Step 6: Create a Weeklong Meal Plan

Make a weeklong meal-planning worksheet and fill in the dinners first based on the meals you can make from sale items. Remember to keep your weeknight meals pretty easy; unless you have a lot of free time, it's best to save the more challenging recipes for the weekend.

Given all that, it's pretty easy to fill in the rest of the squares on your meal plan. Cindy usually only needs to come up with five suppers per week and two to three lunches per week (our family uses leftovers for other lunches).

Step 7: Make a Shopping List from the Meal Plan

Once the meal plan is in place, go through and list all of the ingredients for all of the recipes you'll make and then cross off the things you already have in your pantry or refrigerator. You won't save money by accidentally buying things you already have on hand.

Also, check your staples-flour, milk, yeast, juice boxes, and so on-and add replenishments to the list.

Step 8: Go Grocery Shopping-and Stick to Your List

Once you have the list in place, it's simple. Take it to the grocery store and stick to your list! Nip impulse buying in the bud; it's hard to do, but controlling your impulse shopping will save you a ton of money.

Sticking to your list will also make grocery shopping itself substantially quicker. In the end, when you go home, unpack your groceries, and put that meal plan up on the fridge, you should find that overall, it hasn't taken you any more time than a grocery trip without planning would have taken. Plus, you now have a clear plan for a week's worth of meals and you've saved money at the grocery store.

Strategies for Stocking Up * Buy a few things each week.

* Focus on what's on sale.

* Buy in bulk (you can do this with a friend to save even more).

* You can stockpile some items when you are able to take advantage of combining sales and coupons. Otherwise, do your stockpile shopping at warehouse clubs, Wal-Mart, or bulk-order from online.

* Buy double or triple or even more when items are on sale. Sales work in cycles. When a staple such as peanut b.u.t.ter, of which your family eats a lot, goes on a big sale, buy up a few months supply. Before you run out of it, it'll be on sale again. You'll never have to pay full price for the regular nonperishable items that you need.

Eight Tips to Lowering Your Grocery Bills 1. Make a list and stick to it. And avoid shopping hungry-you'll be less tempted to overbuy. Especially beware the last-minute temptations at the checkout counter.

2. Subst.i.tute store brands for name brands when possible. They're significantly cheaper (25% cheaper on average) and often as good as their brand-name counterparts.

3. Compare prices in different areas of the store. For example, research by Consumer Reports has shown that cheese at the deli counter is often pricier than cheese in the dairy case.1 4. Trade convenience for cost. Prepped and precut foods often cost more. Similarly, you'll pay extra for single servings, such as cereal in disposable bowls.

5. Endcaps don't mean bargains. Don't automatically buy the foods you seen featured on endcaps in the grocery aisle. Often, products prominently displayed at the ends of aisles aren't actually on sale. Endcaps can also be a destination for merchandise about to expire, so check expiration dates carefully.

6. Bigger isn't necessarily better for prices. Big packages are often more economical, but not always, according to research. A Federal Trade Commission study showed that canned tuna, peanut b.u.t.ter, ketchup, canned coffee, and frozen orange juice frequently turned out to be costlier in larger containers. Comparing unit prices (per ounce, etc.) is especially important when one size is on sale.

7. Clip coupons. One 25-cent coupon isn't worth the ha.s.sle. Several 25-cent coupons and a few one-dollar-off coupons, especially when combined with buy-one-get-one-free deals, add up, especially if you do it every week.

8. Get a store card, if available. With a preferred-shopper card, you receive automatic discounts on products in the store circular without clipping coupons. Just remember that these programs request personal information, which means that the chain can track your purchases.

The Drugstore Game-How to Make Drugstores Pay You

It's called the drugstore game because it's a way to save money when buying products at national drugstore chains, and sometimes even make money! According to the Food Marketing Inst.i.tute, half of retailers now offer customers savings through card programs, with discounts such as two- for-one sales, members-only specials, and reward points toward future purchases. Some stores will double the value of manufacturers' coupons if you have that store 's bonus card.

Working the drugstore deals can stretch your grocery budget. You'll start getting so many super deals and even free stuff at the drugstore that you'll have more money left over to spend on food.

CVS and Walgreens have similar deals where they give you coupons based on the time and/or money you've spent in the store, which you can then put toward future purchases. At CVS, they refer to these as ExtraCare rewards, or Extra Bucks. Extra Bucks print at the bottom of your cash register receipt every three months, so all you have to do is keep your eyes peeled and hang onto your receipt! You can then use them just like cash on your next visit to any CVS. At Walgreens, these are known as Register Rewards.

The catch at CVS is that you have to sign up for a card so they can track your purchases and limit how many deals you get. The catch at Walgreens is that you can't use Register Rewards to buy the same product again, so you can't keep rolling over the same deal.

RiteAid and other smaller drugstore chains have similar special programs as well.

My Wife's Advice

Here's how it works: When you are just starting out, you will pay out of pocket for the first one or two deals. After that, though, you can use any Extra Bucks you have earned to help pay for your next deal. Your goal is to earn enough to cover the price of future deals so that you never pay any money out of pocket again. This is what 's called, building your Extra Bucks.

For example, one week CVS may have Softsoap Spa bodywash on sale for $4.99. This is a good regular price for bodywash, but by buying this product at this time you will earn $4.99 back in Extra Bucks.

So, you got the bodywash that you needed anyway. Then you can turn it around and buy milk and toothpaste with the Extra Bucks. Ultimately, you got three items you needed for $4.99. Sweet deal.

But it's even better if you work your Extra Bucks. Say Advil has its own ExtraCare rewards deal going on. You use that $4.99 in rewards to buy the pain reliever, and you get another $4.99 on your register receipt. You didn't spend any of your own money on this deal, and you still have $4.99 toward another future purchase. (You might have to pay a few cents for taxes.) You can make this deal even better if you have been collecting your coupons and reading the money-saving blogs. Say that Advil is $4.99 and Crest toothpaste is $2.50, and they both have ExtraCare rewards offers on them. You find that you have coupons for $1.50 off Advil and $1.00 off Crest. When you take these two items to the cash register, after the coupon amounts are figured into your purchase, you owe a bit more than $4.99 (because of tax). You pay with your $4.99 in Extra Bucks and a few coins, and you have these two products, plus another $7.49 in Extra Bucks for your next purchase. This particular scenario is known as a money maker. You won't get rich playing the Drugstore Game, but the only things better than free products are products where you profit a couple bucks just buying them.

There are a few web sites you can visit where people will post all of the free deals and actually put together deals for you that will earn you the most money back.

1. Money Saving Mom (www.moneysavingmom.com) 2. Wags to Riches (www.wagstoriches.com) These are Cindy's two favorite sites for drugstore deals. They are great resources for a beginner, explaining in even more detail how to work the deals.

Here's more advice from Cindy:1. Start small: When you are just beginning, don't do any big deals, and only work the ones that are going to be free or are items you absolutely would have been buying anyway. You can work your way up to bigger, more complicated deals after you understand how everything really works.

2. Be careful of coupon expiration dates: Extra Bucks and Walgreens' Register Rewards (RRs) expire, usually a couple weeks after you get them. So keep an eye on the expiration dates and keep the receipts handy. Sometimes you'll have to take a deal that just breaks even in order to get newer Extra Bucks or RRs. Or sometimes, you'll just have to burn them-but don't waste them. By burning them, I mean going to the drugstore and stocking up on some necessities like Band- Aids, envelopes, or milk. Or heck, treat your kid to some cookies or yourself to a magazine. With your soon-to-expire Extra Bucks or RRs, you'll have free (or discounted) supplies or luxuries.

3. Stockpile the items you get so you never have to pay full price again: Your goal is to stockpile the nonperishable necessities. Imagine never having to pay full price-or any price if you work it well-on things that everyone needs, like toothpaste, shampoo, razors, and toilet paper. You save money because you never have to run out and buy them in an emergency. These frequently go on special, so it's easy to stockpile. If and when bad times come, you'll be sitting pretty-with clean teeth to boot-when store shelves are empty. Plus, beauty and health products will be major currency if things get really tough, as happened in post-Soviet Russia.

4. Buy items you don't need. Occasionally Cindy will buy products that have deals even though it's not something we need or use. She picks up these nonperishable items if they will make money, so she can build up more ExtraCare rewards or at least roll them over. You could also save these items to barter with later. Or, you can be generous and give to a friend or to a charity.

Fake It Until You Make It

It's not easy to change gears from U.S. suburban family to hard-core survivalist with 10 buckets each of wheat, beans, and rice. We didn 't just suddenly program our suburban All- American consumer personalities to deny. We started out clipping some coupons and keeping our eyes on sales. Over those first few weeks, when we began learning the system at the grocery store or the awesome DrugStore Game, we started seeing how cheap or FREE we can get stuff. We were hooked.

After a while, like us, you'll refuse to pay too much for anything. You know you've got supplies at home, and you know a coveted item will go on sale later. Impulse shopping will decline! Yet another way that you will save money.

Cindy told me:Back when I kinda sorta watched what I was buying, I was saving -according to the grocery store-about 20% to 25% each time I went. I thought that was pretty good. But once I started using coupons more frequently and lining it up with sales, I started saving about 33% consistently, and on good days, I can save 50%.

For the past year, I've bought MORE food and not spent more money. And now, because we have a good stockpile, I don't go shopping as often, unless it's something we need or I find a great deal to replenish our stockpile. And I am spending even less money.

Buying Food Online

You can actually buy bulk food online, and if you're trying to build up your food storage, you can't beat it.

Take inventory of the dry food items you use the most often. These are the items you should consider buying bulk online. Some examples include pasta, rice, flour, nuts, spices, and crackers.

Consider buying the largest amount of food you can-perhaps as much as you can eat in a year. The more you buy bulk, the less the cost per ounce. You could even work with some like-minded family or friends to increase your bulk purchase.

Remember to include shipping costs in your calculations. That's another reason to buy in the largest quant.i.ty possible.

The following are web sites that specialize in selling food in bulk.

Bulk Food Web Sites * BulkFoods.com-everything from beans to seeds to snack mixes to candy.

* FoodServiceDirect.com-they're a restaurant supplier, so they sell by the case.

* PleasantHillGrain.com-a large display of food and equipment for home food stockpilers.

* GrainLady.com-a web site that sells bulk grains as well as kitchen mills and other equipment.

Three Sites for Prepackaged Foods in Bulk

I am all in favor of bulk storage because it saves you money; and if you buy what you normally eat and rotate your stock, it works fine. These next three sites are for when things are going to heck in a handcart and you want to get ready in a hurry.

1. The Internet Grocer (http://internet-grocer.net): This site sells canned, dehydrated, and freeze-dried foods. You can buy canned meats, cheese, b.u.t.ter, and more, as well as their popular One Year Food Supply for Four Persons.

2. YourFoodStorage.com (http://www.yourfoodstorage.com):This site will sell you prepackaged supplies for up to 10 people a year at a time, as well as storage shelves, wheat grinders, water ionizers, and more.

3. Efoodsdirect.com (http://www.efoodsdirect.com): This site not only sells food in bulk (including items like 1-year adult basic dehydrated bulk food supply), but it also sells the Berkey Water Purifier and other useful products.

The Least You Can Do Below is a list of the bare minimum things you can do in order to become a more efficient food shopper.

* Get store flyers and find foods on sale.

* Find coupons in newspaper and shopping circulars. See if they can be combined with any buy-one-get-one free offers or other sale items at the store.

* Build meals around what is on sale.

* Create a weeklong menu plan. Some of the meals can be from sale items, while others should be built around foods in your pantry.

* Make a shopping list from the meal plan.

* When you go shopping, stick to your list.

* Pay attention to your receipts at drugstores-you might be missing out on valuable coupons and rewards!