stretching your food dollars

Let's face it,in today's economy,everyone is trying to save money. And food is a major part of everyone's expenses. What do you do to stretch your family's food dollars? I use coupons whenever I have them,but lately I haven't had very many-but honestly,I haven't looked for any. There are TONS of websites that will teach you how to "coupon" and how to go the extra mile and save. My neice is just now using some of these techniques and she is hooked. I might share some of her favorite links later. They show you how to use coupons plus the weekly sales papers that grocery stores put out plus the in-store b1g1 deals (buy 1 get 1 free) that sometimes aren't advertised except for in the store. There are also coupon websites where you can trade coupons you don't need for ones that you do and some places even auction "bundles" of coupons (I have done that before). Today I took advantage of the in store b1g1 deals and saved a good bit of money. My $120 buggy of groceries turned into $96. I'd call that pretty good! You can't beat getting something free.

You can also save by using store-brand items instead of name brand products. I think we have all done this at one time or another. But you have to be careful and read your product labels and make sure that by saving a few cents you aren't getting more than you bargain for. Recently,a friend noticed that the "off brand" of a certain can of beans had HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP and the name brand didn't. And we've all heard about HFCS. I mean why would you put that in a can of beans anyway? We are trying to stay away from HFCS for health reasons. Watch the size of the products too,lately I've noticed that some cereal boxes are getting smaller and smaller but the price is staying the same. READ YOUR LABELS!