While The Frugal Diva loves fresh food sometimes having a backup plan means saving money.  I always have frozen turkey meatballs for a quick pasta dinner, frozen wholegrain waffles for a quick breakfast, and frozen fruit to add to smoothies or a healthy dessert.

March is National Frozen Food Month and even if you’re not an extreme couponer, you can still strategize your grocery shopping to save money. Time is another important thing to save.

Coupon site BeFrugal.com founder Jon Lal offers this advice:

1. Make a list. This basic strategy saves a ton of time and money. One simple way is to use the notes feature of your smartphone and add items to your list as you realize you need them. Since we usually have our phones with us 24/7, the list is easy to manage. When you shop stick to the list to save lots of time and money.

2. Check your grocery store’s weekly ad in advance. Sunday flyers are available online, so you do not need to buy a paper or wait until Sunday. Look at it online whenever you want and review the sale items while comparing that to your list.

3. While you are looking at the sales online, now is a perfect time to find coupons for items that are already on sale. Get grocery coupons online; quickly search for the items you have on your list or see as being on sale in the grocery store’s flyer then print them out and you are ready to shop. This eliminates clipping coupons and keeping coupons you may never need in a bulky binder.

4. Stock up (if you can). Some grocery stores will be having big sales on frozen foods in honor of Frozen Food Month. As discussed in the tip above, you can also get grocery coupons for these items to get additional savings. If your freezer is already full or you do not need these items, skip them – even if they are on sale. It’s not a bargain if you cannot use it!

5. Consider buying groceries online. In addition to some grocery stores offering online orders and delivery, you can often get great deals buying items online (and getting free shipping on them, of course) when you use promo codes and earn cash back – this is a portion of your total that gets deposited into a free account for you – especially when buying items which grocery coupons are rarely offered on and nonperishable foods. Don’t rule out getting grocery store delivery, either. While there may be a fee of $6-10 for delivery, it may be worth it to you, depending on how much time it can save you.