Grocery Shopping on a Budget

So over the last several months I have talked a lot about saving money on groceries, how much I spend each month to feed a family of five and what some of my strategies are for keeping my grocery costs low.  I thought since this has been a hot topic lately, especially with the rising grocery costs in the last year, I would make it a blog post so I can clearly lay out everything that has been swirling around in my head lately. 

When I was asked this question this week I had so many things start popping in my head.  Where do I start?  What’s the first and most simple thing I do?  I shop at Costco of course.  I have three kids who eat me out of house and home and we need things in bulk, so I get our staple items there as it does tend to save me money.  Wait, is that the first thing I do?  No.  Before I go to Costco I make a list.  Without a list is it way too easy to leave with the whole store and then we defeat the purpose of trying to cut costs.  Just a second, how do I know what to put on my list?  I know, I meal plan... but how do I plan those meals?  Oh right, I look in my freezer and pantry first.  It doesn’t matter how often I say I don’t have ANY food, there’s always SOMETHING in there.  So you see, with all these things swirling around in my head I didn’t know how to start to answer the question, “how can I save money on my weekly groceries?”  SO, now that I have laid out the chaos, let’s bring some order to it, shall we?

Inventory Your Freezer and Pantry

The first thing I do before I ever set foot in a grocery store is make sure I know what I already have.  I am not saving ANY money if I have seven bottles of soy sauce hidden in the back of a cupboard somewhere.  I try to go through my deep freeze, inside freezer in the refrigerator and pantry about once a month just to make sure there isn’t anything in there I’ve forgotten about that is going to go bad.  This doesn’t have to take hours, just quickly pull it out and make sure you know what it is, it isn’t seriously freezer burnt (a vacuum sealer helps with this and is also how I save money on groceries, but that’s another topic), and jot down on a piece of paper what it is.  You don’t have to put it back in any order, we’re not talking about organization today, this is just freezer inventory.  At this point if there are items I think I am going to cook with this week I pull those out and put them in my refrigerator freezer because, for whatever reason, if they’re in the deep freeze I am less apt to use them and more likely to grab some already thawed products from the store for convenience.  I do the same thing with my pantry, making sure to move things around so I don’t have anything hidden that I might end  up buying in duplicate.  This is also a good opportunity to give the fridge a quick clean.  Pull out leftovers that might be starting a life of their own, free them into a more suitable environment (ie. Your organics bin) check what you have for produce, dairy, etc.  (Incidentally, unrelated to any of this, I also line my fridge shelves with Glad Press N Seal Wrap so when I clean out my fridge I just pull that up if it’s dirty and I never have to be embarrassed because somebody went into my dirty fridge... just a tip)

Meal Planning

Now that I know what I have for food already in my house I take a few minutes (or hours depending on my mood and how much time I actually have) and go through my cookbooks.  I love cookbooks, they’re a guilty pleasure of mine.  All those beautiful, vibrant pictures, mouth-watering ingredients and the feel of the printed pages, yeah the bookworm and foodie in me is in heaven.  I also have several (and by several I mean at least twenty) boards on Pintrest devoted to just food.  Casseroles, crockpot, breakfast, lunch, curries, etc.  So I take some time to go through the recipes and see what I already have the ingredients for.  I jot those down.  If I am missing an ingredient or two I begin a list of what I need, but at this stage I am still trying to make an entire meal plan based on what I already have in my fridge, freezer and pantry.  The less I have to buy, the less I have to spend of my grocery budget and the more money stays in my pocket.  My goal each week is to NOT SHOP.  There will always be certain items you need to replenish, milk, produce, etc, but if I can limit my shopping to those items I can manage an entire month of groceries for my family of five to UNDER $150.  (Bear in mind, I have been canning and freezer cooking for years and I have a WELL stocked freezer and pantry and I used to coupon, so we are STILL using up a lot of toiletry items I bought a few years ago at a FRACTION of their original cost, this also contributes to my grocery savings.  Also certain items I make myself so I don’t have to buy them so much, but that’s a whole other blog post). 

Back to the topic at hand.  I’m not going to tell you how to plan your meals for the week.  That’s ALSO another blog post, but I will say find a system that works for you and your lifestyle and DO plan ahead.  It DOES save money on groceries because if you’re planning what you’re going to eat and your plan doesn’t involve strawberries, you won’t be as tempted to buy those seven dollar strawberries on a whim.  This also means you’re not going to buy another bag of macaroni noodles because when you inventoried your pantry you found eight that you didn’t know you had and your meal plan involves only one so you’ll know you don’t need that macaroni even if it is a “really good deal”.  If you don’t NEED it there isn’t a price above free that is a “good deal”.  It is still money spent out of your budget that doesn’t need to be spent.

WRITE A LIST!! A REAL ONE!  WRITE IT DOWN!

I really emphasize this point.  There is nothing more frustrating than getting home after shopping and finding you forgot that ONE really important item you needed.  I know we’ve all done it.  Admit it, you went to the store for toilet paper, came home with milk, Cadbury mini eggs, a roast that was on for a super great price and tic tacs, ran into the house with your groceries at break-neck speed because you had to pee, sat down and remembered what you really went to the store for.  No?  Just me? Alrighty, moving on.  Learn from my mistakes: WRITE IT DOWN! 

In all seriousness though, a list is just as important a step as everything else has been up to this point.  First, if you’re meal planning there are going to be items you don’t have, it’s just inevitable.  You’re not going to remember all the ingredients, especially if they’re obscure, who remembers to buy liquid smoke?  Really?  What even IS liquid smoke?  A list also keeps you on task.  If you’ve got things written down (And I try to categorize my lists: produce, dairy, bakery, cans, frozen, etc) you can avoid wandering the entire store.  If you’re focused and you have a plan you’re less likely to stumble into the chips aisle and spend $10 on four bags of potato chips because a bright yellow sign told you that was a good price.  This is good for your budget AND your waistline.  Do not enter the store without a list.

Final Thoughts

Those are the main things I do to keep myself on task with the grocery budget.  These tips have literally kept food on my table during times when there were more bills than dollars in the bank.  Finally I also make sure I’m shopping at the most cost effective stores.  Costco for my staple items that I need in bulk (tomato sauce, diced canned tomatoes, pasta, etc), No Frills, Superstore, PriceSmart.. I avoid Safeway and specialty grocery stores if I can simply because I find the prices much higher, but if there is a good sale in the flyer I will go there.  I also make sure I utilize whatever points program or rewards program the store has.  I have gotten hundreds of dollars off my grocery bills over the years just by making sure I always have the card, app, whatever that I need to gain the most from their program.  I also try to buy my produce at Farmer’s Markets.  I have a higher chance of buying local, which I prefer to do, and I find the prices much more reasonable.  For example just this last week I saw Spartan apples at the grocery store for $1.39/lb, I went to the Farmer’s Market by me today (Two EE’s) and paid $0.59/lb.  I bought a twenty pound box.  I hope some of these tips help you stretch your dollar a little further this month.  Let me know what strategies and tricks you employ to keep your grocery bill lower.