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I Gotta Cut the Grocery Bill...Fast!


I have a confession.

One of my favorite TV program these days is a reality show about people who use coupons to cover the majority of their grocery costs. We're talking  70, 80, 90 - percent or more. It's amazing!



Here's the thing I noticed though when I'm watching it. During most episodes, the people dedicate 20+ hours each week to prepping for their shopping trips. Oh, and then they are often buying enormous quantities of items that I believe are far beyond the needs of the typical family's "stockpile" (that's couponer lingo).

For example, I recently saw an episode where the woman purchased 75 bottles of ca particular condiment and 200 packs of candy. It's honestly amazing to see the cost savings. I started dreaming about my own grocery bill savings, but I realized very quickly that I don't have the space for a stock pile of that magnitude and I'm not able to dedicate that much time to grocery shopping. Here's a few tidbits I learned from the show that I can incorporate into my own life. First, watch the weekly circulars to see what's on sale. The goal is to shop sales - especially loss leaders. And to match a coupon to a sale for maximum savings. Seems easy enough. Now I just need to do it.

Granted that should help, but there has got to be more that I can do that will actually reduce our monthly grocery budget? Here's the first three things I've come up with:

  1. Plant a veggie garden ASAP- since I'm off to a late start, I'm using veggie starts to get things going quickly.
  2. Bake my own bread - we spend $5 for a loaf of organic bread each week. Enough said.
  3. Get my coupons organized.
As they say on TV, "To be continued..." Check back and I'll let you know how it's going.

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