Cream Cheese Tower - save $ on groceries

This is one of the reasons I spend under $200 a month on groceries.  Unlike most articles I read on "slashing grocery costs", I'm a stocker-upper.  They tell you, plan your meal for the week, and then buy the ingredients you need, sticking to your list.  Baloney.  Seriously, that's just a bunch of bull honky!  When there's a serious sale, I seriously stock up.  I cook with a lot of cream cheese, as you may have noticed from my recipes.  These were on sale for $1.  So I stock up.  I rarely buy any thing unless it's on sale.  EVEN if I have a coupon.  Coupons generally don't save you much money.  Studies show that people will spend more with coupons, because they buy things they normally wouldn't otherwise, just because they have a coupon.  The trick to using coupons is to use them when the item is ALSO on sale.  You can get some pretty cheap food items when you remember this rule.  If you have a coupon but the item isn't on sale this week, stick it back in the purse and cross your fingers that it goes on sale next week, before the expiration date!  I really had no idea how much I spent on groceries per month until a little while ago my friend asked me if I'd heard about the cheapest family in the US.  They had seven kids and spend somewhere around $350 a month.  That's all!  That's ALL I thought? That sounded seriously high to me.  But I wasn't sure what I spent so I started keeping track.  So far I have October's spending at about $188 and I'm up to $184 for November. And the only reason November's tally was so high was because I had to have a minimum purchase of $20 to get  my cheap turkey. Then I wanted another turkey so I had to do another minimum purchase. (STOCK UP, remember?!) Haha.  Anyways, look for some good recipes that use cream cheese coming up this week!  Or browse the archives for apple dip, creamy pasta, turkey crescent bake..

Update: december's grocery total came in at $120!