I used to roll the grocery store and randomly grab products here and there until my car was full when it comes to feeding my family. Once I was home and it was time to cook dinner throughout the week, I would often open the freezer, the refrigerator, and the cabinets to discover that I really did not have anything to put together a nutritious, balanced meal. Discount Coupons
Going to the grocery to stock up and come home with nothing wholesome sounds crazy, I know. I realized that I was not the only mom having this strange phenomenon after talking with some friends. For being so busy with our jobs, taking care of our kids and (sometimes even our own parents), running our kids to practice and events, and making time for ourselves, we tend to fail planning our meals.
I was watching the evening news while I was going through the cupboards to try and find something to feed my family a couple of weeks ago. A story on the news grabbed my attention. It was about a woman who lives in Texas, and she actually sat down and planned out her family’s meals. Not weekly. Not for a month. But for a year!
The woman featured on the news, Leslie Chisholm, has a family of six (which includes four sons). She said that being so organized actually saves money. In fact, she says that her grocery bill has been cut by more than half by planning the menu for an entire year.
I discovered the news story online at http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2010/01/21/dnt.planning.meals.year.ktrk.html. Leslie Chisholm mentioned that it’s easier for her because she already knows what they are having and she doesn’t stress out and say “What am I going to cook tonight, what am I going to cook tonight?”
Oh, how I can relate to what she said! It seems like I am always wondering what I am going to cook tonight. I end up making several trips to the grocery store each week due to my poor planning. I started wondering how much time I might save by planning out menus and only making one or two trips to the supermarket instead of making it part of my route home each evening.
It seemed kind of outrageous to plan my family’s meals for a whole year so I decided to start out planning my family’s meals for a whole month instead. I followed the advice of the woman in the news story, asked my family members if there were certain foods that they just could not tolerate, and made a point of asking everyone for their favorites.
With a couple of vegetables, I chose a meat or pasta entree for every night. Since we always seem to have certain foods remaining, I built in one day each week for leftovers. I also built in some room for eating out, since we are sometimes so busy hauling our kids to their functions and events, whether they are for school, church or scouts.
Sitting down at the kitchen and going through my stash of coupons was my next step of the plan. Since I discovered SaveGroceryCoupons.com, a site that makes couponing quick and easy, I have been an avid coupon user.
I was a little apprehensive, just like when I first heard about this mom who plans her menus for the whole year when I first discovered the Save Grocery Coupons web site. I thought it seemed like a lot of work to try to save a little money. Boy, was I wrong!
I was able to master the methods of using coupons and save a significant amount of money off our grocery budget in no time at all. The coupons online are researched by SaveGroceryCoupons.com, so all I have to do is just click,print and save.
Then, my experiment planning menus for the month went well relatively. I must admit that I do not think I will go so far as to plan my family’s meals for an entire year, though. I would rather take advantage of the coupons I get and its weekly sales circulars at my local grocers. Most of the times, I feel like I’ve won the lottery when I have a coupon that I can use on top of a sale price. Coupon Organizer
