I have put together a list of five ways you can save on your grocery budget, so that you can get real with your money.

Groceries is an area of budgeting that moms can get really carried away with.  We want to provide nourishing food to our families and so we often let that justify spending excessive amounts on our grocery bills.  But spending more doesn’t mean spending wisely.

1. MEAL PLAN

I know this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this, but that’s because it’s a tried and true method that can help you scale back your spending on groceries.  I’ve made it even easier for you with this free grocery and menu planner. So if you aren’t already meal-planning, what are you waiting for?

By setting aside time to plan out meals, you are giving yourself time to come up with budget-friendly, delicious meals.  I like to plan 5-6 dinners per week because we inevitably have a night or two that we wind up eating out or going to a friend’s or neighbor’s house for dinner (Taco Tuesday is a big deal in our ‘hood).  I also like to plan dinners so there’s enough left over for lunch the next day for both myself and my husband.  Adding that little condition to the meals that I plan allows us to save big-time on lunches.

Another way to meal plan is by having the same meals week after week.  This is basically meal-planning Level II.  We do this for breakfasts and it works beautifully.  I actually started doing this because I was tired of making different breakfasts for everyone (short-order cook mom), so I made a list of five breakfasts that we eat most often, assigned each one to a weekday and voila!  Do you know how long it takes me to plan breakfasts each week?  Zero seconds.  It’s amazing.

2. CUT OUT EXPENSIVE ITEMS

Hear me out here.  This is a list of some things you should consider cutting from your family’s menu.

Alcohol 

Americans spend an average of 1% of their budget on alcohol.  That’s a lot of money!  This is a total luxury item and something that should be eliminated if you are serious about reaching your financials goals.  We cut out alcohol for one month last year and definitely saw a change in our grocery (and dining out) budget.

Meat

When planning your weekly menu, find meals that are vegetarian or vegan.  I’m not talking about just Meatless Mondays, I’m talking NO MEAT.  Meat is super expensive (if not, it’s probably because the meat is pumped full of antibiotics and comes from animals who barely saw the light of day).  The reason I hear most often for eating meat is to get enough protein, but there are still plenty of ways to get enough protein without eating meat: beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu, tempeh, seitan, not to mention dairy!

Organic

Go conventional on some items.  We have decided to buy conventional rather than organic in some areas.  I used to buy only organic for all of our groceries and even though I felt really good about the food I was serving to my family, our grocery bill was outrageous for our income level.  Now we buy organic and local on somethings (usually produce), but about half of our groceries are conventional.  I look at this as a temporary sacrifice in our lives.  In order to reach the financial goals we have as a family, this is an area we have decided to cut back until we reach those goals.

3. CASH BUDGET

This is such a good tip.  We have been using a cash budget for groceries for exactly a year now and it has helped SO MUCH!  Each week when my husband does the grocery shopping, he grabs the Grocery Cash envelope and heads to the store.  Spending cash allows us to see the money leave our hands.  It also allows us to see how much we have left for the month.  If you get to the second half of the month and realize you have less than half of your cash left, it’s an opportunity to course correct.  Choose more menu items that are budget friendly and get back on track for the month!

I strongly advocate using a cash budget for any budget category where you tend to overspend.

4. GIVE THE LIST TO SOMEONE ELSE

Hands down, my favorite way to save on our Grocery Budget.

If you are anything like me, you can make a meal plan, make a list, hit the store with the best of intentions, then buy every on the list… plus 15 “other” items that you grabbed impulsively.  I am such a lost cause in a store.  It’s one of the reasons I avoid shopping… for real, I have no will power!

About a year ago, my husband and I split up our household duties.  I wound up with cooking meals and meal planning, but he got the grocery shopping chore!  (Which he loves, btw).  So each week, I plan our meals, make the grocery list and then give the list to him. (Hint: there is a free grocery list planner at the end of this post).  Not only does this help me be accountable to him by forcing me to plan out our weekly menu, but he in turn also feels accountable to me to trust my list and sticks to the list at the store.

I’m not going to lie, in the beginning, this was a challenge.   Having to think through the entire week and make sure the list complete was hard!  And sometimes I just had to make-do without a certain ingredient for dinner or get creative with afternoon snacks because I forgot to think about them when I made the list.

Another challenge we face when making this change was that my husband had been very hands-off in the kitchen and grocery shopping, so he wasn’t always sure where to find something in the store, or what an item even was!  I also had to learn to include quantities and descriptions for clarity.  Jotting down a list for yourself is very different from making a list for someone else.  For example: I know what it means when I write coconut milk on the list, but he doesn’t!  Do I want canned or drinking milk?  How many do I want?  He now always reviews the list before leaving and asks me if he has questions.

So there was a learning curve on both of our parts, for sure.  But after a couple weeks of learning and laughing at our errors, the passing of the list now goes fairly smoothly.  So give it a try and keep trying if you flub at first, it’s worth it.

eat at home

5.  DON’T

Um, what?

Yup you read that right.  Don’t reduce your Grocery Budget – what the heck, right?

In my experience, I have seen people often shocked when they review their expenses for several months and see how much they are spending on food.  While groceries can contribute to this a lot, usually the worst culprit is Dining Out.

Dining Out is anytime that you purchase food that’s not at a grocery store.  So restaurants, coffee shops, etc.  Dining Out food is exponentially more expensive than Grocery food.  You are paying for someone else to buy, store, prepare and serve food to you.  Plus they have to clean up after you’re done eating the food.  Dining Out is a major luxury item.

By preparing more food at home, you can cut your Dining Out spending by a lot while only increasing your Grocery spending by a little.

See how that works?

Spending a Little – Spending a Lot = Saving (I love math)

For example, suppose you review your spending habits and discover you are spending $600/month on Groceries and $500/month on Dining Out.  Food is costing you a total of $1,100/month!  By preparing more food/drinks at home you can decrease your Dining Out spending by $200 and only increase your Grocery spending by $40, therefore saving $160!

In fact, if you implement other tips in this article, I bet your Grocery Budget could stay the same or even go down while your Dining Out budget decreases as well.

Indeed, there are so many ways you can reduce your Grocery Budget.  Take one or all of these five tips and see how you can reduce your family’s spending today!

Want some help?

Join the next 7-day Back to the Kitchen Challenge to jump start your booty in the kitchen!