One of my biggest budget problems has always been my grocery budget. I never really know how much I need to set aside for groceries. My grocery shopping consisted of walking down every single isle and grabbing things that looked cheap. When I cooked dinner, I would throw something together from what I had. If I was missing one item, I would run to the store and get it. This usually caused me to pay much more than normal. I recently figured out that I could save money on groceries by getting organized. It wasn’t enough to just have the store’s reward card. I needed to create a strategy for grocery shopping that was budget friendly.
Meal/Menu Planning
My first goal in getting organized was to start planning my meals. This forced me to look at budget friendly meals and look at what products were on sale before I went to the store.
There are a couple different ways I have found to be successful. One option to save money on groceries is to get the weekly grocery store ad and plan your meals based on that. Another option is to make a master meal planning list. Gather up all of your favorite budget friendly recipes and write them down. You can then plan each week’s meals by matching recipes with ingredients that are on sale.
The Master Shopping List
Once you have decided on your meal plans, add each of your recipe ingredients to a master shopping list. If you choose around 30 different meals, you should be able to create a master list that can be reused every month and still have variety in your meals. You can take your master shopping list and compare it to the ads each week. This way, you can stock up on the products you need while they are on sale. Having your shopping list ready ahead of time will keep you from adding a ton of extra stuff to your cart and enable you to gather all the coupons you need. This is how being organized can help you save money on groceries.
Try out The Ultimate Editable Shopping List by GroceryLists.org: Download Here.
Save Money on Groceries with Menu Planning Printables
MoneySavingMom.com has some amazing printable meal planners. Her Master Menu Planner Pack has 14 different customizable menu planners and can be downloaded here.
This amazing package she has put together include all of the following:
- One-Week Menu Planner (vertical).
- One-Week Menu Planner (horizontal).
- One Week Menu Planner with Shopping List.
- Seven-Day Menu Planner.
- Seven-Day Meal Planner.
- Two-Week Menu Planner (vertical).
- Two-Week Menu Planner (horizontal.
- Fourteen-Day Menu Planner.
- Four-Week Menu Planner (vertical).
- Four-Week Menu Planner (horizontal).
- Monthly Menu Planner.
- Meal Planning Worksheet.
- Shopping List.
- Two-Store Shopping List.