Mom explains how she feeds her family of 6 on a budget of $125 a week

4. Clean Out Your Pantry

Having an organized pantry means you know exactly what’s in there at all times. This means you won’t accidentally buy a second bottle of sesame oil because you couldn’t find the original one. Cataloguing what you’ve already got can help you meal plan as well—building around what’s already in the cabinet can make it a lot cheaper to cook during the week.

Taking advantage of buy-one-get-one sales on canned goods and things that freeze easily (like bread, vegetables and meat) are great ways to stock up your pantry. If you always have a few things on hand that you can turn into dinner, that could reduce your meal-planning budget by an entire day.

5. Pay With Cash At The Grocery Store

If you only bring $150 to the store, you can only spend $150. And if your groceries are rung up and they go over the total, what goes first? Ideally, it’s junk food or unnecessary items that don’t need to be in your kitchen anyway.

Again, this is why meal planning is so important. If you already know exactly what you need for the week, it’s much easier to winnow out unnecessary purchases if you accidentally go over your budget when you get to the checkout line.

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Check out Greutman’s blog for more great money-saving tips.