This article, entitled Save on Meals – Home Cooking comes from SavingsAngel.com.
Here are some simple reminders about how we can save on our home cooked meals.
When preparing meals:
(1) Research substitute ingredients. Don’t dash to the store (or worse, a convenience store), if you find you’re missing an ingredient to complete a recipe. Log on instead. The web abounds with information and suggestions for ingredient substitutes – everything from eggs to buttermilk.
(2) Lighten up. Not all meals have to consist of 3 or 4 offerings, plus dessert. Consider lighter fare, with only one main item and one side or dessert. Benefits the waistline to boot!
(3) Stage a challenge. One night a week, stage a pantry, freezer and fridge challenge. Have fun making meals from whatever is leftover or needs to be used soon. Don’t be afraid to eat an odd assortment.
(4) Put inexpensive tenderizers to work. Pound, then marinate less expensive cuts of meat in vinegar, apple juice or tomato juice to tenderize them. This will make them enjoyable while saving money on fresh meat.
When shopping for ingredients:
(1) Comb mark-downs racks first. Stores mark down their overabundance of bakery goods, and any produce that needs consumption soon, and sometimes regular dry goods. Check these before selecting from regular areas.
(2) Think ‘non-food’. Every week, coupons and store incentives combine for free or nearly free health, beauty and household supplies. Leverage this on a regular basis to free up money for food, while covering other needs too.
(3) Look high, look low. If an ingredient you need is not on a good sale, shop the top and bottom grocery racks. Often store or lesser-known brands will be shelved there, as name brands pay a premium for eye-level shelf locations.
(4) Fill a prescription. Many stores offer coupons, worth money off a shopping trip, for using their pharmacy and starting a new prescription, transferring one, and sometimes even simply filling one.
(5) Watch the ounces. Bigger is not always cheaper. Check the price per ounce on everything you buy. And get the best value that matches your needs (and, hopefully, your coupons).
Home cooked meals taste even a little better when you can enjoy some savings along with them!
The best couponers save hundreds of dollars every month at the grocery store. However, extreme couponers can end up living very extreme lifestyles to get those savings. For over five years, SavingsAngel.com has equalized the playing field – giving extreme savings to busy families who don’t have the time or ability to be an extreme couponer. Each week, SavingsAngel.com’s over 70 angels combine over 2,000 products on sale at local grocery and drug stores with an enormous database of over 2000 different manufacturer coupons. These combinations result in our members getting access to over 300 products each week for 50% off or better. Simply log in, choose the deals you want, print or clip only the coupons you need, and save hundreds of dollars a month at regional and national stores. Our angels will personally work with you to craft a plan that will help you buy healthier food at lower prices – helping you keep $200 to $400 in savings each month.
Josh Elledge is the Chief Executive “Angel” of SavingsAngel, Inc. – launched from his home in January 2007. A husband and father of three, he now appears each week on television, in eight newspapers, and a number of radio stations across the country teaching families how to cut their grocery bill in half using the Internet. Elledge created the technology found on SavingsAngel.com through the need to save his own family’s money. Successfully able to cut his own grocery bill from $600 a month to less than $300 a month, his message has reached hundreds of thousands of families. SavingsAngel.com is now growing rapidly throughout the country. You can watch a short video at SavingsAngel.com that will explain more information about how to cut your own grocery bill in half with the help of SavingsAngel.com!
