What tools do you use?

There is a lot of discussion out there about not using a warehouse club and not using coupons to save money on groceries.  

Guaranteed, if you order your groceries on line and pay for delivery, you are going to spend a lot more than of you do
 the work yourself.   I certainly get it that there are disabled people that have no choice because they just can't go to the store, let alone several stores.    It's a convenience, and sometimes necessity to order your food, and yes, you are paying for it just like any other time you pay for convenience.  I wrote in the 80 s that the word convenience starts with $$$$.  

It just makes sense to me that if you use every available tool at your disposal to save money on groceries, you will save more.  The caviat here is to do it in a manner that makes sense.     The business world has an expression, " return on your investment.  

If you use coupons, you can save money,   I average about 300.00 a year.  Your savings is based on how much you spend on food and how many coupons for real food you can find.   If you were to spend 40   hours a week clipping coupons , you would not get much return for your money.  Another way to look at it, is saving 300.00 and spending 160 hours to do it nets you 1.88 an hour.  Not enough in my book.   Spending six hours would mean  I am making  50.00 an hour.  A bit more rewarding,

Warehouse stores,:   First of all, we have a business membership.   It costs 120.00.   Whooo..... we get 2 percent back on our purchases,    Which pays for half if we don't have a major purchase like a television.   Gas is anywhere from .30-.50 a gallon cheaper.   If we use 200 gallons of gas a year, it


pays for the  membership.    That's four gallons a week.





Not everything at Costco is a bargain,    Not all bulk foods make sense to all families.   If you throw away a lot of why you buy, you aren't saving money.   The best way to make your membership work is to buy the things that you use frequently and avoid the marketing blitz.   Buy what is cheaper than anywhere else.   We buy flour, beer, cheese, yeast. Rice, tortilla chips, bananas, bacon, blue cheese, spices and over the counter meds that my doctor has ordered.  The meds save a lot of money,  for the cost of one copay for us, I can have 1/2 a years meds of a particular medication.    As any store, put on blinders for anything you don't have on your list. Get in and get out.    Pick your time to go so you aren't waiting too long in line.  

Shopping two stores saves a lot of money.   You can get your return on your money by using the planning. ,Blinders , in and out theory and planning your trip to maximize your gas,   If your two stores aren't close together, plan to shop in conjunction with other errands.   If you have to go far, plan your trip , do it monthly, and make it worth your while-- stock non perishable foods you use in a
regular basis.   When we had to go ten miles one way to Winco, I would plan what I knew was cheaper, gather coupons, and I always have cooler bags in the trunk.

Ibotta is a rebate site,   It takes a few minutes to download to your phone or tablet one time,   If you go from a referral. You get money and the referral gets money,    Sometimes ten  dollars.  You scroll threw the store you shopped at, click in the thingsmyou bought, "look" at the 30 second video .  Take a snapshot of your receipt and money drops on your account,   You can get credit at Amazon, movie tickets and more credits.   How much you get depends on how much you buy.   It can be anything from tomatoes to wine,    Obviously, the wine has a larger rebate.

One thing that came to mind while writing this , is that children are tech savy at early ages.   A preteen to teenager can "earn his spending money by printing coupons  for what they onowmyou buy and doing the Ibotta thing.  They are learning to save money and you aren't giving them an allowance.   Just a thought.

Scratch cooking,.   This is where I use the return in your money 💰 comcept the most.   If it takes too long time to make, it's not going to happen.   Do the math.   If I'm making .60 an hour unless there is a h u g e health  benefit, I'm not going there. Making mixes saves time and money, and has health benefits.   Making bread is a ten hands on minute chore and saves 90  percent of the cost.   And bread hot out of the oven is sooo good.  If it takes ten minutes and I save 2.70 I am making 16.20 an hour.   Or 32.40  for two loaves that wouldn't take any longer.   No preservatives control the fat. ( there is no fat)

Use time wisely.   We save 5000.00 a year over the average grocery bill .   Being efficient and spending less time cooking, and more time planning and shopping trips makes it happen while eating home made scratch cooking meals.