Meal planning!

One of the best things I have found to help me save money is meal planning. This takes time, but I see the best results! Every Friday (or Saturday morning), I sit with the local grocery store ad and plan the meals for the next week. I look at the sale items, and match to coupons if possible.

Because I work part-time and I hate trying to think of meal ideas, I have a generic plan I follow too.

Monday- chicken
Tuesday- pork
Wednesday-breakfast
Thursday- pizza
Friday- open
Saturday & Sunday- cheeseburgers, tacos or spaghetti.

All lunch meals are very simple whether I am home or the sitter is here. Lunches consist of mac 'n cheese, hot dogs, sandwiches or spaghetti-o's. (Can you tell the kids are all 5 and under?)

I make sure that I have side dishes like rice or fries, and frozen veggies to go with all dinners. Then all I have to do is change how I fix the meat and what the side dish is. We all tend to like plain things, so I don't make too many casseroles.

With the above plan, and having a freezer in the basement, I can stock up on commonly used items when they go on sale! Just 2 weeks ago, our local store had boneless skinless chicken breasts in a 3lb bag for $3.99. I bought 6 bags. Since we eat chicken weekly, this was a sweet deal for us.

Another thing I do is package all leftovers in small containers and freeze it. Both hubby and I just take a container from the freezer to work and lunch is ready! Saves on the spending as well!

I hope this will inspire you to make the meal plan, it really does help!

Let me know by leaving a comment, do you meal plan to save money?

"Sick, sick, sick" or "Getting started"!

It's been a couple weeks since I started and posted on my blog. The entire family has been sick with the flu and bronchitis. We are on the road to wellness, and now it's time to get back on track with the saving.

I have been clipping coupons and trying to save money for 2 months now (seems like longer!). I think it is absolutely amazing that we seem to have more food, more toiletries and most importantly more MONEY left over in our monthly budget. I also have an amazing collection of coupons too!

I have been helping a couple of my co-workers get started, so why not do it on my blog? First things first, clip your coupons and organize them in some way. I used a plain envelope initially. Find ways to get more coupons, from relatives, neighbors and friends. Clip all the coupons. Next time we will start working those grocery ads to plan our shopping!

You can do it, don't give up. I saved $54 at Walmart in coupons over the weekend, and $21 at Pierces. If I can do it, you can too!

The no double woes

I love where I live but.....I live in the land where no one doubles coupons. I have only two grocery store options, one being Wal Mart the other is a local company. Our local store also does not accept internet coupons. All this makes couponing and saving money a challenge. Luckily we do have a Walgreen's which helps me find some deals. To make matters worse, my computer is so old, I can not load the coupon printer software to print the online coupons! I rely on my mother or sister to do that. (I email them a list of coupons I'd like and they see what they can find).

Nonetheless, I do manage to find some deals, and here is one that will help me out. KMart is having double coupon days up to and including $2 value in the southcentral Wisconsin area. Check out the KMart web page to see if your local store is participating.

Welcome

I wasn't going to do this, but here I am; bloggin:) Welcome. Please bear with me as I figure out this technological stuff, and share my family's journal to become debt free. We have just begun our "Debt Reduction Plan 2009" to get our finances in gear and pay down those debts.

Along the way, I will share my newly acquired couponing journeys, and hopefully find some good deals to share. Feel free to leave me comments along the way! Enjoy the ride.