10 tips on how to start a grocery system

Grocery shopping is not what it used to be, now days with the coast of living steady on the rise buying food takes planning. Although I do all my shopping online many people, I know still like to shop hands on (like my grandmother).

Know don’t get me wrong I still drop into the store from time to time. However, for me getting my groceries dropped off at my door is just more convenient and it helps me save on gas, less I have to live my home the better it is for me.

Not everyone sees this as a convenient, so for those of you that still like to shop at the grocery store and pick you’re on fruit and vegetables (as my grandmother would say) You defiantly need to have a system or routine in place that will help you save money as well as time when grocery shopping.

Not only will it save you time and money it will help with impulse shopping and overspending. It will also make it less stressful (well that is as long as the store has everything that you need) we have all been overwhelmed trying to buy groceries for are family or ourselves.

So today I will share with you the grocery system that I use to help me with all they above problems that come with buying groceries. I call it the “Everything Frugal Grocery System”.

One

The first thing you need to do is make a meal plan. The key steps to a meal plan if you are new to meal planning are as followed:

  1. Take inventory of your pantry, refrigerator, freezer, and deep freezer (if you own one)
  2. plan how you want to meal plan (every week, twice a month, once a month, or for a few months at a time).
  3. right down your favorite meals (if you have a family write down everyone’s favorite meals so you can plug them into your meal plans).
  4. determine what meals you need to plan a head (you may not need to plan all three meals of the day if your children eat at school for breakfast and lunch on school days).
  5. start your meal plan with the food that you already have in your home (make meals based on your inventory list).

Two

Plan your shopping trip based on how many times you need to go grocery shopping.

If your meal plan is weekly, then you shop only once a week

If your meal plan is twice a month then you only shop twice a month

If your meal plan is monthly, then you only shop once a month, and so on and so forth.

Lessening your shopping trip saves you from wasting money (the more you shop the more you will spend, this is how we overspend)

Three

The shopping list, by now you should have heard the saying ” Never shop without a list”‘

This statement couldn’t be truer, to save you time and money (and a lot of heart ack) make sure that you make a shopping list. However not just any shopping list. You want to make sure your list is of the things that you do not have in your home to make your meals.

Unless there are things that you use day to day that you are out off. Your shopping list should only have things that you need for your meal plan. This is a big deal because if you start filling the list with things that you think you are going to need or things that you already have a lot of (or things that you have seen on tv that you have been thinking about trying) you are not saving money.

Four

Plan your shopping day, your shopping day is the day of the week, the two days of the month, or your day of the month that you will be doing your shopping every month.

If you are stockpiling your home for a few months at a time, then you should have scheduled shopping months and days of that month.

example:

If you are stockpiling for three months at a time and you started in January, then you’re next shopping trip should be in April.

You will pick a day in April that will be your grocery shopping day for that month.

If you shop this way, then you should only shop 3 times a year. This is a great strategy to cut cost on groceries (I just wanted to put that in there) If you can do this or every 6 months (only shopping twice a year) you will save thousands of dollars.

The best day to shop is on Wednesday, there reason is that this is the day of every week (hump day) that most grocery stores change their sales. What this means is it’s the last day of the week sales and the first day of the next week sales. If you shop in the morning on this day and sometimes in the afternoon you can get what is called double sales, due to you being able to get both week sales in one day (this doesn’t happen all the time but most of the time this is a sure thing).

Five

Shop the sales, try to get what you need at 40% to 50% off the regular price. How do you know that you are getting it at this price? You start tracking the prices of the things that you by regularly. You make or printout what is called a price sheet. When you start your grocery system after every trip you write down the regular price of what you bought.

If it’s on sale you right the regular price and the sales price (they both will be on your receipt). This will help you know what a good deal is and what is a bad deal.

Six

Buy store brand, most store brands are manufactured in the same factory as name brand goods. The only difference is the name on the package.

This will help with your overspending, and you will save a lot of money by paying less.

Seven

Buy your meat in bulk and use BOGO sales. Meat is the highest cost on your grocery list. If you buy it in bulk, you will pay more up front, but it will benefit you in the long run. If you can cut meat out of your list for a few trips you will spend less.

A BOGO is a sale where you can buy one and get one free or buy one and get one half off. These saves you money because you are getting more but paying less. However, you need to make sure you are paying less. Some stores will raise the price when they do these types of sales to make you think you are saving but you’re not (this is why you should have a price list).

Eight

Price match don’t just take the prices from one store. Shop the sales for all the stores that you shop at. Try to get the lowest price that you are able to get for what you need.

If that means going to more than one store, then so be it. There is nothing in stone that says you can only shop at one store.

If you have to make a list for each store from your master shopping list.

Nine

Set a budget, having a set amount of money that you will spend on groceries saves you money and makes you accountable. If what you need for your meal plan is mostly in your home, it doesn’t make since to overspend on things that you do not need.

Make sure that you have wiggle room when you make your budget. With cost raising on a daily what you may pay one week you may not be paying the next week.

example:

If based of your grocery list your total should come up to $150 make your budget $200. This way if the cost of something went up from the last time you bought it you can cover the new price.

Once you have got your system in place and you are using it, setting the budget will be easy. You will know what you are buying and how much it regularly cost.

Ten

Eat before you go, try to plan your grocery trip after lunch with your friends, or in the morning after breakfast. Remember that this is a preplan trip so there is no reason for you not to eat before you go.

The reason you don’t want to go shopping on an empty stomach is because when you are hungry and around food you will overspend (list or no list).

You will also find yourself buying things that are not good for you (like the candy bar that is setting so nicely at the cash register).

Bounces

Having a grocery system will help you eat better. If you are cooking more at home vs going out to eat, you will be making healthier choices.

Once you see how much money you can save buy doing these things you will more than likely change what you eat based on what you can afforded to buy.

Well, that’s all that I have for today, I hope this helps you on your journey.

Thank you for reading Everything Frugal.

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