Feeding my family is so stressful!!
I don't mind the actual preparing of the food so much, but I really, really dislike planning the menu, making the grocery list, doing the shopping, unloading the groceries, and then putting them away. That's pretty much the whole process, isn't it?
We have a small grocery budget ($300/month) and I only go shopping twice a month, so I feel a lot of pressure to a) stick to the budget and b) make sure I have enough food in the house to last us two weeks. Getting ready for a shopping trip is a really long process, especially now that I have a Costco membership and I'm figuring out what to buy there and what to buy elsewhere.
So: how do you do it? What do you do that keeps your costs down and makes the process go more smoothly? Coupons, price matching, bulk stores, Bountiful Baskets, I wanna hear about it!
5 comments:
Wow, $300 a month I am impressed. I would love to see your menus because I need to take a crash course from you. I am lucky to keep my groceries at $300 a week. (ok, exaggerating a little but not much) Do you spend a lot of time in the kitchen? Please share the grocery wisdom. :)
I've pinned some things about what to/not to buy at Costco, very detailed posts and good info. I also love "utahsweetsavings.com" - they always post the best amazon deals so sometimes you can find great stuff on amazon for your house (toilet paper/paper towels/diapers, etc) and you don't have to leave the house so that's nice. Sorry, there's only two/3 of us and we live across the street from the grocery store so I don't really menu plan or plan ahead for shopping :\
I recently started shopping for 2 weeks. It does save money, but I feel the same way you do. I usually have a panic attack in the parking lot before I go into the store reviewing all my price matches and praying I haven't forgotten anything we can't do without.
I know how you feel!!!
Sherry
Since we are military I do most of my shopping at the military commissary. I recently joined Sam's club and madea list of foods we eat on a regualr basis, checked prices online at Sam's and broke it down to the unit price. Then I took that list to the commissary and compared the unit prices. Now I have a "master list" of what will be cheaper at which store. The next time I went to Sam's I took note of half a dozen things we eat that weren't on the first list. Now I can compare those items.
I tend to buy certain foods in cycles. It isn't written down or anything but one week I will buy a lot of pasta and another week I might buy a lot of chicken. I stock up on whatever is on sale at the time. It takes a whiloe to build up a supply but it's how I am slowly building our food storage.
Amy--I just made a master list a few weeks ago. It is really helpful, because a lot of the things listed on the "DO buy at Costco lists" that I've seen online are either exactly the same price or way, way, way more expensive than at Walmart. Now I know what my base price is and I can check things as I shop. It's been really helpful, because Costco is overwhelming and I don't want to overspend just because I think it's a good deal!
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