3 tips for Grocery Shopping

While I have a love/hate with grocery shopping, it's still something that has to be done. It's an ever-evolving process in terms of how to save money while shopping. I've learned so many things and I'm constantly trying out new tips. Here are some tried and true ones that I use on EVERY trip. Tip #1 Make a LIST and STICK TO IT I can't emphasize this one enough. When I was younger, we went grocery shopping all the time. Like ALL the time. And we were always running out of money, despite seeming to have spaghetti or Hamburger Helper every night. As an adult, I've realized what the problems were with HOW we shopped and a big one was not making a physical list. In an era before smartphones, we just had mental lists. My mom would decide what we were having for supper and I'd tag along. We'd each have our mental lists of what we needed and then we'd double check with each other and our cart to make sure everything was there. We'd then go up and down EVERY aisle to make sure we weren't forgetting anything. Needless to say, we still forgot items occasionally, but even worse, our cart always filled up with so many unnecessary items. As an adult, I quickly realized this was a TERRIBLE way to shop. So I started making a list. I allowed myself some treats, but stuck to my list. I keep the list running during the week so when we run out of things, it can go on the list. That way I'm not trying to remember everything we need on grocery day. As a sub-tip to this tip, try to remember the layout of your grocery store. Many will even provide a map at customer service. If you can write your list (or re-write as I do) in order of how you navigate the store, you'll find you even bypass many aisles, like junk food or soda (unless you've allowed for it on your list). Then you're not even tempted by sales or giant bags of popcorn or chips or 12-packs of soda. Tip #2 Coupons I am NOT a couponer. I do envy those that can buy $1000 worth of groceries for $12, but I do not have the time nor energy to spend clipping coupons. I also don't have the money to subscribe to the paper, even just the Sunday edition. So where do I get my coupons? Mostly in the mail. I subscribe to a LOT of magazines because I love them. A lot of them actually have coupons for groceries. You'd be surprised if you actually stop and read the ads instead of flipping right past them like I used to do. I also get a lot of coupons in the mail. I write to companies or sign up online for coupons by mail. It's a great way to get great manufacturer's coupons, and by writing to companies, sometimes they'll even send you a higher discounted coupon or even a free product one. I also browse my store ad online. Many times I'll see coupons for items I regularly buy and I just make a notation on my grocery list to grab an ad when I walk in the store. I also utilize my smartphone. There are many coupon apps that are great for deals. I also have my grocery store's app that allows me to connect my shopper card and browse and load coupons right from my phone onto my card. I don't even need my phone or paper coupons. When I slide my card for cashback points and gas points (Thank you Fred Meyer!) then any coupons on there apply themselves instantly. Tip #3 Meal Planning The second (and probably biggest) problem with the way we shopped when I was younger was that we never planned past a few meals at a time. Most nights we were running to the grocery store just for ingredients for that meal. We never thought to plan ahead, unless we went shopping at COSTCO and bought some items in bulk (10lbs of ground beef anyone?). By planning out meals for at least the entire week, there's less chance of buying the unnecessary. And less chance of being so tired at the end of the day that you just eat out. I have yet to plan past 1 week of meals, but as my children grow and become more independent and less needy of my arms to carry or breasts to nurse, my goal will be to have one day of cooking for more than one week of meals. In the meantime, I stick with a week. Many people think even one week is too long for them. What you don't realize is that the meals don't HAVE to be fancy gourmet meals. We think "meal planning" is synonymous with a mom who "has it all together." Not at all true. In my meal plans, I try to incorporate at least one "do nothing" meal, where I literally cut some stuff and it's done, or open a package and it's done. Because, let's face it, even the most energetic of us aren't at full steam 100% of the day. I love taking some leftover chicken and a bag of Asian salad mix and having a full meal (it even has veggies!) in less than 5 minutes. Your meals should at first just be the things you know your family loves and you can cook. Hot dogs, Nachos, Spaghetti, etc. The better you get at knowing what's for dinner every night, the more you'll learn to plan for bigger meals with more prep work. Also try to make things interchangeable. I write down my meals for the week, but as the week goes on, they often swap places based on my energy, our plans, or even "Oh hey, that avocado is finally ripe, better use it before it goes bad. Tonight is tacos!" With all of these tips, always start small and work your way up to more. I started with 3 nights of meals, making my whole list 20min before shopping, and using whatever coupons were in my store ad as I grabbed it walking in the door.