Between not knowing where items were, no knowledge of couponing, and little understanding of meal planning, I was overwhelmed. I eventually learned where the items I buy on a regular basis are located and the concept of meal planning.
The problem we found is that our grocery bill was actually higher when I meal planned. This is hilarious to me because when you read anything about cutting your grocery bill the advice universally is to meal plan. Since I then got pregnant and felt like crap, I gave up on meal planning, couponing, and looking at ads. My attitude became, "Well, if I am doing what everyone says to do to save our family money, and it is doing the opposite, then I give up."
Seriously, I followed all the rules. I bought generics, looked at the price per ounce, used coupons on things I would buy anyway, looked at the ads, compared stores, blah, blah, blah.
Since going on a "doing grocery shopping smart" hiatus, I am back to try it again! I realized this is a way I can help to give our family more financial freedom, and if I don't learn some of this now, it is DEFINITELY not going to happen anytime soon after this baby comes!
On February 1, I will embark on my first meal planned and coupons clipped grocery adventure since the growing of another human commenced.
Here is my game plan and if you are a grocery bill cutting guru, tell me your tricks or amendments to my undertaking.
- Check out Kroger's ad and make note of sales
- Meal plan from those items on sale to get us through 2 weeks
- Find coupons online and from Red Plum, SmartSource, etc. for those items
- Make my grocery list and note which items I have coupons for
- While in the store compare the generic prices to prices of those items I have coupons for
- Stick to my list
- Buy groceries and do not go back to Kroger for 2 weeks :)
We will see how it goes!
Do you live close to an Aldi? We didn't shop at Aldi until this fall and it's saved us crazy money. I feel like I always spend too much money at Kroger no matter how much I plan. There are a few things we can't get at Aldi and therefore, have to go to Kroger, but for the most part, they've got the basics covered.
ReplyDeleteI always forget about Aldi! I will have to try that this week. I just looked at their ad and it is kind of crazy how much cheaper some of their stuff is. Thanks!
DeleteThe key to meal planning is to figure out how to stretch or re-make your bigger ticket items. For example, roast a chicken one night and then make chicken noodle soup (or fajitas, or chicken and rice) the following using the leftover chicken. Same thing with unique ingredients (ex. cabbage= egg rolls, fried rice and cabbage soup).
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks! Those are exactly the things that kill our grocery bill are meat and things I normally don't buy but need to a recipe.
DeleteI think this is my favorite post you've written so far. Your honesty mixed with humor was cracking me up! I am totally in the same boat as you! Hopefully we both figure this thing out soon :)
ReplyDeleteWe will save money!!!!!
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