Are you looking for the most effective way to streamline the grocery shopping/money saving/dinner making process? If so, you’ll be pleased to know that there is a great way to have it all and do it well. It just comes down to using the right tools.
The benefits of meal planning. There are a good number of reasons for why you should be meal planning, if you aren’t already. For starters, meal planning takes a lot of the time and frustration out of meal time. When you have a meal plan, you don’t have to bother with brainstorming in a frenzy over what to make, and rushing to the grocery store last minute to get what you need for the meal. Instead, you can focus on enjoying the cooking process with the entire family. Secondly, meal planning is a very effective technique for forming healthy eating habits. Most of the bad food choices people occur when there is a perceived lack of time and healthy options: When you’re in a rush and you don’t have a meal planned (or the groceries stocked for a meal), then it’s all too easy to go to a drive through for fast food instead. Try out this meal plan template if you don’t have one to work with.
The ins and outs of couponing. Couponing is a major craze these days. If you flip through the television, you might be surprised to find that this trend even has its own show, in which coupon-savvy shoppers purchase hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for only a couple of bucks. While this is certainly possible, it takes a lot of time, effort, and know-how. The unfortunately truth is that, for many people, couponing can actually end up costing them money. (If you’ve ever used a coupon to purchase something you’d never normally purchase, then you are familiar with this conundrum.) The trick to saving money with coupons is to coupon right, and that means knowing where to shop, and when, and sticking with your standard shopping list.
Meal planning and couponing: a winning combination. If couponing sounds complex, it’s because it is. Fortunately, there are some great resources out there to help you coupon most efficiently, and one that has a lot of smart shoppers talking is emeals.com. When you set up an emeals account, you have the benefit of choosing the stores you prefer to shop at, so that you can combine your couponing efforts with store sales fliers to maximize your savings. Another great thing about emeals is that it is centered on your meal plan, enabling you to create meal plans that work for your family and then shop around those meal plans and save the most money possible!
If you aren’t meal planning, then you should be, and if you aren’t couponing, then you should learn how. Fortunately, sites like emeals are there to help simplify the process so that you can get healthy, and get your family together around the dinner table.
Combining Couponing with Meal Planning for Ultimate Savings
