Ways to Save Money

Today was my monthly MOPS meeting, and boy was it great to be back!  Our theme was handling money.  During our discussion group, one of the questions was, "What are some ways that you save money?".  Of course you all know my answers were about couponing, D.I.Y. projects, and making detergents and cleaning supplies.  One of the ladies in my group, D, mentioned getting a food saver.  I had never thought about this before, but what a great idea!  It provides a much better was to freeze left-overs, or store them in lunch size portions for your hubby, as well as a great way to seal products like chips, making them last longer.  Do any of you use a food saver?  If so, what do you think about it?  Do you use it a lot?  We also talked about being patient when making a purchase, shopping around for deals, buying clearance, etc.  The question was also posed as to how much we spend per month on groceries.  I won't say what everyone said they spend on average, but I will share mine.  Our monthly grocery bill varies from $175 to $300.  I know that is kind of a lot, but here is why and how.  When I properly plan our monthly menu and base it mostly off of what is on sale, and do the coupon match up work we can do the $175 range.  If I don't put in the work it will be in the $250-$300 range.  Now, since my husband is a teacher, we get paid once a month so when we have a really long month, like this one, it will easily hit $300, even with coupons and all.   The last time we got paid was December 16th, so it will have been 46 days without pay or grocery shopping on the 31st.  So, needless to say it will be a BIG shopping trip.  So, how do you save on your grocery bill?  How often do you do the grocery shopping?