Tag Archives: Stockpile

Couponing and Budgets

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BudgetsYesterday, I was asked a question by a new member here at HotCouponWorld that I thought was interesting. She sent me a message stating that she was new to using coupons and had done her first shopping trip and had spent $300 at the grocery store and had only saved $80. She was wondering how she can flip those numbers and save $300 and only spend $80. This is a great question because it is part of the misconception that right out of the gate you should be able to save big bucks.

The truth is as a new couponer saving $80 is great! So many folk have now seen the TV show Extreme Couponing on TLC and so many folks are eager to try it out, and they can save, however the expectation that when you are first out of the gate with your first fist full of coupons that you are going to start saving 70-80 or 90% off your groceries is probably not going to happen.

So I wanted to take a moment to talk about how to coupon and stay within your budget and how not to end up spending more money than you normally would.
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Can Freezer Cooking Save Money?

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Freezer CookingThere are three popular methods of freezer cooking that can save a family money. There are many benefits to freezer cooking. Some benefits include preserving perishables and reducing waste, having ready-made meals in your freezer when you are tempted to order out, and maximizing time with the family by cooking less often. Fully cooked meals can maintain their texture and taste in the freezer for up to three months. Uncooked, ready to go meals, like marinated meat can be frozen without degradation for up to six months. Different methods can optimize for busy schedules or tight budgets and any family can find benefits in one of the methods mentioned below.

Once a Month Cooking, also known as, OAMC is a way of making meals ahead of time and freezing them for later use. There are several ways to adopt this system into your family. The phrase once a month cooking was made famous by a book entitled Once-A-Month-Cooking by Lagerborg and Wilson. Their book is worth a buy at Amazon for beginners, the information inside is valuable to anyone looking into getting involved in this type of cooking schedule. OAMC, in its purest form, involves a family preparing 30 meals within one weekend each month, or mini-sessions where 14 meals are made in one day. The benefits are having only one weekend of dirty pots to clean and a highly detailed dinner schedule. For the family that eats take-out regularly or is rushed to find time for dinner, this is an excellent program.

Another method of freezer cooking is for seasoned deal seekers. “Assembly Line” cooking, as seen on websites like www.cooktosave.com, takes perishable loss leaders from your local grocery store and assembles them into several meals in one day to be enjoyed or prepared for another day. Assembly Line cooking turns your kitchen into a family assembly line. Examples are finding over-ripe bananas at the store for less than $0.25 a pound and turning them into 30 chocolate covered frozen banana popsicles, buying 20 pounds of pork loin at $1.67/lb and making breakfast sausage, burritos, kebobs, steaks, and Weiner schnitzel. For the family that likes buying large quantities of loss leaders and getting the best price for their meals, this is their perfect match.

The third and easiest method of freezer cooking is called “Feed the Freezer”. These ideas incorporate making double or triple the amount you usually make for dinner and putting the additional meals away in the freezer for a later date. When planning to make lasagnas, stuffed shells, chili’s, or other easy to freeze casseroles, make two or three dinners instead of one and freeze the additional dinners. Try searching any recipe site on the internet, like www.allrecipes.com for the keyword “OAMC”, to find recipes that are freezer friendly. For the family that wants to make their food dollar stretch a little more than usual and have one of two meals in their freezer this is an easy adoptive plan.

However a family chooses to adopt a make ahead style of cooking, there are savings to be had. An extra stand-alone freezer in your home can save $1,000 or more per year on a family food budget.

Contributed by: HotCouponWorld member FrankRyan owner of the website CookToSave.com

March is frozen food month!

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Did you know that the month of March is designated as “Frozen Food Month”? What this means for the frugal shopper is that this is a great time to be watching for deals and coupons on things like ice cream, pizza, frozen vegetables and other great items to fill your freezer.

Also be on the look out for deals offered by some grocery stores that will be running specials on freezers themselves with the purchase of certain amounts of frozen foods.

For more information on sales cycles check out Hotcouponworld’s Sales Cycles thread in our forums.

For more information on what items you can or cannot freeze check out Hotcouponworld’s Storage Guides: How to Buy, Store & Use Anything forum.

Stockpile for big savings

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I haven’t bought toilet paper in two years.  I haven’t bought dryer sheets or floor cleaners in five years.  It’s not that we don’t use these products, it’s just that once they were on sale at a price I couldn’t afford to pass up, I bought so many that I haven’t had to think about buying them since.

Since the economy began heading south year, the shopping advice from local and national media has been “try not to buy more than you need at one time” which makes me cringe every time I hear it.

While it may seem counter-intuitive to shop for something you don’t need and buy a boatload of it, if you’re buying an item at its rock bottom price and you can stock up on it, then you won’t have to buy it later at full price.

The key to this strategy? Add one or two sale items a week that weren’t on your list that you’ll likely use anyway.  Use coupons to sweeten the deal and buy as many as you can at that price.  Today at Target, 150-sheet lined notebook paper was on clearance for .12 cents each. Needless to say, at a savings of 88% off full retail, I bought enough paper for the kids that I won’t I won’t need to buy it again for several years.  I’ll toss it in a Rubbermaid tub and pull it out when we need it.

As you begin to shop this way, keep a few things in mind:

  • How much can I budget on building my stockpile each week?  Take a percentage of what you currently spend and reallocate it to shopping for long-term-use deals.
  • Will my family use up the product before it expires?  My kids go through one jar of peanut butter a week, so when I can get it for less than .50 cents per jar, I buy at least 52 jars to get me through a whole year.
  • Do I have room to store these items in a way that makes sense?  An investment in storage totes, shelving and a deep freezer can help you save in the long term.

If you can incorporate this tactic into your personal shopping routine, you might spend a little more at first, but ultimately, it will reduce your groceries costs more each month.  A few years of shopping this way, I’ve cut our grocery bill down to about $200 a month. My family could live off the products stored in the garage for several months if we ever came on tough times. And best of all, I can take the money we save and use it somewhere else.