As part of our Soon-To-Be Debt Free journey I have had to have a real hard look at all the holes in our budget. The biggest hole that we have is shopping. Thankfully, it is the one category we have the most control over! (This includes all of our shopping – Groceries, clothing, toys, etc.).

Today I am going to tackle the Grocery shopping aspect.

I will admit, that I am not a meal planner – never really have been. This is something I truly want to change. I do not enjoy going to the grocery store, so why not do one mega trip a week, and be done? I am aware that for most of you this is not a revolutionary concept, since most of you are much more awesome then I am and probably already meal plan!

Anyway, better late then never. Right?

A while ago I heard someone say : “Choose not to give your money away to other people for services you can provide for yourself!” I could not get it out of my head. This person was talking about things like lawn care, and eating out. But for my life it resonated with my grocery trips. I am constantly giving the hard earned money my husband makes away for quick – un-thought-out meals.

So I of course made some printables that will help me get organized and start meal planning / saving money for our family. The first one is crazy simple!

I write out the meals along the top of the page, then fill in the ingredients needed below. But more than just picking and choosing what sounds good to eat that week. I might even get super creative next week and use the bubbles to correspond with price matching deals! (Red bubble for target deal – Orange bubble for and Aldi price match deal, etc)

Shop the weekly deals!

• Don’t do all the leg work yourself! There are a lot of sites out there that lay out the deals for you!
  • Deals to meals
  • The Krazy Coupon Lady
  • Money Savings Mom   ~ just to name a few

Price Match!

• Everything I know about price matching has come for the Fun Cheap or Free Queen!
• Almost every store price matches now days. It can easily save you hundreds of dollars a month.
• Example- For a while now Scott and I knew we needed a new vacuum, our cheap black Friday special just was not cutting it. I really wanted to invest in a decent vacuum that would last a long time for us. I dream’t of a Dyson, but I could not justify the cost. So after some research I knew I wanted the Shark Rocket. (Yes it is amazing!). Anyway, they retail for $220.00. I was at Target and they had my Shark sitting there all shiny and new. So I did a quick search and saw that Walmart was running a special for this exact model for $159.99. I immediately threw it in my cart. *it gets better* I went to buy the vacuum for 159.99 and after the transaction went through the cashier handed me a Target Gift Card for $30.00. Target was running their own special that awarded me the gift card with the Shark purchase! So in all I got a vacuum that retailed for $220.00 for only $129.00. (A savings of $91.00) Just by price matching and shopping the sales!

The second printable expands upon the first to help you save even more money!

This printable takes your ingredients listed on the 1st page and matches them up with coupons / discounts to save you even more money.

Pair up your sales with additional discounts

• Use the app Favado!! This is an awesome app, you tell them what stores you shop at and every week it tells you the sales they are running BUT they also match up those sales with any coupons available. (Including newspaper coupons and online printable coupons.)
• Are you a target shopper? I know. Silly question! Anyway, make sure you are using their cartwheel app AND their regular target app. You can double if not triple the savings!

Are any of you mega meal planners? I would LOVE to know your secrets!