I’m someone who’s been spending about $50 per week on groceries for a little over a year now. And let me tell you, that is no easy feat (especially since I have three cats). However, grocery shopping on a budget has been a massive part of being able to continue affording living on my own, so it’s worth it.
And, since I know there are a lot of other people in the same boat as me, I wanted to share some tips and tricks on how I shop for groceries. As well as some information that I dug up online through research. So let’s jump right in…
Step One – The Prep
Before you ever set off to the store, there are some things you can do at home to ensure your trip goes smoothly and stays on budget. Namely, meal planning and creating a list based off that plan can be really helpful!
Meal Planning –
I go to the store once a week, so I only need to come up with a week’s worth of food when I’m sitting down to meal plan. Which equals about twenty-one meals. But obviously you may need to plan less, or more, meals! Based on how often you shop and how often you like to eat throughout the day.
You essentially want to sit down and create a little menu for yourself, full of budget-friendly meals you’d like to eat. You can write this menu down on paper or type it out on the computer, whichever you prefer. And there are a lot of resources online you can check out for inspiration. Such as…
- YouTube videos where people share their budget-friendly meals
- Listicle articles that name off budget-friendly recipes
- And even ChatGPT, since you can prompt it to give you an example of a budget-friendly menu!
Personally, I format my meal plan as follows…
Breakfasts are my first order of business, and I usually select one breakfast for the week. Such as a carton of eggs, and I cook three eggs for breakfast each day. Or a bag of sausage patties and a bag of frozen biscuits, that I use to make a breakfast sandwich each morning.
Then, I try to pick out three larger meals that I can have plenty of servings from that could double as lunch or dinner. Since I tend to eat randomly, whenever I feel hungry. Usually this means I cook something that produces leftovers, or I buy a bag of something frozen and heat up little bits at a time in my air fryer throughout the day.
Because I’m only one person and I eat so randomly, this works for me! But your meal plan may look a lot different and that’s okay.
Making A List –
Technically, you can make a meal plan and skip creating a list or vice versa. But I recommend doing both, simply because it makes your shopping trip a lot simpler.
And if you do choose to do this step, there are two main ways you can go about it…
- You can simply list off all the ingredients you’ll need for each meal, plus anything extra you’ll need from the store.
- Or you can do what I do, and load up the website/app of whichever store you use and search for the ingredients from the comfort of your own home. That way you can more easily compare brands, to figure out where you can get your ingredients the cheapest. (I shop at Walmart. So for me, this typically means choosing Great Value instead of name brand.)
Either way, this allows you to move through your store with more purpose. And can therefore help you avoid making unnecessary purchases because you got distracted.
Plus, if you scope out the products ahead of time on the site or app of the store you’re using, you can tell exactly how much you’ll be spending.
Step Two – The Shopping
Once you have your meal plan and/or your list ready to go, it’s time for step two… Which is the actual shopping! And seeing as I’m sure most of you already know how to shop, this section is going to be fairly short.
The main thing to remember here is to stay focused on exactly what’s on your list. And if something isn’t on the agenda, don’t buy it! With the exception of suddenly remembering something you need but forgot to write down, like mayo if you’re planning for sandwiches.
Now, depending on your habits, this may be easy or hard to do. Because if you’re used to being able to pick out anything you want without having to think about it, it may seem relatively harmless to add just one bag of your favorite potato chips… But everything adds up, and when you really need to go grocery shopping on a budget, you have to remember that.
Step Three – The Review (Optional)
After you’re done with your shopping, I suggest that you try out one final step! Which is a review that can help you plan for the future.
During this review, you simply need to assess how well you did. Did you stick to your budget or did you go a bit over? If you did well, then count it as a win. But if you ended up spending more than you intended, try to dig a little deeper and figure out what went wrong.
- Did you miscalculate how much each meal was going to cost?
- Did you get carried away with purchasing one extra thing here, and one extra thing there…?
- Or were you influenced to buy something you didn’t account for by a child, partner, or friend?
If you can start figuring out what exactly makes you go over your budget, then you can work on fixing it!
Tips and Tricks For Grocery Shopping On A Budget
Finally, I wanted to add a section full of grocery shopping hacks that may help you stick to your budget if you’re still having issues. And, especially if you have very specific reasons for why you find it challenging, you may find a tip here that you can apply!
Tip #1 – Shop with cash.
For people who find the discipline of grocery shopping on a budget to be the hardest part, this hack can be a lifesaver. And it is to only carry a very specific amount of cash into the store to shop; no credit cards, no wiggle room, etc…
This basically gives you no other choice but to stick to your budget, unless you’re willing to leave and go get more money just to come back again. Which is honestly more effort than most of us are willing to expend just to overspend.
Tip #2 – Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry.
Other than knowing you could technically spend more money by using a credit card, another big way that we can be tempted to overspend is by shopping when we’re hungry.
Because, even if we aren’t conscious of it, we’re not thinking 100% clearly. Our priority internally at that moment is simply to find food and eat, and we may even be having cravings. But you’re much less likely to go off track when you’re not hungry anyway.
Tip #3 – Shop smarter, not harder.
If you really want to optimize what you can afford within your budget, there are some specific ways that you can do so! Like…
- Buying frozen vegetables and fruits instead of fresh ones. (Fresh produce can be quite expensive, whereas frozen produce tends to be on the cheaper side.)
- Choosing generic items instead of name brand ones, like I mentioned earlier.
- Or really planning ahead and buying in bulk when applicable. As this can score you some really helpful discounts that could be worth it in the long run, even if it costs more now.
Tip #4 – Know what eats up most of your budget.
Sometimes, as disheartening as it is to admit, you really do have to cut out things you enjoy when you need to stick to a strict budget. And when that time comes, it’s helpful to know which things would make the biggest difference to stop buying.
For instance, meat is very expensive. So you may need to cut back on how often you eat it throughout the week, if you’re able to do that health-wise. Or, in my case, my love for sodas was setting me back a pretty penny… And thus, I decided to stop buying them for now and opt for cheaper drinks instead.
(Of course, never cut out so much food that it becomes unhealthy for you. Because your health should always be your top priority!! And if you do need to cut out certain foods, try to find alternatives that are nutritionally similar even if you don’t enjoy them as much.)
Conclusion
Grocery shopping on a budget is not the most enjoyable thing in the world, especially the smaller the budget is… But during certain stages of our lives, it’s necessary. And I hope this guide helped you in some way, if you’re currently in one of those stages like I am.
Plus, if you need a bit of extra motivation to stick to your budget and be able to save more money because of it… Check out my recent article, which was all about the benefits of saving money.
