Saving on Grocery Spending
By Matt - Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
As I was reading through my RSS feeds this morning I ran across a post on Blogging Away Debt where Tricia was describing how she is trying to save the family some money on the grocery bill. This got me thinking about my spending habits in this area and even though my wife and I split the cost of food over the course of a month it inevitably adds up very quickly.
The ideal way to save money on groceries is to know what you are going to eat over the course of a month, pick recipes that have the same ingredients and then buy in bulk. Although this is probably the best way to save money on food costs its not necessarily the most fun.
In my particular case I have a different approach to grocery shopping than Tricia does. We decide what we’re going to have during the course of the day or at a maximum a couple days in advance and then we buy the groceries on the way home. Now this might not be the most efficient way to buy food it but because we decide our dinner menu with very little lead time it prevents us from buying food that we don’t end up eating.
The net result from our approach maybe that we spend more money on food by going every day but I believe that we end up spending less in the long run by not throwing out food. Wasted food is no different than if you threw your money away. With all of this said we still keep some staples stocked it was just a matter of reducing the amount of wasted food and money while keeping the menu/eating habits the same. If it came down to a necessity we could always revert to a planned menu and buy in bulk (hopefully not throwing anything out).
This entry is filed under Saving Ideas, Sites/Articles.
2 Responses to “Saving on Grocery Spending”
1 Tricia says:
January 23rd, 2008
at 2:29 am
I think menu planning is a great way to save money and to keep from wasting food. We waste too much because we buy things then don’t get around to eating them before they go bad.
If you can be strict with your way of spending, and not pick up any extras, then I think going to the store could save you money in the long run. For us, though, we end up buying “goodies” especially when our son is with us.
2 Family Food Budgeting says:
February 13th, 2008
at 7:42 pm
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