Recipe and Shopping Guide Binders

I love trying new recipes and frequently tear recipes out of magazines and print from online sources. I rarely use a store bought cookbook. But with all of those pieces of paper I needed to find them a home. What better then a BINDER!!!

First let's talk about my Recipe Binder. Here I put all the recipes I tear out of magazines or print off the internet. I keep a calendar at the front for monthly menu planning and I have a section for meal ideas. The recipes themselves are sorted into the following catagories: Main Dish, Side Dish, Breakfast, Baking. Each recipe is slipped into a sheet protector.

Next I have my Price Guide Binder. This is a handy tool when planning my weekly shopping trip. To be honest this has taken me some time to build, but is worth every minute spent.

This binder is divided into the following catagories: Fresh Fruit, Fresh Veggies,Breads, Dairy, Condaments,Can Fruit, Can Veggies,Can Food, Box Food, Pasta/Rice, Meat, Cereal, Frozen Food, Baking, Beverages, Paper Goods, Toiletres, Cleaning, and Snack foods.

At the front of this binder is a zipper pouch that holds reciepts I need to go over. I have a printed "Cheat Sheet" at the front that list the abreviations I use for each store; LK for Lucky, SW for Safeway ect.

In each section I have a sheet for each food item. On the sheet I list the size of the item, the store abreviation and the price. So for example I buy Jar Applesauce so on that sheet I have noted that a 47.8oz jar of TreeTop cost $3.99 at Safeway and $3.49 at Lucky. This helps me to try and save as much as possible on my weekly shopping runs because I ALWAYS compare the listed price with the sale adds.