Everyone would like to save $100 a week on groceries, right?
We have been doing it and you can too!
Let me show you how!
How we overspend at the grocery store
Too often when we are tired and go to the store without a plan we buy too much food! Without a list
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf
The average American household throws away $2,200 of food each year. The average American throws away 300 lbs. of food per year. More than 20 lbs. of food is wasted per person every month in the United States.Apr 20, 2017
That’s $40 a week that the average American throws away!
You are also more likely to buy foods that you already have at home, but you forgot you had or maybe your spouse already bought that item. Trust me! That’s how we ended up with 10 bell peppers in our refrigerator this week! LOL
Shopping hungry! UGH! This is the hardest and probably the weakest area for me. When I’m hungry I want everything NOW. Everything smells and looks delicious, even if it’s something I don’t usually like or eat. I am more prone to buy it just because I am hungry at the time. Once it gets home I don’t eat it. For this reason
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/consumers-cough-up-5400-a-year-on-impulse-purchases.html
Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases
Most spontaneous purchases involve eating: 70.5 percent of respondents in a recent survey name food as their biggest impulse purchase.
Here are the top 5 impulse buys from CNBC.
We are also more likely to overspend at the store if we use the larger shopping baskets. Did you know that? Historically speaking people are more likely to purchase more food if they use larger carts. We are more satisfied with the fullness of the cart. If the cart isn’t full our brains think we haven’t got enough food yet to keep our bodies full. I honestly prefer those smaller “two-story” carts these days because it helps me stick to my list and not overbuy.
The least logical thing that we will do when shopping–we will buy something that we don’t intend to use or usually use just to use a coupon that we have for that item! WHAT?! Don’t do that! I don’t care how great the coupon is, don’t buy something that you don’t ever use or intend to use unless you know beforehand who you plan to donate it to! You are wasting money!
Finally, we’re too afraid to try the store brands. Don’t be! When I worked at Eckerd’s in high school and college I learned pretty quickly that most of the store brand products were actually made by the same manufacturers but labeled in a different package. So often it’s the same product in a different label. That’s it. Don’t be afraid of store brands. For a long time, Kroger’s gave a 10% discount to senior citizens and employees for purchasing the Kroger’s brand of products. This was a great deal and we’d stock up on store brands for my mother in law. We never had any quality issues with the generic products. According to a Dave Ramsey experiment, you could save $20 a week on just your dinners by using the store brands versus the name brands.
How meal planning helps you save money and not waste food
By meal planning, you are able to buy only what you need and save on groceries. No more extra fruit, vegetables, or meat going to waste in the refrigerator because you didn’t get to eat it in time. This also means no more guilt on wasting money or throwing away foods that could have fed someone else. (Tell me I’m not the only one who feels guilty over this, right?)
Step 1: Plan out your meals in advance. Look into your refrigerator and see what fresh foods are already there. If you have any vegetables and meats go ahead and decide what recipes you can use them
Step 2: Calculate any other ingredients you will need to prepare the recipes you chose in Step 1. Don’t forget sides like veggies or a salad. Add them to your shopping list. Read this post about Easy Meal Planning.
Step 2.5: I don’t personally usually refer to what’s on sale each week at the grocery store, but this is another way to save money each week. Look at what your local store has on sale, meats especially, and use this information for Step 3.
Step 3: Plan out the rest of your meals and ingredients you will need for those recipes. Maybe you saw something posted on Facebook, Pinterest or in a magazine, now is the time to try those recipes out! Add them to the shopping list. Don’t forget to calculate how far the meats will go. If I buy 5 lbs of chicken we can usually make 3 different meals out of it.
Step 4: Take your shopping list to the store and ONLY buy what is on your list! Nothing extra. No impulse buys.
Our breakfasts are all easy and things the kids can choose the night before or the morning of like eggs, eggs and bacon or bacon bits, waffles, cereal, protein shakes. Keep breakfast simple and always keep those ingredients or foods on hand.
nother way to save on groceries is to save your leftovers! If you have any leftovers they make great no-thinking-about-it lunches the next day! You’re not wasting food, money, or time!
Plan meals that your kids will eat. Do not cook separate dinners for the adults and kids. Everyone eats the same thing unless there’s a medical reason for special ingredients. Your kids will not starve. They will eventually discover that veggies can taste good and won’t kill them. Keep the family favorite meals on repeat. Not every day or every week repeat because your pallet will get bored, but maybe every two weeks repeat.
So how did you just save $100 (or more)?
If our family of 4 eats grabs dinner at my favorite fast food place, Chick-fil-A, then it costs us right at $30.
And you just saved $40 a week on food that spoiled in your fridge before you got the chance to eat it.
Plus you saved $70 a week on not making impulsive purchases at the grocery store or fast food.
Finally you also saved $20 a week by using store brands!
If you followed all of these recommendations you just saved yourself $160 a week! That’s $8320 a year! WOW!
The real question now is what are you going to do with that $100 you’re saving each week? Cha-ching! Check here for an idea.
