Thursday, December 30, 2010

Grocery lists/organization binder

I may not be organized in all parts of my life but one place I am very organized is my grocery shopping lists etc. I am on a tight budget so I have found for my family that a weekly shopping trip is the best way for us. Let me explain why-

Every Monday I spend 1/2 hour making my weekly shopping list. First thing I do is set up my weekly meals. I have a sheet for that but I don't know how to link it to the blog so email me and I will send you a copy. So for each day I figure out a breakfast, lunch and dinner. For example my Monday menu for this week is cereal (only thing kids will eat), egg salad sandwiches and toss together lasagna. I will write that all down the go to the next day until I have 7 full days of meals. Then I will take out my shopping list and fill out all the ingredients and items I need to purchase to make all 7 meals and I always always include at least 1 or 2 extras of a few things (usually canned goods) to have on the shelf for food storage. My shopping list is broken up into catagories like diary, breads, baking goods, misc., meat etc. Then I will find all the coupons I can for those items for the week. I will also price check the store adds and take the ones that I need with me because walmart price matches! Yes I am one of THOSE freaks.......... I know, I know but it saves you LOTS of money on things like produce and meat because you can't always get a coupon for those. I keep my eyes out of coupon for items we use a lot. Things like yogart, milk, bread............well you get the picture. Why shop once a week you might ask? Well your fresh produce only lasts so long. I like to have fresh items around the house at all times and I just can't keep up with it when I am not shopping once a week. Also, when there is a sale on meat I will pick up more then what is on my weekly list. Maceys will have seasoned pork on sale at times 6 pieces for $3.00 or less. Drumsticks seasoned for $2.50 and lots of other great deals. Then I have a stock pile of the expensive part of a meal and the rest is simple filler. When I really keep up on this I can keep my grocery bill down to around $75 a week. Before we had Addi I was able to keep it more around $50 a week. A baby adds formula and baby food :) Ok now you read my novel. I want to hear your ideas on this. There will always be weeks when you spend more. Those weeks usually include a holiday or a special birthday dinner but if you really stick to it you will always know exactly what is for dinner and you can keep your grocery bill a lot lower. Do you have any tricks that you use to keep your grocery bill low??? Would love to hear because there is always room for improvement! Happy shopping!

3 comments:

Matt and Tiffany Wagstaff said...

That is AMAZING, Amanda. Such a great idea. I see your menu on the wall and love the idea. I never have food at the house, thus we always eat out and spend WAY more on food than what we should because I am not organized. That is what it always comes down to, we are going to cook and then don't have this or that, or such and such is spoiled, etc.

Great job, Amanda! That is so incredible. I am completely amazed!

Liz said...

Can you e-mail me your sheet you have for your weekly meals? My e-mail address is lizgwillis@gmail.com. Honestly, my only trick is to try to just buy things on sale and use as many coupons as I can. I should do price matching with Wal Mart, but the grocery stores by us double coupons which Wal Mart doesn't.

Andrea said...

haha, I'm one of those price matchers too! I love Walmart for the fact they price match!
P.S. I definitely don't mind your blog-snooping! :)