Journeying with Jamie: The Living Frugal Edition

Grocery Tips for Frugal Living

1. Create a meal plan. My number one recommendation for anyone living on a budget is to create a meal plan. Don’t go to the grocery store unless you know what you are going to buy and all of those items on the list can make a healthy dinner. Yes, it is time consuming at first, but if you make a list of meals in advance you don’t spend countless hours walking up and down the aisles trying to decide what looks good for dinner, make several trips to and from the store in one week because you don’t have all the ingredients or worse, eat out because you have nothing to make! I promise you will save time and money! lNeed new recipe ideas? Ask a friend or visit my favorite recipe site Allrecipes.com!

2. Aldi. Everyone needs to know where their local Aldi is; and I pray you have one! Not only do they offer great products at the best value, but because options are limited you won’t spend hours in the grocery store trying to decide which of the ten different tomato paste brands to buy. Tomato paste is tomato paste people; why pay an extra 50 cents for a cuter can??

3. Realistic Recipes. Earlier I mentioned my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com. Everyone loves to try new dishes, but many of us make the mistake of adding unrealistic recipes to our cooking repertoire. If the goal is to make more meals at home and save money, then we need to choose recipes that we actually have the time to make and the ingredients on hand. Try to select recipes with ingredients that you know are staples in your household. Then you aren’t spending time and money on meals that your family may or may not enjoy.

4. Price List. This tip comes from a fellow frugalista at my church. Take a trip through your most frequented grocery stores and make a price comparison list (on absolutely everything you might by.) Then, you will honestly know where to get the best deals!

5. Use What You Have! How many of us are guilty of looking in the refrigerator and saying we have nothing to make for dinner, even though our cabinets are overflowing from previous grocery purchases? Stop shopping until your refrigerator drawers and cabinet shelves really are empty! Get creative and throw together some meals with the ingredients you have. Many online recipe sites will give you the option of listing the ingredients you want to use and they will compile a list of delicious dinner options for you!

6. Coupons. You don’t have to go coupon crazy to value the dollars saved. Clip coupons and check out online coupon sites to save a few extra dollars. Many stores now have coupon kiosks that will print new coupons every few days. Scan your card and start to save. (Stay tuned for a later post on how to value the coupon without having to become a guest star on a reality coupon TV. show.)

7. Don’t fall for the “Sale!” signs. Now, I love a good sale as much as anyone, especially on clothes or anything in my local Target, but most of the time the “sale” is just a ruse to get you to buy something you weren’t planning on buying anyway! If you really were going to buy 10 boxes of Hamburger Helper, then by all means, hit up that 10 for $10 sale, but if it wasn’t on your list to begin with don’t buy it!

8. Don’t Craving Shop! All of us do it. You’re driving home from work and your craving homemade lasagna or a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Don’t do it. Don’t pull in to the grocery store parking lot and buy that craving, even if it is a dinner craving as opposed to a snack craving. Neither are on the meal plan, both are temporary and both, alas, cost you extra money that won’t be well spent!

9. Limit the snacks. Make a list of the snacks you and your family enjoy and limit which ones you are planning on buying. You don’t have to buy every snack you like, save some for the next trip. You spend and spoil less!

10. That Old Adage. Everyone knows it, but we still all do it. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry. By the end of the trip you will have bought every item in sight, won’t want to eat a single one of them by the time you get home because you will be so tired and hungry that you stopped at old faithful on the way home anyway: Mickey D’s!