ask dsm readers

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Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that last year we were still wrapping gifts at 4 a.m. on Christmas morning, something we’re determined not to repeat this year! I’ve already started making Christmas plans for this year and one thing I’m looking for is homemade gifts that we can make as a family.

Have you started making Christmas plans?  Have you started your Christmas shopping? Will you be making any of your gifts? Have you started stocking up on baking supplies?

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source: Jerry Kirkhart

Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!

A lot of people say that they just don’t have the time to invest in couponing and shopping at multiple stores. While there’s definitely a learning curve when you’re first starting out, I don’t think it takes too long to develop your own system for doing everything efficiently so that it definitely pays off.

Usually, I shop at one drugstore and one grocery store per week, depending on which have the best deals, but lately I’ve been skipping the drugstores since I have quite a stockpile.  I check out the list of deals for each store and write down the item I want to purchase, indicating in some way if there’s a coupon available, and then cut or print the coupons I need. For high value coupons I usually write those down separately at the end of the list so that I can check the price. I’ll take a minute to flip through the actual ad too because I’m a visual person and might spot something I missed that way. Then I put the coupons for each store in their own envelope along with any store loyalty card I might need and I’m ready to go!

How do you organize your shopping list, coupons and scenarios? Do you shop at multiple stores? What do you do at home before you shop to get organized so that it feels less chaotic or stressful when you’re shopping?

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source: armigress

Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!

Some days are just so busy that suddenly I turn around and it’s dinner time.  On those days when I haven’t planned something in advance, I inevitably end up turning to frozen pizza, and I’d love to have healthier options for times like this. I’ve never prepared freezer meals ahead of time, though, so I have a few questions:

What tips would you give someone that is trying freezer cooking for the first time? What’s the best way to store freezer meals? What things can’t you freeze? What’s your favorite freezer meal recipe?

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Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!

Recently, Lisa asked this question on Facebook, and I wanted to open it up for DSM readers to share how they organize their stockpiles:

Could you share your creative storage ideas for all your “stockpile” items? I’m starting to find I need a better process for storing/sorting my bounty, especially healthy & beauty items. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks so much!!

Like Lisa, it’s those little items that I have the hardest time storing in a way that’s easy to get to and still neat and organized, and I’d love to hear your tips!

What do you do with your stockpiles?  How do you keep track of what you have, and the expiration dates of those items?  How do you store your stockpile items?  Do you use bins or shelves?  Do you keep your stockpile in a special room or closet?  Do you keep all of your stockpile items in the same place or do you separate your food items from your health and beauty items?

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Photo by vis.a.v.

Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!

It’s so frustrating to me to open my fridge or pantry and realize that there’s produce on the shelves that needs to be used immediately or it’s going to spoil. Couponing and buying loss leaders is good for your budget, but throwing food away isn’t, especially healthy food! Our family is trying to eat healthier, so we’re buying more and more fresh produce, but I need to have a plan for overripe produce so it doesn’t end up going to waste.

What do you do with overripe produce? Do you plan your meals around what you need to use? Do you have a system in place to keep track of the produce you buy, so that you know when you must use it? How do you store your produce to keep it fresh longer? Do you wash your produce when you get it home from the grocery store, before you store it?

Join the discussion — add your two cents to previous Ask DSM Readers questions too!