As I promised in my first post, I'm going to let you know how I grocery shop!
*GASP*
But Magan, How can you grocery shop, save, money and eat healthy with the prices as they are today?
I'm going to tell you! But before that, Let me tell you a little about the diet Cody and I had before.
Or better yet, Let me show you!
Looks Nutritious, right?
Sure we both love to eat junk food and its so convenient!
But my goodness is it rough on our bodies and its rough on the wallet!
So we looked for a new foundation for food in our life!
We haven't completely gotten out of the frozen section when it comes to grocery shopping, but most of what we buy now, isn't from the frozen section, and what we do buy we freeze it to keep it fresh longer.
Really fast let me give you a list of things that can be frozen that you generally wouldn't think to freeze:
1)Bread (Cody and I have frozen bread since we moved into our new place, we just get out a loaf when we've almost finished a loaf.
2)Eggs (This I haven't done yet, but would like to try since we don't use eggs as often as most)
3)Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
4)Cheese (We constantly have sliced cheese in our freezer!)
5)Milk! (But just remember if you are freezing this in a container to leave room for this to expand, just like any other liquid.)
6)Fresh Herbs (Just leave them whole and put in a freezer bag!)
Cody and I freeze quite a bit of our food, but I would like to start freezing more.
How about you? Instead of throwing out that banana because its getting a little brown, freeze it and wait until you have a little time to make some banana bread!
Don't waste! You'll be surprised how much you'll save just by keeping things longer.
Alright, let me finally get to the part you guys are itching to know, how do I actually buy my groceries.
This has been a recent but most live saving change.
We switched from shopping the freezer section at Walmart to buying "real food" at Meijer!
Just shopping at Meijer isn't going to save you money. No grocery store is going to save you money. You have to learn how to shop for YOU in that store.
What I do:
1) Every Sunday I sit down and look through the Meijer sale ad.
2) I only buy what is on sale (occasionally I will pick up a bottle of mustard that isn't on sale, but hey, if you need it, you need it! But still look for these things on sale first and only buy it if you absolutely need it! Odds are you don't.)
3) I then begin to Meal Plan for the next week, this helps you pick out what you'd like to buy for the week. (Once again, Plan meals based on the sale ads!)
4) Join mPerks through Meijer. This is only something Meijer offers. I'm sure other stores do as well, but Meijer is my store of choice.
(Let me explain mPerks for those of you who don't know. It's a "Virtual Coupon Clipper." On Meijer website they show a huge list of coupons, manufacturer and store, all you need to do is click the "clip" button and its saved to your "clipped" section. When you get to the checkout, simply push the mPerk button on the debt/credit card machine, type in your phone number and the 4 digit pin number you created online, and your coupons will be applied as necessary.)
Awesome right!
What I love to do is find something on sale that week, and then look for manufacturer coupons for that item! Generally, your sale ad will show you if there is a coupon for those items on sale!
One up for Meijer, right?!
And whats even better?
Find something in the sale ad, use the Meijer store coupon for that item, and apply a manufacturer's coupon that you clipped off of that cereal box from last week!
All of this may seem like a lot to take in, but I guarantee as soon as you start to use it, it will become second nature to you!
My biggest accomplishment from using Meijer this last month to grocery shop (the way I explained above) is that I have finally been able to keep our grocery shopping under our $300 budget for the month!
But what's amazing is I consider groceries to be anything you consume in the household:
1) Food
2) Personal Hygiene Products
and
3) Cleaning Products.
So we are not spending $300 a month on things in the grocer section!
We all use toilet paper on a daily basis don't we? Just like we need to eat every day, and shower. So next time you plan a grocery shopping trip, include those things!
Budget is also a huge factor! Make a budget and stick to it! What we do in this case is, if we only want to spend $60 at the grocery store, we only take $60 dollars!
That right there will keep you focused on what you need and not what you want!
So please will you take a few minutes out of your day to sit down and look at the big picture before you step into the grocery store!
I believe a planned shopping trip is a successful shopping trip!
I hope you can learn something from my post and I hope you enjoyed reading!
