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Shoal Creek Valley Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently offered a class for women on “Staying Financially Healthy in 2009.” About 35 women, some with toddlers in tow, learned about budgeting, grocery shopping and preparing basic meals.

Before the one-hour class started, though, the women gathered in the gymnasium to put together a 72-hour emergency kit in a large can for each member in their family that contained snacks and a small first aid kit.

Following the adage that “The debtor is a slave to the lender,” the women learned that it is wise to get out of debt and save money.

One important way is to be a smart grocery shopper, said Lori Garcia, who gave tips on grocery shopping and food preparation on a budget.

Garcia said she often cut her grocery bill by at least half by planning meals around what was on sale, buying store brands, using coupons and asking for price matching.

Garcia said during one of her recent grocery shopping trips she spent $120, knocked that down to $99 when she asked the store to match another store’s advertised prices and then with coupons wound up paying $66.

“But that’s not the only way to save money, you can make a lot of things from scratch,” she said.

For example recipes can be found online for making your own granola bars, Rice-A-Roni, beverage mixes, tortillas and Bisquick mix. And in addition to finding coupons in the newspaper and magazines, Garcia said coupons could be downloaded from various Web sites and some grocery stores offer double coupon days.

The women were told to embrace simplicity and not fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without,” another speaker said.