Grocery Shopping 101

It seems in this time of recession, where everyone wants to save money and make their dollar stretch farther, that a few tips in the grocery shopping/ meal planning area would be in order. Some of my friends have said of me, that I can stretch a dollar farther than anyone they know. I'm not so sure that I'm that great at it... but there have been occasions when I had more time than money, therefore leading to some creative ways to be more frugal with the few dollars I did have. I thought I would share some of those ideas with you, in hopes that they might be helpful. Thank you, Mrs. Margaret, for requesting some of my "stretch a dollar" tips. It has helped me to reevaluate my dollars & sense in prepping for this series of blogs. In the following blogs on this topic, I hope to cover topics such as creating a shopping list, recipe management, feeding your family on a budget and no stress grocery trips!

Make a List and Stick to Your Budget!

I know, I know... you hate making a grocery list... but there is not better way to stay within your budget of grocery/household funds than to do just that. I like to keep a small magnetic pad on my refrigerator where I can jot down the items I need as I run out of them in the kitchen. That helps me with the bulk of items that I might not think about when shopping for groceries. On your grocery list, you should have all those miscellaneous household items; toilet paper, cleaning products, etc. and your miscellaneous food items; ketchup, mayo, salt, pepper, etc. and last but not least the items you need for your recipes. Yes, that means that you need to plan ahead! (stay tuned for menu planning!) So, just get out some paper and pencil and start that list. Try your best to stick to that list within $10-15. I usually give myself a little wiggle room in my final total to pick up an occasional splurge item, or maybe 1-2 things I forgot to add to my list. By planning ahead, there won't be so many surprises at the checkout. " I can't believe it's that much.... What did I buy?" I know you have thought that, I have too. By shopping with a list and sticking closely to it, you can eliminate "Checkout Shock!" HAHA!!

What better way to have fun making a list, then with a fun program! Many years ago, I began keeping a small spiral notebook with all of the items I purchased on a regular basis, written on categorized pages with prices next to them, a price book, per say. That way, when I made my list, I could also pre-total my amount and avoid Checkout Shock. First, start saving all of those grocery shopping receipts. When you get home, enter the amount for each item in your price book or into this program. This might sound tedious, but within 1 months time, you will have purchased all of the items you routinely use, and that tedious work will be over. And best of all, this little program is FREE! I researched several programs before recommending this one. All of the other programs were free trial, then you had to buy, and many of them had lots of other components I didn't need, plus most of them did not have the price feature - which I think is extremely important when making a list. It does come with some pre-entered items, categories and prices. However, this is all changeable at your discretion. So download this program, drag out all those receipts and get busy entering all those prices. You will be step closer to being a better manager of your grocery budget!!

http://www.homeplansoftware.com/shoplist.htm