Plan your menus based on what's on sale!

Yep, that's my mantra that I preach to people that want to know how to start saving at the grocery store, but don't know where to start.
If you never cut a single coupon in your life (*gasp* ~ I could NEVER do that!!), you need to plan your menu based on what's on sale.

If even that seems overwhelming, here is what it looks like:

I sit down with a spiral notebook, my coupons, some recipe books (allrecipes.com), and the grocery sales ads. First, glance through the ads. What's on sale this week? Chicken breasts? Ground beef? Bagged lettuce? Look for things that your family likes and you enjoy preparing.
Ok, now begin writing some basic menus. If ground beef is on sale, this would be a good week to make meatloaf, tacos, or spegetti. If the ground beef is on a really good sale, buy extra to last for a while until it is on sale again. This is called stockpiling, and developing a good stockpile in your kitchen is one of the keys to being able to see some serious reductions in your grocery budget. If chicken is NOT on sale,.......you're not eating chicken this week, unless you bought extra last time. The other thing is to try to not plan meals with expensive ingredients.

I typically plan 4 sit down meals a week. The other 3 nights usually consist of leftovers, sandwiches on the run, or quesadillas, cereal, or something like that. I also am loose with my menu. I don't say "Monday we will eat this, Tuesday we will eat this......". Mine is more like "we will try to eat these four main courses this week, and here are my side dish options that I can mix and match with the main courses." The other thing is, sometimes I change my mind, or my family requests something different, or we just didn't get around to eating everything I had planned. I just bump it to the next week.......or not! :)