submitted by Maria Barker
When I lost my job, extremely unexpectedly, my husband and I got really, really serious immediately about saving money. I have to say that the biggest help to us in enabling us to stick to the new lowered budget was to literally STAY OUT OF THE STORE!
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I made a once a month shopping trip to the nearest city (not town) and stocked up on everything we would need at the GFS (Gordon's Food Services). I bought cases to get the best discount pricing, big blocks of cheese, pounds of butter, frozen vegetables, 25 pound bags of rice, beans, flour.
Yes, it was expensive for a few months as I got everything stocked and squared away, then expenditures dropped as I no longer needed everything, because of the large quantities I had already invested in.
I also would get a very large bag of spinach and we happily gorged on spinach dishes for a couple of weeks until it was unusable. Only then did we turn to the frozen veggies.
We also had a once a month shopping trip for our livestock, buying a pallet at a time of feed and dealing with local farmers for hay.
My husband continued to get 2 checks a month, and that is what I would use.
I also automated our bills, utilities, mortgage, lowered the Netflix plan, and did not shop until the bills were already paid.
Other than that, we did not go anywhere. And especially not into a store.
I learned to make bread, crackers, tortillas, yogurt, soups, and beans and rice.
If you want to save money, shop one time a month and stay away from stores, even just to look.
Once a month shopping can be done, and it really works!
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