Budgeting Your Groceries
I can’t believe I am finally sitting down to write this blog post. It has been a long time coming, but life got crazy!
As you all know, I have a family of 5– 3 kids + mom and dad. We don’t really eat out much, maybe a few times a month. I do most of the cooking at home and have extremly picky kids (and husband). So when it’s time to go shopping I load up. I go twice a month (with maybe a few small random trips for milk or bread) and budget our groceries for $600-$700/month. Want to know how I do it??
Now, this might not seem like some strategic plan- it’s kinda simple. And I also know this may not work for some, but it works for our family and I’m excited to share with you how to budget and be able to use these tips for your family.
Let’s get to it………
I want you to think about how much extra crap you buy at the grocery store. Every time you go, you buy more crap. More snacks, drinks, junk food or those random impulse buys on the endcaps. Stop! The less you go, the less extra stuff you buy. Plus, who actually wants to go grocery shopping every week? Nobody! By cutting back grocery shopping to every two weeks, you are already saving at least $50-$100/month in extra stuff. I also feel like by going once a week you buy more veggies and perishable items that you always end up throwing out. I used to always over buy on veggies and never eat them. I can’t be alone in that…?? LOL
Now, don’t freak out. “how am I going to plan for two weeks? I don’t even know what I’ll be doing in two weeks.” I totally get that, neither do I, but being stocked up on all of the basics- the stuff you always get anyways helps so much. Sometimes you do have to be creative….or you can just cook my recipes!!! haha
I’ve made a list of some of the basic stuff I always get to help you get started.
List of the Basic/smaller items i get
- canned tomatoes
- chicken broth
- canned beans
- juice
- taco shells
- sandwich baggies
- pasta sauce (mezzetta- marinara is the best)
- pastas
- pickles
- specialty sauces
- easy mac (don’t judge lol)
Ok here we go….
I usually do a Walmart pick up order for the basic things that I can not buy at a big box store like Sams Club or Costco (Pretty much everything on that list above). I do not buy a ton of produce at walmart and I do not buy meat from there….I’ll get to that in a sec. This is actually a good tool to use. You can pick your shopping day ahead of time and add stuff to your order as the week goes by so you aren’t forgetting anything….therefore less trips to the store! ding ding! I also don’t want to be lugging three kids around to multiple stores, but do what’s best for you. You pick your store.
I already know what you are thinking. “i can’t afford to shop at big box stores”. You Can! just hear me out…..
After I have picked up my Walmart order I head on over to Sams Club. I look to make sure walmart had all of my items just incase I need to grab them at sams. Every two weeks I rotate between snacks and meat. This might take a month or so to bring the total cost down, but trust me, it will work. My kids love snacks and buying them in bulk saves sooooo much money. (see bellow) I have a food saver so I just vacuum seal all of our meat. This also helps with waste. You aren’t throwing anything away because you never had time to cook it. If your family doesn’t care for frozen meat I have also tried this method going to the butcher counter every week and it still balances out.
Think about it…..
Why are you buying smaller packages of snacks? how many times have you thrown something away because it went stale??? If it is indivdually wrapped, you can stretch the shelf life longer. It’s also so easy to just grab little snacks on the go!
if You are buying the same things at the grocery store every week, Why not buy them in bulk and save money?? You’re thinking “it cost so much more up front”. Well, no it doesn’t. Not if you are rotating what you buy. One week I’ll go heavy on the snacks and light on the meat. The next time heavy on the meat and light on condiments/snacks. It balances out. Make sure your pantry and fridge is organized so you know what you need before you go. You know what veggies you eat, what sides you make, what meats you like to eat and snacks the kids eat. The posibilities are endless! You don’t have to have two weeks worth of meals planned, maybe a few meals you want to try out- add those ingredients to your walmart list. Don’t over complicate grocery shopping.
Honestly, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to leave your husband at home!! This method has not worked for me twice and each time my husband was with me! Ugh! They tend to lean towards junk food and random crap they don’t need. another thing I want to suggest is, buying all of your toiletries from box stores. It cost more up front, but last so much longer!! I’ve added a list of non grocery essentials I purchase from big box stores at the bottom of this blog post!
Check this out!
I have added the same items to both of my shopping carts. I have tried to get the same amout/weight of each item to make it even. in the walmart cart i have a few less of some of the items, but you get the point.
the walmart cart totals $96.29
The sams club cart totals $68.55
that is a savings of $27.74 for the same amount of stuff!
I have done this method for over a year and It has always worked. I am not counting in toiletries, shampoo, razors or any of that other stuff. If you have ever done Dave Ramsey then you know, it’s all a separate folder. lol If you haven’t heard of dave ramsey and want to help get your family on a budget and debt free you should totally check him out!
Each time I grocery shop I usally end up spending $40-50 at walmart and about $250-300 at sams club.
I want you to think outside of the box on this. meals do not have to be fancy to be good. You can have a head of broccoli, some chicken and some noodles and make a bomb meal. get creative! As long as you are cooking a meat, starch and veggie your family is having a well balanced meal.
Bellow I have added a list of things that are cheaper at sams club and the grocery store.
Sams CLub
- Bread
- cheese
- butter
- milk
- almond milk
- coffee creamer
- refridgerated cinnamon rolls (fam fave)
- cereal (omg cereal!!!)
- lunch meat (sams club has the best with no nitrates)
- canned veggies
- bags of rice
- bottled water
- pancake mix
- peanut butter (almost 50% savings)
- ice cream
- chicken nuggets ( the southern stlye from sams taste just like chick-fil-a. Just sayin….)
- frozen veggies
- fresh veggies
- bagged salads
- indivdually wrapped snacks
Grocery Store
- sandwhich baggies
- papper plates (sometimes)
- tin foil
***all of these items bc i do not have enough space to store all of these things and I hate spending $16 on sandwhich bags
Non-Grocery essentials cheaper at box stores
- diapers (lots of people prefer costco, but I love the sams club size 2 and up)
- wipes (also giving this onw to sams- the have the best!)
- floor cleaners
- laundry soap
- dish soap
- fabric softener
- toothpaste (omg you will save a ton!)
- vitamins
- hand soap
- dog food
Ok one last thing I want to talk about- Why I prefer sams over costco!
oh man I can hear the backlash already…. “it’s just like walmart”, “they don’t have as much stuff” blah blah blah!!!!!
Number one- The membership is cheaper! To get a regular membership at sams club it is $45 and to get the Plus membership, where you get 2% cash back it is $100. At costco to get the 2% cash back your membership is $120 ($60 for the regualr). That is $20 more!
******use the link at the bottom of this post to get a $45 giftcard to use when you sign up to be a sams club member. your membership will be f-r-e-e!!!
Number two- Sams club lets you use your rewards cash as you shop vs costco sends you a check at the end of the year. Therfore, if you can save more on each trip as you stack up rewards cash…..you are saving more money and your grocery bill is going down!
Number three- Sams club offers more self checkout lanes and they also have the scan and go app. You can legit scan your items with your phone and walk out of the door! it’s so easy! They also have order pick up. You can pull up outside and they bring you the groceries!
Number four- and some people might not get me on this but…. there is less crap to buy. costco has way cooler stuff, but sometimes you don’t need all of that stuff and you end up spending way more money. I still have a costco card, but I shop at sams club 95% of the time.
Number five- It’s never as busy as costco. It’s even faster at the gas pumps!
I think that about wraps this up! It was a lot of info and I feel like I’m leaving so much out still. lol let me know if you have any questions and I would love to hear about you implementing this method!
xoxo
les
