How to spend less on your groceries per week

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Groceries can be expensive.  Raise your hand if you have ever spent more than $200 a week for groceries and thought what did I buy?  Raise your hand if you have ever gone to the grocery store and bought a car full of groceries, and got home and your kids said “We have no food!”.  Yes, it happens to us all, but I know you can spend less on your groceries by learning how we shop and put a hard stop on both of those questions even with inflation.

1. Stretch Meals

Are a game changer and you can add a few of them a week!

You should know the items that can stretch your dollar for meals.  These are simple items such as noodles, beans, potatoes, rice, and only cooking or using what you need. 

It is simple to add a vegetable to every meal, and plus it is healthy for us to do so.  We always add a potato someway to meals.  We will buy a 5 lb bag of potatoes and this will last us at least 2 to 3 weeks. What can you make out of potatoes?  You can make baked potato in the microwave.  Use a folk place holes in it, put plastic wrap around it, and put in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Bang, you have a baked potato!  You can cut them up and make them fries.  Make mashed potatoes by boiling them.  Make garlic sliced potatoes.  There are so many ways to make potatoes different and have them stretch your meal.

Noodles is another way to stretch your dollar for meals.  A box of spaghetti easily can cost only .49 cents on sale and you can make this go far by splitting it up for 3 meals instead of only one and throwing out half of it later on the week because no one ate the left overs. We use noodles to make spaghetti with red sauce, white sauce, add butter for butter noodles, we also make them for a pasta salad, and other pasta side dishes. This is an easy way to stretch your meal!

2. Meal Planning 101

Everyone always asks us how we do it?  How we only spend $350 on groceries each month, and it is easy to say a plan!

We created a plan for you to help you do the same thing!

This is where we created meal planning 101 with our expertise from working at the grocery store for over 10+ years.  We went from spending over $600+ a month on our groceries to spending only $350 a month and we still eat like a champ with healthy meals and not beans and rice every day!

Today, we had corn beef and cabbage! Did you know those things are expensive! A way to save is to stock up during St. Patricks week while they are on sale and freeze them! You can have corn beef and cabbage all year round instead of just once a year! If you didn’t know corn beef can easily be $20 – $40 per package in off season.

3. Deals

You must search for deals, and luckily technology has made this even easier to do.  You can search ads before you go to the store.

Looking at the ad helps save you money, but it can also be a way to get you to spend more of what you do not need!

We follow people who find deals too.  I love following themoneysavingmom because she often shops Kroger too and we learn from her deals. 

Personally, I learned best how to find deals from my father though.  My dad is a guru on finding deals at the grocery store!  

You can self-teach yourself too!

Make sure you buy meat in the bulk or buy it at a mark down price, but be careful if you buy at Wal-Mart lately on the markdown meat.  It’s not a very good markdown deal!  Saving .50 cents on meat is not a deal!

I usually go buy less than $5 for meat and think about how many meals I can make out of it. For example, if I find chicken for $2 and they are wings.  We can easily make this a $4 meal by having wings, salad, and a veggie.

To stretch it for more people add a side of cilantro lime rice or broccoli cheddar rice. 

Here are some dreams we have accomplished so far read them to inspire you:

• Paying Cash for our Wedding
• Paying Cash for our Car
• Being 100% Debt Free

4. Learn your Store

This is the best advice for everyone.  I used to be a coordinator at several Krogers in a highly populated area.  You have to know your store because every store is different.  Though big grocery retailers try to make everything similar; they also make it a great shopping experience for cliental in that area. For example, people who have money will more likely have organics and focus on all-natural products and people who are wanting a good deal will be more focused on name brand and giving you the biggest bang for the buck.  They will do more $10 for 10 sales.  

You need to know where to go to find your mark downs. 

Know what it means when you walk into your store, I know if we walk into Food Lion by our home that if it is a Tuesday or Wednesday I will find bargains on the meat.  I will find meat that is amazing in price and good quality.  Then at Aldi, I shift my mindset.  I usually will not buy meat because I cannot never find the great deal for meat prices, but I do find good deals on produce, snacks like chips, find good deals on bars, and frozen items.

5. Shop Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Find time to shop during these days to benefit your budget.  Why? Everyone else is shopping Friday – Sunday.  Friday and Monday are for pick up planners parents.  Saturday and Sunday are for those who work Monday thru Friday.  Even if you work Monday thru Friday, find time to go to the store whether it is during your lunch hour or late after work.  

Look here, I am telling you grocery store secrets! I have worked in the grocery retail business for 12 years, and have perfected my shopping and deal finding to get the best bang for our buck.  Trust the process and shop these days! 

Groceries do not have to be expensive!  Do not try to be someone else, but find your own way of doing things to help you and your family save in this area.  If you feel like you are far from it, learn and make mistakes, but keep going and get up.  You can do it!  You can spend less than $350 per month!  

Want to make your grocery budget the best year yet?  Start today!

Like if you want to save money on groceries.

Like if you need a plan for groceries.

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