You should probably know that I'm pretty big on efficiency. I value punctuality, and ways to get a job done excellently with as little time or effort expended as possible. Also, I really dislike Wal-Mart. But, I am regularly tweaking my routines to ensure I'm being efficient with both our time and resources. So that brings me to my new grocery shopping plan. Maybe it'll inspire you?
I typically like to shop at Aldi for groceries, and I've been into a Lidl once so maybe I'll try that sometime. But we live 45 minutes from the nearest Aldi or Lidl. If I'm not already heading to "the city" it's kind of a long drive to save a bit of money. I'll give you some insight as to my old way of doing things and what I'm wanting to change.
Old: order personal and household items from grove.co, because they're all natural (fancy all natural, not hippy all natural)
New: purchase personal and household items when I'm at the grocery store, and buy the best quality, best ingredients I can afford. Over the summer, I'm shopping at Wal-Mart because it's cheap and close. They should have a decent selection of natural products. When my Bible study starts up in the fall, I'll be heading to the city once a week, and will probably switch back to Aldi or Lidl then. I know Aldi doesn't have a great selection of personal products, but it will eliminate decision fatigue. Or I'll head to Wal-Mart while baby is at his piano lesson.
Old: buy grass-fed/organic meat from Aldi, as much as I can afford. Which is not much.
New: nail down when the Food Lion around the corner from my house marks down meat. I think it's Fridays - we went last week and hit the jackpot! Spend my allotted meat amount there, prioritizing grass-fed/organic, but not stressing over it. Both my boys are big meat eaters and we've been craving variety lately.
Old: buy organic produce if we eat the outside (berries, mushrooms, etc), or conventional if we don't (bananas, pineapples, etc). As much as possible.
New: nothing changes here. That's still my general rule of thumb, and is how I'm able to afford as much organic produce as possible.
Old: Buy everything else at Aldi. Stick to a fairly set grocery list every time, the same things. That keeps the pantry stocked and I know a handful of meals I can put together without recipes.
New: start shopping loss leaders. I've never done this before! We get a weekly circular in the mail, and my mom (the queen of frugality in her heyday) told me how to find loss leaders. So I'll spend my different grocery category amounts this way first, at the Food Lion around the corner. Then I'll purchase everything else on my main grocery trip.
Old: grocery shop twice a month.
New: naturally, the changes I've already mentioned won't quite allow for this. But my main grocery trips will still be only twice a month.
This post is about to get a lot longer so just stop here if you don't care about actual budget numbers/breakdown.
Ever since our poor newlywed days, I've taken my grocery budget and broken it down by category based on what we eat or need to eat the most of. Because I'm not sure how to explain it well, I'll just share our current actual numbers with you. Keep in mind: we are a family of 3. Jake is a powerlifter so he eats more than average. Baby can eat as much as Jake some days. I'm a woman and therefore am constantly trying to lose weight by eating smaller portions. So I think we eat more like a family of 4 considering how much the boys eat.
$300 overall grocery budget
$30 15 dozen farm-raised eggs
$20 bulk (rice or oatmeal or pasta or beans, just stock up)
$5 as much wheat bread from Wal-Mart's discounted bread section - usually at least 5 bags of some sort of wheat bread
$20 household/personal items
$45 dairy
$72 produce
$70 meat
(the rest is for other random stuff you probably don't care about. baking supplies, fresh flowers, emergency frozen pizza - cheaper than take-out)
You may think that's a high budget, or you may think it's a low one. Don't worry about comparisons unless you think you have room for improvement. Cut out the processed foods and you'll have much more wiggle room than you probably think. I plan to annually increase our budget by around $50/month to account for baby growing, and to keep up with my desire for more organics. But that's an ideal; our budget is always the primary factor, quality a (very close, albeit) second.
Do you have a grocery shopping strategy? Do you update it periodically? How is your grocery budget?
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