by Lorri B Smalls

Created on: June 11, 2009

Many people in today's economy are steadily reallizing that it takes more bang for their buck to bring home a cart load of groceries to feed their families. Preparing meals at home may not be as exciting as going out to eat, but it will save money per week on your monthly food budget. For many of us this is a mind over matter challenge to completely change the way the average American is used to spending money on many essentials in a more practical way.

Preparing meals that are not only nutritious but quick will practically eliminate the need to stop and pick up fast food. Creating dishes that will allow for multiple servings throughout the week to help stretch your family's dinners, will alow you to start seeing savings in little and even big ways . Quite a few people have made the comment that they would prefer not to eat leftovers, but some dishes actually taste better after the first day and can eliminate the time needed to cook, especially when you're hungry and tired and just coming home from work.

Clipping coupons is one of the best ways to save money on grocery shopping. Many coupon kings and queens purchase more than one Sunday paper and then wait for store specials featuring double or triple coupon days that can be used to further save on their purchases in a single grocery store visit.

Instead of buying items for each meal per day, buy food items that can be used for more than one dish. For example, if you want hamburgers and fries on Saturday, but decide to have meatloaf and mashed potatoes on Monday, buy a five pound bag of french fries, and separate the batch that you would like to use for mashed potatoes and drop them in boiling water. It's a quick and easy way to make a classic dish. Another example is tomato sauce. Depending on which ingredients are used, you can make your leftover sauce from an Italian dish into barbecue sauce, by just adding a few additional ingredients.

Search recipes that include basic ingredients that can be easily attainable and cost-effective. Fresh food versus canned food has its advantages and disadvantages, but canned food can be flavorful overall, and can be bought in bulk for a cheaper price. Even people who receive food stamps can benefit from saving on their grocery bill, by planning and organizing their shopping trips to make their groceries stretch until next month's food stamps are deposited. With a few simple meal plans and smart budgeting to take care of monthly grocery expenses, it'll be one less thing to worry about in a recession.

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