how i cut my grocery budget in half

Okay so I’m gonna start this blog off with something that I guarantee everyone who reads this does on a daily basis.

We eat.

Now some of us, myself included, eat a lot. Some of us eat a little.

Some of us are healthy and some of us are just doing our best to put food on the table.

Maybe it came from the garden out back, or maybe it came in a paper bag and includes a toy.

Whatever way you get it, ya gotta eat.

I have ALWAYS struggled with being the person that says “let’s just order in”

When Colton and I first moved to Dallas we were on a pretty limited budget. We ate lots of rice and pasta and learned very quickly that going out to eat every night wasn’t doable.

As time went on we cooked more and more and with that came grocery shopping a lot more.

I. HATED. GROCERY. SHOPPING.

I always ended up spending hours in the store and coming home with hundreds of dollars worth of food that I didn’t need and only made a handful of meals.

After really taking a look at our finances, I realized we were spending $200-$300/ week on groceries for 2 people.

THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS.

That’s when I started to meal plan.

There are so many articles and blogs about meal planning.

Mine isn’t the best I’m sure, but it’s what has worked for us and has cut our grocery bill in half.

I’ma type that again so we can make sure the metaphorical people in the back can hear.

I CUT MY GROCERY BILL IN HALF!

There’s no extreme couponing involved. (if I had the time and patience to do this I’d get all my groceries for free. I’m just sure of it) And no shopping sale papers.

This is how I do it:

Step one: Come up with your meals for the next week and write them down in a list.

(Here are the meals that we are eating this week)

Step two: Take each meal and make a list of every single ingredient you need.

Step three: Go back and recheck.

(99% of the time I missed at least 3 ingredients somewhere along the way.)

(my ingredient list)

Step 4: Grab that list and go shopping at home. This is probably the most important step. Anybody out there at 18 cans of cream of mushroom and 40 pounds of flour in your pantry. No? Just me?

Go the pantry and cross out things on your list that you already have.

Go to your fridge and repeat

Go to your freezer and repeat.

Step 5: Check for substitutes.

Were you planning on making spaghetti but don’t have the beef? What about that ground turkey in the freezer you always forget about. What about a cheesy chicken spaghetti? If you have a suitable substitute USE IT. That turkey can only last so long in your freezer and you don’t want to throw money away.

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Everything you haven't crossed off on your list is what you're shopping for this week.

Side note: walking into the grocery store and already having things marked off your list feels so good.

That’s it. That’s how I cut my grocery bill in half with meal planning.

I'm just your average mama, I'm not an expert. But I feel like if you can cut your grocery budget in half with about 30 minutes of weekly preparation that's some time well spent.

Here’s a few other things I do at the grocery store to save some money:

Store brand items:

I’m not a brand snob. There are very few things that I have to have the name brand of. I’m down for a .49 savings on a can of great value cream of mushroom soup.

Bulk buying:

Now this isn’t for everyone. Personally I try to purchase our meats once a month at Costco – I get 30 lbs of meat total. Chicken, beef, shrimp, sausage, pork…some of everything. Once we’ve got it we vacuum seal it and freeze it in dinner size portions for our family.

Avoid convenience items where possible: I don’t need pre-cut onions or broccoli. I have a knife and cutting board at home.

I hope this was helpful for you. If it was, leave me comment and let me know!