Meat has become one of the highest food costs on the grocery bill. Prices for chicken, beef, and deli have gone up in every store. Before filling your shopping cart with cutlets, roasts, and ready-to-eat sliced sandwich meat, it’s worth asking: Is all this meat really needed, or has it just become the go-to for most meals?

In many homes, meat is served at lunch and supper because that’s what people are used to cooking. Cutting back doesn’t mean meals become smaller or less filling. A few simple changes can lower the grocery bill without anyone noticing much of a difference.

Sweeping, mopping, dishes, bathrooms, trash – and nonstop laundry. Cleaning is an essential but never-ending chore. As soon as all the tasks are done, the cycle begins again. Couples often begin married life doing the cleaning by themselves – and many continue to do so – but under the pressures of jobs and children, there comes a time when cleaning help seems necessary.

But before hiring help or adding more cleaning help hours, it’s worth asking: Is your help really cleaning, or is she spending most of the time tidying piles, picking up toys, and moving clutter from room to room?

If the answer to the latter is yes, you may be paying for organizing, not actual cleaning. The reason a home looks “always messy” often has less to do with dirt and more to do with too much stuff. Once clutter is out of the way and the home has a bit of structure, cleaning takes less time. And the cost of help can go down as well.

You run into the store for a gallon of milk and somehow end up with a cart full of groceries. That’s no accident. Stores are designed to make you spend more. From the smell of fresh bread to the way milk is tucked in the back, you are forced to walk past everything else first, picking up “goodies” along the way. But when you understand how the store is designed, you can shop with confidence and keep your grocery bill under control.

Smart grocery shopping does not mean cutting out the foods your family enjoys. It means learning how the store works and making choices that benefit you instead of the marketing team. With simple strategies, you can bring home what you need, skip the extras, and save money.

Two Ways to Start

·         Shop the Outer Loop: The essentials – produce, dairy, bread, and meat – are almost always placed around the edges of the store. Filling most of your cart from these areas keeps you focused on fresh, real foods. It also limits the number of times you pass shelves of packaged snacks that tempt you to overspend.

·         Start with Sales: Instead of planning meals and paying full price for everything, look at what is discounted that week and build from there. If chicken thighs are half off, plan two dinners with them. If apples are on special, add them to snacks and desserts. Letting sales guide your menu automatically lowers your grocery bill.

As we progress through life, we accumulate many documents – forms, credit card statements, records, reports, legal agreements, authorizations, and more. What do you do with all the papers you receive? Knowing what to do with these papers is essential for maintaining an organized and secure financial life. Some documents should be stored forever in a safe place, with a copy in a different location. Some documents should be kept for a short time, others can be thrown away, and others should be shredded. Here are some practical guidelines tailored for individuals over 50 – but applicable at any age – to help you manage your records effectively.

How can you manage your money better and more effectively? You might have come across the advice to “make a budget and stick to it.” That’s good advice, but the word budget can be intimidating to some. Don’t worry. There’s a friendlier way to approach it. Let’s reframe and call it a “spending plan.” Think of it as your guide to achieving financial success. So, instead of dreading budgeting, embrace the idea of a spending plan.

If you need to make more progress with your spending plan, here are some helpful tips to take control of your finances, develop good money habits, and avoid financial setbacks. Below are some financial reminders you may want to set up:

In previous issues of the Where What When, we discussed three common money mistakes. The first is not having a budget, the second is living above your means, and the third is not having an emergency fund. Let’s look at two more common money mistakes: needing more retirement funds and not having enough insurance.