Today is the day of the week I make my shopping lists. This starts with making the menu for

the week, though that isn't as hard as it sounds. I have a repeating monthly menu for all three meals a day saved to my Google Calendar and just tweak it to fit the week.

Then I print an inventory sheet for each child. I have divided up the food into 9 zones and assigned each one to a child or myself. Each week we take our inventory sheet and mark off all the things we have enough of for the week.(The exception is the first week of the month. We have discovered that we spend less over the whole month if we do a big stock-up the first week. This includes buying all the meat, cheese, butter, etc we will need for a whole month. So on the first we focus on having enough for a month instead of a week.)



I check several coupons sites to see what deals are available for the week. If it's a good deal I will list it even if we don't currently need the item. The sites I go to are:

Checkout51 This is electronic coupons. I make a note of what "eCoupons" they are offering. If we buy anything on the list, I will take a picture of my receipt and upload it to their site. They then credit me that amount. When I hit $20 they send me the money. No clipping!

Krazy Coupon Lady These nice ladies keep track of all the sales and coupons for many stores and post the best combinations each week (they even make special marks by the really really good deals so you know to stock up 3-6 months worth if you can). I scroll through the list for each store I might go to this week (that might be a dozen stores checked out or only walmart depending on my mood) and click on any deals I am interested in. I can print the list straight from their site, go through my files and pull each applicable coupon, and then make a note on each child's list of what I want them to buy.

Coupons.com, redplumb.com, and smartsource.com all have coupons you print out that are nearly the same as what is in the newspaper. I use these to get extra coupons for deals I want more than two of (we buy two different papers each Sunday. Reading newspapers is Hubby's hobby, though he has cut way down from his high of five a Sunday).

I don't actually cut out all the coupons from the papers anymore. It was just too much work for too little reward. Now I thumb through them and just cut out what I know we will use. The rest I just file under the date and leave unless I read about a special deal. The Krazy Coupon Ladies tell you what date each coupon for each deal is from, so I just have to go to that folder if I decide I want to take advantage of a deal. Otherwise, the coupon flyers just sit in the file until I decide to throw them away.

Each child and I have our own coupon envelope containing the coupons for their own zones. Everyone is responsible for organizing and dating their own envelope.

I also go to http://www.cvsscenarios.com/ to see if it's worth stopping at the local drugstore. It's usually not, lol.

Since I have been trying to make as many of our own things as I can (to control allergies) there are very few coupons or deals that worth going out of my way for. But I do run across a few occasionally. If they are in stock I might get free razors or toothpaste today, for example.

After checking out all the deals and inventorying the whole house, I make up the shopping lists, divided by child. Each one picks out the stuff from their own zone. This makes only a tiny area for each of us to keep track of. This is especially good for price comparisons.

We only save $2-10 a week, but over the course of a year, that adds up.