The Evolution of My Grocey Budget

Two years ago I went grocery shopping.

There wasn't much to it. I looked in the kitchen cabinets, saw what was missing, made a shopping list and went to the store. I bought the stuff on the list and then some other stuff and came home. Not alot of thought went into it. The list was a guide but not the "be-all, end-all". I generally spent about $150/week on groceries.

When I began reading about the frugal lifestyle I converted to "All Things Frugal" that went with Grocery shopping. I began watching the sale flyers, meal planning, keeping a price book, stocking up, using coupons, making a list and sticking to it, paying with cash only (so as to not overspend), and even did the CVS/Drugstore game. At first it was fun! It was like a game to see how much I could buy with how little an amount of money. But all of this takes time, and time is valuable, and when there isn't enough time, it causes stress.

When I first began "working" the frugal grocery games it was May or maybe June. And I was able to do all this very well for awhile. "Summertime and the living is easy...." especially for a teacher. I was spending an average of $100/week on groceries. But when the Fall came and school started (not just for the kids but for me too) there wasn't as much time to spend "working" the sales,coupons, meal planning etc... I began to take a good, hard look at what saved me the most money, on the things we need & use the most, and what took the least amount of time to get the best deal.

The first thing to go was the CVS/Drug store games... yes, they can save you tons of money and you can really get things for free. (I once got $156 of stuff at CVS for less than $3-- no kidding, ask my husband!) But since I had "stocked up" on all kinds of medications and toiletries over the summer, this part of the frugal grocery plan did NOT fall into the "things we MOST need" category. It also took ALOT of time. Many blogs say as you do it- it will take easier and take less time. It did get easier to put the deals together but it still took alot of time and usually several trips per week to get the best deals. So out went CVS/Drugstore games.

The next thing to go was reading all the sale flyers. I liked the idea of stocking up, better than planning my meals for the week, around what was on sale that week. I didn't completely give up sale flyers. But I only quickly scan the front page (where the store print their best deals, called loss leaders) and only if there is a "really great deal" on something we use alot of, then I put it on a "short list" and may run out to just get these few items on a really quick run to the store. And unlike my earlier days, I stick to my lists!

Just this past summer I discovered Bulk Buying. I joined BJ's, with my sister. I love this!! After over a year of watching prices , I have found that bulk buying gets me the best price, or close to it, for the items we use most often. And BJ's takes manufacuters coupons plus they have their own coupons. The biggest thing to me is the TIME I save. I can get really good prices, use coupons, and stock up on the things we use most often, but now instead of shopping for about 1 hour each week; I "bulk shop" about once every 3-4 weeks and it only takes 1 hour. I do run to my local grocery store once or twice inbetween these bulk trips, but just to buy some fresh fruit, bread (which is cheaper than BJ's), Soda (generic soda cheaper than BJs), and Cat food (Bjs does not sell the type my cat needs). All in all , one bulk trip per month with 2-3 small trip to the other grocery store, cost me an average of $85/week!! And saves me, literally, 3-4 hours each month.

Our Grocery Evolution:
Early 2007-- no plan-- spent about $600/month on groceries
Summer 2007-- frugal all the way!-- spent about $400/month on groceries
Current plan-- bulk buying w. coupons and occasional sale flyer deal-- $340/month on groceries.

Amazing! At each point I was thinking this is the least amount of money I need to feed my family. And yet, each time I have changed things up to make better use of my time and our money, we have been able to spend even less!

As the economy gets tighter and food prices rise, How has your grocery shopping evolved?