Let the Sales Lead the Way...

In the past I had always decided what I wanted to eat or picked out a really neat recipe and then headed to the store to pickup all the ingredients. Not any more! After reading a variety of books on saving money, including Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy, I've changed the order in which I do things.

I've found that the grocery stores in our area generally start their new sales on Wednesdays or Thursdays, so those are now my grocery shopping days. I check out the flyers first (not all of them offer many natural/organic foods in their flyer, but sometimes it's worth checking out) and plan where I am going to go. I go with a list of some of the basic necessities that we need and then let the sales dictate the rest. I pick the fruit and veggies that are in season and on sale and go through the store quickly checking for any other sales. Then, when I get home I decide our menu for the week. By simply changing the way I do things I've been able to save money off our bill each week and tried a lot of new great recipes along the way!

Now some people might say that they wouldn't know what to get if they didn't have a recipe to guide them. Go with what basic food you like and then head to the internet when you get home, there are some great recipe sites, my personal favorite is www.recipezaar.com You can search for recipes by food type, name, ingredients, etc. Then I personally like to sort them by "rating" and you get the top rated recipes and they are usually delicious!! This site also has a button that you can change servings and it will automatically change the measurements for you (great if you want to make extra to freeze or have leftovers for lunch). Another great feature is the substitution help...just click on any of the ingredients and it will tell you what you can substitute for it! Hope that helps :)