Total spent – $74.95
Total saved – $123.14
15 FREE Items
Brought home $5 OYNSO
I am a meal planner. If I don’t have a meal menu for the month, dinnertime is crazy. I get to about 5:30pm and think, “What are we going to eat for dinner!?” So, to avoid spending too much money on last-minute food purchases and/or eating cereal for dinner every night, I make a month-long plan. And I love it.
Because I have the month’s meals planned out, I try to make one really large shopping trip at the beginning of each month. And then I visit the store each week just for the stockpilable items. Today’s trip was my beginning-of-the-month trip.
As you can see, we like juice. They were $.69 each after coupons.
And I’ve never bought five packages of bacon at one time before in my life. But they were $1.24 each after sale and coupons. We also like bacon.
And I splurged on eggnog. Because, well, ’tis the season.
Sometimes a little splurging is in order.
Now, I need input from you all. Do you have a certain day each week that you always go shopping? (For example, Mondays or Fridays.) I need to be more organized and disciplined in my shopping, and I think it would help to have a certain designated shopping day each week. What do you think?
Just for fun – I will attempt to answer your question. Since we moved, I try to make Fridays my shopping day. Only problem with that is some Fridays, I don’t need any groceries. So I wait until the next week. But, that means I might have to go before Friday because we ran out of something. When Tim has a class, Friday’s class is from 9-12. Which means shopping in the afternoon and the traffic is horrendous. I hate that. So to answer your question, we shop when we are out of food. That could be every week, every other week, or twice a week if I didn’t plan very well. Confused, I know I am!
Unfortunately for us, Sundays and Wednesdays are the best as far as the store actually having the most in stock. Mondays are bad due to Sun shoppers, so prob Thursdays are best. If I rememb good enough, Thurs are not quite as crowded.
On a side note, for some strange reason, I’m a little behind in keeipng up with you, so I’m just gonna say that if anyone feels the need to tell you why you should not supplement J-baby;they will need to go through me FIRST!
Lastly, how bout spending some time with me while I’m off & answer some couponimg questions I have?
Love you all!
K
I forgot to mention that we love the deck. Good job, Jason & Luke. Can’t wait to see it in person!
SWEET shopping!!! Very impressive!
I like to grocery shop on Tuesday mornings. Mondays I consider my personal day- I’d rather ease into me week with laundry done and a clean house rather than start my week with running around! (Monday night is also “Date night” – not that we always go out, we just spend our evening hours intentionally between Dave and I) I love feeling like I can count on Mondays as the most calm (and enjoyable) day in my week! And I think that it is important to set boundaries to keep our family’s sanity in check!
Tuesday morning the grocery shelves are well stocked and I rarely don’t find what I need!
Great job! I tend to go shopping on Monday or Tuesday mornings depending on what is going on that week. But always no later than Tuesday.
I think I try to go to the store on Mondays after work or on the weekend to Sam’s club where we buy our milk. We decided to drink hormone free, organic milk and it’s never been cheaper anywhere but Sam’s club. We figure if we get into that habit now, we won’t cringe when we have to pay so much for milk when we have kids. But yeah… Don’t really go any other time of the week and if we run out of stuff like lettuce for salads, we just wait until the weekend or I run to the store after work sometimes. We probably do one big shopping trip about every 6 weeks and buy perishables here and there… when the kids come along, I know the BIG trips will happen way more often!
I am not very organized with grocery shopping, although I’m getting better about it:) I find that I often go to the store on Mondays. I think it’s because over the weekend Jay and I talk about meal ideas for the week, so I end up heading out on Monday to get what we need for that night’s dinner and the rest of the week.
Inevitably though, I’m back at some store at some point, because there’s something I’ve forgotten:)
Awesome job, Lacey! This is the first month that I actually planned a whole month’s menu ahead of time and it has been SUCH a relief come 4:30 to know what I’m going to be making! Next month I want to try one of moneysavingmom’s baking/cooking days where I make a month’s up at one time (or over a couple days) and save myself even more time. =)
I used to get up early and go on Sunday mornings because I could go by myself and still be home in enough time to get ready for church. THEN I found all these grocery blogs and realized many of them don’t post the deals until Sunday evenings or Mondays so now I tend to go on Monday nights after dinner. This way I have Sunday night and Monday to see where the deals are, get my coupons in order and still shop by myself. My kids are pretty good at the grocery store so I can take them during the day if I need to…I just kind of think as grocery shopping as a Mommy’s Night Out (or at least an hour and a half to myself) that helps keep me sane.
Saturday morning are my usual routine. I do twice a month shopping, less often if I can stretch it one more week. I go EARLY on Saturday though. In order to get out of Meijer in a decent amount of time, you need to be there early enough so it’s just you and the old people. Bless their hearts.
However, this week I went on Sunday afternoon. It was more crowded which I don’t like, but the day old produce was FULL. I was able to get very cheap produce that I usually can’t get (colored peppers, hot peppers, honey crisp apples, avocados). I did get stuck with one bad avocado, but I only paid $1.50 for 4 so still a good deal. Last time I stoppped in on a Sunday, I found OJ for $.56 a half gallon. It makes me wonder if they reduce items on Sunday…
When I’m not working a 8-5 job anymore, I’m definitely switching days. I don’t like it being crowded when I shop. So I usually go early. I also shop in the ghetto. It doesn’t wake up until 11 or 12.
Well, I have no good advice to give you. I don’t have kids, so I don’t have to juggle my schedule around them. Also, I plan my meals in half month spurts, so I tend to go to the store somewhere between the 14th-17th and somewhere around the 1st, wherever that falls in the week. Generally, it’s Friday through Sunday, since I don’t do a lot of shopping on the work week days. (plus, our “go-to” store has a military discount on the weekends) Also, I head to the store whenever we run out of milk or other “necessities”.
I’m just full of bad habits.
It works for us, but you are much more together. Someday I’ll be begging you for advice! So hang in there, you’re doing great. As long as you’re getting the deals you want and are still sticking to your month schedule for meals, I don’t think it matters that you don’t go on a consistent day. Love you guys!
How long has it been since I’ve seen you guys??? Jaden looks like a totally different person!!! I sincerely did not recognize him in the picture in your last post. Wow. What kind of aunt am I???
Luke – that deck is INCREDIBLE. You gents did a beautiful job. I can’t wait to come prance around on it myself someday!
Lacey – I miss you a lot.
love you all!
Aunt BetZ