Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Acknowledgments..................................................................ix1. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half (or More).......................................12. The Power of the Plan.........................................................143. Shopping to Win...............................................................444. Couponing-One of Many Ways to Save............................................995. Cooking That Will Save You Time, Money, and Sanity............................1256. Stocking Up and Organizing-Store It, Find It, Use It..........................1607. Economizing Equipment-Powerful Money-Saving Tools.............................1918. Family Dinnertime-Building a Stronger Family at the Table.....................2169. Feeding Your Kids for Less....................................................23410. Where and How to Eat Out for Less............................................24411. Gardening-Grow It Yourself and Be Healthy....................................25912. Bag up the Savings...........................................................277More Ways Singles and Empty Nesters Can Save a Boodle............................284Recipes..........................................................................291Notes............................................................................307About the Authors................................................................308

Chapter One

Cut my grocery bill in half? You've got to be kidding!

When you hear the phrase, "Cut your grocery bill in half," what do you envision? Do you see a harried homemaker, spending hours each day running from one grocer to another, piling her cart with a mountain of sale items? Or is it the coupon queen-clipping coupons for hours on end-and then standing in line for thirty minutes while the checker scans her 2-inch pile of coupons? Or could it possibly be that you see a family eating rice and beans every day?

Please put those images out of your mind and imagine a pantry stocked with all of your favorite foods and a checkbook with a positive balance. Imagine that you come home to be greeted by the wonderful aroma of dinner ready to be served. Imagine a family eating delicious meals and laughing together at the dinner table.

No, this isn't a daydream-this is our reality, and it can be yours too!

We know many families are struggling with unending to-do lists, failing finances, and flagging energy levels. The thought of learning all of the strategies contained in this book, just to save some money at the grocery store, could be overwhelming.

We'll make you a promise. If you select one chapter in this book to start and apply just one or two of the ideas we present, you'll start saving money right away-this week. You'll easily save enough to cover the price of this book and probably much more! We've heard from many people around the world who have literally cut their grocery bill in half by applying our grocery strategies. You can too.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF?

If we gave you $3,000 to read this book, would you do it? What would you do with the extra money? And if we could guarantee you that you could save that much money each year (tax free), would you be interested?

And, if we could give you a few more hours each week to spend any way you wanted, what would you do? Would you relax and watch a movie, spend time with your kids or some friends, or maybe take a college class to improve your skills?

And if we could reduce your stress level by giving you a few practical efficiency tools, would you be interested?

Look, we aren't selling a multilevel marketing membership, and this isn't some sort of Ponzi scheme. We're selling you on you and your ability to learn and think and act differently. Don't worry though, we aren't going to tell you to do anything that we haven't already done ourselves. And when you hear how we started out, and you realize that we aren't professional shoppers, gourmet chefs, financial gurus, or infomercial stars, we're sure that you'll believe that you can do what we do and probably do it better.

WHO IS AMERICA'S CHEAPEST FAMILY?

We're Steve and Annette Economides (econo mee dis). Yes, that's really our last name. It's Greek and means "son of a steward." We're an ordinary family with kids, but we're living out the American Dream in a very un-American way-without debt. We live in a large house on three-quarters of an acre surrounded by citrus trees. But when we married in 1982, we lived on near-poverty wages-Steve was earning $6.50 an hour ($838 per month take-home) working as a printing company paste-up artist. Annette's domestic ability was limited to boiling water and scrambling eggs. In spite of her limitations, she was determined to excel, so she took every penny we had and stretched it until it begged for mercy.

Three years later, after living on one income, having one baby (John) and with another on the way (Becky), our frugal efforts started to bear fruit. We had saved enough money to put 15 percent down on a repossessed, four-bedroom, two-bath home. With careful planning and some sacrifice, we paid off that home in nine years on an average income of only $35,000.

By the time we moved into our current home, our family had grown to include five kids (John, Becky, Roy, Joe, and Abbey), two dogs, three turtles, and a couple of hamsters. By learning to plan and shop and cook smarter, we were able to feed our family of seven for $350 each month (including paper goods and personal care items). And we weren't living on ramen noodles.

We don't buy a lot of prepackaged foods, but we do buy some. We don't buy a lot of soda or chips, however every once in a while we indulge in those also-but only when they're on sale. We eat steak, lamb, and lots of Italian and Greek dishes. We spend less by implementing lots of different little strategies that, when combined, add up to huge savings.

In 2004 our money-saving habits caught the eye of a producer at Good Morning America. Charlie Gibson conducted the interview and introduced us to the viewing public as America's Cheapest Family (you can watch that first interview on our website). The name stuck and since that time we've shared our frugal habits on TV, radio, and the Web as well as in magazines and newspapers, worldwide. We are on a crusade to convince the world that frugality produces freedom (and fun) while a debt-riddled lifestyle only produces distress (and destruction).

In our first book, America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money, we covered money-saving strategies from practically every budget category in a household budget. Of the fifteen chapters, only one was devoted to the topic of saving on groceries. Despite the varied content of the book, invariably every time we talked to the media, the interviewer wanted to know how we manage to spend so little on groceries with such a large family. In a three- to five-minute interview we can barely scratch the surface of the subject, merely offering a couple of specific examples and a few overarching principles to encourage consumers...