This is a piece I wrote for the print version of Shop Talk several weeks ago. For those of you who didn’t see it I thought you might benefit from the advice!

I had an email last week from a friend who lives out of state. She and her husband are suffering the effects of wage cuts and struggling now to budget and stretch their money where they never had to before. She has three kids, works full time and does all of the shopping/meal prep for her family. She was stressed to the max and asking me to help her out.

She wants to save money and use coupons but keeps falling behind when it’s time to clip and organize. She feels like finding the sales and the coupon match ups are more difficult than the savings that she sees. She isn’t sure what to do.

Sound familiar?

Then maybe this will work for you, too:

Take stock of you kitchen. What is in your cupboards? Your fridge? Your freezer? If you need to, make a list. Get rid of food that you haven’t used or aren’t going to use. Donate it if it is not expired.

Make a menu. Stick to it. That means no fancy new recipes that you’ve been meaning to try; no recipes that require a lot of work. Pick your family favorites, try to get at least one that goes in the crock pot, and make a menu. The simpler the menu, the easier it is to stick with. Don’t set yourself up for disaster. One of my favorite “standby” meals is chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Fresh fruit for dessert and you’re done.

That’s it. That is what we came up with. That is the one thing you can do. You can drastically cut your food bill by planning. Make your menu based on what is in your house, shop for what you need.

After four weeks of menus; start rotating back to your first week. Change one or two meals if you feel like it; by reusing a menu you made three or four weeks ago you can make life a little simpler.

When your menu planning is under control you can take the next step. Start looking at fliers for your local grocery stores. Start paying attention to prices and sale prices as you shop. Start browsing through the coupons. Pick one or two websites that feature a complete listing of sales and deals for your stores. Each week pick one, just ONE deal that is worth your time and effort and will help your family. Maybe one week it is body wash; the next week it is chicken. Use this item each week to start your stockpile. Buy 3 body wash….buy as many packages of chicken as will fit into your budget that week. Items I like to stockpile are pastas, rice, chicken; laundry detergent, paper towels, juice, frozen vegetables, lunch meat…you get the idea. If I was to pick one deal this week, I would take the $5/5 Kraft Cheese coupon posted a few weeks back and go to Target where shredded cheese is $2.09 – $2.19. Buy 5 using that coupon and you will spend a little over $5 and save $5…and have cheese to toss in the freezer to use later. Voila. Your stockpile has begun.

Saving money on your grocery budget doesn’t have to be complicated. Any step you take to reduce spending will benefit your family.