Grocery Budget

I don't even know where to begin. I can't tell you the last time I actually had control of my grocery budget. For months now it has been spiraling out of control. My lack of planning, willingness to prep and rising cost have driven us to spend more on groceries than we have in a long time. I use to be very disciplined in this area. I guess I let it go. After a long look at our budget and our money going out I realized I needed to gain control. Groceries (and incidentals which I include) just so happen to be one bleeding area I can fix. So that is where I found myself this week. Ready to take back control. I had a tried and true working method so I just went right back to it. I thought I would share since I have had so many people ask how I do it. 

Step one: Gather weekly sales adds for area stores. In my case that would be Foodland, Piggly Wiggly and Aldi. You have to decide if you are going to go to all the different stores or price match at Wal-Mart. This time I price matched. 

Step two: Once I know what is on sale I make a menu. I base my menu on 2 things what is on sale and what we already have on hand. In this case ground chuck was on sale and we had chicken on hand. I also work in one meatless meal every week (sometimes two).

Excuse my winter themed printable. It was all I had handy. You'll notice based off of the dates that my menu runs Friday to Thursday. This is because I try to shop on Thursdays.

Step three: I make my shopping list. I only add the things we will need for the meals planned plus snack options, any  lunch items hubby needs for packing his, non-food items we need, pet needs and any staple we are running low on. If I am going to price match after I list the items I write the lowest price next to the item. This makes check out run a little faster. As I shop I underline the things instead of crossing them off. I do this so I can still read it when I get to check out ;) 

You'll notice a couple places where I scribbled out the "lowest price" that is because Wal-Mart ended up having the lowest price on this item. Price matching saves me having to run to the 3 other stores. 

Step four: Shopping. At check out as the cashier rings up my items if I have a price match I tell her and she takes care of it. It really is that easy. I take the store ad or can always pull it up on my phone if she has a question.

My shopping buddy.

When I was trying to come up with a realistic budget for groceries. I had to think about what we can afford and how much things cost. I finally settled on $125-$150 a week. I am realistic. I know there will be weeks when I go over but I would really like to stay around the $125-$130 mark. However this week I was trying to stay around $104 (We already spent a little of said grocery money on dinner Thursday night and Michael's lunch items.)

This week my haul included:

bananas

1 20 oz soda (treat for the hubby)

Cheeze-It

Hair and beauty products

taco seasoning

tomato sauce

jalapeno (fresh)

brown rice

green chilies

flour

lunchables

a variety of canned beans and tomatoes

sugar

cornmeal

1 bag of candy corn (treat for kids)

bag of onions

apples

red grapes

blue berries

pizza yeast

loaf bread

potatoes 

frozen broccoli

chips

refried beans

corn and flour tortillas

salsa

5 lbs of hamburger meat ( I do not normally buy meat at this store but since it was fresh and being cooked right away I did this time)

canned corn

soups

shredded cheese

olives

bbq sauce

paper plates (for our upcoming camping trip)

freezer bags

frozen pizza

My total was $101.52. This includes 6 dinners, lunches, and snacks. 

I was pretty proud of myself. Several of the things I bought will last a while like the flour, sugar, cornmeal and tortillas. Of course there were things I didn't have to buy like cereal and we actually eat about 1 box a month. I also didn't have to purchase milk or eggs. We already had milk in the freezer since we don't use a lot. We never buy eggs since we have chickens who give us anywhere from 2-4 a day.