Frugal Grocery Shopping List at It's Best!

Here is a frugal grocery shopping list at it's best...don't forget your local dollar store for produce, name brand produce and much more when trying to stretch your budget to the max.

To all the nay sayers who think that shopping for produce at your local dollar store will seriously damage your health, you may be surpised at the finds at my local store today. I came home with four large packages of organic baby spinach, the same brand purchased for $4.99 each at our nearest health food store. As if this deal was not good enough, they also had organic bananas and berries today as well with similar savings.

One more bonus to an already great shopping day was 10 ounce bricks of Cracker Barrel 2% white cheddar cheese. I got a dozen of those and will freeze most of it to grate later for casseroles and such.

Moral of the story...Keep your eyes open for bargains and your mind open to possibilites and your frugal grocery list will get longer as the deals get better.

Think Traditional Grocery Coupons are the Only Way to Save? Here are 6 Ways to Save Money on Groceries Now!

Don’t overspend on your groceries week in and week out, fight back! If you think traditional clipped grocery coupons are the only way to save on food, think again. Here are 6 easy ways to save money on groceries right now:

1. Only shop the sales. Do only this much and get 30-50% savings with very little time or effort to you in the process.

2. Use printable grocery coupons. Printable grocery coupons beat traditional grocery coupons in two ways. You have less to sort and store, so printable coupons are a huge time saver. The face values also tend to be higher, saving you extra money too.

3. Use electronic coupons grocery coupons. Talk about fast and easy, electronic grocery coupons are the way to go. The face values are high, and you absolutely can not mess these up.

4. Shop at fruit stands and farmer’s markets to save on produce. Seriously, the cost of produce has nearly doubled in the last year. If you want to get great quality and lower prices, go local.

5. Watch the warehouse stores for savings. You need to be careful when shopping in warehouse stores and watch your unit prices. Some items are of exceptional values although many are not. I did a price check not long ago and found that my local warehouse store was not nearly as low priced as they were a year ago. Don’t get me wrong, the warehouse stores do a good job of being fairly priced everywhere. Often, though, you can get a lower price somewhere else. It pays to watch your prices.

6. Check the dollar stores for grocery deals. No kidding, a buck still buys dairy, frozen food, cheese, lunchmeat, bagels, bread, tortillas, fresh procuce, and much more at my local store. Take a look around and see what is offered in your local area, you may be surprised.

If your piggy bank needs some extra cash, don’t forget looking to your food budget to help keep some cash in your pocket. Just a few changes will have you saving again in no time, grocery coupons in hand or not.

Dollar Store Food and Gourmet Meals

Here's some more great ideas on how to use dollar store food to create gourmet meals. I have to admit that lately, I've been in the mood to go back to my roots as I share this information with you all. I know that you can eat well by using dollar store and discount store foods. While my food budget remains low today, I'm enjoying the burst of crativity in doing the research for my latest posts!

I'm dating myself just a bit by telling you that when I was in college dollar stores were not yet the rage. My choices were limited in this regard, so I also frequeted farmer's markets, discount stores like Target, Walmart and Grocery Warehouse. I bought what was a good value and then purchased just as much as I needed from the bulk bins to supplement my coupon and sale purchases.

Case in point, no matter where you live there are some low priced options. I did not have the luxury of dollar stores, Dollar General, and Family Dollar near me, but there were other right down cheap alternatives to help me keep my budget low while still continuing to eating well.

With so many dollar stores around now, the choices are wider than ever before. Use them as part of your shopping strategy to save lot time and money. With a little prersistience and practice, you to can be a gourmet with dollar store food.