You’ve made your grocery budget and you are determined to stick to it. And then you walk into the grocery store and it all unravels. Sometimes even the best laid budget plans go awry if you aren’t fully prepared. Here are the things I do to {try and} make sure my budget and my grocery store total match up on each trip:
Study first: Check the weekly circular for the store you’re planning on shopping at. What’s on sale? What items are listed that you have coupons for? Does the store have in-store coupons or an app with additional coupons you can check before you go? Also, take that list off the fridge where you’ve been jotting down what you’ve run out of and search for coupons and sales for those items specifically.
Plan your menu: Once you’ve seen what’s on sale, make a menu for the week {or two weeks, depending on how you shop}. Then build your shopping list around that menu. Be sure to account for daily snacks, and all 3 meals as well as drinks for each meal and desserts, too {can’t forget the best part!}.
Shop before you shop: Once you have your weekly menu all planned out, head to the pantry and your freezer and shop there first. You can also reverse this and build your menu around what you have on hand, but if you like to mix it up weekly or try new menu items, you’ll build your menu in this order and then shop from your pantry.
Make a detailed shopping list, using generics whenever possible: If you skip this step, you are setting yourself up to fail. Big time. Once you’ve done the first 3 steps, you’ll know exactly what you need. You’ve checked sale items, planned out your entire menu and even checked to see what ingredients you already have on hand. Now you finalize your list.
Don’t deviate from your list, with one BIG exception: Stick to your list. Buy what’s on it and only what’s on it, except when you see a good sale. Let’s say you have grilled chicken on your menu and you get to the store and they have a blowout on pork chops. Time to do some menu rearranging and sub out that chicken. That works for fruit, too. If you have strawberries as a snack and you get to the store to find strawberries are crazy spendy but they have apples at rock bottom prices, switch out your snack items. But replace, don’t add onto the list. You know how much food you need, so unless you see a stock-up price on non-perishables, you’ll probably end up wasting food, even if it is on sale!
Shop alone. I know this is easier said than done, but if at all possible, leave the kiddos at home. It’s easier to stick to a list and avoid junk and flashy packaging when their cute little faces aren’t staring up at you.
Shop top and bottom shelves. Grocery stores put all of there most expensive items at eye level. For each item on your list, compare prices on the top and bottom with those on the middle shelves.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry or tired: You’re much more likely to impulse buy when you’re tired and hungry.
And there you have the tips I always use. Are there any tips that you use that I missed? If so, we’d all love to hear about them.
Keep calm and save on,
~Mavis
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