Going for Not Broke

A few notes on what's worked and what hasn't. Groceries . Aldi has its drawbacks. I can't get everything I need there, it can be really crowded at times, and a few of its foods (eg., canned ravioli) just aren't as tasty as other brands, but without fail, I spend less when I shop there. For someone like me who has trouble mastering the art of extreme couponing, Aldi does a good job of trimming the grocery expenses. I'd still like to trim it more, but I think that will require some more creative meal planning.  Status: Some Money Saved. Meal Planning . I began establishing a menu and then shopping to the menu a few years before my daughter was born, so this is nothing new. However, lately I've been trying to change up what I fix so that I make more foods that can be done in bulk. This way, I'll have leftovers for another day and leftovers for frozen dinners for when my husband and I are at work. I'm still experimenting with this, but so far, I think it...

I don't know if I don't fully understand extreme couponing or if it's just not as doable in my area. (My grocery store options are Aldi , Walmart supercenters, a regular Target , Dollar General , Walgreens and an IGA, which offers a loyalty program similar to S&H Green Stamps, through which you trade loyalty points for prizes, but I'd rather have money off my overall bill.) Aldi doesn't accept coupons, so I've been keeping track of sales and coupons I can use at the other places. I've saved as much as 3 percent on my overall grocery bill, but never the 50 percent and greater savings I see on the extreme couponing shows For my most recent shopping trip, I went to Aldi to do all of my grocery shopping. For the first time in years, I got out of the grocery store for less than $100. In fairness, this was a light shopping week, so my overall bill would've been less than normal no matter where I went. However, I plan to shop there for the bulk of m...