Need help meal planning and grocery budgeting?
Well, I got you. But first, hear-me-out. I didn’t say it was easy. This is intense, so if you’re a “wing-it” at the grocery store kinda human, we are not the same. You might want to skip this post, alright? I warned you. For those trying to figure out how to lower that expense, or just feeling overwhelmed and “over” the whole process of meal planning or grocery shopping week after week, well, I thought I’d share a few “life hacks” that work for me. This is one of them.
Grocery prices are ridiculous and I think most of us are feeling it. During a recent visit with a friend, we were comparing what it costs to feed our families. When I shared how I do things, she was surprised by how low our budget was for our family of 6 (About $200-$240 per week) compared to her family of 5 spending nearly $350. I don’t know what others are spending, and this has everything to do with your diet, ages of your kids, and geographical location, but I know that this is what it looks like for us right now.
Years ago we spent some time figuring out where all of our money was going so we could pay down debts faster. We quickly realized that a lot of our income went to food related expenses: both in our pantry and eating outside of our home. The majority of our spending was out of convenience- gas station snacks or fast foods, concession stands at sporting events, pre-packaged foods, and restaurant dining. The quickest way I could save money was to plan better and reduce or eliminate eating out. Soooooooo, as I often do, I obsessively took control and made it my own personal challenge to get the grocery bill as low as I could. And now I’ll share my process with you!
Here’s how we do groceries around here:
1. I started by creating a google sheet. (If you’d like to join me in the spreadsheet madness, you can open my template here, make a copy, and knock yourself out.)
Psst…A quick sneakpeek of my finished sheet of meals/groceries looks like this:
2. Soon I realized I not only had to plan meals, but I had to plan meals that worked with our family’s insane schedules. It was about time management as much as budget. Some nights I have the time (and mental capacity) to cook a “full meal” that requires more than 30 minutes of my time. Other nights- I need a crockpot waiting for me, or something I can prepare in less than 30 minutes. (I’m looking at you sports practices!) You’ll notice on my google sheet there’s a dropdown option with choices for the length of time I have for each meal (Ready to eat, Quick, or Full).
For us:
Ready to eat means when it’s time to eat, it takes less than 5 minutes til it’s on the table. Crockpot meals, deli sandwiches, salads, etc. all fall into this category
Quick to me means less than 30 minutes from fridge to table.
Full means I have typically an hour or so to prep and cook.
Notice “Full” selected for this breakfast meal.
3. Next, I brainstorm meals that fit my timeline while shopping my own fridge and pantry. Do I already have pasta sauce but just need to pick up some pasta? Do I have left over fresh veggies that I just need to figure out a main dish for? Under each meal, I list the ingredients I have, then at the very bottom I list the ingredients I NEED to purchase.
THEN, here’s where the magic happens…
Meal planning occurs here on Friday nights typically after the kids go to bed and I can focus. (I know, I know…. #bejealous - 37 is WILD! It’s just me, my laptop, and a glass of wine on a Friday night of thrilling meal planning.)
4. I open up three tabs in my web browser: one for each online ordering platform of my three nearest grocery stores. Searching and comparing ingredient by ingredient, I check which store has the lowest price, then add-to-cart my items at the location with the best price until my list is DONE. I fill in the price of each item on my spreadsheet by day, and it totals all of my columns into the “GRAND TOTAL” at the bottom.
5. It’s as simple as submitting the online order, and DONE! I typically schedule the pick up for Saturday mornings, though it depends on what season we’re in with sports, farming, and my workload. Fortunately for me, all three stores are located practically next door to one another, so online ordering doesn’t require driving in a ton of different directions or waste my time.
Here’s where the spreadsheet comes in handy- If I want to monitor the price on something, I’ll copy the link to the item’s website (Cmd ⌘ + C on a mac), then click on the cell in my spreadsheet for the ingredient I’m purchasing and “link” it in by pressing (Cmd ⌘ + K, then Cmd ⌘ + V). Since I’ve already typed in the price I paid for the item, at anytime, I can look back and see what I paid for each item, and then click the link to view what the current price is.
A few important things to note:
As you start to do this week after week, you just copy/duplicate the tab and BAM, you have weeks, months, and then years of your own favorite meal ideas in one google sheet. It’s like you’re building your own digital catalog of meals! At any moment if you get in a rut, you just start flipping back through your own meal weeks (tabs) to look for something you haven’t made in a while!
I add any “extra” items to the extras column on the bottom right, and it auto-totals the cost for these items too. You know- the snacks, dry goods, seasonings, etc. Or if there’s just a really good price on something I can purchase in bulk that I know we’ll use eventually, then I go ahead and add it here. Otherwise, I tend to find that sticking to one week at a time works best for me both in terms of function and budget.
I started making the snacks instead of buying them- a pan of bars, chex mix, rice krispy treats, muffins, protein balls, etc. rather than buying them pre-packaged or in individually wrapped packaging. It saves a ton of $$ and honestly just tastes better. I don’t go crazy with this- but 1 or 2 snacks made on a Sunday afternoon keep for the whole week!
I often link in whole recipes for meals that I find on Pinterest, etc. so that I can easily find them again and keep the ingredients list handy!
“But Katie…..this has to take you forever!” you say…
Meh, maybe an hour or so. An hour and a half TOPS. Driving to the store and perusing the aisles with no plan or list with four kids in tow would cost me SO MUCH MORE money, time, AND I doubt I’d make it out without a migraine. Not to mention, I’d forget something, add a ton of extra things we didn’t need, overspend, and still have to return to the store a different night of the week wasting more time and energy. #aintnobodygottimeforthat
Some more money saving tips:
Buy items in bulk and then package individual servings from the large bag (chips, pretzels, carrots, nuts, etc.), rather than buying convenient single-serving bags.
ASK your local grocer if they offer a discount on bulk pricing. Our deli/meat counter will sell me 30 lbs of pork loin (and cut it and package it individually for me in whatever size I want), for their BEST price year-round. I just freeze what I’m not going to use right away. ASK! The worst they can say is no! You’d be surprised at what they will discount and consider “bulk”- it’s often not as bulky as you’d think!
Sometimes I prefer to pick out my own produce rather than letting the online shoppers do it for me- but at least I know ahead of time which stores have the best pricing for me to do that, so I can quickly get in and out with only the few produce items I want, and not get distracted by all the marketing fluff influencing me to buy more.
Think out of the box- I know our local Kwik Star gas station sells milk, eggs, butter, and some produce cheaper than our grocery stores do! I have to get gas anyway, why not pick up a few of those items then?
Watch your sales ads! Sometimes the Thursday or Friday 1-day-only items are worth stopping to pick up especially canned goods that you know you’ll use eventually!
Email or write letters to your favorite food companies. Heck, use it as a writing practice opportunity for your kids! I’ve gotten coupons sent to us for TONS of free favorite foods as a “thank you” from companies! Fun fact- this works for baby formula and diapers too!
Don’t be afraid to buy the food items that are nearing their expiration dates and freeze them! I do this with meat from Target and Walmart a lot! Rotisserie chickens are also a great item to pick up in the cold section at half the price- I just take it home, shred it, and freeze for later use!
Whew, that’s a lot of info, but hopefully helpful to you in some way. Do people think I’m crazy for taking our grocery/meal planning to this level? Yea, probably some. It’s not for everyone, but it works for me. And it DOES keep me on budget, while eliminating a ton of decision making and stress from my week with about an hour of work upfront!
Plus, Saturday mornings, I get to sip a latte from my favorite coffee shop guilt-free while jamming out to my playlist, picking up my online grocery orders knowing I definitely saved more than the cost of that $4 latte with my crazy methods. ;)