This part of my budget planning is a bit more complicated and takes a bit of time for me to put together each month. But again, all of it is worth it for our family, as it gets our food budget down to where we want it to be! Which again is $400 per month for our family of 3 (two adult, a toddler and two dogs). Our food budget does include more than just food, it includes things like toiletries, dog food, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and more.
It all starts with meal planning. I am still learning this and how to do it most effectively. I need to get more consistent about it, as well. But this is the back bone to how we really save money with our monthly shopping trip. I sit down each month and plan it all out. I make a list of meals. I try to ask for input from C and he is usually helpful. So this month I came up with 19 dinners. I save each recipe either on a bookmark tab on my computer or have them pulled out from my recipe cards. I then make an Excel spreadsheet. Yes, I am a nerd. I do it all on my computer. I map out ingredients needed for each meal and figure out what we need for every meal, plus lunches and breakfast foods. I then am able to see what we have verses what we need to buy. I am also then able to plan out exact amounts needed to purchase. Below you can see an image of what that looks like and what I bring to the store with me for my shopping trip. I will add all the extras to this list as well, but this is the food list.
Sunday, I went to the grocery store. Well, Walmart. And though I am not the biggest fan of Walmart, I use them for a very specific reason. I get my groceries cheaper there and can make our budget happen. I do use Fry's for weekly trips to fill in needs though. I have split my trips between Fry's and Walmart in the past. It just takes a bit more planning and work for me to figure that out. So yesterday, I went and did my grocery shopping. I left the store spending $355.93. One month of groceries. The receipt says I purchase 113 items. I do have a few things to pick up and fill in as our month progresses. But this is the BULK of our meals for the month and other essential items too.
I shop at Walmart because I can price match there. This is how I save a bunch on our shopping bill. I find the best deals and price match them at Walmart, instead of driving to 5 different stores for our shopping. I do end up doing some, if a needed item it not able to be price matched or found at Walmart. So, on Tuesdays/Wednesday I sit down with my ads that come in our mail and write out my list. I put it in yet another Excel spreadsheet. I put the item, how much per unit, store and shopping category (this is for ease of shopping, as I sort the list when I done using this). I then go online and pull up a couple of awesome blogs and compare my lists to make sure I did not miss anything. (http://www.pricematcherz.com/phoenix/ , http://www.thecentsableshoppin.com/category/weekly-round-up/) The reason, I do mine first is that neither of these are specific to the area we live, just for the general Phoenix area, so I have a couple ads for stores that they do not have on their list. I also check theirs because they have some stores that I do not get I ads for in the mail. So makes it easier. Just gives me a more complete list. I do not list everything, just the items I am likely to buy because they are on sale and a great deal or the items on my grocery list. I usually like to go shopping earlier in the week, as some stores have deals specific to Wednesdays or Fridays. Those are the items I may choose to leave out in our BIG shopping trip and pick up week by week. A lot of them are produce related. When I do my list I also have a column that I put what day that sale price is good for, if it is one that is limited to certain days. The last column that I add, if I have time, is to star any that I may also have a coupon for and get bonus savings on by purchasing now. I do not always have the time to do this, but I do try as this does help save some time in the store. Below you can see how my list from Sunday's trip looks.
The third part of my system is coupons. And no, I am not a crazy couponer. I just do not have the time or desire to be one. I also find couponing frustrating and hard when approached in an extreme manner. First for us, we just do not eat or need most of the foods that coupons are available for. I really do mainly homemade in our house. The worst in our pantry is probably Kraft Mac & Cheese. In our freezer, probably chicken nuggets for Marshmallow (since it is one of the foods he will eat that is meat). So coupons in general and that approach, while you save a ton of money, would be a waste for our family. I clip the coupons we use. I will pull things that we have the potential to purchase, or have purchased in the past. We no longer get the Sunday paper with the ads, so I use a few couponing websites to print off coupons to use. Along with the ones that come in the mail on Wednesdays. I usually save an extra $15-20 on our grocery bill by using coupons. Every dollar helps.
This is my personal approach to cutting down our food budget, while not actually taking away food we enjoy or limiting meals we eat. I am still learning. But meal planning is key. This month I decided to do one big trip, but other months I do two shopping trips where I plan for those 2 weeks instead of a full month. Having a plan when shopping is needed and absolutely key to keeping on a budget. If you just show up to the store, you will walk away with more than you planned and likely spend more than you planned as well. For a while, I would also use my calculator (or bring my computer) on the shopping trip to enter in amounts and track money as we went along. This made it so I could NOT go over budget and see where I had to make cuts. I also recommend using cash. This again makes it so you can not overspend. I was loading the belt with the non-necessities at the end of the check out, to be prepared to take items away if was going to run over budget. You only have so much on you, so you can not just swipe your card and go, so you have to have to be ready. Figure out your plan before you enter the store! Again these are things that are working for us, but does not mean it will be the best approach for everyone. Good luck!
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