I like to use the grocery ads to help plan my upcoming meals. We have a few favorite meals that I watch for the meat to go on sale. Also, I never pass up a rain check. The ads are usually good for one week, but rain check usually last one month. I get a rain check the day I am there and if there is time will come back that week and buy the sale item. The a few weeks later I can cash in my rain check and get the item on sale again.

A few ways I stretch my food dollars to cover 2 dogs, 7 person family with frequent friend and family visitors; always shop sales with coupons, buy in bulk if possible, at the same time follow the cycles of the seasonal sales. Seasonal sales would be things like meats and dairy during summer need to be sold quicker so they don’t spoil. I’ve found that some stores will use a manager special sticker for quick sale label. Plus do homework on how long different foods last, and how to store them, especially in bulk. Milk in a plastic jug can be frozen after pouring out about a cup, reseal. Meats bought in bulk can be seperated into freezer bags, containers, wraps or seal-a-meal, cheese too. Dry goods like oatmeal, flour, cereal, rice, sugar, etc. is cheaper in the summer due to the heat and bugs; get new airtight 5gallon paint buckets for your most used staples for bulk purchases, wash, dry real good then fill and put a couple or bay leaves or match books in with. Stays bug free and lasts longer, provides large storage place to be able to buy in bulk. I use tupperware containers for frequent counter use of cereal, sugar,etc. I simply go to the labled 5 gal bucket to refill my canister of whichever staple item. This also saves on gas, time to the store. Write dates on freezer items, keep a log of what you buy, I use a dry erase board to keep up on quantity of items that saves time on inventory for the next shopping trip. I use a file box with dividers and inbetween them is a long envelope to keep the coupons from slipping through and in order of the soonest to expire in the front. The dividers are in alphabetical order, the envelopes are labeled with what is in each; the letter b would have an envelope for each of the following: baby, baking, breads. I also do the same with a plastic filer that I refer to as my coupon wallet, thus everyone in the house always asks if I got my wallet so I never leave home without it, especially because you never know when there will be a manager special or unadvertised special, this way your ready to make the most of it.

Don’t forget to volunteer and barter. Some church org.s have programs like the one my oldest son (22yrs) and I do; that for four hours of our volunteer time each week we each go home with a “food box” that on average so far has had 50-100 dollars worth of food in it, of which goes a long way in stretching our food dollars. My oldest son will donate plazma that day, get 25-35 each time (save a life too) that pays for gas, then we volunteer at the church, then any errands like drop off library books enroute home. We also barter whenever possible with neighbors, friends, family and the church. Examples; I had diapers left over from my youngest, but he still needs pull-up night-time ones(legally blind, pmd, ld) fights us on diapers, so I asked the church I volunteer at if I could trade the diapers for pull-ups if they had them, I told them I was giving the diapers anyway, but if poss. to trade, they did and that saved us 30 dollars, I also traded a new unopened can of formula he did’t need any more for some powdered milk. This makes it to where someone who can use it gets it, not go to waste in the trash or forgotten and collect dust. I also always leave unexpired, but due to that day or the within the next couple of days that I know I’m not going to use on the shelf next to the item whenever poss. and if I over hear someone re-an items price i.e. baby stuff, I have a coupon I’m not going to use before expiration I give it, apparantly that makes an impression with people, cause the same people at later times have returned the favor, bonus investment plan! Go to the St. Mary’s food bank available to the general public to purchase and or volunteer. Meat, pantry, variety boxes are reasonably priced (constant) and you get a free bonus box loaded with all kinds of treasures that can mutiply your investment by 3-5x over in savings on many things you would like to get but can’t for whatever reason. Then if you have a lot of something, say produce, trade with neighbors, friends and family like I do. A bag of potatoes for a bag of sugar, a couple of heads of broccoli for a brick of cheese, we don’t eat pork so we trade a package of pork chops for a beef round roast. When we get surplus of veggies, I also blanche and freeze some, plan out what needs to get eaten first,etc, clean and dice, slice or whatever is needed to store even in the frig., when cleaned they last longer. Old fashioned cooking from scratch has a lot going for it also; less expensive and majorly more healthy for you too(w/o additives & preservatives & dyes & fillers), not to mention tastes great and ultimate satisfaction in providing better nutrition, and cost effectiveness by making it yourself. Just because your poor, doesn’t mean you have to eat poorly. This is part of how we can have balanced meals, eat like royalty on a water budget.