The number one secret to a successful grocery trip without breaking your budget and to give you a full week of food is planning. When you go into the store planning to wing it, you’ll likely spend a lot more money than you planned, buy items you don’t need, and might not end up with enough food for full meals for the entire week.
Step 1: Look at your calendar for the week to see if there are any meals you are planning to eat out and if there are times you will need a quick meal due to limited time.
Step 2: Pick a plan. Either plan on the same breakfast and lunch for the entire week and new meals for dinner OR plan on the same breakfast and eating the same food for dinner and lunch (leftovers). You can change this plan each week, but picking one for now will make your life significantly easier, especially if you’re new at meal planning.
Step 3: Look at your grocery store’s weekly ad and coupons. I do this online. I also check the ibotta app to see if there are any cash back for items that I might buy.
Step 4: Using items from your store’s weekly ad, create a meal plan for the week and add the items to your grocery list. If you’re looking for an inexpensive template to use, consider the BPB planner bundle. Be sure that your grocery list items fit within your budget or make adjustments until they do.
Step 5: Treat your trip to the store like a mission. You must buy all the items on the list and nothing else. If you have specific brand items on your list, be sure to look for store brand items that might be less expensive. Hint: store brand items can usually be found near the name brand items but may be on the lowest or highest shelves.
Step 6: Come home and scan your receipt into the ibotta app. Keep your weekly meal plan somewhere you can see it.
Step 7: Stick to your plan. Now that you have your weekly meal plan, work the plan.
Step 8: Next week, evaluate what parts of your plan worked and what you need to tweak. Start over at step 1 for the next week.
Grocery shopping is probably a large part of your budget and it can feel very overwhelming to stick to your grocery budget or even lower it. When you think about it though, you probably have lots of food in your cabinets, pantry, or freezer that don’t get eaten on a weekly basis. Planning is the key to winning your grocery trip. With a little bit of planning in advance of your grocery store trip, you can eat well and stick to your budget.