Frugal Grocery Food Tipsby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 12 May 2009 09:54 AM Would you like to reduce your grocery food bill significantly? Here are some great tips that are easy to follow. Wants versus substitutions It is amazing how many things in our food budget that we consider needs these days. An average grocery list for example, might include cooking spray, paper towels and a whole host of other things that are wants disguised as needs. There are so many ways to save money on your food bill, but one of the most immediate is to separate out the wants versus the needs. In the example list above, that cooking spray is very expensive. What did our ancestors do before cooking spray? Instead, choose one of the money saving ways to grease your pans. You can save butter wrappers and use those, you can use a light rub of oil on your pans (olive oil is very healthy) or you can use the cut side of a potato. A pan rubbed with a potato won't stick or smoke at high temperatures. Combine coupons and sales Gather you coupons and match them against your weekly store sales flyer. Pay special attention to the front page and third pages, where many loss leaders are posted. As you go through the flyer, pull out coupons for the items on sale and calculate the savings. Stock up When you find a great deal on a particular item, be sure to stock up on it until the next deal is likely to come along, or until you can reasonably use the item before it expires. Why pay $3.45 for a loaf of bread once a week, when you can buy six loaves at $1.50 and use them during the next six weeks? Establish a pantry for your stock, and make use of your freezer to store bread, butter, cheese and other items to extend their shelf life. Make sure to rotate your items. Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right. Favorite Deal Websites: Related Articles: Things to Do with Expired Coupons A Guide to Salvage Grocery Shopping A Guide to Salvage Grocery Shopping 2 Five Little Grocery Shopping Tricks: Shelf Placement Coping with the Grocery Shrink Ray Adjusting Your Price Book with Escalating Grocery Costs Coping with No More Coupon Inserts New Grocery Shopping Techniques Five Little Grocery Shopping Tricks: Hide and Seek Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments AggieGal (60) 12 May 2009 11:48 AMI like the Grocery Smarts website. http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ It matches your local store ads with coupons and will actually rate how good of a deal it is on a scale of 1-5. It's pretty nice. The only drawback is you have to find out your state's "passport" to be able to see your local stores. You can try to google "Grocery Smarts Passport" and your state and you may be able to find it. I think it's a pretty handy resource. Discuss this article
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