DIY Life

Say goodbye to crumpled Post-its in your purse. Say hello to streamlined grocery shopping: try one (or more) of these free grocery list templates and printables. They'll help you to help yourself keep track of your purchases. We all need a little organizational help sometimes, right?

Grocery Wiz is a fun way to plan your shopping and a wonderful way to waste time get organized. Click on a category, such as "Frozen Foods" or "Cleaning Supplies" and you can check off the items you need and add notes. Best of all, the site automatically matches items with available coupons!

Laura, aka The Organizing Junkie, shares her shopping template with the world. It's my top pick: lots of white space means more room for scribbling. While you're there, check out Laura's other links and additional downloads, including a menu planner and family travel checklist templates.

I'm being literal here --- I once vowed to grocery shop only at the 99cent store in Los Angeles for an entire month. Although I filled up on quite a few Teddy Grahams, generic Goldfish crackers and granola bars, I found that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to put together a few nutritious meals every now and then. And after stumbling upon this video, I've learned even more tips to use! Want to see for yourself (of course you do!)?:



A few key tips to keep in mind!:
1. Always check expiration dates. Dollar-store items sometimes have a short shelf life.
2. Keep your pantry stocked with staples that are not always available in dollar stores, like butter.
3. The five best dollar-store buys are cleaning supplies, gift wrap, snacks, shampoo, and kitchen accessories.

That's it! You'll be a dollar store shopping pro in no time!

I invested in my first Costco membership two years ago, despite my reluctance to do so. I'm a firm believer that living simply is the way to go, and shopping at a mega-warehouse such as Costco just seemed to contradict my "Simplify!" mission statement. After all, there's nothing simple about 200 rolls of toilet paper in a 900 square foot apartment.

Yet I was pleasantly surprised when my grocery bill was cut in half at the end of the year. It turns out that by following a few key rules of bulk shopping, you really can save in a huge way. Here are the ground rules I stick to --- whether I like it or not:

1. Only purchase items that you regularly buy. My mother always told me "It's not a sale if you don't need it," which I realize now as an adult, is the truth. Start out buying household items that you use often, such as toilet paper, hand soap, trash bags, paper towels and shampoo/conditioner.

2. Only purchase items that you have room to buy. My first Costco trip was an incredible waste, as I found myself handing out boxes of minute rice, bottles of ketchup and packages of TV dinners after realizing my kitchen cabinets couldn't sustain the sheer amount of food I had brought home. So if you don't want to hand out mustard to your Trick-or-Treat'ers this year, be sure to follow this important rule.

3. Only purchase items that you won't eat in bulk. The truth of the matter is that if it's in your home, you'll eat it. If you're trying to cut back on your portion sizes, bulk food shopping may not be for you. The temptation is to finish off the remaining food in your home, and no one needs a triple-super-sized pack of Oreos. If you find that bulk shopping is truly cheaper for your family, try storing the excess food in a separate area of the home or a less-visited pantry. Keep it out of immediate reach, but in a consistent place so that you won't forget you've already purchased it!

And of course, the golden rule? If you find yourself throwing away a regular-sized item, don't ever purchase this in bulk. Seems like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often I've toted home fresh blueberries and promised myself I'd eat them all...

I've lived in my sleepy Midwest town all summer long and just realized the locals host a Farmer's Market each Wednesday. How exciting? I can't wait to tackle the aisles next week, especially now that I have these foolproof tips from Howcast!:

A few quick tips:

1) Walk around the entire market before buying anything. There's no sense in splurging for the $0.25 tomato when you can get six for a dollar from another vendor.

2) Never visit a farmer's market hungry! You wouldn't do it at the grocery, so don't do it at the market. Otherwise, you're likely to head home with bags of foods you'll never eat.

3) Try hitting the farmer's market late in the day. Vendors typically hate heading home with extra produce, so you're more likely to score a good deal on that pound of grapes. (Hint: If you want the best selection, visit the market early to avoid picked-over produce.)

Ready to tackle your local market? You'll be a produce connoisseur in no time...

It seems that when I look at our budget, the greater portion of our expenses seem to be spent on food. Yes, we are self-proclaimed Foodies, so we tend to splurge on good things to eat. The good news is that there are ways to save money in the kitchen; your love of food doesn't have to break the bank.

1. Make a weekly menu and shop accordingly: Creative meal planning wastes less. You'll be less apt to buy things that aren't on your grocery list, and you'll have everything you need for the week's meals, thereby saving gas on fewer trips to the grocery store.

2. Use extra foods to make soups or stews: It's OK to buy that jumbo bag of broccoli florets. After you use what you need in Tuesday's stir-fry, throw the rest into a pot with onions, broth, some dried beans, and some seasonings. The result will be a healthy soup that you can freeze for lunches later. Some of my favorite meals have been the clean-out-the-refrigerator-stews!

I have a great stash of reusable bags, more than enough to manage even my biggest shopping trips. I store them in my car, at the ready. But yet, I still have a closet full of those nasty little plastic grocery bags. Why? Forgetfulness, mainly. At least once or twice a month I catch myself standing at the checkout line without cloth bags in hand.

My point is that until they ban them, those little plastic bags are unavoidable. They're recyclable in some cities, but not everywhere, and it's far too wasteful just to toss them out. Still, they quickly take over if you don't find a use for them.

We've talked about plastic bags before at DIY Life, but for our Earth, I think it's an issue worth revisiting. Here are 10 more great ideas for getting some use out of those plastic bags before they end up in the landfill.

Though plastic bags can be used for making everything from purses to kites, these tips are for the less crafty, like me. Use them to keep your knees dry in the garden, as a temporary cutting board, to wrap a last minute gift, or as a cookbook protector.

Of course, the "greenest" way to go is to not use them in the first place, but once you have them you might as well find a good use for them, right? How do you reuse your plastic bags?

Saving money always matters, but this is the season where a little savings at the grocery store can leave room in the budget for a few extra Christmas gifts, it's that much more important. It seems like our local newspaper has tripled in width to accommodate all the holiday flyers, and digging through to find the grocery coupons can leave your head spinning.

A sale doesn't always mean savings. You'll head to one store because of a deal on meat, but if that store regularly has higher prices on bread and cheese, which you'll grab while you're there, you might not be saving on your total purchase.

The Grocery Guide will take all the stress out of shopping and point you to your highest savings. Simply put in your zip code and they have the prices from your local stores. They track flyers and coupons, offering the biggest savings and saving you the trouble of finding the best deal for your shopping list. Compare your options, search for coupons and print recipes.

The Grocery Guide includes hundreds of stores across the country. They are missing some of the smaller neighborhood stores, but those aren't usually your most economical choices anyway. Don't spend your holidays walking up and down the grocery store aisle comparing prices, do a little search at home then head out with a plan.

[via: Lifehacker]

Some things are absolutely amazing and some other things are just, well, um...strange. Take for instance the amazing bicycle hack I ran across on the Core77 Industrial design blog. While the concept is positively brilliant in practical application, in execution the results could be less than desirable. Having logged literally thousands of miles in bicycle travel myself, I can tell you that the "Grocycle", a hybrid grocery cart-bicycle, is a major disaster just waiting to happen.

I love the idea but I hope the rider in the picture over there has his health insurance paid for in full because it will only take one pot hole the size of half a grapefruit and that bike rider will get an asphalt nose job, or worse. Perhaps we should all pitch in and buy him some larger wheels for the front of his cart, and a good bicycle helmet also.

Plastic shopping bags seem to accumulate in my house as quickly as the dust bunnies. Though I take most of the bags to a local grocery store that has a special recycling bin just for that purpose, I like to keep a few around the house for small jobs like lining bathroom trash cans or cleaning up after a messy art project. Instead of cramming the bags into a junk drawer or stuffing them underneath the sink, I turned an empty plastic milk carton into a bag holder that fits neatly on a shelf in my pantry.

The next time you finish a gallon of milk, clean it out by squirting in a dab of dish soap and filling it halfway with warm water. Replace the cap tightly and give it a few good shakes -- or hand it off to a nearby kid and let them shake it, they love to watch the suds form.

Rinse the jug thoroughly and allow to dry upside down overnight. Then, with a sharp pair of scissors, cut a circle about four inches across into the side of the jug. Now you're ready to stuff all your stray plastic bags into the new holder. You'll be amazed at how many you can cram in there, and love how they pop out like tissues when you need one.