10 Ways to S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Family's Food Budget

Did I really say that I'm going to give away 10 ways to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your food budget? You bet I did, so let's get started.

1. CLIP COUPONS FOR ITEMS YOU REGULARLY PURCHASE. Everybody knows this one but few people do it. Out of the typical Sunday newspaper, I can use somewhere between $5.00 and $7.00 of the coupons for items I regularly purchase. This week alone, my coupons total $6.00. Here's the trick in saving money with coupons: DON'T clip coupons for experimental items that you don't regularly purchase. That simply adds to your grocery bill rather than reducing it.

2. PERUSE THE ADVERTISEMENTS WHEN PLANNING YOUR WEEK'S MEAL PREPARATION. Okay, you ask, why is this important? Well, consider that you have planned to prepare a pot roast one night and a steak dinner another. But this may well be the week when chicken is on sale. And if chicken is on sale, you can usually bet that beef isn't. So simply alter the meals you'll prepare this week. Another reason to carefully look at the grocery advertisements is that the specials differ from one store to another. This week Aldi's has 5 lbs. of red potatoes for $1.99, two pounds of sweet onions for 99-cents and Bratwurst for $2.29; the others have the red potatoes for $3.79, the sweet onions for $2.79 and Bratwurst for $2.99. Your purchase from Aldi's of these three items ALONE will result in a savings of almost $5.00. So check the sales papers and plan your menu and shopping accordingly.

3. JOIN THE GROCERY LOYALTY CLUBS (and make sure your address is correct!): There are those people who say things like, "they'll know what you buy." My response to that is this: "So?" Face it: they already know what you buy. Putting your name and address on their loyalty club enrollment doesn't give away State secrets: it merely allows you to receive the coupons your grocery chain mails to Loyalty Club customers. The bottom line here is that these SAVE YOU MONEY.

4. SHOP AT ODD HOURS. Shop late at night or very early in the morning (between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. work well). Why? For several reasons, actually. First is that the store is less busy at these times so you won't feel rushed in your shopping adventure. You'll better be able to seek out the grocery bargains that may be hidden on lower shelves, on top shelves, underneath or behind shelved items.

5. TAKE A BUDDY SHOPPING WITH YOU. Perhaps this sounds nuts, but here's the way this can save you money. Between you and your shopping buddy, you will probably remember the price of almost every item in your grocery cart. When you get to the checkout, one of you should watch the register and the other should empty the cart. In this way, you're more likely to catch mistakes, overrings, mis-marked items, etc.

6. KNOW YOUR GROCERY STORE. Know their policies on returns, mismarked items, when they mark down expiring items and where they put these marked down items. Also be aware of the labeling differences in items that have special marked-down prices because of a fast-approaching expiration date. My grocer sticks a bright orange sticker on them that says "Manager's Special." These usually net about a 50% savings over the regular price. And my grocer also has a policy of GIVING you any item that is incorrectly run at the register-but you must ASK for the item to be free, they won't point it out to you. (Once I got a $9.99 bag of almond flour free because it rang for $11.99 at the register.) Which goes back to a good reason to have your shopping buddy along.

7. BE PREPARED TO SHOP TWO TO THREE STORES FOR THE CUMULATIVE BEST SHOPPING. Publix may have several items marked "Buy One, Get One Free," but otherwise may not have great sales that week. So purchase the B-O-G-O-F items you use at Publix. Then move on to another grocery store with different items on sale.

8. LOOK HIGH, LOOK LOW. The items ON EYE LEVEL are usually the most expensive. They're also the prettiest displays, most eye-appealing packages, and name-brand merchandise. Look at the bottom shelves, the top shelves and seek out the plain cans. In fact, the generics of my regular grocery chain is-with almost every product-as good as the famous name brand of the same item, and the generics tend to have a very plain label. They also tend to be some 30% less than the name brands. Do this several times in one shopping trip, and you've saved some substantial cash!

9. LOOK UP AND DOWN EVERY ROW. Here's a simple fact: the end-displays and special seasonal displays do NOT usually have the best prices on items. For example, during picnic season, I picked up some paper plates at a seasonal display of picnic supplies. But when I continued through the store, I found a different brand/type of paper plate at a cost about 1/3 that of those on display. Now, these cheaper plates were rectangle shaped and the package was written in Spanish. But one look told me they were paper plates, thick and stable enough for picnic foods, and I knew that fried chicken would go on the plates just as well as fajitas and my friends and family wouldn't know the difference. Buy my bank account sure did!

10. CAN YOU SAY "CLEARANCE?" Most stores have a "clearance" shelf. Find it. Ask for it if you must, but FIND it. You may find little gems here, like chicken bouillon granules with a sticker that says "$1.00 off regular price" (saving me almost 50%, so I bought four of them!). You might find shampoo in a scent that has been discontinued, or a flavored drink mix that was last season's (like egg nog or peppermint). But what you find here will be marked down anywhere from 40% to 75% less than their original price.