My Grocery Routine

Several people have asked me about how I do my grocery shopping. Really, there's no real secret. I have a budget, a plan and I stick to it. This little routine is what works for me. I recommend you finding out what works for you. Hopefully mine will give you some direction and ideas, though. Let me know how I can help (seriously, in any way).

First off, I do not do couponing - however it's a GREAT idea and if you are up for doing it - then I highly recommend it. You can save a lot this way – I just don’t like shopping at “Big” grocery stores and the stores I do shop at don’t really take coupons. If you're interested in cutting coupons - check out a website called The Grocery Game. It's a little intense but it's pretty cool and I know some people who have had gret success with it. Other websites that I love are MoneysavingMom and Rhonda's Homestyle Recipes. I know Rhonda from an online group and she's AMAZING. On her blog, she shares recipes and meal plans. She's awesome!

I mainly shop at Fresh and Easy, Sam’s Club, Sprouts and Henry’s. I will go somewhere else if there is a VERY good sale. But for the most part I’ve noticed that those 4 stores have the cheapest food for the quality I want. We also have a very strict budget of $300 a month for food. To be honest, I could probably do it for less, and I do, if I have to – but this gives us a little room. I use ONLY cash. We follow Dave Ramsey (you can ask me about it if you want) and because of that, we pay everything mainly with cash. I tell you this because it’s one of the reasons why I have such a detailed grocery shopping plan. I don’t have any room to budge when I’m just using cash.

I get my sale ads on Tuesdays (you know...the kind that comes in your "junk mail"). This starts my grocery shopping routine and is perfect timing b/c Sprouts and Henry’s have “double ad Wednesday”. This means that the sales from the week before and the sales for the current week overlap on Wednesdays. You get the best price, of the most stuff, of both weeks! So I do everything on Tuesday and then try to shop Wednesdays if I can. Tuesday I look through my pantry, fridge and freezer and see what I have on hand (keep it in the back of your mind or write it down). Then, I lay out all the sale ads and take a quick look to see what’s on sale and if there are any BIG sales going on. I jot down things that catch my eye and then look through all the sale ads to see who has that item the cheapest that week. I just started to keep a price spreadsheet where I enter the price of groceries (not on sale) after a shopping trip. This helps because if one store says that they have an item on sale, I can quickly check to see if there’s another store that normally sells it at a cheaper price. I.E. - Sprouts might have a sale on an item but Sam’s Club might carry it normally at a cheaper price. Just because there’s a sale, doesn’t mean that’s the lowest price around. Does that make sense?

Anywho – after I write down everything that is on sale and everything I have on hand (or at least have the little list in my head) – I do my menu planning. My menus are mainly based around sale items and food I already have. If there’s something that’s really on sale that week (for instance, the other week, Henry’s had corn on sale 6 for $1) then we’ll be eating a lot of particular food or I buy extra (if it’s a pantry or freezer item) to stock up on.

When I menu plan – I make sure that each “first dish” can be re-created at least another time if not a third time. For instance, I’ll buy one of those $5 chickens, debone it and can use it in chicken pasta the first night, then maybe chicken quesadillas another time and or chicken salad sandwiches, or BBQ chicken pizza…or whatever.

So after I have my menus for the week, then I make my list. I write down every item I need first. Then I make sure that the stuff I have on hand—I have enough of (made that mistake before!). As I go through my fridge/freezer/pantry list (either in my head or written down), I cross off the items. What’s leftover is my basic grocery list. Then I re-write my list of stuff I actually need to buy. I make 4 columns – one for each store – and then write the items I need in whatever store column that has the best deals. Next to each item, I guesstimate how much it will cost me. If it’s on sale – I know exactly how much it’ll cost. If it’s just something that I’ll pick up from the store, then I try to guess high. I end up buying a lot of the same things each week and know about how much each item cost. Then I add it all up and make sure that it’s in my budget. If it’s not, then I have to figure out how to get it down. I either change a menu item, or see if I can make a current menu item into another meal. But honestly, if you kind of keep your budget in the back of your head while you’re making your list – you probably won’t really go over too much, I hardly ever do. If you only have $50 for the week, then you know you're not going to be spending $20 on steaks. You know?

After I do all that, sometimes I’ll get anal and re-write my list yet again in the order of the store's asiles (I know them all so well that I know what aisles are which and what food is in each). This way I don’t waste time when I’m actually in the store. When I go shopping, I check to make sure that my price guess is correct. If it’s higher, then I’ll change it. If its lower (by a dollar or less) then I’ll leave it be (It gives me some cushion) This way – I know exactly how much my bill will be when I get up to check out. This is imperative since I pay with cash, I can’t just pull out a credit or debit card to cover me if I go over. If I'm over, something has to go back- and that is EMBARRASSING! This also helps me stay strictly to my budget and not pick up stuff that’s not on my list. Any leftover money I have in my fund gets put in a different envelope for a big Sams Club trip or if I need to pick up something extra I forgot about. I try to only spend like 90% of my budget – then I have some wiggle room and extra cash if needed.

Whew…. It looks like a lot more work than it really is. It doesn’t take me too long. The longest thing is the menu planning. But it’s well worth it.

My three big pieces of advice are to have a strict budget (using only cash if you can), to menu plan and to ask store employees when stuff goes on sale (at fresh and easy, they mark everything down at about 7pm. So stuff you might buy at 6pm at full price, will become half price an hour later. If I can, I shop then or in the morning. Or try to take advantage of special days like the double ad Wednesdays I talked about earlier). Those things have transformed our grocery habits. I also will put in the extra effort to make more things from scratch because really, it’s SO much cheaper. For instance, if I’m going to use beans a lot in our menu, I try to buy them dried and soak overnight. It’s really not that much work and it will save you A LOT of money. Rice is also super cheap and goes SO far.

Something that I want to start trying is cutting down our portion sizes. It’s hard for me to do (b/c I come from a very family style type of eating) but it saves a lot on your grocery bill and it’s healthier. In order to help with this, I want to start serving courses. For instance, if I’m planning on having a salad with our meal – serve the salad FIRST, and then bring out the main meal. I also want to get into this habit because as the kids grow older, this time is a great time to chat about the day or do devotions or whatever.

Hope that helped everyone! Let me know if you have any more questions or if I didn’t explain something clear enough. Good luck and keep me updated if you decide to try anything!