My family has a grocery budget of about $65 per week. People ask me all the time HOW?!?!?! Well here is a list of my top 10 ways to save money on groceries.
First- a few disclaimers:
- I don’t stick to my budget every week. Sometimes I’m under and sometimes I’m over, but I do average $65.
- $65 is only for groceries. I buy all my paper products, toiletries etc at drugstores and off Amazon.
- My tips will only work if you want them to. I would love to spend more per week on groceries, but my motivation is knowing that when I spend less, my husband can work less and we get more time together as a family.
- Don’t freak out if your budget is way over $65 a week, just make it a goal to spend a little less each week.
Ok Here are my top 10 ways to save :
1) Use the sale ads.
Each week I scan the ads to see what’s on sale. You need to know your prices though so you know when you see a good deal. For example- I know that at least once a month Martins puts grapes on sale for 99 cents a lb, so that’s the only time we buy grapes from Martins.
2) Stock up on sale items.
When you see a good deal, buy as much as can fit in your budget and that you have space for in your pantry/freezer. For example- Easter is the time to buy hams. I will probably buy 4 or 5 and we’ll eat them until next Easter 🙂
3) Have a plan:
I make a “menu” each week so I know what we are eating for each meal. If there is a busy night I plan for a quick meal (quesadillas, salads, etc.). If I know we’ll be out during a meal time I pack a lunch and we have a picnic in the van or at a playground. This prevents us from being tempted by fast food!
4) Shop your pantry
Once you have a good stockpile, you can create your weekly menu based on what you already have. For example, if I know I have a ham in the freezer I’ll base my weekly meals around cooking
5) Make a grocery list and stick to it!
My kids know if it’s not on the list we don’t buy it! I give everyone in the family time to give me input on what they want before we go to the store.
6) Cook!
Don’t buy pre-packaged things you can make or assemble yourself. For
Early on we realized we spent a lot on eating out, so I just learned to cook some of our favorites!
Some things I’ve mastered to the point where I like mine just as much as a restaurant are pizza, steak, egg rolls, shrimp scampi, chicken marsala, cupcakes, fried chicken, steak and french fries (<– my favorite food is french fries so it totally made sense financially to buy a deep fryer!)
You can see more kitchen gadgets and appliances that will save you money here.
7) Bribe yourself.
If I am under budget by the time I get to the end of my list I buy ice cream. If we are under budget at the end of the month we use that money to eat out.
8) Drinks.
This may not be for everyone, but we pretty much only drink milk, apple juice, tap water, and coffee. My husband loves soda, but we only buy it when it is less than 70 cents for a 2 liter.
We do drink wine occasionally but it’s not a significant part of our grocery budget (and we only by the Aldi wine that’s under $3!)
We also don’t drink individually bottled juices, sports drinks or water. You can save bunches of money by buying powder mixes rather than the individual bottles.
9) Buffet Night
If you cook, you have leftovers and “buffet night” sounds so much better than eating leftovers. I line up all the containers into groups of “meat”, “healthy” and “other” and the kids have to pick one from each category. They think its fun!
10) Coupons
I hardly ever clip the coupons from the newspaper for grocery items but I do check the store website for “load to card”
Do you have more tips on how to save money on groceries? Comment below!
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4 Responses
You should thank the tax payers. This isn’t a realistic budget for those who don’t get help.
We are very thankful for the help we get through the WIC program. The benefits we get through WIC add up to a value of about $5 a week or $20 a month. With or without WIC my family would not spend more than $65 a week on groceries. I do understand that location may play a factor in grocery prices. It takes hard work to stick to this budget, and since going into debt is not an option for us we have to stick to this budget.
This is a very realistic budget if you watch what you spend, prepare ahead of time and make lists. I have a family of 6 with teenage boys and their friends and we are at a little more than her budget of $65. Ours is about a $100 a week sometimes lower depends on what’s going out that week. So anyone can do it, it takes time preparing, meal planning and commitment something most people have a hard time with. However she works hard to put this info out and she is a planner. Don’t be negative take some pointers that may help or like I say to a lot of people kindly, keep scrolling. 😊
I love your post on ways to save money on groceries, great information. I use Ibotta, I have not heard of Fetch but, I am going to check it out after I leave this comment. I am going to try out these tips to feed our family of 6. I will get back to you and let you know how it goes. We generally spend around $120, we live in Georgia. The rise in food prices are killing us.
I also want to add this, I can’t believe how some people think they have the right to leave negative comments about someone else’s life or situation. Obviously, they must of missed the part of the post where you said your husband works so, he probably is paying in taxes, which I am sure equals more than $20 a month. So, in reality, your just getting the money your husband has already paid in because, you quality for the program. SMH… I apologize for the rant, I couldn’t help myself.
Best Wishes,
Dana 🙂