All You Magazine—Steal money-saving secrets from America’s Cheapest Family

We spoke with Emily Hendricks from All You Magazine in August 2010. She wanted us to share several ways we save money on groceries by planning better, shopping smarter and storing what we buy, better. All of the tips we shared come from our new book, Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half with America's Cheapest Family. She grabbed three of our top tips and put them into her article.

In the shopping chapter alone we have 17 strategies we use at the grocery store to greatly reduce our bill. In the planning chapter we share five steps that we use to make our shopping more efficient and in the cooking chapter we talk about how we use bulk cooking to save us 18 hours each month in meal preparation time.

Here's what Emily wrote:

When the couple who wrote the book Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America’s Cheapest Family first married, Annette wanted to be a home­maker, but Steve was earning only $6.50 per hour at a printing company. So they began pinching some serious pennies. Today, the family saves about $7,800 on groceries each year with these budgeting and shopping strategies:

Tip 1: Plot out a month’s worth of meals

“Planning saves you time, and it’s not as difficult as people think,” Annette says. “Spontaneity will cost you big bucks.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to do all your grocery-shopping prep once a month instead of every week? Not only is the monthly method easier, but you won’t be tempted to spend money on takeout if you’ve already committed your nightly meals to paper. Here’s how Steve and Annette do it:

• Write down favorites: Make a detailed list of the recipes you know how to cook or want to try (keep this for future planning sessions, too).
• Take stock: Inventory what’s in your pantry, fridge and freezer so you know what you already have and what you need to purchase. (Have food left over from the last great sale? Add it to the new plan.)
• Browse ads and sales fliers: Circle, then write down, items you need and super deals you want to stockpile for later. If the ads aren’t appealing, be creative! Maybe sausage isn’t on your meal rotation, but it’s on sale for $1 per pound. Look up recipes on the Internet, pull out your cookbooks or call a friend for ideas so you can take advantage of the sale.
• Gather coupons: Match up your clippings with the sale items and stash them in a separate envelope for your upcoming shopping trip. (However, do take all your coupons to the store so you can pounce if you find a fabulous unadvertised markdown.)
• Map out meals: Sit down with your lists and pull out the family calendar. You’ll probably want to cook easier meals on activity-heavy days; schedule more time-consuming dinners, such as roasts, on less busy occasions. Draw up a chart with rows and columns or use an online calendar (try google.com).

Tip 2: Shop once a month

“Repeat this over and over: ‘The less I shop, the more I save!’” Steve and Annette say.

It might sound like a huge undertaking to shop monthly, but the more you’re at the grocery store, the more likely you are to pick up items you don’t need. In fact, according to a Point of Purchase Advertising Institute study, shoppers who go to the store for a quick trip end up getting about 50 percent more than they planned:

• Be flexible: With a monthly meal schedule, if you’re missing a key ingredient, you can easily swap dinners, so you avoid running to the store. Plus, some ingredients may be substituted, like tomato juice for beef broth.
• Borrow it: Ask a neighbor or friend for a missing ingredient. Offer something in return, such as a few of the muffins you made this morning––just do your best not to go back to the supermarket.

Tip 3: Cook in batches

“The goal here is to save not just money but also stress and time,” Annette says.

One day each month, the Economides family gathers to cook about 17 meals that can be frozen and reheated later, then supplemented with freshly prepared sides such as pasta or salad:

• Kick off the night before: Throw a cheap chicken or discounted roast into your slow cooker so you have some meat ready the following day.
• Clear your schedule: Between all the chopping, stirring and boiling, this endeavor is likely to take about eight hours. (That’s still less time than if you made each recipe individually!)
• Recruit sous chefs: Ask your husband, teenagers and friends to assist.
• Make a list: Write out all the tasks that need to be done, such as chopping onions and dicing chicken. Let family members choose which jobs they’d like.
• Prep the containers: Clear space on your kitchen table or counter and set out large baking dishes and storage containers. Label each one.

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