Blogger Spotlight - Tshanina

This week's Blogger Spotlight is Tshanina from Thrifty's Treasures. This week Tshanina talks about steps to take in order to help you Stretch Your Dollars! Check out her blog post below. Head on over to "Blogger Spotlight" for more info on being featured on Student Saving Bucks.

"Tshanina from Thrifty's Treasures - I started couponing in the fall of 2008. I'm now hooked and have made it a game to see how low our grocery bill can be each week.  Trust me, it's addictive."

Stretching Your Dollars...

Sometimes it's hard being thrifty isn't it? There have been many times when I've wanted to give up on this idea of paying off the house early. It's much easier to go on a shopping spree than it is to have the self-control to wait for those things we want. Of course, some of the things that I want are quite expensive (one being a remodeled kitchen). I know that not all of us have the time to coupon. You may have children and a full schedule, I get that. However, you can still be a good steward. Here are a few ideas that come to mind to help you stretch your dollar:

(1) Make a monthly shopping budget and stick with it. For you that might mean using the envelope system. It's proven that if you shop with cash that you'll spend less money. Place your grocery allowance in an envelope. Once the envelope is empty, you'll have to wait until you get paid again to go shopping. I can promise you that it will make you think about what you're getting.

(2) Refrain from going to the grocery store more than twice a week. I know people who go to the grocery store every day. They don't necessarily enjoy grocery shopping, they just don't plan ahead for what they're going to have for dinner. For you this may require making a weekly game plan of what you're going to have for dinner/meals. You may decide to have something different for one of your meals. If you don't have all of your ingredients, wait until next week to have that particular dish. I bet you'll enjoy it even more because you've been looking forward to it for so long.

(3) Shop the sale ads at your grocery store. As you know, many of the stores run great sales. Kroger has their mega events and 10/$10, and Publix has their buy one get one items. Even if you don't use coupons, you can get great prices and stock up from items that are on sale. The stores have these items at such a good price to get you in the door. So, when they're on special, grab a couple extra so that you don't have to get it at full price later.

These are just a few ways that you can be a good steward with your grocery budget. I challenge you to give this a try for six months. It will definitely change the way you think about groceries; it has for me. Once you know how much you can save, it makes it hard to go back to your old way of thinking. As I walk down the aisles of the grocery store and peer into other people's carts, I think of all the money they could be saving. Trust me, I was on the other side of the spectrum not long ago. I hope that this is an encouragement to you and not a discouragement. I'm not asking you to do something that I'm not willing to do myself.

This is great advice from a fellow couponer :) In my household we need to practice #2, refraining from going to the grocery store more than twice a week. To read the complete post by Tshanina click here. She also wrote a great post about making your money work for you, make sure you check that out too :)