Family Finances
Keep your grocery budget in check with these three quick tips!
Guest post by Jessi Fearon of The Budget Mama
Groceries are usually one of the biggest expenses that most households have and if you’re like me, you’ve tried everything from extreme couponing to just “winging it.” However, once we switched to a clean-eating diet, using coupons regularly became a thing of the past since there aren’t many coupons for fresh fruits and vegetables.
And since we switched to a clean-eating diet, Aldi has become our favorite grocery store since we can literally get all our staple items for a fraction of the cost. However, I still wanted to save more and so there are few other things that we do that help us keep our grocery budget in check.
Grocery Savings Made Simple
Do your grocery totals seem high, but you can’t figure out how to spend less? Learn the simple secrets to saving money on every trip to the grocery store, including:
- 16 Things You Should NEVER Buy at the Grocery store
- 13 Grocery Store Sales You should IGNORE
- 13 strategies to be a Savvy Shopper
Notice, that I said that we’re keeping our grocery budget “in check” and not “low,” because I’m a firm believer that your grocery budget goal shouldn’t be the lowest number possible but the most realistic number possible for your family and your current lifestyle.
And these quick tips will help you do just that – keep your grocery budget in check no matter how low or high it may be.
Speed Shop
Shopping with three kids under 4 years old will teach you to shop fast or risk having a major meltdown followed by something getting broken. So I shop no longer in each store (Aldi and Kroger) than 20 minutes.
Even when I don’t have my kids with me, I set the timer on my phone for twenty minutes. This keeps me focused on my shopping list and not on everything shiny I past.
Next time you’re in the grocery store, set the timer on your phone for 20 minutes.
It’ll be challenge especially if you’re used to browsing the aisles while shopping but over time, you’ll start see how shopping fast really does save you money.
Track Prices
I literally write down the prices of everything I purchase while still in the store. This way, I don’t go over our all-cash grocery budget.
I know some folks just use the tally or tick mark system but my accountant brain likes to total everything up including the tax before checking out to make sure that I have exactly the right amount of money ready to hand over.
And if you aren’t using cash while in the grocery store, I encourage you to give it a try. It makes sticking to your grocery budget a whole lot easier since you’re less likely to spend what you don’t actually have.
Shop Once a Week
I will only go to the grocery store on Mondays. Period.
And my family knows that if they eat everything in the pantry by Friday, we’ve got to get creative on things to eat for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning because I will not go to the store before then.
This takes some adjusting to but once everyone realizes that grocery shopping is only happening once a week, the grocery list will start containing the things you actually need and want because no one wants to run out of food before “grocery day.”
That’s it. Nothing life shattering, just some things that I’ve done that have greatly improved our grocery budget. If you’ve never created a budget before or aren’t even sure what a grocery budget is, you can read more about setting up a budget here.
I’d love to hear what tips you have for keeping your grocery budget in check – especially those that don’t involve coupons!
Jessi Fearon is the blogger behind the money-management blog, TheBudgetMama.com, where she shares her family’s real life on a budget in all its gory details. Her and husband have paid off over $55,000 of debt in just over two years and are passionate about inspiring others to practice better money manage principles and take the journey towards debt-freedom.
Jessi Fearon is the blogger behind the money-management blog, 
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These are such helpful tips! I’m definitely going to share them this week.
Since getting into our new school routine, I have started planning out meals for the whole week, breakfast included, on Sundays. It helps me to vary things up between our go-to breakfasts– eggs and smoothies, steel cut oats, and yogurt and granola. Like you, I’ve decided to save our special breakfast for Saturdays. Also, I really like the idea of pulling out clothes but waiting until after breakfast to get dressed. This is key for us on Sunday mornings for my daughter (20months). If we dress her before breakfast, she always ends up needing a new outfit and it can be frustrating when we are already trying to hurry!
And yes to avoiding sugar. I try to limit sugar in all our foods, but if we are having some at breakfast, we also always have some sort of protein to balance the meal out!
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Thank you Lisa! You shared a great way to balance the sugar too – adding extra protein is a great option!!
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I like these ideas, I will have to try some of them. The one thing that I have done if I plan to make pancakes, waffles, or muffins in the morning is to mix up the dry ingredients the night before and keep them in a plastic Ziploc type bag, and in the morning I just have to pour it in the bowl and add the wet ingredients, (I usually set any of these items out on the counter, if possible the night before too) mix and cook or bake it. Plus, there is less cleanup in the morning this way too, if you did that part the night before, anyway =D (several batches of dry ingredients can be made ahead of time and packaged separately so you are prepared for a month at a time if you’d like)
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Great ideas Mindie – did you know you can mix up the wet too? Just keep it in the fridge and you’ll save a few minutes there too!
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I didn’t realize that, thanks! =D
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Love that I am not the only one who wants kids dressed AFTER they eat! most of the mom’s by me think I am crazy! Thanks for the reset button – I just might make slow cooker oatmeal right now!
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You’re certainly not crazy Dona! ?
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I am a middle school teacher, so my kids and I all leave the house by 6:45 each morning. We’ve learned to be efficient! I can say that, without a doubt, the most helpful tip is to be up before your kids. My kids aren’t allowed to get out of bed until 6:00. I get up between 5:30 and 5:45 in order to pray, write, and get myself in the right frame of mind. It makes all the difference in the world!
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I am boiling eggs from the evening.
Put on the table the yogurt ( homemade) from the fridge and the jam from the evening.
Freeze 5 pancakes for critical mornings – and use it once in the next 1 -2 weeks; or keep a bag with dried fruits/nuts etc. for this.
And keep always: dress after breakfast :))
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The chocolate oat bars really caught my eye. Went to your site to find the recipe- but wasn’t able to. Do you have a recipe for this? Thanks.
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I’m late to the game Carla, but those chocolate oat bars were an experiment one morning. I haven’t made them since, and I require a 3-times minimum before sharing a recipe. You’ve inspired me to revisit this recipe!
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My son recently went to school as well after years of homeschooling. I admit it was different and hard at first, but we wanted to let him try experience interacting with other kids. (not that he doesn’t have any friends) Anyway, this post is really helpful, I’ve been looking for healthy breakfast I could give him besides cereals, I’m going to try making this and hope he likes it ?