Here's what it says with a brief explanation:
1. Meal Plan around circulars and schedule
- Check the weekly grocery ads for the best deals. Compare sale items across grocery stores and pick one or two stores that work best for you to shop from for the week. Also, think about your schedule- if you have a busy night, you may need a crock pot meal or something quick.
2. Eat seasonally
- fruits and vegetables are cheaper and taste better when they are in season. Know your seasons! Here is a link to an eat seasonally chart I found on pinterest. http://www.accomacinn.com/restaurant/2011/12/whats-in-season-now/
3. Shop pantry, fridge, and freezer before store
- Look at what you have and try to get creative. Lots of leftover vegetables? Make a soup or vegetable stir fry. Canned green beans and corn? Add some meat and make it a meal.
4. Set a monthly budget instead of a weekly budget.
- This one was the most important one to me. Kimberlee does the number of Sundays (her shopping day) in the month X her weekly budget to get a monthly total. This is good because even though you may only spend $40 one week, the next week may be $95. If you set a monthly budget, it will even out and you won't over spend by doing something with your "savings" before you actually finish the month. Reasons your budget goes over: the staples are out- eggs, flour, sugar, etc, it is time to purchase a seasoning such as cumin or cayenne pepper, you have more expensive meat in your meals.
5. Not every meat needs a meal.
- This is easy for me, tough for my husband. I love cheese ravioli, cheese pizza, vegetable soup, peanut butter and jelly, etc. My husband says "where's the meat?"
6. Be willing to shop at two places.
- Luckily, where I am from there are about 7 grocery stores within a 7 mile radius from my house. Seriously. Albertson's (two), Kroger, Wal-Mart, Aldi's, Sprout's, and one more Kroger being built. It is easy to swing by two stores and quicker than one if you follow rule number 7.
7. Buy what is on the grocery list.
- This means if you want cookies, put it on the list. Don't show up to the store and buy cookies, ice cream, and donuts because you didn't know which sweet you wanted for the week. If you have a husband or kids, leave them behind or make sure they know the rule. Also, no toilet paper and office supply runs at the grocery store!
8. Designate certain nights within the month for a cheap and easy meal
- examples: Homemade pizza night, breakfast for dinner, leftovers, baked potato day, soup night, sandwiches...
9. Cook large batches and freeze meals.
- As a family of two, this is great for us. It means my husband is not having "leftovers" and we don't throw food away. It is very easy to split large meals before putting them in the oven or serving. It also means you have one less meal to cook / pay for on another night in your current or next month.
10. Consider investing in a seal-a-meal
- Well if you read my previous note you know how well that worked out for me... My new plan is to go to a butcher. I found 4 in my area, three of which are corn - fed and one is grass - fed. Unfortunately, grass - fed is currently out of my price range, but I am hoping to switch once I can. Anyways, the butcher packages your meat however you want (ex. 1 lb of ground beef x 6 bags or 6 oz sirloins x 2) and the meat is good for up to 8 months!
11. Buy in Bulk IF it is something you can freeze, it is non perishable, or it is something you will use.
- You will use toilet paper. It does not go bad. You can buy toilet paper in bulk. A 1 gallon container of mayonnaise? Not so much
12. Consider making from scratch instead of buying processed
- You can MAKE a lot of things CHEAPER than if you BUY them... When you make your own you also control what goes in your food :) Examples: Bread, pizza dough, granola bars, cookies
Well, that is all for the tips. Thanks again Kimberlee for sharing :)
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