How To Save On Groceries | 4 Tips To Save Before The Store

It’s payday. There’s nothing left in the fridge or pantry, and you need to go shopping. You’re not really sure what you’re shopping for, you just know that you need to get some food back in the house.

Or maybe you just stock up on food on the same day each week, and get the same items week after week, but don’t really notice you’ve got way more packs of cashews than any human can eat in a month. Don’t worry! We’ve all been there at one point or another!

I may plan our meals monthly, but I shop weekly. I tried bi-weekly shopping, and while I loved the simplicity, and honestly how infrequently I had to be around people, I found don’t have the fridge space for two weeks worth of produce and dairy.

But I also do not actively sales shop simply because my house is not blessed with a giant walk-in pantry. It’s more arm’s-length pantry. Yet I’m also able to save hundreds each year simply by going through these four steps before getting to the grocery store.

How To Save On Groceries Before You Get To The Store

Start With A Meal Plan

I check our monthly meal plan, and choose our meals to match our schedule for the week. If it’s a particularly busy week, I won’t be adding in a bunch of longer, more complex meals. If I need to stretch a smaller amount of money for the week, I would choose roast chicken for the weekends, then use the leftover roasted chicken and make chicken sammies with it, and maybe chicken chili. Three meals for the week using only one main ingredient.

Whether you want to plan monthly, bi-weekly or weekly, you need to start with a meal plan. It makes it much easier on you throughout the week when you know what’s for dinner long before dinner time comes.

Take Inventory

Now is the time to compare the recipes you chose to what you have on hand in your fridge, freezer and pantry.

Keeping with my earlier example, for my meal of roast chicken, I see that I have some russet potatoes leftover from a previous week and can make baked potatoes with them, and just grab a can of peas, or a fresh veggie instead.

Create Your Grocery List Around What Is Needed

To help me keep track of what I need, I always write out a grocery list. We’ve done this for years. Back to our previous example… if know I would need a whole chicken, but I maybe I would like a fresh veggie with the baked potatoes and chicken. I also see that I need to pick up some buns and peppers for the sammies, and some dry beans for the chili. I write down what I would need in order to help keep our expenses low.

The same can apply to things you go through on a week to week basis. Maybe I see that we have 1 half-gallon of Lactaid in the fridge, and we go through 3 half-gallons a week. Rather than buying all 3 that we go through each week, I would only need to pick up two more.

Have A Running List Of Stock-Up Items

Another way I’m able to save up money on groceries is by keeping a running list of what is needed. If we used the last thousand island dressing from the pantry, I’ll write it down on our white board {which hangs on our pantry door} as a reminder that I need to buy more. When we have a week with some wiggle room in our grocery budget, I’ll add the dressing to our grocery list and put them in the pantry so it’s there the next time we need it.

To help you keep track of your meal plan and grocery list at the same time, I created a grocery list printable, free for you in my Resource Library.

It’s based off how I’ve set up our grocery lists for years now. Not only are you able to see everything you need to get, but you can also see your meal plan at a glance. I have found this to be a game changer over the years because I can see what would get shifted around or easily modified if the need arises. Or I can remind myself: while we don’t have sour cream at home, no, we really don’t need a container of sour cream this week because we don’t have meals that need it.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been to the store and based my list off of getting a family pack of chicken breasts, but there are no more. So a quick peek at my meal plan would tell me that maybe tenders would do in a pinch, or even boneless thighs.