Tips for grocery shopping
Use my tips for grocery shopping to make this an organized and frustraion free event.
How much time on average do we as busy moms have for grocery shopping? Not much.
These tips for grocery shopping will save time and money and you will be able to provide your family with healthy food and reduce your grocery bill.
Plan out your weekly meals using the
Menu planning
templates and write the things you need to buy on a list provided there.
Shopping weekly prevents you from eating like a king in the first few weeks and then eating creative leftovers for the last few! But I have found it best to do a bulk shop for all my cleaning items and canned and dry goods at the beginning of my month and then purchase my meals per week. This means I only enter the doors of a grocery store 4X a month. This saves me time and money as I buy only what I need for that week.
Buy enough milk and bread for a week at a time and freeze them, to prevent late night rushes to the local grocers for replenishments.
Keep a running shopping list stuck up on a fridge or cupboard door where you can write down the items that you need as you run out of them. Some moms like a black or white board for this purpose, but I like to rather save the time and not have to reproduce it to a list that I need to take with me.
I have taken the advice of a veteran homeschool mom and have typed up a list of permanent groceries that we always need and when I need to shop,
I print it off, add any other items for special occasions and off I go. This list is also organized by aisle at our grocery store.
Stay away from convenience foods and items that are packaged to look homemade. They are generally still made in large factories and are packaged to appeal to our “homely” natures. These are always full of additives and preservatives. They are also much more expensive than if you take a little extra time to prepare them yourself.
Warehouses are useful for certain items like nappies/diapers, fruit juice and stationary where you can buy in bulk for a whole month, but very often these items go on sale at different stores so do not always assume that you are saving the most. If you have a store in your area which you pass regularly look out for their specials and pop in on your way past.
Shopping with children is not one of my activities! And even though some homeschoolers will tell you about all the educational benefits of shopping with children, I choose to find other ways of helping them understand the
wise use of money
. I plan my shopping early in the morning on a Saturday when the stores are quiet and my husband is home. This saves time, patience and money!
I shop with my children when they have saved sufficient money from their chores and they want to purchase an item. We also make a monthly trip to the grocery store for them to use their charity money to buy cans of food for the homeless and beggars we come across.
Saving money on groceries has recently become a topic in our home. We have 4 big eaters and 2 sparrows!
We cook as much from scratch as possible, eat large amounts of fruit and veggies, but we do not eat much from the legumes group as it gives us sore tummies!
Miserly Mom’s by Joni McCoy
is one of those books that become your best friend. I love her approach that being frugal does not mean that you need to adopt a scrooge
mentality or deprive yourself. Many of her chapters are devoted to saving money with food and for anyone looking for a way to save money
in this department, her book is a must.
Other pages you may be interested in are:
Organize your home
Getting organized with laundry
Lifeskills books for Kids
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