When it comes to buying groceries, I am horribly inefficient! I couldn’t begin to tell you how much time and money I’ve wasted through the years shopping in supermarkets and grocery stores!
From tracking down items on my poorly organized and incomplete grocery list, to buying expensive (and unhealthy) processed foods, one thing is clear: I need to improve my grocery shopping habits!
The most embarrassing part is that I know what I need to do, I just haven’t done it! I’ve even written about grocery shopping in the past, but I failed to follow my own advice! To make matters worse, I always forget to bring my damn reusable grocery bags to the store too!
So…this is it! I’m officially adding smart and efficient grocery shopping to my 2010 New Year’s Resolutions List and this is how I plan to accomplish my goal!
My Plan to Buy Groceries More Efficiently
Meal Planning:
My family’s schedule is too unpredictable to commit to a specific meal plan for each day of the week. To combat this, I will pick 7-10 of my family’s favorite meals and create my shopping list accordingly.
In the past I would go to the grocery store with a list of our ”staple items” (milk, bread, eggs, cold cuts, etc.) but rarely would I give any thought to the week’s “meals” until I was in the store! Not only did I waste time thinking of meal ideas and searching for ingredients, but I was unable to verify whether or not we already had some of the ingredients to make a particular meal.
On more than one occasion I have bought expensive spices, oils, or other “exotic” ingredients only to go home and find out that we already had them!
Even though we will not have a specific “meal plan”, we will have the ingredients to make a variety of yummy meals throughout the week as our needs and schedule permits.
Develop a Complete Grocery List:
As I mentioned above, I will create our shopping list BEFORE WE LEAVE for the grocery store. This will prevent us from buying duplicate items, and will save us time doing the actual meal planning in the grocery store.
Organizing the Grocery List:
There are a couple of tricks I plan to utilize to make sure my grocery list is organized as efficiently as possible.
First, I plan to write down items on my shopping list by category. I will group all the fresh produce together, all the canned vegetables together, all the meats together, etc. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten to the other side of the grocery store, only notice that I hadn’t gotten one of the vegetables that was on my list because it was hidden between two other items.
Second, I will arrange the categories on my shopping according to the layout of my local grocery store. Produce section first, then bakery, then the deli section, you get the idea! Have some fun with it; plan yourself a little grocery shopping “mission”! That’s the way that I’m going to look at it from now on! Roll the “Rocky” Theme please!
If you’re lucky, your local grocery store will have a “floor plan” on their website showing you exactly where each department is. More than likely you’ve already got the layout of your local store memorized and will be able to arrange your shopping list accordingly!
Never Go Grocery Shopping on an Empty Stomach:
I can’t tell you how important it is to EAT before you go grocery shopping! Shop by your grocery list, not by what your hunger pangs are telling you to buy! When I go shopping on an empty stomach, not only do I make hurried purchasing decisions, but I buy tons of snacks to eat on the car ride home! I fill my stomach on junk food and then I’m too full to eat what we prepared for dinner!
Look for (but not obsess over) Relevant Coupons:
I’ve experimented with coupons in the past without much success! The coupons I usually come across are for heavily processed foods or gimmicky cleaning products! I’ll glance through the coupons in the newspaper and junk mailings, but I’m just not disciplined to make a real go out of “couponing”.
My favorite coupons are the ones from my local grocery store chain. They have promotions where they offer $10 off $50 (or some variation there of). We also use a lot of coupons for Pampers Diapers (sorry folks, no cloth diapering in this family; more power to you though!) and Tide Laundry Detergent.
However, if you are willing to put the time and effort into it, many people have had great success shopping with coupons!
Remembering My Reusable Shopping Bags:
For those of you who are new to this site, you may not know that I have written a number of article on green living, alternative energy, and energy saving tips! You would think that I would be the last person to forget to bring their reusable shopping bags to the grocery store! I am ashamed to admit that I am “that guy” who has a large cart full of groceries all bundled in icky plastic bags! I’ve got to come up with to remember my reusable shopping bags.
I’m considering ordering some “Trees Full of Money” reusable shopping bags! If any of you think you might be interested, please let me know! I know they will certainly help me remember!!
So, that’s my plan! I’ll give an update in a few weeks to let you know how it is going!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Groceries have become my biggest budgetary downfall lately. It seems the more trips I take, the more money I spend so I try to limit my trips to just a couple a month. I make a meal plan for the month (sounds like a pain but I’m actually too lazy to do it weekly) and build my shopping list from that. I do one massive trip at the beginning of the month and some quick trips throughout the month just for dairy, fruit and veggies. Oh, and I leave the hubby at home…especially when I’m headed to Costco.
I can relate, the electronics section at Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJs is VERY enticing!
The only way we remember our reusable shopping bags is to keep them in the trunk of car. After they are unloaded they don’t go back in the pantry, they go back in the trunk!
Good idea Jeremy! Now if I can just get my lazy bum to remember that excellent idea!
I am in the same boat as you! I know I need to be better as grocery shopping, and I know that I am overpaying. I just haven’t buckled down to take action yet.
However, I have been tracking prices for about a month now. If you buy at the right time, you will find great deals. For example, I buy ground beef for ~$3.00/lb. If I buy ground beef at the right time, I can EASILY find ground beef for $1.50/lb. That’s a 50% savings. Also, I know that these prices come around every 6 weeks. So I buy enough beef for 6 weeks until the next $1.50/lb ground beef deal comes around.
Try e-mealz (found link from Dave Ramsey site). They have meal plans for two people and up for various grocery stores. Each week you download a meal plan and grocery list – everything is done for you. If the plan is followed, there is no waste?
Consider having someone else do the shopping. Give a set amount of cash, coupons, and a list. Perhaps your shopping list is too strict. Just as it is difficult to adhere to a strict diet, it equally is difficult to adhere to a strict budget. Allowing a set amount of cheating each week may prevent uncontrollable binge spending.
Mzz! That’s an interesting concept, I like that! Although I’m not sure I would want to impose on a friend or family member like that!
Great ideas here! Definitely some new ones too that I should try — in particular, studying the grocery store’s floor plan! Now that’s quite clever!