistently find that toilet paper is less expensive at Kroger.

Sam's Club also makes a wonderful fresh pizza in their deli. It is very large and sells for about $7.80. One pizza is large enough to feed my crew! You can even call ahead and order it for pickup! With delivery pizzas selling for $15.00 (+ tip and/or delivery charge!) and up, $8.00 for a pizza parlor type pizza is a real deal!