Three Ways to Cut Your Grocery in an Economic Crisis

Most people I know are freaked out by the latest rounds of economic news.  Our current situation has been labeled as the next Great Depression, the lame-stream media gets more hyped up by the second, and it seems that on any street corner, you’ll unavoidable hear a conversion between two or more people who are frozen with fear like Chicken Little in the Sky is Falling.
There is no denying that the economic crisis creates real world problems both financially and mentally for a massive number of people.  So what’s my role?
I’ve put myself forward as a fitness authority, so how am I going to live up to that challenge?  I eat a lot of food myself, especially when I am trying to gain weight.  Food isn’t cheap!  And it’s getting more expensive by the month.
Here’s just three ways cut your grocery bill and still eat high-quality, fat-burning foods.
1.  Take a List and Follow It
Never shop without a list.  Dieticians estimate that 40 percent of supermarket purchases are made on impulse.  According to best selling food author and NYU professor Marion Nestle, 70 percent of shoppers bring lists into the supermarket, but only about 10 percent stick to them.  Developing a standard list of foods to replenish weekly will save you money by avoiding purchasing an excess of food that might spoil and go to waste. It will also help you avoid impulse purchases of foods you didn’t need. By the way, planning your shopping can also help you avoid unnecessary trips to the store, which saves you time as well as gas money!
2.  Don’t Write Off The High End Stores
I love my local Safeway and Costco. They have bulk items and their deals are super. However, Whole Foods (Whole PayCheck as I often call it), sometimes has deals on particular items that are even cheaper than the discounts at the bigger chain stores. Don’t loyally stick to a single store and ignore the potential savings that might be happening at other stores in your area.
3.  Free Grocery Store Coupon Sites
These are some of the most popular coupon sites I’ve found. Unlike other frustrating sites that ask for an e-mail address and then spam you to death, these websites give you printable coupons with great deals, without all the excessive email. Suggestion: use a secondary email address to keep your main email safe, just in case.
•    Coupons.com
Enter your zip code and find printable coupons for your area.
•    CoolSavings.com
Offering food coupons for online and brick & mortar shopping.
•    SmartSource Savings Network (www.coupons.smartsource.com)
Comprised of leading grocery and retail chains, newspapers, lifestyle websites, interactive companies and others bringing online savings to you. Printable coupons available.
•    CouponSaver (www.couponsaver.org)
Coupon codes and promotional codes for all types of items.
At the end of the day, the question of whether or not you can afford to eat healthy. What matters is that you have an opportunity to eat healthy and save some money.  Just grabbing what seems like a good deal or healthy foods is not going to work anymore.  It never really did.  Spending just a few minutes planning and taking a list will immediately garnish you some fantastic cost savings.
If you liked this, you’ll love the 10 page, 2 part series that I wrote exclusively for the Burn the Fat Inner Circle
Apparently you can have an entire month to test drive Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat Inner Circle website for only $1.00…
Marc David
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
www.nobullbodybuilding.com
P.S. – Tip 4 that nobody talks about is simply to eat less.  Most people (not monitoring calories for a goal) simply consume too much.  It is easier to save money by eating less.  This tip really depends on your current situation.  A bodybuilding preparing for a contest is probably consuming far less than optimal.