- check out the mark downs section of your grocery store. These are often filled with great deals that will save you serious dough on your food budget. Some items are over stocks or are close to expiring. Make sure if food items are about to expire they can be frozen or used immediately.

- Look at the store’s flyer for their current deals and sales. Try to incorporate the good deals into your shopping list and menu. Make sure to buy only items that you will use. It isn’t a good deal if it does not get used

- If you clip coupons make sure they are for goods you will purchase anyway. Do not be afraid to try a different product if you find a really good coupon or sale price. Most of the time change is a good thing.

- Try store brands. Most store brands taste just as good as the name brand and in some cases, better. If you are unsure if you will like a product, just buy one and try it. If you don’t like you do not have to buy it again.

- Avoid processed, packaged and otherwise low nutrition foods. While items like Hamburger Helper can be bought relatively cheaply, they have very little nutritional value, are over packaged, over processed and basically a drain on your budget. Do an internet search for do it yourself meals and make them from scratch at home. You will save big on your food budget this way. You can control the ingredients used, if you use natural, organic or “regular” ingredients. This also allows you to taylor the meal to your families likes and dislikes.  Throwing some pasta, a binder like cream of mushroom soup, meat and veggies in a pot and cooking it takes about 15 minutes with 5 to 10  minutes of preparation time depending on how organized your kitchen is. This also allows you to get creative and try new ingedients, use up leftovers and make extra for another day. Homemade food almost always, I have found in my household,  has leftovers.

- Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. This is usually where they have the least processed and packaged foods located. The more “whole” a food is, the better that food is for you and your family. A potato in its natural form has much more nutrition than a box of mashed potato flakes. Just check out the label on the box for proof.

- Prepare as much of the food you and your family eats from scratch as possible.  Not everyone has time to bake batches of homemade bread or whip up a 5 course meal. Do what you can. Make a big pot of homemade soup and freeze the leftovers for another busy day. Casseroles are an easy way to use up leftovers and use ingedients you have on hand. I have weekends off and spend a chunk of time baking and cooking meals from scratch and freezing them to eat during the week  when I am to busy with school, work, and running my son around to have alot of time to spend in the kitchen. When that chunk of time is depends on what else I have going on that weekend. I enjoy cooking so it doesn’t take me long and I have fun getting creative. Even if you only make and store a few things, that is better than hitting the drive through or buying convenience foods at the store.

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