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There are a variety of easy ways to feed your family healthy meals on a limited budget, even with the increases we are seeing in grocery prices recently. All it requires is some planning and savvy shopping!

First of all, meat shopping is best done on days when grocery stores mark down the products that will soon expire. In most stores, this is done at about 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The butcher in the local grocery will be more than happy to share when this is done in their store. On average, this reduced price meat is marked down thirty to fifty percent. A legitimate concern when doing this is food safety. However, it is a perfectly safe practice as long as the meat has not passed the expiration date and is frozen as soon as it is brought home. Just divide it into ziplocks in serving sizes fit for the size of the family. Be sure to check the meat department the week after Christmas for great deals on turkeys and hams! Less expensive cuts of meat tend to have more fat, but this can be dealt with by trimming the extra fat off of steaks, briskets, etc... Or, if it is ground beef, drain the fat after it is cooked, and rinse with water to get a bit more fat out of the beef before seasoning and adding it to casseroles. Tougher cuts such as briskets or roasts are great in the slow cooker or smoker and provide plenty of freezable leftovers for future meals!

Secondly, search your local grocery store advertisements for "loss leaders." These are the too good to be true sales that are designed to get customers in the door. (These ads can most often be found online, so you do not even have to buy a newspaper). If you stick to just those items, you can do quite well. For example, a recent local advertisement had frozen vegetables of a nationally known brand for fifty cents per package. When you find a good deal, assuming the product has an expiration date that is far enough into the future, it is a good idea to stock up on the item for the future.

Once an inventory of reduced price meats and sale items are built up, menus can be planned based on the items that are in the freezer and pantry. When it is time to search for fresh vegetables and fruit to fill out the menu, shop for items that are in season, and thus the least expensive. For example, strawberries and melons are significantly less during the summer months. Squash are cheaper in the fall.

A trip to the grocery store is much less expensive and healthier if a shopper sticks to the outer edges of the

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