Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family: Includes So Many Innovative Strategies You Won't Have to Cut Coupons

by Steve Economides, Annette Economides

You Can Save Thousands a Year on Your Grocery Bill WithoutCutting Coupons Imagine grocery shopping once-a-week or less, eatinghealthier, and having more free time-all while saving money. Sound too good tobe true? For the Economides family, it's a reality, and it can be yours too. What could the average family do with an extra $3,000 ayear? America's Cheapest Family® shows you strategies, tips, tools, and tricksin Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half , so you can achieve huge savings year afteryear. It's a fact, the Economides say, saving money on groceries is one of thequickest ways to start making a positive difference in your family's financialfuture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Finance, Money, Self Help, Cooking, Food, Personal Finance

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 28, 2010

About the author

Steve and Annette Economides (Econo mee' dis) were married in 1982. At that time, Steve worked as a graphic designer earning $6.50 per hour, while Annette stayed home to figure out how to stretch their pennies until they begged for mercy. In just nine years, on an average income of just $35,000 they purchased and paid-off their first home. They have also paid cash for all of their cars, taken fabulous debt-free vacations, spent only $350 per month to feed their family of seven, and put their kids through college without any school loans. Steve and Annette are quick to say that anyone can do what they do, if they are willing to learn.

In 2004 the Economides family was invited to appear on Good Morning America, it was then that host Charlie Gibson affectionately dubbed them America's Cheapest Family. This appearance led to the publishing of their first book, "America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money."

Steve & Annette are NY Times Best Selling authors of three books, often requested conference speaker and are recognized internationally as family finance experts. They have appeared on many national TV shows including: Good Morning America, The Today Show, ABC's 20/20, Fox TV's Your World with Neil Cavuto and The Dr. Phil Show. They are regularly quoted on radio, in newspapers and have been featured in magazines such as Good Housekeeping, People and Real Simple as well as profiled on Yahoo and MSNBC.

Steve and Annette’s writing and speaking style are down to earth and easy to understand. They’ll show you how they’ve done it, step-by-step, and how you can you too. If you follow their advice you’ll experience financial freedom, more money in the bank, debt-free living, better family times and lots more laughter.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for people who want to get SERIOUS about maximizing grocery savings. It goes way way beyond obvious but off-repeated tips like planning meal menus based on whats on sale, or only buying in-season fruit. It is packed full of ideas, and each chapter ends with specific suggestions for beginner types ("Timid Mouse"), folks already implementing certain strategies ("Wise Owl") and dedicated thriftistas ("Amazing Ant"). While it is definitely very family focused, there are suggestions for singles as well.

I found some ideas we can implement now, and I bet I'll feel that way again when I reread this in a few months.

My favorite thing about this book is that even though these people are SERIOUS about stretching their dollars, they seem remarkably well balanced. It is clear that there is more to life than saving money, and maximizing family time is part of why they do what they do.

Also, while there are mentions of church activities, missionaries, and other references to the authors' Christian faith, the book isn't written for a Christian audience and I'm confident that it would be accesible and applicable to anyone.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good...for me the gold standard is still The Tightwad Gazette The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Interesting section on modern couponing. Liked that they give suggestions for newbies, intermediates, and MASTER grocery savers. A bit for every level!

To be honest, I do not always like Steve's writer's voice. When he talked about Annette's cooking/shopping, it seemed a bit condescending. He mentioned about 8,000 times that Annette did not know how to cook when they married...like women are born knowing how to cook? Was she somehow deficient...? Shopping too was similar. I wanted Annette to speak for herself. Maybe I have issues with splitting family responsibilities on traditional gender lines rather than by interest, ability and time (as we do at my house!) OR maybe this is unintentional.

[LG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Either lots of their advice is common-sense, or I am a grocery genius, because I am already doing most of the things they recommend that it makes sense for us to do (as a family of two). The book was also pretty annoyingly sexist (e.g. the wife does the shopping and cooking, daughters help prepare meals while sons help dad with projects around the house). And while they are good ideas, topics like how to organize your kitchen or encouraging you to sit down as a family for dinner don't necessarily save money on groceries. It was also annoying that a lot of things were repeated over and over throughout the book, but it was designed so you could start at any point, without having to read from beginning to end, so I guess they needed to restate things sometimes. I did appreciate their common-sense approach to couponing and to buying organic.

[Lea Minniti · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good tips in this book, but many were obvious (go to the grocery store less frequently, plan your meals, etc.) This couple goes to great lengths to save money on their groceries, which is simply not something we want to spend our time doing. We enjoy going to the farmer's market regularly to buy fresh food and prioritize buying organics, grass fed beef, etc. The recipes offered in the back of the book rely heavily on canned and packaged food. Also, the tone was grating. Steve writes about Annette's wonderful cooking despite how she didn't know how to cook at all when they got married. But she was determined to excel at her job as wife and mother so she learned how to do it...

I completely understand that it might make more sense for the stay-at-home parent to do more of the cooking b/c they have more time at home to do it, but the assumption that it's the woman's job to cook is infuriating. I figured that this book was outdated, but checked the copyright and it's from 2010! With more and more households having both parents working outside of the home and a (slight) increase in stay-at-home dads, it would be appreciated if both men and woman are addressed in the cooking chapter of the book. Instead "Steve takes one of the boys to work on house projects while Annette and one of the other kids does the cooking."

This aside, I really wouldn't highly recommend this book b/c it doesn't fit with our other priorities, which include buying local, fresh and organic food and enjoying cooking and eating. Cooking is simply seen as something to "get done" so the family has more time for other things.

[Lacey Louwagie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some good tips on cutting your grocery bill that I consistently use, but that you do NOT need to read the whole book to get.

Similar to the "$21 Challenge," this is a concept that was really a STRETCH to fill a whole book. So what did the authors do with all that extra space? They proselytized about their way of life and generally came across as smug-as-hell not only about how they save money on groceries, but on how they eat dinner together as a family, how much their children help out in the kitchen, how their kids aren't picky eaters, etc.

I get that a lot of these concepts are tangentially related to saving money on groceries (i.e.: eating more meals at home is a huge money saver), but I don't really think a chapter filled with tips on how you and your family should spend your dinner hour was really necessary (read scripture! listen to podcasts! pass around interesting newspaper clippings!) Also, I really couldn't care less that Annette likes to snack on walnuts and Steve prefers pecans, or whatever.

If you want to save money on groceries, read the chapters on bulk cooking, meal-planning, coupons, and stocking up and organizing. The rest is just annoying.

[Inder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't give this book one star, because I probably gleaned a few useful tips from it. So I'll give it two stars and say, there are a few good ideas here, but you have to slog a bit to get to them. There are also a lot of really obvious ideas and really extreme frugality ideas, and you don't have to slog at all to get to those. I walked away thinking, "I doubt we would EVER want to go grocery shopping only once a month! But maybe it would be good if we stopped shopping every other day? ..."

The section on organics is infuriating. The authors have absolutely no concept of why most people buy organic products, or what that even means. So that tagline on the front about how you can save on organics? Forgetaboutit.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

You've possibly seen them on TV; they're another of these self-appointed "experts" on family finance who are really just self-promoters and marketers instead. Their claim-to-fame is that they raised 5 kids over a 10-year period earning an average income of $35K/year. What they leave out is that the 10-year period was in the 1990s-early 2000s, so $35K went a lot farther than it does these days. Their oldest kids are in their mid-to-late-20s now so their house is pretty much empty, but they boast about how they've only spent $350/month on groceries since practically forever. The strategies are basically to plan before going shopping, plan a menu, only shop once per month, stock up on loss leaders and use coupons when they're available. Also garden some if you have the space, and keep a bunch of crap stored in your freezer. One of the problems I had with the book was that the figures for what they spend seemed really out of date if they are in fact shopping for seven people. Another thing was that they were constantly name-dropping all the TV shows and radio shows they've appeared on, and talking about how great a cook Annette is. It should be obvious now that they're not earning anywhere near $35K/year, but they never mention this, or when their fortunes started improving (hint: whenever they started selling themselves out). The most useful part of this book was the idea of planning ahead (since acting impulsively can be really wasteful), both for shopping AND cooking. I would never actually cook 15 meals in one day to park in the freezer for the month, but I can see why it might save time in the long run, if you have space to store all the dishes. So yeah, nothing really new in this book, unless you've never tried cooking before.

[Holly Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this awhile ago, so it is not as fresh in my mind as it would have been if I just finished it. Overall I think this book is helpful in teaching people how to save money on food, but to completely follow their plan is too extreme for me.

For example the Economides family only goes grocery shopping once a month. They say the more you shop, the more money you will spend. Yes, to a certain extent that is true, but I feel like by shopping once a week I can maximize my ability to stack coupons with sales. Or even better when I shop at Target I can match sales, Target coupons, manufacture's coupons and the 5% discount with my Target debit card. I got several things for free recently doing that and I would have missed some of those opportunities if I limited myself to only one shopping trip a month. Also because we don't have an extra freezer we can't stock up on as much food as they do.

I think this would have been so helpful to me as a newlywed, so I think it would make a great gift for anyone just starting out who doesn't have a lot of money. Some of the advice seems painfully obvious to me now, but I don't know if I would have felt that way 10-15 years ago.

I own a copy and I'd be happy to loan it out.

[Sarah Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all the helpful hints in the book are going to work for everyone. Also, if you don't like tater tots, a big chunk of money saving tips are not going to apply to you. That said, even a small family can find several ideas that are going to save big money. Worth a look!

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does have some good advice, but as other reviewers have commented it has a lot of obvious advice and some extreme advice. Unless you have a huge family, are a stay at home parent, or desperately need to save a lot of money on groceries I'm not sure this book will have much in it for you. It basically describes how to penny pinch and build a household economy. I agree with both of those things. However, I don't have the time to do 75% of what's described in the book. Also, their puns and jokes are so cringe worthy. Case in point? They use the words "oodles" and "boodles" several times. If you have a large family and need to save on groceries read this book. If cooking is a joy in your life don't.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had some interesting tips in it, but for the most part it read like a textbook in school to me. And, like a textbook in school, I found myself losing focus and skimming through it, if not just skipping pages altogether. I think I expected something different from it. Like friend talking to friend, not a book quoting statistics and stuff. Also the bouncing between them talking about them, then the husband talking about the wife and the wife talking about the husband all mixed in together made it hard to read and got me a little irritated. I think I'll stick to Youtube videos and blog posts for my information from now on.

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was considering reading this book, I doubted I could actually cut my grocery bill in half because I was pretty frugal before. But I learned several valuable things from this book, mainly about meal planning and shopping once/month (I'm down to twice/month) and cooking freezer meals. It's also prompted me to do more research into canning/preserving. I like the idea of keeping a book of prices for commonly bought items and having a "buy price". I'm not quite ready to start grinding my own meat or giving up boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but I am already saving money!

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho hum. This book is several years old so there wasn't much new here that hasn't already been explored. I do like the non-coupon cutting as the coupon possibilities in downtown rural Ontario just aren't as exciting as they are in urban American cities.

As always, a main message is use what you have and to eat at home vs. going out to restaurants where the food may not be as nutritious and cost more than making the same thing at home.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a useful book. There are some expenses that a more healthy family has to deal with — e.g. honey is more expensive than sugar but it is worth it to me to not put that in our bodies. But in the same vein, there are some processed foods they buy (e.g. bagels) that I wouldn't be purchasing, so probably it'd work out in the end? Anyway, the main principals laid out in this book could be life changing already — buying whole foods and cooking from scratch, and buying in bulk.

[Danita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were outdated, but the book is nearly a decade old. Other parts, such as the section on meal planning are still incredibly relevant and true. The average American family spends a lot of extra money on eating fast food or other restaurant foods. This book would definitely be good for a young adult moving into their first home. Plenty of tips on how to keep grocery bills lower while still eating well.

[Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still think shopping once a month is insane, and they were a little unclear about what they actually eat at the end of the month.
However, a nice detailed book consisting entirely of the best chapter of their last book, grocery shopping but not based around coupons.


Two words to sum up this book: menu plan.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good plan but lots of work on the front end that I never have done. Maybe when I retire and am on a fixed income but we'll see. . .

[Dan Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half," the Economides family of 7 shares the strategies that have earned them the title, "America's Cheapest Family." Filled with tips for every level of bargain shopper, any family can benefit in some way from this book. By rebutting the common excuses of having too little time, not knowing how to cook and living in a remote location with few store choices, the authors encourage their readers to take charge of their grocery shopping. They share information on how stores market impulse products, advocate for a meal plan, explain coupon clipping and offer tips for dining out reasonably.

Unfortunately for Canadians, the book focuses on American brands, store chains and websites so some of the resources are unavailable to us. Additionally, the authors' diet centers around meat and does not leave much room for alternative diets. Though occasionally over the top, the Economides do provide a wealth of information; you just have to dig around for the most relevant suggestions.
One person found this helpful

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not so sure that the Economides family needed to expand their previous book's grocery chapter into this entire book. It starts off strong, with ideas and philosophy about shopping sensibly, and then downshifts into much less useful chatter about what kitchen tools to buy, how they've built pantry space, and how to entertain the family while eating dinner together.

My takeaway: Tuck a paper towel in a defrosted package of lunch meat so it won't get all wet and gross. Borrow this book from your local library and find your own useful tidbit.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had tons of information and practical ideas on how to save money on groceries by implementing ideas such as only shopping once a month, utilizing your freezer, cooking more at home and meal planning. What I really liked was the three or more actionable ideas at the end of each chapter how how to implement this ideology as a lifestyle change depending on what your level of commitment is to saving money.

[Leann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for anyone who's trying to get their financial situation under control. Anyone can follow Steve and Annette's advice. It's broken down and presented in easy to digest chunks. My only gripe is the language that's used sometimes implies that it's the woman's responsibility to cook. Example: in one section it talks about cooking at home and specifically says if you're one of those moms. That felt yuck to me. But otherwise excellent read.

[Britt Pearson · Rating 1 out of 5]

For anyone aligned with reducing waste and caring about the environment, much of the content is familiar and repetitive. The majority of the message came across as a plea for relevance, especially for readers who don’t work outside the home. This may be due to the fact that the material is a couple decades old. Overall, while the intentions are good, the content may resonate more with those newer to these ideas.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth the read once and only once. I don’t need to read this again. Some of the stuff is outdated. “Eggs skyrocketed to $1.70 a dozen” “less than 1% of coupons are of the online variety” Oh how times have changed. Still of the tips are timeless and stuff my family already does.

[Susan Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes in back are the useful part of this book. All the chapters are common sense shopping tips for food.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ehh nothing new. Not worth the read in my opinion.

[Laurie Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. There is some good advice in here, but a little too much for me in some bits.
A lot of kids and a lot of god talk made large parts of it unnecessary for me.

[Kristi Clemow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated but excellent general suggestions for saving money on groceries and food - especially good for people who are starting out on a budget or never have tried saving money before

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who bargain shops a lot and meal plans, I was skeptical about if I would find anything new in this book. Honestly, there were some great ideas in here, some I’m totally adding to my toolbox, but a few I’ll be skipping! They’re honest about what they were willing bs not willing to do to save money, which resonated with me! I don’t think you need to read this whole book...it’s easy to pick up a chapter here or there, or skim for some quick ideas!

[Ladiibbug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non-Fiction

Definitely worth a read if you're trying to save money on groceries. The authors offer different levels of participation for many of their strategies: "timid mouse" for beginners, "wise owl" for a medium amount of time and effort, or "amazing ant" for those pulling out all the stops to save every single dime.

Lots of good ideas, many I've heard of before, but the reminders are good. Many things I already know and have been doing for years.

Some strategies used by this family are WAY in the "Amazing Ant" category of extreme savers -- for instance, grocery shopping only once per month. They use walkie talkies to communicate while shopping to discuss bargains, quantities, etc. While I'll never, ever shop just once a month, the authors make a solid case for shopping as infrequently as possible to save money. I will cut back from hitting the grocery store 3 times a week to limit money spending opportunities.

Advance meal planning, using coupons (a great list of online coupon sites are supplied), stocking up when prices are low, keeping an eye out for clearance or unadvertised specials -- great reminders and ideas.

The authors did a great job presenting their ideas without advocating extreme methods. Their level headed and common sense approach avoids such bargain hunting strategies as running to five different grocery stores every week, just to save 50 cents on two items at one store, and so on. They repeatedly point out that some people aren't going to use coupons, and that's fine with them. You don't have to spend hours each month clipping, organizing and sorting paper. This book is written by people who realize how busy most families (and moms!) are and the ideas are meant to save time, not to burden you with additional tasks while saving money.

[Chickadee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it really possible for a family of seven (plus pets) to grocery shop for only $350 a month?

According to Steve & Annette Economides (yes that really is their last name!), it can be done. Best known for their title as “America’s Cheapest Family”, the Economides make it look very easy! Being a religious user of coupons myself, I can tell you that *I* personally haven’t been able to whittle down our grocery bill that much but I’d sure love to try.

In their latest book, the Economide family offers plenty of tricks to save on your grocery bill such as looking over the store ads, shopping more than one store, price matching when possible, using coupons, meal planning, shopping once a month and more.

While I wouldn’t be able nor want to implement every suggestion they make, there is a lot of good information in this book. Obviously,their lifestyle is working for them. They work together on sticking to their budget and tag team when shopping to split up the work, which helps them each focus on their area of expertise in the store.

Although “once a month” cooking hasn’t been very effective for me personally, it’s a huge budget saver for this family. There are plenty of ideas on how to buy items at their lowest price and then freeze them for long term storage. Overall, this book is interesting and would be an excellent read for anyone who wants to cut down on their grocery budget and save money in the long run.

Read an interview with Annette here:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3940150...


Visit their website here:
http://www.americascheapestfamily.com/