Plan a Grocery Shopping Day
The first thing you need to do is plan a day to go grocery shopping. I know it sounds simple but when you have a planned day and time, you are more prepared for your shopping trip. This allows you to research recipes, clip coupons, and take inventory of what you already have in your pantry and fridge. Eric and I used to do spur of the moment shopping trips when we realized we were out of something. That quickly lead more frequent trips to the store because we then ran out of something else which ultimately leads to spending more money than you think. I can’t stress enough how important it is to plan a day to shop.
Create your List of Recipes
Now that you have your shopping date set, it is important to create a recipe list. Our recipe list usually consists of 10-12 recipes which is enough meals for 2 weeks (if you count going out on date night at least once a week). Then it’s time to write down your favorite go-to meals plus one or two new meals that you have been dying to try from Facebook or Pinterest. Eric and I write down our list on a magnetic white board that we have on the front of our fridge. This makes our recipe list visible every morning so we can easily decide what we want to have for dinner that night.
Write Down Your Ingredients
Once you have your recipe list written down it is time to write your shopping list. But before you do that, it is important to take inventory of your fridge and pantry. This will help you save money by not buying the same thing twice while also using up ingredients that may have been hidden for a bit. With that done, you can write down a list of what you need to buy. The easiest way that Eric and I do this step is to open the My Cookbook app on one phone and open the Cozi grocery shopping list on the other phone. That way one person can read off the recipe ingredients while the other person types them into the shopping list. We love these two apps because they have made our meal plan and grocery shopping trips more efficient. If you are not familiar with these apps, then check out the My Favorite Phone Apps post.
Use Coupons
Using coupons is the step that helps save you money! Now I’m not suggesting that you become a crazy coupon person (although there is nothing wrong with that) but you wouldn’t believe how much money you save by using coupons. We love our local grocery store because they always have great sales plus online coupons that you clip through an app. All we have to do then is enter a phone number at the register and those coupons automatically come off! We also get coupons sent to us in the mail but I usually seem to forget those at home so the digital coupons are my favorite!
Meal Prep
This last step doesn’t save you any money but it definitely saves you time. As soon as you come home from shopping, it is a smart practice to prep your meals. Whether that be individually packaging your meat for each meal, cutting up fruits and vegetables for dinner and lunches, or even just properly putting away the ingredients in a way that is more visible. Your future self will thank you for taking these steps now versus having to do them for each meal.
Hope you’ve enjoyed these tips and are able to start putting them into practice in your own life. Trust me, you will be happy you took the time to plan ahead….and so will your bank account!
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