Coupons are crap.......

There must be other ways to save on groceries once our spending ban is up. We simply can't live off our pantry indefinitely. So I started exploring the ways in which we can keep to the new budget once it is in place, keeping in mind that we will need to shave 50% off what most websites claim to be the average budget for a family of five. (We are going from the recommended $1000 per month to $500 per month.)

There are lots of things that we already do or could be doing that will save us money. Here are a few:

1) Eat local and seasonal to save money.Them pineapples ain't from around these parts....a few turnips in the fall could go a long way for our grocery bill at an unbelievable non-budget busting price.

2) A feel good connection beyond savings to our groceries could happen by supporting our local CSA's. http://www.taprootfarms.ca/ http://csafarms.ca/

3) We could build a garden in our backyard if I can stop killing our one house plant by spring. Thank goodness for my kids who keep giving it plant CPR to bring it back to life. Maybe they should make the garden!

4) We haven't supported our local farmers market enough. On my way home tonight, cucumbers were 3 for $1 at our local Vegetorium. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vegetorium-Country-Farm-Market/172196609466841

5) Can't think of a better outing with the kids than visiting our local u-pick. Abundance is all around us in Canada with strawberries, peaches, cherries, blueberries, plums, apples, pumpkins and pears.

6) Manager's specials...don't even get me started on how crazy it is that there are people I know who are terrified of discount meat and fish. The grocery store wouldn't sell it if it wasn't consumable! Most stores have a very short shelf life on fresh items...to the point of being overly safe. In order to push these items for sale since they would rather get something than nothing, stores will discount items 50% or more to get them sold WELL BEFORE they would expire in your fridge. This is a savings mecca! If you are not going to cook it within two days, freeze it and save, save, save.

7) Raid the discount shelf in each grocery department. Making soup, banana bread, blueberry muffins, stews? Do you really need top notch produce for these items......the answer is no, especially when you are pureeing the hell out of it! The reason why cooks created some of these recipes was for the shear purpose of preserving or re-purposing items on the verge of no return. Take advantage of cheap produce.

8) Plan your meals around the weekly grocery flyer. If you take the time to plan, this is a great way to figure out what you are having for dinner and to save at the same time.

9) Buy only what you need in small quantities and bulk when it makes sense. This is simple....good deal on ketchup equals buy bulk in our house. Need cloves for a recipe equals buy what we need for the recipe since they are only going to sit in the cupboard till next year. Your local Bulk Barn is a great source for those one time only buys....

10) Buy generic products. Stop paying for advertising!!!! Yes we love our Heinz, Kraft, General Mills, Lays,  and Coke products. No surprise, these companies are pigs when it comes to our money. They also make Our Compliments, Sensations, President's Choice, Blue Menu and No Name products. Check the ingredients side by side, if they look an awful lot alike, save some money.

11) Avoid food that isn't food. We like to think that our grocery dollars don't get wasted on non-food products, but there isn't a bag of chips on this planet that I wouldn't eat given the opportunity. We all have our secret food shame and this one's mine. Lays slogan, "Betcha can't eat just one...." is just plain mean for chip addicts everywhere. In the month ahead when the budget kicks in, my new rule will be that there will be no money spent on non-food items.....and this includes all items that advertisers would like to trick us into thinking it is food. Fibre One Brownies.......seriously?! It's shit....and not just because of the fibre.

12) Over packaged...how much of what you are paying for is garbage? This is where the scratch cooking kicks into high gear. I hear all the time that it costs more to cook from scratch, that packaged items are cheaper. It's not just about the packaging, which trust me, you are paying for, but the fact that most items heavily packaged are mostly chemicals.

So while it may seem that Kraft dinner, Fudgeos, Mr. Noodles, and Twinkies are cheap....they are expensive when it comes to our health and lead to over-eating since our body knows the difference. They make us hungry....really, really hungry. The same amount of money for food could be spent on a can of beans or some butternut squash and it would go further and give us the nourishment we need to be satisfied.

13) Shelf tags...read the price per unit. I had a conversation in an aisle with a lady who insisted that the Chippits were cheaper because they were on sale. When I showed her how to look at the shelf tag to see the per 100 gram price of an equivalent product, she had a really hard time acknowledging that they weren't. In the end, she took the Chippits because she said they were better.....really? Every grocery store has shelf tags with the price broken down...read them and save.

14) Do your own food prep. Anything with labour added means higher price and often times, tax too. Cut your own veggies, butcher your own chicken and meat, make your own breadcrumbs with the leftover cracker bits, chips crumbs (if there is any left) and save some money.

15) Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are the bane of my existence!!! They taste like nothing!!! Worse, because every diet book, every weight loss show and every nutritionist thinks they are the greatest thing since sliced bread....they are in demand. Whenever a product is in demand, you will pay more for it. Buy a whole chicken it's tastier....all the flavour comes from the bones and skin. If you want smaller pieces, cut it up. If you want to save the fat, tear off the skin AFTER it is cooked. I dare ya to discard it! :) Best of all, whole chickens will save you money.

16) Meatless Mondays....duh, vegetables are cheaper than meat. Ugg, save money and lose some weight.

17) Reward programs are great for spending money and getting points or dollars back. We are such good spenders that we have been able to get upwards of $50 a month back. However, those days are over. Still, its nice to earn a little bit on the things you need to buy any ways.

18) Grocery lists.....The majority of Canadian's don't make a list, don't plan, don't pass go, don't collect $200 and go straight to jail. (If you didn't play a lot of Monopoly as a kid, you won't understand what the hell I am talking about.) We do this and save money by sticking to the list.

If you want to save time at the grocery store and you have your local memorized, take your standard piece of paper divide it into four quadrants and label them, " Meat/Seafood, Bakery/ Dairy. Produce and Aisles", then place your list items inside the four quadrants. I add a clipboard, highlighter and let one of the kids,"Go to town" at the store scratching off items as we go. The quadrants keep us from back shopping that a standard list does. Once the departments list is crossed off, we move on to the next section.

19) Deposits are ripping us off! Juice boxes....1 juice x 3 kids x 5 days per week x 40 weeks = 600 juices / 10 packs of juice = 60 packs. We pay $1 for every 10 pack of juice in refundable deposits in Atlantic Canada. Do our kids bring those boxes home? Nope! We throw out $60 per year in juice boxes alone. Anything that requires a deposit is off my grocery list.

20) Maybe coupons aren't crap. I mean the ones for products that are a regular part of your household or for the ones that are already printed up. Justifying printer ink which is really expensive to print off a $1 off coupon for Sunrise Super Squeezies Tubes is messed up. I don't even know what the hell this product is and they want me to put it in my kids lunch box. There isn't even a single food descriptor on the box from what I can see...just that it has Omega 3 and DHA. Yum! Here's the link: http://www.savealoonie.com/print-coupons/sunrise-super-squeezies-tubes-coupon-2/.

I think most of these are good suggestions and not just the ravings of a money saving lunatic. They are also easily doable and when we hit our first food budget in November, I hope they will create the savings we need to stick to our plan.

We are your average Canadian family and we eat too many potato chips.