Hello, and welcome to your fifth lesson!  I hope your meal planning is going well so far!  This week we discuss ways to use the grocery store flyers to create an economical meal plan that will reduce your grocery bills.

Lesson Five;  Your Friends, the Grocery Store Flyers.

We receive our grocery store flyers on Thursday and Friday which is why your Meal Planning email comes out on Wednesday - so you can have both printed out and ready for the next day when the flyers arrive :) 

I see three main ways of using the flyers to save money; try picking one or all three to suit your needs.

1. Let the flyers decide what you are eating this week:  Focus your meals on the ingredients that are on sale.  Let your imagination wander as you peruse the flyers and make up your meals using the main ingredients that are on sale.
    
2. Search for what you want:  If you live in a big town/city you'll have a few stores to choose from.  Chances are good that, if you fancy beef and fish this week, someone has it on sale.
    
3. Stock up on what you love:  If you buy ground beef every week and it's on sale this week, stock up.  Divide it into packages that are the size you normally use for a recipe and freeze it.  Same goes for canned soups and frozen items.  If you can store it safely and you use it frequently, it just makes sense.  Cases of spaghetti sauce and cream of mushroom soup will fit nicely under your bed and no one will know :)

Having said all of that, you have to be certain that the sale items are really a good savings. 

• Just because it's in a flyer doesn't mean it's on sale - it may be the same price they always sell it for.
   
• Even if beautiful steaks are on sale 50% off, ground beef will still be cheaper - try not to be tempted to over-stretch your budget - and a lot of kids would rather have hamburgers over steak anyway:).
   
• If you really want to be sure of sales, start a price book.  Get an empty notebook and list the main items you like or commonly buy and check the prices at 2 or 3 stores.  You'll find out who really has the lowest prices and you'll know when there really is a sale on laundry detergent :)

This can be a fun challenge.  If you want to save money, try setting a goal for yourself of a specific dollar amount you want your grocery bill to stay under each week.  Estimate what your average grocery bill is, subtract $20 or $40, and see if you can stay under that amount this week.  To keep yourself interested, imagine/plan what your family could do with the saved money.  A little extra effort, if you have the time, can be a big help.

Crystal

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Again, all the sheets are in PDF format which means you need to have Adobe Acrobat to see it.  If you don't have Adobe, click here to download it – it's fast and free.

The Blank Shopping list is available online here. 

The Blank Meal Plan comes in two sizes:
 

1. Letter paper size - you'll also find this version online here.
   
    
2. Legal paper size - you'll find this version online here.

 

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