In a recent job
interview, I was asked to describe myself in one word. Without hesitation
I replied “picky.” Throughout my life, my mother has consistently reminded me
that I am a very picky individual. I am picky about clothing, picky about
men, and picky about food, just to name a few. Over the past (almost)
year of marriage, I have come to realize just how picky I am about purchasing
our groceries and planning our weekly meals. Honestly folks, I do not
believe I can hand the power of the grocery list over to anyone else. My
grocery lists are elaborate and probably a wee bit over the top. These
lists are divided up by category and a price is listed for each item. If
a coupon goes with the item, the coupon is listed along with the price after
the coupon discount. A few days ago I shared my menu plan for last week
and the upcoming week. Dinner would be a disaster each night if I did not have
my grocery list and menu plan. These two tools are my secret to getting
dinner on the table every night between 6:00 and 6:30. This plan works
but it also takes work.
My weekly grocery list
is based on two things: items that are on sale and items that we need. I
do not deviate from this list unless the store is out of stock. If I must
have the item, I try to find a substitute of equal price or I simply hold out
until the next sale. My detailed grocery list gets me in and out of the
store in about 45 minutes. This time frame includes checking out with
coupons and our trip to and from the store. It goes to show that being
prepared saves time. Most Saturday’s I have my husband with me to push
the buggy and unload at checkout. While he unloads, I am able to watch
the scanner to make sure the prices ring up correct.
Speaking of price, most
of you know that I have a weekly grocery budget of $60 a week. This $60
covers every single meal we eat for the entire week. For our little
family of two, it provides us with 42 meals. To be fair, I will divulge
that I place a $50 order with vitacost once a month to restock
pantry essentials, which breaks down to an additional $12.50 a week for food.
Even with the vitacost order factored into the equation, we are only
spending an average of $1.73 a meal. Most of the ingredients used in our
meals are organic, local, or low pesticide level foods, so $1.73
a meal is a bargain.
I exclusively grocery
shop at Publix because I love the clean store, the availability of organic
products and their generous coupon policy. We also go the farmer’s market
every Saturday to purchase local eggs, beef, and pork. I wish we could
purchase all of our vegetables at the market, but right now it is not
financially possible. Frozen vegetables are a huge bargain over fresh and
this keeps me going back to Publix for the majority of our produce. I
have shared before that I utilize southernsavers.com and iheartpublix.com for
sale and coupon matchups. These two websites are indispensable to me in
the meal planning process. I hope the things I have learned and shared
are able to help someone else who wants to feed their family real food on a
budget. Below, I have listed my shopping list for this week’s meals.
When menu planning, I try to incorporate as my items as I can which I
already have on hand into our meals. This means nothing goes to waste and
we are never overflowing with groceries, but we have enough.
