I’m honored to have the opportunity to guest post here again! Last month, I introduced my family and shared how planning a menu based upon what we have on hand and what is on sale at the store is a way we see significant savings in our grocery budget every month. Today, I want to share a few more tips which allow us to keep our grocery budget to $40 per week:

3) Shop once a week or less.

It might seem like a complete no-brainer, but the simple act of limiting your trips to the store to once a week or less can result in big savings. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that the more I shop, the more I buy. The more I stay home, the less money I spend and the more I make-do with what we have.

If you are in the habit of making multiple trips to the store each week, start challenging yourself to hold out between trips. Ask yourself if you really need the item you were running to the store for, or if you could come up with an alternative with something else you already have at home.

Fewer trips to the store will save you time and money. And they will also encourage you to make sure and buy everything you need in your once-a-week shopping trip. Which, by the way, is why menu-planning and grocery-list-making are so important if you also want to cut down on trips to the store. (See the tips posted last time for more help with menu-planning and grocery-list-making.)

4) Shop at more than one store.

I try to only make one shopping trip per week, but I don’t limit myself to one store. Why? Because I save at least $15-$20 almost every single week by shopping at multiple stores!

It might seem like extra work—and it is!—but for a little bit of time invested each week, we save every penny of $750 to $1000 per year. That’s worth it, in my opinion.

When I’m planning my menu and grocery shopping trip, I quickly glance through the ads for all the stores in our area and determine which one has the best sales that week and then plan my shopping trip accordingly. There are five different stores I shop at regularly, but I usually only hit two of them per week—based upon which has the best sales.

You can usually find your grocery store’s ads online if you don’t receive them in your weekly mail. However, I’ve found it is much more helpful if you can also find a blog or two which lists a round-up each week of the best deals at your local stores. If someone has already done the work for you, there’s no point in you also doing it yourself!

If you don’t know of a blog which lists deals for your local stores, I recommend doing a Google search with your store name(s) and “deal blog” or similar variations to find bloggers who are posting in-depth lists of deals and sales at your local grocery store chains. These bloggers usually have printable coupons listed right along with the deals which saves you even more time and money!

Next time, we’ll talk about two of my biggest tips for sticking with a $40-per-week grocery budget. Stay tuned!

Tags: coupons, crystal, deals, groceries, guest blog, money saving mom, shopping

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