1. Never clip a coupon for something you normally wouldn't be tempted to buy. Most coupons are for convenience foods, foods that try to gain our children's loyalty or brands that remain expensive even after you save that dollar. I only clip coupons for items that would typically end up in my cart.
2. If you primarily use lemons and limes for their juice, buy a bunch when they're cheap in the summer and freeze. It will destroy the texture of the fruit, but if you plan on using only the juice anyway... what's the difference? Hummus, lemon bars, guacamole, etc. Just need juice. Right?
3. On the topic of French wine... My French professor in college always said, "You can never go wrong with a Beaujolais" (for its price and flavor) as a basic table wine. I also adore Vouvray when the occasion calls for a white.
4. Know where you shop. One local supermarket near me has a breakfast cereal sale every few months. The cereal was priced something like 4 boxes/$10, I would save my cereal coupons for that sale. Also, there's a CVS within three blocks of my house. Every six weeks or so, they would put their generic diapers on sale (and I swear those things were just like Huggies) buy two get one free. I bought my diapers then (and enlisted relatives as needed when my customer limit was reached). On top of that, CVS had an additional deal with the bonus card that if you bought four packs of diapers, you got a coupon for a free pack. Granted, they didn't 'count' free ones toward the total, but even I'm not that greedy.
5. Know what you buy, why you buy it, and how much you really use. Conventional wisdom says "Buy in bulk." I don't buy into that. I buy bulk where it makes sense for me: cheese, toilet paper, toothbrushes, soap. But sometimes the big bottle of juice, or the pre-cut broccoli florets in the bag the size of potato chips, will spoil before you use it. I can't buy the cheap-o tub of organic spring mix at the warehouse store. Yeah, it costs as much as the one half its size at my supermarket, but it starts to rot the second I put it in my fridge. We use about 1/4 of it by the time it goes bad. Therefore, it's cheaper to use the smaller one. We don't waste any. How many things do we buy out of habit? Snack foods often fit in this category, as do expensive drinks. In many cases, there is a cheaper alternative that still pleases the palate.
6. Track what you buy, how you use it, and what items seem to serve the family best and which ones are splurges.
7. Determine what you use most and see if you can save money on these particular items. Like when I wait for the cheese sale...
8. The take-out trap. We all love take-out. Today I really wanted take-out. But as I'm broke... I managed to talk myself out of it. Sometimes, when I want take out, I indulge in a different kind of treat. Let's say I want Chinese. Instead of spending $30 on a restaurant, I go to the grocery store and allow myself a $15 budget (see, I'm still saving money). I check the frozen food aisle for a General Tso's Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken frozen entree or I get a big bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables and some chicken or I splurge on some funky sauces for the eggrolls I have in the freezer and make my own fried rice or egg drop soup.
9. Avoid pre-packaged anything. Pre-chopped apples are the latest rage and this floors me. I like apples in their skins. It's like a handy carrying case. String cheese? Is this necessary? I have never seen someone refuse cheese because of its shape or because it wasn't fun enough. Little individual cups of yogurt? Get the 32 oz. Single serving drinks? Buy a thermos.
10. Cleaning chemicals. Other than my father-in-law's FANTASTIC homemade Windex, I clean 90% of my house with some combination of the following: vinegar, baking soda, and isoporyl alcohol. And forget expensive pretreaters for the laundry. I use a $1 bar of Fels Naptha soap. The same bar I bought around the time my daughter was born.
There's my first ten tips. Let me know what you think. ;.)
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