Grocery Planning...a new plan AGAIN

Menu planning, grocery store planning, feeding my family, annoying me to no end, constantly needing to cook....what do these things have in common??? I don't know either. I'm babbling. I think everyone should babble once a day just to get it out of their system. Don't babble to your husband, it's annoying to listen to.

So my grocery store plan last year at this time was to go to the grocery store on the same day each week and spend $75. Once a month I'd go to the neighboring town and pick up some dented canned goods and spend about $20. In August I decided to join Sam's Club and I've been changing the way I grocery shop since then.

Over the past year I was able to whittle my grocery bill down to about $60 per week. This number does not include any supplies, school lunches, meals out (about once a month if that) and it doesn't include what we spend for Christmas meals (that is in our Christmas budget). I decided in December that I'd save even more money if I went to the store every other week. Having tried that now for the past few months, I've decided it probably saves me money, but causes too much stress. I'm going back to once a week shopping. The trick for me is figuring out how Sam's is going to fit into this plan. My husband is changing jobs so starting in March I'm taking $260 per month. I'll divide out the money and try to keep some separate for my Sam's trip. Who knows, maybe I'll decide that Sam's isn't worth the hassle.

This week I'm shopping at the dented can food store on Thursday and then on Friday I'll hit Safeway and Leuders. I've been spending about $20 for items that we need for that week and the other $40 is either saved or spent on "pantry" food. This is food that I don't need for the week, but is at my stock up sale price and something we will want in the future (ie. chicken, sausages, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mayo, etc).

In summary, I'm glad I tried something new and learned from it. If I continued doing the same thing over and over again I never would have found out how little I can spend to feed my family!

Back to weekly shopping, until I try something new again!