Saving Money on Groceries Without Coupons

Here is some simple advice to follow for saving money with minimal couponing:

- Drink more water
- Cook meals from scratch
- No pre-packaged snacks
- Eat smaller portions
- Use up all leftovers
- KISS - Keep it simple, sister
- Shop discount grocery stores
- Buy store brands

An easy to follow cookbook with nutritious made-from-scratch recipes:

More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook) ,

and although I haven't purchased this yet, Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook has been recommended.

We shop weekly, and use up all leftovers. Nothing goes to waste. If I cannot figure out what to make with a few odd leftover ingredients, I use the Allrecipes Ingredient Search. This search engine lets you insert the items you have on hand, and up come the recipes.

We have three grocery stores nearby, Save-A-Lot, Food Lion, and Farm Fresh. We shop Save-A-Lot and Food Lion because Farm Fresh is almost three times as expensive. Save-A-Lot has excellent deals on cheese, bread, milk, spices, and canned vegetables. Food Lion has good deals on meat, and a better variety of frozen fruit and vegetables. Food Lion also has some nice online coupons for produce, store brands, and MVP customer discounts.

Also check:

- Big Lots
- Dollar Tree

Many times these places have some rock bottom deals on canned vegetables(especially large cans of organic tomato sauce), and spices.

Keep a price book and calculator on you when you shop, and make sure you write down the price per unit in order to figure the best deal. I don't use my price list anymore because we buy the same things every week, so I've memorized the good deals. This is how I keep it simple.

Inexpensive and fast dinners can be as simple as two packs of ramen noodles(or rice), a bag of mixed frozen veggies, and a little ground turkey and/or egg. I usually use 1/3 of the ramen seasoning package because it is so high in salt. The ramen is about .25 cents a package, veggies about .80 cents, and the half a pack of frozen turkey about $1.00. This feeds two adults and two children for about $2.30.

The next night we might eat stir fry with the rest of the turkey, frozen stir fry veggies, an egg, and leftover noodles or rice. If I use a heavy meat like chicken, we may or may not have an accompaniment like rice or noodles.

Skillet meals are my favorite because of the blending of flavors. I'll toss a few boneless chicken breasts(Great Value Walmart brand) into my iron pan, cook it up with a little Goya white cooking wine(Save-A-Lot), homemade teriyaki sauce, some garlic, and other spices. Them I'll toss some frozen mixed greens(Save-A-Lot) on top and a can of diced beets(Dollar Tree). This is enough by itself, but sometimes we'll have some canned sweet potatoes(Save-A-Lot or Dollar Tree) on the side.

I've made some nice meals with canned butter beans for around $2.00 for the four of us. These are so tasty, much better than the less expensive pinto beans. I still make pinto bean meals, but I don't want to get burned out on them.

The items I will consistently buy prepackaged is canned Glory brand(inexpensive) seasoned Southern style side dishes. The flavoring in these just can't be beat unless you have a lot of time to cook it down from a ham bone. I use the liquid mixed with vinegar from the cans in other recipes for flavoring.

We snack on fruit, but I do make muffins and yogurt on occasion. I purchased a Salton yogurt maker last year which has saved us quite bit on the yogurt.

A few times a month Food Lion will have a great deal on meat, so we do roasts and chicken throughout the month. If we had to cut back, we could get by nicely with meat priced at .99 cents a pound and beans.

Use the internet to find recipes for condiments. Items like barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, and salad dressing can be made from scratch for much less and without so many additives. Even better, just read the label on your current bottles of condiments, and try to duplicate the ingredients without the nasty additives. This is what I do for the most part, and I reuse the bottles.

If I spent a lot of time couponing name brand food products, I could probably do better, but we try to stay away from chemicals and additives present in many prepacked foods.

I've got some of my recipes blogged, many of which are from the More-With-Less Cookbook. I also have my old shopping list blogged that matches this book. I used this when I was first getting started with this cookbook.

Other money saving places to visit:

Hillbilly Housewife Recipes

Tammy's Recipes

Living on a Dime Recipe ebooks

RecipeZaar

Another thing to consider is purchasing gift cards(for yourself) from grocery stores in order to gain a discount. We have done this from time to time, earning a 10% discount. You do have to put some money upfront, but the 10% you earn is worth it.