So since I am a Stay At Home Mom, I feel like it is my responsibility to save our family as much money as possible on our basics. Like Food. And just so you know, I am stinking up a storm when it comes to this! I do not plan meals, I do not shop sales flyers, I do not use coupons, and I have not ever really tried.
Wanna know something else? We spend anywhere from 30-60 dollars on random trips to the grocery store to make something for dinner, just for one night….and that is done multiple times a week!!!!! Not Good! I know so many other places that money would be much better spent!!! It actually makes me feel a little nauseous writing it down, and admitting it out loud.
When I think about it, I feel really guilty. More often then not when Scott comes home, and I have nothing ready for dinner. To make the situation even worse I usually do not even have a plan or options for dinner. I want to be better. I want to do better by my family. So I am going to try, really, really, really hard!
I do have a plan. My plan is being implemented on Sunday. Wanna know my plan? Well here you go:
- I am going to use the coupons that we get in our Sunday paper.
- I am going to look at www.thekrazycouponlady.com daily, and print out coupons that our family would use
- I am going to look at the sale flyers, and plan meals around the weekly deals.
- I am going to make a grocery list, and stick to it!
- I am going to track our meals every month, so we don’t fall into the rut of same old boring food, week after week.
Here is how I am going to organize all of this! I goggled “Grocery List” and saw a few that I liked, so I opened up my go to Photoshop and created one. Here it is:
On the left hand side I have each day separate and a line for Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner.
On the right hand side I have lines to write down my list. There is an area for me to check off the item when it goes in the cart at the store. I will also put a star after the item I want if there is a coupon associated with it. (one star = one coupon, two stars = two coupons, etc)
I cut it out (it is just a tiny bit smaller then an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper), mounted it on a pretty piece of scrapbooking paper and then laminated it, so it can be used week after week. An extra fine tip WET erase maker works great for writing on the lines. I use a wet erase so incase it gets bumped, my grocery list does not become smudged and illegible.
Here is what she looks like on pretty scrapbook paper, and clipped on my clipboard ready to start saving my family some money, time, and hassle
My second tool is this calendar:
I simply cut this out, and laminated it as is. This goes on the refrigerator and gets filled in with what we are having for dinner, each day of the month. Hopefully, this will keep things from getting to mundane or repetitive in our home.
So that is my plan. I hope to wake up just before everyone else on Sunday morning, get something to drink and sit down with my inserts and plan for the week. I know it would make life easier in the long run for all of us!
I’ll let you know how it goes!
Amy says
Good for you! We save a lot more now that we plan a weekly menu and shop accordingly. I used to end up going to the store almost every day, but now it’s only once or twice a week, which sure helps! Good luck! Thanks for linking at Shine on Fridays!