Once A Month Grocery Shopping.

I have a friend that goes down to the city and grocery shops once a month.  I decided to give it a try. I am no professional.  This was my very first time. I am sure I still have quite a bit to learn.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Inventory the pantry, fridge and freezer.  Clean them all out. Make a list of any meals you have most of the ingredients for. Make a list of any meals you have all the ingredients for, or any freezer meals you have stocked up.  I also made a tally sheet of how many servings of each type of meat I had in the freezer.

2. I made a list of about 30 dinners total.  there are approximately 5 that repeat.  I then listed out 15 lunches and each of them will repeat once for 30 days worth of lunches.

3. Make the grocery list.  It needs to include all ingredients you need, perishable and non perishable, breakfast items, snacks, and drinks. 

4. Sort the grocery list (this can be combined with step 3.  List it out by canned food, baking supplies, meat, produce, frozen, breads, etc.  (base it on your stores aisles.) I also put the produce on the back.

5. Plan for it financially.  I went with my total monthly grocery budget.  I only spent 1/3 of it!  I decided not to buy all my produce, milk or bread.  (see below)

6. Go shopping.  Eat before you go.  Make it a fun date with your husband, it’s a lot of work.  I was grateful for the help and time I got to spend with mine.  Get a babysitter. DO NOT TAKE THE KIDS! I repeat, DO NOT TAKE THE KIDS!

7. Come home.  Sort and take care of the food.  Any meat you buy put into meal portion size containers (precook some if you want, I didn’t do this since shopping and the 3 hour drive was enough for me.)

8. Menu plan out by week.  Write down any produce you will need for the first week.  Buy that.  

Repeat step 8 each week.

Do not wander around the grocery store you are getting your produce at.  Go in, get what’s on the list and get out.  NOTHING EXTRA. 

I have saved more than 1/2 on my grocery budget by doing this just for one month. I will update each month. 

I made a list of all the lunches and dinners for the month and hung a dry erase board inside my pantry door for quick and easy planning!

Do you have questions for me about this?

I’d love to hear them!