Increase Your Spending Power At The Grocery Store!!

I think a really important part of having a family is making sure you stay within budget. It can be hard to go grocery shopping, especially with the outrageous prices these days. I have devised a plan to help manage grocery expenses, although I'm not claiming it to save you thousands of dollars it sure does help! I never really got into the whole coupon craze thing, mostly because I just don't have time to sit down and calculate everything and I don't want to anger the people behind me in the checkout line! I found an amazing website with free printable work sheets that I use to figure out what meals we're making, what ingredients we need, and how much it will cost (approximately).

In fact, this is just one miniscule thing I use from this amazing blog Organized Home!! Cynthia Ewer, the creator of this website has so many incredible ways to stay organized and keep your head above water. You can find the free printables for her Household Notebook , which I STRONGLY suggest constructing -HERE !! (Did I mention it's FREE?!)


First I plan out a menu for dinner for the entire week:

Then I write every ingredient onto my "Pantry Inventory " sheet. I go through my pantry and everything that is red is something that I need to buy in order to have all my ingredients for the weeks dinner menu.

Last I write everything marked red onto my "Price Book" sheet. I go online to the weekly ads for the grocery store I shop at and look up to see if anything is on sale that is on my price sheet. I write down the price of each item onto my sheet so that I know how much my shopping trip is going to cost me. This keeps me from buying an item that might cost more than the sale item. For example Miracle Whip might cost $4.00, but the Safeway brand only costs $2.49. Instead of wasting time looking for the cheapest one, I already know and it saves me that extra couple minutes comparing (which can be priceless when you are toting around a baby and a toddler!)

You can see that I estimated my shopping trip to only cost me around $50 for a weeks worth of meals because I didn't buy things that I already have. It's important to take inventory of your food supply so that you don't find yourself guessing while your at the store which ultimately ends up costing you an unneccessary expense!


Overall it only takes me about an hour to decide what dinners we will be having that week, and categorizing everything to maximize my spending power! This might not work for everyone, but it works for me. As far as other meals go, I purchase store brand cereal, fruit, and bagels for breakfast, and bread with lunch meats and different cheeses for lunch. I try to stay away from lunchables and ramen noodles because processed foods are so bad for you! Give this a shot and see if it works...I think it saves a lot of time, money, and hassle at the store!