grocery budget

Recently I've had several people ask me how we keep our grocery budget so low. Right now we're spending about $75 a week on groceries, and that includes cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products and diapers.

So, I've done some thinking about how we're able to spend so little. (I still have no idea how money saving mom only spends $40.00 a week on groceries.) Oh, and let me start by saying that we were spending about $100 a week and I remember thinking "there is no way I could spend less then that." Then I realized that if I could shave off $25 per week that would be $100 a month!

Here's how we do it. First of all, I think WHERE you shop makes a big difference, so I do most of my shopping at Walmart. The only store that I have found to be less expensive is Aldi, and actually the only thing I can get there for less is dairy products. And since the closest Aldi is 30 min away, I'm sticking with Walmart. Even if everything you buy at another store only costs between .10 and .25 cents more, when you're buying 100 items that really ads up.

Anyways, the great thing about Walmart is that they pricematch, which is another way that I save money each month. It only takes me about 10 min each week to look through the add and find out what's on sale, I then try to plan my meals around the sales. I probably save about $10 a week using pricematch, which seems small, but when you're on a tight budget an extra $40 a month comes in handy.

I think the biggest way I've saved money is to SIMPLY my meal plans. I usually have one main dish, some fruit, a vegetable and maybe some home-made rolls (which is also a BIG money saver.) I realized that I was making fancy dishes that my kids didn't like and they were costing me a fortune. That doesn't mean that I still don't enjoy trying new dishes, I do, but I try to stick to a couple new recipes a month.

I also checkout moneysavingmom.com each week for deals on deodorant, toothpaste, contact solution and many other things. Combining a sale with a coupon I can get most of these items for free or nearly free, and even if I don't need them at the time, I buy them, b/c I know I'll eventually use them and then I don't end of paying full price.

Another thing that I do is a pantry challenge. I got the idea from moneysavingmom and it's been awesome. I generally have one or two meals a week that I planned on making but for whatever reason didn't get around to. So every couple weeks I try to have a pantry challenge, using up all the extra food I have stashed in my pantry has been a big money saver. That way we can save $75 a week by not buying groceries...I then save that money and if we're throwing a party or I'm hosting bookclub I never worry about spending the extra money because I know I have it in my grocery budget.

OK, this post is getting really long but one last trick that I learned is to put a basket in your grocery cart and every impulse buy you pick up put in your grocery basket, then at the end of the trip, take out the basket and don't buy all the extra things you don't really need. Also use cash when paying for your groceries, it's a lot harder to part with cold hard cash then to just swipe your credit card, and it's easier to keep track of how much you're spending too.

You may wonder what we're eating every month but I assure you that we have a very healthy and varied diet. I know this doesn't work for everyone, we all have seasons of life when we are WAY to busy to spend time clipping coupons and comparing adds. Just sharing what has worked for our family, and because of all the little ways we save money I'm able to stay home with our kids and out of debt.