Today, I'm going to give you some tips on how to save money with your grocery shopping. While it's very important to me to make something homemade every day, it's also just as important that I don't spend millions doing so. And let's be honest, there are times when it can be more expensive to make something homemade. I know there are a million blogs and sites out there that will tell you how to spend $20 a month and cook wholesome, hearty meals every day, but while they have EXCELLENT tips, there are times when it isn't cheaper than swinging through a drive-thru. It's ok if you are making a special meal once in a while, but if you don't manage your grocery shopping properly, you will find you spend more on groceries than you would eating out...and WHY would you slave over a stove just to spend more money?
The average 4 person family spends somewhere between $850-950 + per month on groceries (according to the USDA). We used to. Then we decided that we would rather spend some of that money on other things, so our grocery budget (I include all food, but not eating out, toiletries, paper towels, etc) is $600 per month. I feel this is very realistic and doable. It isn't one of those $200 a month plans, but I feel those aren't always realistic for the average Jane, nor do they allow for a lot of freedom in food choices. I don't know about you, but I like to have meat, other than ground beef. Please understand, I'm not knocking those that can get their grocery budget under $15 a month, and there are LOTS of great tips you can glean from them, I just personally don't feel that it's super realistic for the average family.
Here are the tips I've found to help our family stay on a strict grocery budget every month.
1. Meal Plan. I know, I know...You've heard this one before. It's hard. I agree. I still struggle with this. Mostly because I'm super indecisive and know that on Wed of next week, I may not feel like eating pasta. But, I still do it. I only do a dinner plan, however. Our breakfasts are pretty much the same cereal, eggs, leftover dinner (yes, we eat dinner for breakfast a lot!), and our lunches are usually leftovers or something quick like sandwiches or quesadillas. Dinner is the meal I usually spend time cooking. So I only make my meal plan out for dinners. I also understand that, like last night's Caldo, that dinner will have leftovers for a few days, so I don't plan something different every single day. If I did that, I'd end up with sooooo much food wasted. So, print out a monthly calendar, and start writing down dinner ideas. Use a pencil, so you can erase and move things around. This will give you an idea of food you plan to cook, which will help you to make a list of groceries you need. Once you have a list of what you need, move to tip #2.
2. Take Inventory. This sounds pretty simple but you'd be amazed at what is in the back of the fridge and cabinet if you really dug around in there. The average family wastes about 20lbs of food per PERSON per MONTH! For a family of 4, that is 80lbs of food tossed out! Think about how much $$ that is! Buy what you will eat and eat what you buy. Keep things that were bought first in the front of the fridge/cabinets and use those items that will spoil quickest, first. This will also help your grocery list. No need to buy more lettuce, if you find you already have a head in the crisper.
3. Use those Sale Ads. Every Tues and Wed we get a dozen sale ads in the mail (ok, maybe 6). USE them! Go through them and see if you can find the things on your grocery list on sale! Don't pay full price simply because you didn't check the ads. Then, if you have a super Walmart, take your ads and go price match! I do this ALL the time and save a ton of money! Walmart is not always the cheapest, however, you can get most everything there, so save your gas and hit up one store if possible. Now, I understand that they don't always price match things like meat and I do have to hit up a couple other stores for meat, but I do get about 75% of my groceries at walmart with the price matching system. The biggest issue I get with people when I suggest this is that they worry about rude cashiers and other customers having to wait while they price match. To that I say...would you rather save your family $250+ a month or care about what some random customer you'll probably never see again, thinks? And if the cashier is rude, complain to a manager. This is walmart CORPORATE policy and they are not allowed to be rude. They don't own the walmart, yet, I too have had cashiers act as if the discount is coming out of their own paychecks. Usually a mention of getting a supervisor to "assist them" will nip any attitude in the butt. I don't mean to sound rude, but this is my family's money and I take it seriously. If they want to pay 3 times as much for the same item not price matched, that's their business...they aren't going to pay my car payment. Ok, off my soapbox now! :)
4. Buy a Chest Freezer. If absolutely possible, get a chest freezer. Even a small one helps. This will allow you to buy extra meat when it's on sale and saves you money in the long run. Give yourself a couple months to get the freezer stocked up before you start seeing any savings though. None of this is overnight. The first few months I started doing all these things, I ran out of money by the 3rd week of the month (we still had food, of course, but not any extras). Now, I regularly see that I have $25-50 left at the end of the month. It adds up! I now have a full freezer that will feed us for a month!
5. Shop Once a Month. Ok, I don't mean ONLY go into a store once a month, but I do mean, buy as much as possible for your monthly groceries in one trip. Meat can be frozen, along with cheeses, some veggies, fruit, yogurt, etc. I shop once at the beginning of the month and then only have to go back a maybe once every 10 days for milk and bananas (we eat sooooooo many bananas...I swear I have a house full of monkeys!...and I don't freeze milk, but have read many articles that say you can). The less time I spend in a store, the less MONEY I spend in the store. How many times have you gone to the store for shampoo and left with $100 worth of stuff (and forgot the shampoo)? I know I have! So, stay away! Learn how to store your food properly to get the longest life out of it and have less waste. Then you can buy anything! There are lots of articles on pinterest and the web that can teach you how to store food properly.
(Yesterday's monthly grocery shopping...3 1/2 hrs of shopping, about 4 hrs of putting everything away...no more grocery shopping for a couple weeks, and then only milk and bananas!)
There is a lot more I could, and will eventually, share, but I think this is a great start! I'm definitely still finding more and more ways to cut the budget and will share more in the future! Try these out and let me know how it works for you!
Happily Homemade
Sandra
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