"Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half" Book Review

One of the things I wanted to learn as part of my post-high school education was budgeting. One specific area of budgeting is grocery budgeting. Everybody has to eat, and everybody has to buy groceries. I wanted to learn not only how to grocery shop, but how to save money at the store (a big deal when you’re feeding a family as large as ours!)

I had received “Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half” by Steve and Annette Economides as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. It sat on my bookshelf for a good while, because I wanted to read it when I would actually be able to put some of the principles into practice. So it was the first book I read post-high school! J

Steve and Annette Economides are true veterans in the area of finances. They have raised five children, are New York Times best-sellers, and have appeared on many national TV Shows including Good Morning America and the Today Show.

For me, the biggest draw to this book was that the money-saving techniques do not rely on the use of coupons. To be perfectly honest, I have never been able to wrap my mind around all the couponing principles, and really just didn’t like the idea of constantly clipping and stacking coupons. Once I started reading the book, I liked it even more because each chapter can stand virtually on its own. This makes the book so much easier to put into practice! You can implement a couple of simple steps at a time, and once those are mastered, move on to another principle.

The book covers everything from meal planning, taking stock of what you already have in your pantry/freezer/fridge, stocking up, organizing, time-saving equipment, once-a-month shopping and cooking, feeding your kids on a budget, and lots more! Each chapter ends with a section that has three different levels of application, depending on your personality and your level of commitment to saving time and money.

I am very excited about implementing some of the strategies I have learned from reading this book! Even if our grocery bill isn’t cut in half, I will be happy if it can be reduced by a good amount! Saving time is also a big perk for a busy family. I would highly recommend this book to everyone!