When it comes to household expenses, every little bit of savings helps, right?
When people talk about the struggling U.S. economy, the discussion usually focuses on job losses, furloughs, pay cuts and failed businesses. Those are certainly daunting obstacles as the nation struggles to recover from the Great Recession.
But the impact filters down to a very personal level when each family heads to the grocery store. Prices have been on the rise for years. This past Sunday, we published the monthly Market Basket report, prepared for the local media by a team of people at Plattsburgh State. It shows that the grocery items they track have increased in cost 13 percent in the past year.
So we want to share some tips from Toni House, a mother with executive-level experience in accounting and the restaurant industry who has written a book called, "Savvy Shopping: How to Reduce Your Weekly Grocery Bill to $85 Per Week — or Less!" She pared the monthly grocery bill for her family of four to $250.
She suggests:
Be detail-oriented. Check the fine print, from expiration dates to special offers to asterisks. Know when a coupon expires, how much more it will be worth on double-coupon days and whether it's worth the price in the first place.
Use coupons, but only for products you actually need. And be patient; wait for good deals. Save pricier purchases for double-coupon days.
Plan ahead. Plan a menu for at least three meals in advance. Combined with leftovers, that should give you five days or more of meals, depending on the meal. Instead of always replacing what you've run out of, you buy only when it's on the menu.
Design menus that use the most expensive foods less often. At least twice a week, try using meat as more of a filler than a main dish. For instance, instead of fixing steaks or sausage or chicken breasts, make spaghetti with a meat sauce of ground turkey, ground sausage or ground chicken breakfast sausage.
At the grocery store, buy only what you can eat. That means no paper plates, toilet paper, plastic cups, toys, toothbrushes, jar candles, greeting cards. Grocery-store prices for non-food items are higher than you'll pay almost anywhere else.
Toss out more pricey, brand-name products. There are plenty of delicious, often healthier and less expensive substitutes instead of buying prepackaged food.
Families are facing cost challenges now that require them to plan more carefully. And being a smarter shopper can boost the family budget.
The economic news has been better lately: The stock market is strengthening. More businesses are starting to hire again. Home sales are rising.
Better times seem to be ahead, if we can just hang on until then.
