You are a person who cares about food. You want to feed your family well and you want to do it on a budget. But how to budget groceries? Is the million dollar question.
Grocery shopping can be stressful! By the time you get home, unload the car and haul everything into your kitchen, you feel like all of that stress is going right through you.
It’s not just money that goes down the drain with each trip to the grocery store; it’s time too!
Time spent driving there and back, then standing in line at checkout or waiting for someone else in front of you pay for their groceries (and let me tell ya – I’m sick of seeing this happen).
The good news is that there are ways to save money on groceries without spending hours every week trying new recipes or scouring Pinterest boards for inspiration.
Being Frugal Without cramping your style
How to budget groceries?
There are things we can do as consumers which will help learn how to budget groceries efficiently while still feeding our families nutritious meals from scratch.
If you are at your wit’s end trying to manage your grocery bills you are not alone!
Prices of groceries have jumped considerably in the past year alone and people are facing the biggest price increase since the 1970’s – Thousands of people are scrambling to feed their families and feed them well somehow, on a painfully small budget.
Families of two adults needed an average grocery budget of $938.50 per month in April 2021. The average cost of food per month for a family of 4 was the highest at $1,120.90.In the table below, we included the monthly food cost between April 2017 and April 2021.
It’s difficult to afford a healthy diet while saving money. It seems that the price of food is only going up, not down so it becomes more and harder for families in this economy.
I recommend making sure your family gets plenty of fresh produce from scratch with whole grains or high fiber pasta because those will be less expensive than processed foods full off sugar.
Save money by cutting down your grocery bill without compromising on healthy eating. Here are some time tested ways that you can do so!
Planning A Practical Menu
The best way to make a list is by learning how it’s done right. This will give you the consistency needed for your menu plan, and save time in less than 10 minutes! Let’s take a look at what we need:
1) Decide on foods that are necessary (elements). These should be food groups like proteins or carbohydrates with their respective vitamins/minerals from fruits & vegetables as well as whole grains etc.
It’s always a good idea to have the sales flyer or digital coupon for each store you shop at in your possession before beginning this process, but it will also be helpful if you take inventory of what supplies are already present.
Make sure that when planning out meals throughout next week there is enough food stocked on hand so as not waste money going back outside after every trip just because something was needed immediately!
(Tip: This gets much easier to do if you have some kind of order to stocking your cabinets and fridge) Now that you are aware of what supplies you have at home and what will be on sale for the coming week, plan your menus for the rest of the week based on these two factors. Get creative!
Make your shopping list by listing out all the staple items you need such as milk, sugar, flour and bread.
And other products that are on sale to cook with! Your weekly menu should be ready when its time for dinner.
Makes sure it consists only of ingredients needed and check off anything already in stock at home.
Planning ahead this way will allow you to save a ton of money on groceries simply because your plan for the week has already been set and all that’s left is picking up some essentials.
It’ll also give yourself more time in general with less rushed trips throughout town as well as fast food restaurants like McDonalds, which can get rather pricey if there are no other options available during an emergency situation!
You’ll also avoid ‘impulse buying’ this way. Save the menu for the week in a separate file along with the grocery list, just for the record.
Once you get more used to planning your weekly meals, it will be easy for the months. This isn’t as difficult if you cycle many of these menus together into one workable plan.
You can make this happen by buying items in bulk and recycling or reusing some prepared food each week so that there’s always something great on hand when inspiration strikes!
(Save the list on your computer or smartphone with the month attached; for example, Octoberlist.doc for the month of October). You can establish a whole new tradition of having a few standard meals on certain days every month, which your family will look forward to or even one or two nights a week with the same meal plan.
Planning a weekly or monthly menu will help you ensure that your family eats well, with proper balanced nutrition and you can recycle menus or use parts of old menus to make new ones each month.
If you recycle menus this way, your grocery list is done, since all you have to do is print out your previous lists. Saves a ton of time!
Start shopping smart
What is the best way to save money and live a life without stress? By not spending your hard earned cash on impulse buys.
People who make these trips end up wasting 54% more than what they expected, so just for 10 dollars spent three times per week will give you an additional 120$ monthly!
Imagine never having this problem again?!
So how do you save money? By cutting down on ‘impulse buying’ and the number of trips you make to the store. This strategy can save you thousands of dollars every year.
Bulk-buying is a great way to save money. The less you go shopping, the better off your finances will be!
Bulk buying also means more variety in what groceries are available for purchase–and this can really help with hunger pangs when there’s nothing left at home but cereal or ramen noodles.
If possible try not visit grocery stores too often though; it may seem tempting now because every trip might mean another $20 saved that didn’t exist before (or maybe even 30!)
Since you’ve already made your list, stick to it! The advantage of having a list is that you browse less and ultimately spend less on impulse purchases.
The only time that impulse shopping is good for you is when the sale items have a long shelf life.
Otherwise, don’t waste your money on these sorts of expenditure because they won’t be worth it in any case!
Make sure to add any desired products onto your list ahead-of-time and maybe next time around we can find something more useful–or at least less useless.”
If you absolutely cannot resist impulse buying give yourself the leeway to buy five extra items within a certain dollar amount.
Don’t buy non-food items at the grocery store since you can probably find them for cheaper at other outlets. Buy bread from your bakery and toiletries from your drugstore…Double check to see that you’ve completed all the items on your list before you leave the store.
Another way you can save money on your grocery list is to just take cash to the store and avoid ATM’s and credit cards. Only do this once you figure out the approximate cost of your grocery bill. Nobody wants the embarrassment of being short at the check out counter by 4.67$!
Shoppers often get caught up in a bidding war, but they can avoid this by keeping their eyes on the prize and only considering money that’s actually needed.
It may seem like an extra step at first because you’ll have to guess how much food or other items will cost before shopping (which could put unnecessary stress), but it ends up saving so many dollars over time!
Another Option For Saving Money While Shopping Online
Hooray! We have reached the end of this blog post on ‘How to budget groceries’?. If you are looking for more resources on discounts, check out these websites that I use to save money every day.
You can find grocery coupons and many other great deals at all your favorite name brands by clicking below links.
Resources
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