During the past six months, I have had the chance to "hone" in on my money saving strategies. One of the most important for our household was to save money on our grocery bill without skimping on taste and variety.To do this you need just the following:
-Grocery Ads
-Weekly/Monthly menu template (here's a link to the one I use
The Family Homestead Monthly Menu )
-PATIENCE
Our grocery ads come on Tuesday and Wednesday and I usually have the chance to go over them on Friday night or Saturday morning before my "day trip". Keep in mind that living in a metropolitan area has given me the opportunity to "price shop" even on my food. Within a 3 mile radius, I can shop at Safeway, Albertsons, Fry's Food, Bashas and Wal-Mart I start with planning my dinner meal around the meats that are on sale throughout the five stores I frequently shop at. When I see a sale on things such as Rice-a-Roni, Mac N' Cheese, Spaghetti Sauce, etc, I try to take advantage of that as much as possible. These items generally have fairly long shelf life. After I figured out my meat portion of our meal, I start to plan around it and before I know it, I have a wonderful meal planned for each night. Ranging from 20 minute preparations to one to two hours. I save those longer ones for the weekends.
Until I learn how to perfect my summer and fall garden, I will have to continue to purchase our frozen veggies at Sam's Club. There I can get LARGE bags of Broccoli Florets (not those cheap cuts), corn, peas, green beans and I usually go for their fresh bags of carrots.
On a good shopping trip, when I have stuck to my list and ONLY my list, I can get by with spending only $120.00 for TWO weeks of meals (including snacks, staples, breakfast lunch) which to me, is a job well done.
Additionally, never ever ever, underestimate the power of leftovers! Check out The Leftover Chef to get more wonderful ideas if you don't have any of your own.
Our dinner menu for this week was/is
Sunday - Country Fried Steak, Mashed Potato's and Corn
Monday - for obvious reasons, went with Hamburger Helper (Crunchy Taco), Watermelon and Cantaloupe
Tuesday - Frozen Pizza, Tossed Salad and Green Beans
Wednesday - Beef Hot dogs, Chips, Corn, Watermelon and Cantaloupe
Thursday - Chipolte Chicken Sandwiches, Pasta Salad and raw baby carrots
Friday - Tacos, Spanish Rice, Corn and Tossed Salad
Saturday - Grilled London Broil, Baked Potato, Tossed Salad and steamed Broccoli.
Now, this is where patience and time come in. It takes some devotion to the "cause" to sit down and plan this out and actually hit all five stores and get it done in one day, but if I can do it, so can you!
Happy shopping and many savings,
Laura L Robinson
Wife, Mother and General Honey Do'er
