Sunday, May 29, 2011

Saving Money on your Grocery Budget

At the end of April, I hosted a coffee for our weekday moms about how to save money on our grocery budgets. I put together some of my ideas, did some research and then after the coffee, added the ideas that the moms gave. So I thought I would share with you what we came up with. I started this because my 9 year old is beginning to eat like a teenager and my 2 year old is beginning to eat like a boy and I am running out of food, but there is no more money on the money tree. So I have got to get better about saving money so it will go farther. So without further adu, here is part 1!

Going Prepared! You will save money if you have a detailed list when you go!

1. Making a Menu
· Some people do it weekly, some everyday of the month. I just make a list of about 20 meals for the month and buy everything for them. Our lives are too crazy to plan that far ahead, but I always know that I can look at my list, and pick a meal that I have the ingredients for.
· Make a list of meals your family likes, write the cookbook and page # it is on as your master list. Then once a month, pick your meals off the master list and write them on one side of a piece of paper, make a list of ingredients on the back of the paper and then transfer that to your grocery list. I am in the middle of transferring all of my recipes to one book so I don't have to go through cookbooks, or you can put them on the computer.
· Some magazines have a monthly calendar of meals.
· www.e-mealz.com
· Have a family meeting to decide what meals you will eat. Kids usually eat better when they have had a say in the meal.

2. Making a LIST!
· You will spend 54% more when you go without a list!
· Make a permanent list on your computer and print it out.
· There are lots of websites to help. Just google “grocery list”.
· www.grocerylists.org/ultimatest/
· www.freeprintablegrocerylist.com/
· www.kitchenmonki.com - let’s you upload recipes, and menus, which translates into a list, which can be sent to your phone!
· grocery gadget app or wonderlist app for your smartphone
· organize your list by aisles in the store
· www.foodonthetable.com
(I have just spent an hour trying to figure out how to put a link to my own personal shopping list I have made, in order of aisles at my Walmart, but am not computer savvy enough to figure it out. If you would like a copy of mine, email me, facebook me or comment with your email address and I can email it to you.)

Stay tuned for more in the next few days...

2 comments:

Chaos and Coffee said...

Just got back from Kroger and our first attempt at couponing. I have always had a weekly meal plan but this time prepared a week ahead of time and checked the sales and my coupons. We save 27.97 today which isn't amazing but I think is pretty good for my first time. Thanks for the post...I will need all the help I can get to pinch our pennies now that I will be staying home.

K. S. Tyree said...

I just went to Walmart today too, since my husband was off work and I could go without any kids. I decided I would try and stock up on stuff so maybe I can get down to 1 major trip a month like you do! That would be so much easier on our schedule and my sanity, to just make 1 big trip a month (without kids) and only need an occasional quick trip as needed when I do have all 3 kids, which is most of the time. I dread going with them all, mostly due to figuring out who gets to sit where, and where I'm going to put all the food in the cart....

Random parenting thoughts today

I love it when I read scripture and a short passage or even a word jumps out at me and I have to camp out there awhile. Here's the verse...