The most important thing (besides using coupons) that you are going to do to lower your grocery bill is to start menu planning. The biggest budget buster you can have is to base your meals on whatever you feel like having instead of what is on sale. When you start to base your meals around what is on sale, you are going to start to see your weekly bill drop.
And it is not as hard as you might think. Some of the meals you cook on a regular basis are going to have the main ingredients on sale that week.
Here’s how I plan our menus:
- Our sale papers come out on Wednesday. I get the sale papers for the major grocery stores and I sit down with a pen and a piece of paper (check out my weekly planner I got at Disney World).
- First flip to the meat section of each sales flyer. Pick out the meats you would like to cook. Be sure to check each flyer to see who has the best price.
- Then flip to the produce sections. Pick out the vegetables that are on sale that would compliment the meats you are using.
- Next it’s on to frozen foods, baking goods and the rest of the flyer. Pick out the ingredients you need to round out your meals.
- I also suggest keeping at least 1 or 2 meals in your freezer that you can cook in just a few minutes (Pizza, frozen family dish, etc).
- And that’s really all there is to it. I plan my menu on Wednesday for meals starting on the following Monday night.
And make sure you stock up when you can. The bigger the stockpile, the less you will spend each week on groceries.
If you are new to Couponing, you might want to take a moment to read more in my Getting Started Couponing series.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah ha! What a great idea! I’ve heard so much about “meal planning” but have never had anyone suggest steps to get there. This is perfect. Thank you!!
How do u know what a “good” price on meat is? I never know how much to spend? On meat , cereal etc
thanks
Usually I say if it is under $2 a pound, it’s not a bad price. :)
@ Tabby
In general here in Texas. 1.99 seems to be the magic number on a lot of things, that or 1.69 a pound. So example.
Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, anywhere between 1.69 to 1.99 is a good price. This is the same for boneless skinless thighs.
WHOLE CHICKENS, anything 99c and under a pound is good. The best is 79 or 69 c a pound.
Ground beef. The 80/20 and 85/15 Sometimes goes as low as 1.69 a pound, usually it is 1.99 when on sale. So anytime you see any of the fat grades of ground beef for this or close, it is usually a good price.
Roasts, about 1.99 a pound is good.
Pork Chops, Steaks, Ground Turkey, etc. etc. Usually around here they go on sale for b1 g1 free or they go sometimes buy one get 2 free. (usually they raise the price up and it is a bigger package, but you do get 2 free with it so it all works out to be the same)
Sausage like Hillshire farms 2/5.99 is about normal and makes them about half off. So that is a good price.
Bacon is hard. I used to get it all b1g1free but lately pork prices are going up a lot and vary all the time. 3.99 is a good sale price or b1g1free. And there are better qualties of bacon out there.
Pork Roast (same prices are going up and varying a lot) but used to be 99c a pound for a pork roast was a good price. I’m assuming it would still be around that.
Generally I like to spend somewhere around 20 bucks for my meat for a week, but not going over 30. It is the most expensive part of your whole food budget. And anytime you see them listed on the front page, they are the things that are on a sale special. Just compare your different grocery stores and choose the lowest of all. If you see a limit on it, you probably will not see that price for a long time or never again. This is usually a doorbuster (meaning they got this at a special price for their chain and probably will not have that again) I hope that helps you.
And thanks for sharing this about your way of doing meal planning. I always love to see how different people do things. :) And I got some ideas to shorten my meal planning out. :)
A way I save a lot of money is that I am lucky to live near two whole sale meat stores where you can pick up meat very cheap. i never have to look for meat sales. Then i use the grocery stores for everything else. Having food on hand sure stops you from eating out.
One more money saving/menu tip – when you are at the store, pay attention to the “sell by” dates on the meats. My stores discount the meats the day before the date in the morning, between 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. I go on the day before the sell by date. If you pay attention, a lot of the same meats share the same day – like all the ground beef, etc. .
I also stockpile meat and pre-made meals in my upright freezer in the basement. I found it to be very important to keep a list of what I have in there otherwise I end up forgetting and throwing it out. When you throw food out, no matter how much you saved on it, you wasted the money you spent!
I have to say that in this aspect I cheat a little :) I use a website that creates my menu for me based on what is on sale at the store. You have to pay $5 a month for this but I think it is well worth the time saved. It also prints out a grocery list of everything you need. The meals are easy to make and yummy. It is called E-mealz.com
Menu planning is a must to keeping your budget intact! My store also discounts the meats between 8-9 am. I drop the kids off then cruise by the meat counter. I have 2+weeks of meat in my freezer most of the time. So I am free to always look for a better deal. Our local flea market has great produce. Fresher & more varieties then our Ingles. It seems to have a longer shelf life & waaaayyyyy cheaper too! I just got a case of mangos for 5 bucks :D You can smoothie them, make salsa, marinades, etc with them. Bi-Lo has lots of B1G1 on bags of apples, oranges, potatoes & onions. Apples & Oranges always are great for lunches. Living rural AmazonMom.com has had some great deals on snacks. No driving and I have scored some deals on “free” shipping. I plan snacks and lunches too, so its in the house and accounted for.
To make this even easier – I’ve created a running list of all the meals I make for our family (we currently have about 60). Then, if we try a new recipe and it’s a hit – I add it to the list!
Great Tips Thanks!