When buying clothes out of season, buy them a little larger for next year. Also if you find a really good buy but it is a little large get it anyway. If it will save you money when child gets a little larger, it is worth storage. Bed spreads; comforters and sheets are always found at sales. This is a good buy if you find your color or design. Used sheets, etc., are also great to send off to college, camp or in kids rooms.

Educational toys abound at garage sales. Be sure and ask if they work, even better carry a couple of batteries with you and try them out. Dead batteries are usually reason toys don't work. If you need to find baby things, go to neighborhoods that tend to have younger families. Older neighborhoods with older homes will have more things since they have had longer to collect. Older or middle aged families will also have good children's furniture such as playpens, high chairs, etc., since they usually have grandchildren who have outgrown these items.

My family did this several years ago and floor was covered with gifts, hundreds of them. What fun you can have opening something silly or watching face of a family member as they unwrap a collectible. The people in your family who are crafty can present everyone with a beautiful handmade item that they will treasure for many years. The year we did this we had absolutely NO BILLS, NO CREDIT CARD DEBT or empty bank accounts. Try it one year and you will probably be hooked plus you will be amazed how nice it is to not have to worry about paying for it rest of year.

You know you are running low on an item by simply opening your well organized pantry and determining what needs to be restocked.

Planning Your Meals

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Now that your kitchen has been cleaned and well stocked, it's time to put it to use.

It works best if you plan following days meals, night before. This is not hard or very time consuming. Five minutes before going to bed, simply open your cupboards and see what you can plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for following day.

Start off just planning one day at a time. Later, as you adjust to this style of living, you'll be able to plan whole week just by looking at contents within your kitchen.

What also is a must is creativity. Try to steer away from traditional hamburger and hot dog meals. Get creative with your meals. There are literally hundreds of different combinations that can be made to give you and your family variety they need.

For example, think of all combinations you can put together with rice or potatoes (ie: rice and vegetables, rice and beans, rice with chicken, rice and soup, rice with eggrolls, etc...) And that's just with rice! You have a ton of options. Take time to think of, or search for some.

Here are a few websites that offer a number of recipes and cooking ideas:

http://www.notjustbeans.com

http://www.recessionrecipes.com

http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/twarda/home.html

Conclusion

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The whole goal of this exercise is to eliminate unnecessary trips and excessive spending at market in addition to creatively using what you have in your kitchen to prepare meals for week/month.The more times you go to market, more chances you have of spending your money on foods you may not need.

Organize and master your kitchen, plan out your meals, stock your storage areas, and you can save $100-$400 a month (depending on your spending habits ;-)

Best of luck mastering your kitchen!

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