A few weeks ago, I looked over the checkbook register and totaled up the amount my family had spent on food in the past month. After seeing the total, I was appalled. I had no idea we were spending such a large amount of money on food! It was at that point that I knew something had to change. Our family doesn’t eat that many convenience foods, so where was all this money going to anyway? It was time to get serious about saving money on groceries!Here are some of the steps I’ve started to help cut back on our food budget:
*Figuring out where the money is going by saving receipts and taking note of unnecessary expenses.
*Stocking up on gallons of milk at a warehouse club to avoid weekly trips to the grocery store.
*Spacing out major shopping days by using up what we already have on hand. Jotting down the dates of our last big shopping trip and milk trip on the calendar has been a big help too. When tempted to pick up "a few things" from the store, I look at the calendar and am reminded that it has only been a short time since the last trip. This helps me stay motivated to wait longer before stocking up again.
*Reading books on being frugal such as Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy, by Jonni McCoy
*Brainstorming less expensive options to boxed cereal for breakfast (cereal is expensive and doesn’t last long in our house!)
*Starting a price notebook. Writing down prices for items we frequently buy, as well as what the cost per lb. or ounce is at other stores. This should help my family with figuring out where to buy what.
*Creating lists of ideas for meals. Lists for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinners, and even theme nights.
*Next step: creating monthly menus! Not something rigid or strict that my family HAS to stick to, but rather a general list of meal options that I can draw upon on a day to day basis. It will also help with figuring out what we truly ought to buy when grocery shopping for the month.
*Then it's on to watching grocery sales and coupons before heading out to shop again. Hopefully my husband and I will find a dramatic decrease on our food expenses next month!
What does your family do to save money on groceries? What do you find to be your biggest food expense? Any tips on creating menus or shopping wisely?
Hi Morgan.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand about the grocery bill! Somethings that I do to save money on groceries.. Hmmm.. make and bake from scratch. Like homemade granola, oatmeal or pancakes frozen ahead instead of cereal. Baking my own bread. Not buying boxed foods. Drinking Tea or Water instead of soda and juice (except OJ) Whole foods are always cheaper.. I've also started keeping a price book. Basically a notebook where I write down my grocery list each week then I write down the price I paid for things. Then when I see a sale or coupon i can just look it up and see my savings. I dont write all the prices every week. Like milk if it stays the same price as the week before then I dont write it again.
HTH
Those are great tips! I clip coupons as I see them and we have a rule in our house to only get what is on the list. We keep it on the Fridge and when something runs out it should be written down on the list. On Mondays I plan the weeks meals (all of them) then shop for only the listed items. If we run out of something important like Milk, then my husband grabs it on his way home from work. But then again, I think we spend way too much money on groceries now! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's only in the last few months that I've really tried to pay more attention to what we're spending on groceries. A tip that a friend of mine gave me was to wait until Wednesday when the grocery store flyers come in the mail and plan meals for the following week based on what's on sale. I usually won't buy stuff that's not on sale and I try to stock up on things that are dirt cheap or B1G1 free.
ReplyDeleteI was doing the Couponmom thing for awhile but it got too time consuming and I realized I was spending more on receiving the Sunday paper than I was on saving money with coupons.
We go to Costco twice a month to stock up on things, like boxed cereal and canned fruit. You can get great deals on that kind of stuff at the warehouse type stores.
All of your tips sound helpful! Hopefully your new plan works well...keep us posted!
Honestly, I'm not good at planning and budgeting the groceries. I seem to have a feeling about what's going in the basket and I usually am very close to guessing what it is going to add up to.
ReplyDeleteLots of bloggers are posting on this challenge. I hope I can get inspired and pick up better shopping habits from you all.
Shameless self promotion alert: Budget tip - check out my OTHER blog, Fab Frugal Food, a long distance collaboration between myself and my mom. http://www.fabfrugalfood.com/
ReplyDeleteMy biggest piece of advice is to make us of the bulk foods sections, especially at places like Whole Foods. SOOOOO much more affordable, with much less packaging waste to boot! I get pretty much all my dry goods pantry staples there.
Some of the ways we've saved a lot of money are:
ReplyDelete-Buying the bags of cereal, and watching for the big cereal sales. I know Kroger occaisonally has 4/$10, the really big boxes, then it will pair with an instant manufacturer rebate, and if you've got a coupon you can save a ton.
-If you have an ALDI, we have started buying all of our milk there, we go through a ton of it, and it's usually between 1.59-1.79, which is much cheaper than the other stores, and it's also free of hormones.
-Buy the juice that's frozen and in a can, you can dilute it more than it says to and you'll get juice without artificial flavors in it, without having to spend an arm and a leg for it.
-We wait to buy meat until it's tagged for mark down.
-I know most books tell you not to do this, but we always go through each aile to make sure that we aren't missing somthing that we often purchase that's having a really good sale, so that we can stock up on it while it's cheap.
Great ideas Morgan!! My sister has saved bunches of money using an online site called The Grocery Game Some items she gets for 20 cents or even free. Her grocery bill for the month is always split in half. She has told me I should join but I haven't gotten around to it. I feel the same way that Anita posted earlier, I know what's in my cart for my week's worth of meals & hit the total right on the money. I spend about $100-$125 a week on groceries. I don't think that is a bad number ;)
ReplyDeleteI have SERIOUSLY cut our bills in the last year.
ReplyDeleteLook at these sites:
www.afullcup.com (free to join - these are the experts!)
www.kansascitypennypinchinmama (Tracey has done a coupon class in the past - I attended - and has some great resources)
Now when I go to the grocery store I have a hard time spending over $50 to use those $5/50 coupons....
And you KNOW I have a big family!
;oP
~Nada
I SO need to do that. Where is the money going? good question!! I think our problem here is that Dh buys stuff without planning, just impulsive buys: oh let's have coca cola tonight, and let's get some saussage for breakfast.." Extra shopping trips add real quick.
ReplyDeletei am glad we moved to the country side where we need to take a car for shopping... I am also adopting your menu philosophy, we tried menus but I can never keep them longer than 3 days...
Her is to a new start! :) Thanks for the post!
Those are all great tips ladies! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI will be checking out the sites listed.
The "where the money is going" part is key! If I hadn't started adding up all the debit entries from groceries, I would have missed the fact that we had a problem.
Thanks again for the help, and feel free to offer more advice and links!
I am in the same boat as you. Where is the money going and do I really spend that much on groceries. I too am trying to coupon thing but I have found three major things that I am not liking very much.
ReplyDeleteFirst I tend to spend more because I am trying to use coupons for things I really don't need.
I am working on getting healthier and when it comes to the coupons much of what you buy is the pre-made or boxed items that I am trying to get away from. In this I am trying to do more meals from scratch and find that I am still purchasing silly thing that I would not be buying if I did not have a coupons for it.
Maybe you and I need to do our own little grocery budget challenge.
Feb... Will be our first month of using Cash for groceries.