Sweetened Faith: {Guest Post} Finding Myself

Today's guest post is from Maggie! I'm always on the lookout for a good deal, and today Maggie is sharing how she gets a good deal on her groceries! Read on for her wonderful couponing tips. :)

Hello “Sweetened Style” readers, I’m pleased to meet’cha! My name is Maggie B. and I blog over at “Finding Myself”. My blog is all about different life experiences: day-to-day things, meal plans and recipes, occasional outfit posts, & lots of crafting. When I’m not ‘keeping my house’ and working, I enjoy reading, knitting, sewing, cooking and shopping.

It’s shopping I want to talk about today. Specifically grocery shopping, since that’s something most all of us have to do on occasion. How many of you have seen, or at least heard of, that “Extreme Couponing” show? Can I get a show of hands? That many, huh? See, grocery shopping happens to everyone.

I want to get the record straight: I am not an extreme couponer. I don’t go to the grocery store with a binder full of coupons. I don’t buy 100 jars of mustard just because they are on sale. But I do clip the occasional coupon, and I store them in this little binder:

I have little tabs that show the types of items, and I just carry it around with me on shopping day. But truth be told, I don’t use that many coupons. My mother-in-law holds them out each Sunday and I go through all the flyers, but I always find that the coupons that are available a for things I don’t need.

Because I plan my weekly menu before I do anything else. Before I look to see what’s on sale, before I check my coupons. Because I work full time, I don’t have the time to spend searching for everything that’s on sale. But making my weekly menu up on a Friday during my lunch hour, and then making my grocery list tends to keep me focused.

And even without coupons, I still only spend $100 a month on groceries. I shop 2 times a month, and I cook 4 meals a week.

This is a little pad of paper I keep on the side of my microwave:

And a few weeks ago I stumbled upon this blog and found a free printable menu planner/grocery list. So this is what Saturday’s shopping list looked like:I picked this up ages ago at an Anthropology store, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever purchased. It helps me easily keep track of the things we need, and it makes making my grocery list much faster.

You can see what I’m planning to cook this week on the right & the groceries I need on the left. Sometimes higher cost items like dog food, vitamins and cleaning supplies push me over my $50 limit, but usually I keep it right on. How do I keep it so low without clipping a million coupons? I shop almost exclusively at Aldi’s… a low cost, non-name brand grocery store. Whatever I can’t find there, I’ll pick up at Wal-Mart {almost always cheaper then the regular grocery store} or the Dollar Tree. And if it’s a really fussy item, I’ll hit up my local Stop & Shop. But I always go there as a last resort. I also don’t buy junk food, much in the way of processed foods, or much meat.

How do you keep your grocery bill in check? I would love to hear about it!

Thanks for letting me share with you, and have a great day!

Peace & Love,