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You know that your family deserves nothing but the best produce available. In a perfect world, you would choose nothing but organic foods for preparing your family’s meals. However, the high cost of organically grown foods can seriously limit their introduction into your grocery shopping.

A few tips can help you include organic foods in your household while still keeping a tight rein on food expenses. These methods, coupled with conscientious shopping, will allow you to provide your family with some of the wholesome foods they so deserve.

Start your own garden. Growing your own produce is the surest way to guarantee that your family’s foods are free from any pesticides or chemicals. After all, the only way anything can be added to the foods from your own garden is by your own hands.

Check out your local farmer’s market. Growers who frequent these types of markets are increasingly able to meet the demands of customers looking for organically grown products. If you’re not sure about the growing circumstances of a product, be sure to ask. These growers often like to talk about their methods and will be ready to respond to your concerns.

Frequent stores that cater to the organic foods movement. Sure, you will probably find some organically grown foods at your traditional grocery store; however, they are often not at the best price available. Alternatively an organic foods supermarket will offer a wider selection of products and a regular rotation of sales on products.

Clip coupons. Like any other part of your food expenses, expenses for organic foods can be greatly reduced with the use of coupons. Be sure to check out your favorite products’ websites to see if there are any coupons you can download.

Learn to preserve your purchases and the food from your garden. Canning or freezing the excess foods you’ve procured. You’ll be able to take advantage of sale prices by buying larger amounts of your favorite items and saving them for future use.

If you put these tips to use, you’ll find that it is possible to add organic foods to your family’s diet without blowing your budget. Start slowly until you can determine which products work for you and your family. Before long, you’ll be able to be confident that you are providing your family the best possible food you can.

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photo credit: jen dunlap

Saving on groceries has become a very hot topic lately. With the rising cost of gas prices, families are faced with spending more on transportation. That extra money has to come from somewhere, so trimming the other areas of your budget becomes very important very quickly.

You probably already know purchasing large quantities of non-perishable items while they’re on sale will help you save on groceries. But, if you have a large enough freezer you can apply the same principle to more perishable food items. Here are just a few items that can be frozen and thawed as you are ready to use them.

Meat Products – As long as everything is sealed correctly, you can save meat for quite awhile. Pay special attention to sales on bacon, pre-packaged hamburgers, and chicken.

Frozen Dinners – Although those little box dinners are pretty expensive, they are also very convenient. You can offset some of the expense by waiting until they are on sale and stocking up on them. They’ll stack nicely in your freezer and store easily.

Bread Products – Loaves of bread and buns freeze very well. If you leave plenty of time for them to thaw, you can make sandwiches and hot dogs much cheaper at your next family barbecue.

Food You’ve Prepared – It’s often much easier to make a larger quantity of your favorite recipes than it is to make the recipe twice. So, if mozzarella cheese is on sale, make two or three pans of lasagna. You can freeze the extra pans and you only have to clean up the kitchen once.

Frozen Vegetables – Stock up on frozen vegetables when they’re at their cheapest. These versions of veggies often have less salt than their canned compatriots, so they’re much healthier for your family. Pull them out as you need them and enjoy them all year long.

Stocking up your frozen pantry can add up to real savings in your grocery expenses. And with an enormous bounty of food at your fingertips, you can also make fewer trips to the grocery store. You’ll save on food and gas all in one fell swoop.

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News that most taxpayers would be receiving a check from the IRS has been pretty welcome news in households across the U.S. The hope of U.S. officials is that this rebate check will lessen some of the strain families are feeling in their pocketbooks and help them relax about their financial situations. However, rushing out to spend your economic stimulus check may not be the most financially savvy way for you to put your rebate to use. A close inspection of your financial circumstances might reveal several ways to use your check.

One viable option for your rebate might be simply to save it. Maybe your emergency fund is already scarily low and needs to be replenished. Perhaps you’ve heard rumblings of potential lay-offs at work and fear that you may need those funds in the near future. Although consumers are encouraged to spend their rebate check as quickly as they receive it, you should feel comfortable with the idea of saving your rebate if you financial situation warrants it.

Households that are already mired in consumer debt may find that paying down their debt is the best use of economic stimulus check. If you already have outstanding balances on store accounts or Visa/MasterCard, applying your rebate to those account balances may give you some breathing room in your financial plan. Perhaps if you’re able to use your rebate to catch up on payments to those debtors, you’ll be able to start planning for your financial future again.

Finally, a large, but planned, purchase is always a good use for your rebate. Some consumers may find that their rebate allows them to complete their savings plan for an upcoming purchase. Have you been scrimping and saving for a new refrigerator? Your rebate may allow you to finally make that purchase. Or perhaps your car needs new tires. If you’ve been putting off buying those tires until you could pay for them with cash, the economic stimulus package may speed that day’s arrival.

When deciding what you and your family should do with your rebate, the most important thing is to figure out how this money works into your existing financial plan. If making a large purchase or taking a vacation was already in your plans, by all means, you should use your rebate to step closer to that goal. However, if your current financial goal involves savings, you should use your rebate to further your advancement towards that goal. Just consider your economic stimulus package as a jump-start to your financial plan, and you’ll find the perfect way to use your rebate.

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