This week’s newspaper will hold a P & G insert bringing you quite a few monthly savings. As we head out of the holidays and into the new year…you will find less and less sales/deals and fewer and fewer coupons. The Holiday shopping is over…and it is time to buckle down and really make these coupons work for you and your family.

My main philosophy for shopping and meal planning is this: I plan my menus based on what I have available in the house THEN I plan my shopping trip for the week…buying items that are at a greatly reduced price…making matchups between sale items and coupons…to add to my stockpile. This allows me to spend a very small portion of my grocery budget on full price items.

This is where it comes in extremely handy to have clipped coupons saved from week to week. You may see coupons that you don’t feel will be relevant to the week’s shopping…but if you clip and save, when that item goes on sale two weeks later you will still have the additional savings the coupohn offers.

A good way to get yourself into the coupon game…to make you stretch your dollars just a little forward by challenging yourself to a new way to shop each week. Try shopping one week by only purchasing items that are $0.99 or less; lower your normal weekly budget or try a “No Spend” solution to your budget woes….challenge yourself to spend only what you need for perishable items each week…and use what you have have on hand.

As the weeks go by in our new year…you will find Julie and I exploring different ways to save money that go beyond simply using coupons. So clip and file those coupons…and find ways that you can save your family money in the new year…then share your ideas with us!