How We Started Spending Even Less At The Grocery Store!

 

Happy Friday everyone! Another week has come to an end. A crazy, busy and tiring week that I am so glad to see gone. Like I said last week, come on fall!

I mentioned that last weekend I went grocery shopping. What I didn’t mention was that I went and picked up enough groceries to last us a month!

I know, a month to go without grocery shopping seems a little crazy. And, I’m just crazy enough to do it but it is saving us so much money!

I had mentioned a long time ago about how Ryan and I budget our money. With the use of a strict meal plan the grocery budget was set at $100.00 a week.

Now, we spend about $65 (or less) a week!!!!

This money includes breakfast, lunches, suppers and snacks for 4 whole weeks!

Here’s some tips on how we do it:

1. Plan your meals!

- There is no way you can grocery shop once a month without having some set plan. This requires sitting down and planning out your meals for the next 4 weeks. This needs to include, breakfast, lunch, suppers AND snacks.

Here’s what 1 week of food plan looks like;

Breakfast options:

Oatmeal, toast, cereal, waffles (recipe to come!), eggs or bagels.

Lunch:

Ryan packs the same thing for lunch everyday. 1 ham sandwich, one peanut butter sandwich, 2 granola bars, homemade cookies and a piece of fruit.

Supper:

An example of week 1 of 4 for suppers;

Sunday- Spicy Sausage Penne

Monday- Honey glazed pork chops, roasted potatoes and carrots

Tuesday – One pan chicken and sweet potato bake

Wednesday – Japanese Meatballs

Thursday – Chicken Fajita’s

Friday – Pizza

Saturday- Leftovers or other

2. Make a clear and accurate shopping list. Don’t forget to shop your own pantry first!

 

I always make two drafts of my shopping list. One is a rough draft of everything we need from week to week. I then transfer that list and categorize it. Grains, dairy, meat and etc.

After the final draft of the shopping list is done I go through my cupboards and cross off stuff I already have that I don’t need to purchase.

Why do I add these items to my grocery list in the first place if I already have them?

Because it’s encouraging to see things get crossed off.

3. TRY to go when the store will be less busy.

I know it’s super hard but the least crowed the more time you can take to figure out the best deal.

4. TRY to go grocery shopping alone.

Again, another hard thing to do but treat yourself to a date and go get groceries by yourself! You wouldn’t believe the amount of money Ryan can throw in the cart during a shopping trip! Bugger! ha ha

5. While shopping mark down the prices and round up!

I always leave enough space on my shopping list to write the a price of each item. That price I always round up to accommodate taxes. For example, if something is $3.75, I will mark it on my sheet as $4.

Once each category is complete. I take out my iphone and calculate the total.

This just keeps you accountable for the spending. It makes you conscious of how much things really cost.

So, what does a months worth of food look like once you get it all unpacked?

Kind of like this:

That is $244.60 worth of groceries. So, to feed our family of two right now it costs $61.15 a week or $8.74 a day!!!

The best part? For the most part, it is healthy and homemade (not processed) foods.

Only grocery shopping once a month can be very hard. It takes some practice and some planning. The benefits of not entering the tempting grocery store any more then once every 4 weeks, is mountains of savings!

Worth all that planning!

Check it out next Friday when I tell you WHAT to buy to save money at the grocery store and still eat like kings!

xo