Thursday, January 23, 2014

Grocery Shopping with Pennies

A few months ago I found a better way to grocery shop. Well better than the way I used to grocery shop. Even though we were on a budget then, we'd kind of just get foods that we like. We would never go over the budget, but we also never had enough actual meals to make it through till pay day. We'd have a lot of this and that. This and that meaning it couldn't even result in a meal.

So I found a different way to write out our grocery list. Yes it takes a little longer to write, but in the end we always have enough food, and we still stay under our budget

 

First things first. We are living on a very small budget. I'm trying to make sure we have food on the table. I love eating healthy, but sometimes that's just not in the budget. So this post wont really have ways to eat healthy when you are poor, though I'm sure you can still plan your meals around healthy food.

 

Step 1: Figure out how many Breakfasts, Lunches, and Dinners  and snacks you will need until your next pay day.

 

Step 2:  Write actual meals out. This includes sides.

 I try and make them as simple as possible. More ingredients usually means more money.

 

Step 3: When you write your meals out, write the ingredients that you need for them, including the items you have in your fridge or pantry already, and include the items you may need for cooking, such as oil for frying.

 

Step 4: If you are really living off of pennies and need your money to stretch, find meals that consist of the same ingredients, then (if it saves you money) buy in bulk! For example, chili comes in big cans as well as small cans. If we are using a lot chili in our meals, it's usually better to get the big can and use it in multiple meals.

 

Here is an example of my list

 

Chili Tacos

 (Chili, Tortillas, Cheese, Oil)

Chili Baked potato

 (Chili, Potato, Butter, Cheese, Sour Cream)

Chili Bowl

 (Chili, Cheese, Bread)

Tacos

 (Hamburger, Seasoning, Tortilla, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cheese)

Taco Pasta

 (Hamburger, Seasoning, Rotini pasta, Cheese, Sour Cream)

Taco Salad

 (Hamburger, Seasoning, Tortilla chips, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cheese)

TCT

 (Tortilla, Cheese, Refried Beans)

Bean and Cheese Burritos

 ( Beans, Cheese, Tortilla, Sour Cream, Oil)

BBQ Chicken & Rice

 (Chicken, Butter, Rice, BBQ sauce)

Lemon Chicken and Rice

 ( Chicken, Butter, Rice, Seasoning)

Chicken and Rice with Soy Sauce

 ( Chicken, Rice, Butter, Soy Sauce)

 

 

Step 5: when you get done writing out the meals, figure out how many times you want to eat that meal.

 

Example: Chicken and rice, the chicken I get is the frozen kind. It comes in a big bag and it'll feed us at least 5 times. Don't forget what left overs usually are, that can count as a lunch the next day.

 

Step 6: Time to right out which groceries you actually need. Check your pantry and fridge to see what you don't need to buy this time around, and cross them off your list.

Step 7:Don't forget to check the adds. We do grocery shopping at Walmart, Mainly because we are able to price match and use any coupons we have. So check those prices on your items written down (don't put new things on your grocery list just because it's on sale).

Step 8: Stick to your list! That is our biggest struggle while grocery shopping. If it's not on your list, don't get it.

I'd love to hear your feedback and simple recipes that work for you!

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