Learn How To Take Back The Dinner Hour: Savings.com Launches Meal Planning Classes Across The Nation

LOS ANGELES, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ask any busy parent about the 5 O'clock witching hour.  The dread of that "what will we have for dinner" question.  The guilt from calling for take-out again when you have a fridge full of food.  These issues cause stress for busy families across America and lead to food and budget waste, as well as poor health choices.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130312/LA75163)

Savings.com, the leading online source for coupons, deals and expert advice, has announced today the nationwide roll out of "Meal Planning Simplified" classes developed to empower Americans to take back the dinner hour.

Meal Planning Simplified classes teach an understanding of how planning in advance will help ensure families are eating nutritious, low cost meals. Meal planning reduces the cost of groceries by up to 50% per week, saving a family up to $6,000 per year. It will also help ease the dread, guilt and frustration that comes with the "what's for dinner" question. Topics covered in the classes include:

• The Importance of Meal Planning. Learn the different ways to make a meal plan, all the tips and tricks to making planning successful, along with strategies and shortcuts to help you spend less time in the kitchen while still making healthy meals for the entire family to enjoy.
• Beginner and Advanced Meal Planning Tactics. The class will walk you through the different phases of meal planning and teach you the ins and outs of two different "schools of thought," so that you can come up with a meal planning strategy that works for you.
• Time-Saving Cooking Strategies and Shortcuts. Get practical help with how to make the most of the time you spend in the kitchen so that you can make healthy and delicious meals in a fraction of the time.

Leading money-saving experts from the Savings.com DealPro community collaborated to develop the curriculum for the classes.  DealPros across the country have come together to help get this information out into their communities by teaching the classes.

"We are inspired by the DealPros that work tirelessly to help others make a significant difference to their budget," says Loren Bendele, President and co-founder of Savings.com. "The shared insight from this community makes the program so powerful. It is real people teaching real people practical tips based on life experiences."

The Meal Planning Simplified classes are an extension of the nationwide coupon and money-saving workshop series taught in more than 45 cities across the country.  Since launching in four cities in April 2012, the program has continued to grow and has, to date, helped more than 3,000 American families cut their grocery bill in half.

The DealPros have also contributed the following informative articles on Savings.com to kick start consumers' meal planning efforts:

• Savings Secrets: 4 tips to get you started with meal planning
• Five meal planning tips for busy families
• What meal planning really saves: time, money and most importantly sanity
• Cook Then Plan – A new twist on meal planning

For more information, contact Savings.com, or watch this video about meal planning. Visit Savings.com/CouponClasses for more details on events and locations.

ABOUT SAVINGS.COM

Savings.com gives you the best deals on everything you want. Tell us what stores and categories you like, where you live, and Savings.com will deliver the best deals for you, handpicked by expert DealPros®. In addition to providing personalized recommendations, Savings.com has one of the most in-depth databases of coupons. Shoppers can access thousands of exclusive offers from the biggest retailer names along with 100,000+ deals aggregated from online and national retailers, local businesses and daily deal sites. More than 5 million shoppers turn to Savings.com each month as the trusted resource to find the best deals and to interact with the site's popular coupon blog and vital community of online shoppers, the DealPros. In June 2012, Savings.com was acquired by Cox Target Media, one of the world's leading direct marketing companies. Cox Target Media is also the owner and operator of leading direct marketing brand, Valpak and Valpak.com.

Traveling overseas? Visit Savings.com's sister site in the UK, Savoo.co.uk and in Germany, Savoo.de.

ABOUT COX MEDIA GROUP

Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company that includes the national advertising rep firms of Cox Reps. Additionally, CMG owns and operates Cox Target Media, providers of Valpak, a leading North American direct marketing company and Savings.com, a leading online coupon site and community. With $1.7 billion in revenue, the company operations include 15 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, 86 radio stations, eight daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications, and more than 100 digital services. CMG operates in more than 30 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including 30 million TV viewers, more than 4 million print and online newspaper readers, and 18 million radio listeners. For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at www.coxmediagroup.com.

Media Contacts:
Meghan Heffernan
meghan [at] savings.com

SOURCE Savings.com