Saving You Dinero has an interesting post up about how she’s saving money by going to the grocery store multiple times per week and only buying exactly what she needs for the next few days.
While this may not work for your family (I like to simplify things by fewer trips to the store!), I love her outside-the-usual-frugal-advice-box ideas!
I’m so glad you posted this! I can really relate to everything she was saying. We’re in a very busy season of life and need a lot of flexibility right now. I’ve tried to keep up with my weekly menu plans, but a lot of food has been wasted due to last minute work travel and hiccups during our home renovation. On the flip side, having no plan has resulted in a lot of unnecessary eating out. Focusing on only two days at a time feels very doable to me. Thanks!
I’ve been doing this since early spring. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I was just busy and unorganized. And at first I felt guilty about it. But then realized I was spending less than I had been spending. I still keep plenty of nonperishables on home and will buy multiples when I find them on sale. For me, when I’m only shopping for 2-3 days, instead of putting together a list that’s supposed to last a whole week or more, I’m more focused on what I know I’ll really need instead of anticipating as much. Overall I’m actually buying less and wasting less. It’s actually helped me be better about using up leftovers. Since I haven’t bought dinner fixings for a whole week, I’m not tempted to cook something new for dinner instead of eating something I’ve already eaten that week.
This is an option we’re trying. I still do couponing to stock up on personal care/paper/cleaning products and stuff we use all the time. More often now though I’m going three times a week or so to buy a few extras (produce, cheese, dessert) to go with what I already have in the fridge/freezer. It keeps produce from going bad and It’s keeping us from eating out. Now instead of a meal out we go to our favorite store and buy a few fun items to go with what we already have. It’s a good compromise for us between the way we want/plan/hope to spend on food and the way we actually spend on groceries/eating out.
This does make sense. I’m at a time in my life where I can shop more often. I don’t think it would be as easy with small children, but as an empty nester, whose plans often change, I could probably save a lot, instead of throwing out 3 dozen eggs. Stores have different sales…weekly, 3 or 4 day, mega Monday, etc. except for meat, which I buy in bulk and freeze, this would work. I can make a meal plan and then when it’s time to fix it, we don’t feel like eating it, so we spend more eating out instead. I’m going to give this some more thought.
I do this also. There are many sales, promotions and coupons that limit you to a certain number of items per day. So if I want to get more than 4 of the $.99 jars of peanut butter, I have to make more than 1 trip. Unilever coupons limit to 2 per customer per day and P&G limit to 4 like coupons per customer per day. Target limits 4 like coupons per customer per day. So if someone has a large family or wants to stock up on an item that’s on sale for a great price, multiple trips will be involved.
This is exactly where I am in my households grocery experimenting. My life is a little more busy now, with odd jobs done outside the home. I recently had my refrigerator go out and we had to eat or freeze what was still good. That event showed me I prefer a fridge and freezer that light shines through, and shelves are a little bare.
I think it is saving me money, by remembering what we have to work with, and just eat what’s “in season.”