Saving Money is Budgeting

You may not believe that clipping those coupons or buying in bulk does much. In that case, I would be obligated to disagree. And if you happen to live alone, or with only one person, the savings can be quite noticeable. For example, if you buy trash bags in bulk, they will sit and sit for months and months before they run out.

Initially, more does cost more. --But if you took a calculator with you on your next shopping trip, and compared price per unit in bulk versus smaller sizes, you'd see the difference. The difference is small-scale. Then multiply that difference over the course of a year, I'm sure you'd go for the bulk.

Growing up, my home was always busy and we were always running out of something all the time. Why, because as I mentioned before, my mother almost always left behind the coupons I cut out, and she rarely bought anything but food in bulk. So me being me, I expanded greatly on the idea of buying in bulk.

It's one of the first things I did once I ventured out into the world, even when I lived alone. I buy everything I can in bulk, that means trash bags, paper products and soap. That also means family size chicken and beef, $10 packs of cheese singles, dry foods such as rice, oatmeal and noodles, and even bread. Yes bread.

Bread is one of those things people make a point to buy by the loaf, fearing that dreaded M-word. But completely by accident, since my two kids eat a lot of sandwiches and toast, I found out that I could buy four loaves at once. Now you're thinking, don't the waiting three loaves get moldy? The answer to that would be no. --Shocking, I know.

The trick is to freeze them. Yes, freeze, hopefully you have room for this. As you get to the last two or four slices, take a new loaf from the freezer to thaw on it's own. Better still, it could take up to three weeks of sitting out before the formally frozen bread starts to mold, even during the summer. Now, I have to warn you, it does taste a bit different, but not by much. Most people don't notice the taste until you tell them it's been frozen, unless they eat plain bread. I also freeze the cheese and butter, I put one pack of cheese and one stick of butter in the fridge, and sit one stick out, since we use entirely too much to begin with.

As far as coupons, yes, it can be a daunting experience, if you hate cutting them out, as with the coins mentioned before, find someone who likes to do it. If you keep them in good order, even if you don't deal with the process of rebates, you still can save on average anywhere from $10 -30 per shopping trip, maybe more. I'm sure an hour going through the Sunday paper or online is worth the savings. And remember to only cut out what you normally use, otherwise you're wasting time or end up adding to your grocery bill.

Also, buying store brand products can easily cut your bill, I'm not saying buy everything store brand, we all have our favorites. But things like canned goods, bread, milk and juices are perfect for this. I rarely buy name brand canned goods, except for tomato soup. --Bet you can guess which one! But there is one staple that this doesn't apply to, and that's dish detergent. I've found that in general, cheap detergent is not worth the savings.



Till next time....