This is how a typical Monday morning starts for us.
We roll around on the ground until we get some motivation to go grocery shopping. But before we hit the stores…we need a plan.
I probably get 80% of my meal ideas online, and the rest are old easy standbys (hello Taco Tuesday). Our weekly freezer meal is from that time I had some friends over and we made twenty-five meals in one night.
Weekends usually mean snacking + leftovers, so I don’t really plan for that.
After the menu is planned…I make a list. I highlight the things I will get at the FIRST grocery store (cheap produce and the bulk bins) and then pick up the non-highlighted items at the SECOND grocery store (canned goods, dairy, and other things).
There are almost always things I forget to add to the list. This week I also picked up:
- blueberries
- sweet potatoes
- baby wipes
- bathroom cleaner
- bananas
Adrienne is in charge of the pen when we’re out. Only because without it, she chews on the grocery cart. Grody.
I try to spend around $75 each week and I don’t do coupons. I never seem to find coupons for things I would buy anyway.
We also have a freezer full of bison meat – which is why you don’t see any meat for Meeker on the list. Sometimes I’m under, usually I’m over by a few bucks. No big deal.
When we get home, I give Little Miss a (recently purchased) snack and then take care of the goods.
I buy a lot of stuff from the bulk bins, and those typically get stored in old salsa jars.
There you have it. Our grocery shopping strategies. Sometimes I dream of being one of those super moms who cuts and organizes coupons and ends up paying $5 a week to feed their family of 14, but I just can’t seem to get the motivation.
Maybe I need to spend more time rolling around on the floor.
$75 a week… I’m impressed! Do you stick to sale items?? I need grocery budgeting tips big time.
Yes, sale items and generic brand stuff usually.
I loved this post! And I’m so impressed with how much you’re able to get for the money! I don’t even think you need to be a coupon Mom with those kinda skills!
Gosh, thanks! I feel like that’s a lot of money!
This post was a fascinating read, I love seeing how people organise their things and you are most certainly an organised person! I’m also amazed at how cheaply you shop for food.
I think I spend about half of what you spend because I’m on my own but that doesn’t account for the fact you’re spending for 2 and a 1/2 people! I guess it’s a lot easier when you can bulk buy (hello stupid tiny cupboard + one fridge shelf!). My parents used to spend about three times that and there were only four of us! So feel pleased with yourself
Fun post to read – it is always interesting to see how people shop!
You know I do coupons…but I don’t waste time with it. I only clip if I see something I use anyway.
(do more of these how-to posts!)
You can cut coupons for me if you want.
I also shop at at least two grocery stores each week…I always make separate lists, but I love the highlighting idea! So much simpler! I plan meals for the whole month…I know, I thought it was crazy at first, too. But it saves me a lot of time, I think. And I can always change it if something comes up.
The whole month!! Wow, that’s impressive.
I like your strategy. I’ve tried couponing–I too dreamed of having a $5 grocery bill- but it’s hard work. And I never needed the things the coupons were for. So I through in the towel, and feel so good about it!! hehe.
I don’t do coupons either. In fact, the “Clipper magazines” go straight into the “burn it” pile from the mailbox, I don’t even bother looking through them. No time for those shenanigans.
I put mine in the garage garbage can as I walk in the house.
I LOVE the highlighting idea AND the jar idea for bulk items!!
Great post!!
Thank you, April!
…oh yeah…AND that menu board!!
How cute is THAT!!
I love the list highlighting to distinguish stores. When I was still living in the city I shopped two stores as well and always ended up with two lists, which is just too much paper while I’m shopping.
Great post! And you’re so lucky to have such a cute little helper
Love the idea of using a highlighter to differentiate between the two stores. Right now I’ve been making two different lists for our stores and we always seem to miss something. I’ll have to try this next time. Thanks!
I always miss something too, so it’s not fool-proof, but it does help!
$75!! That is amazing!!! Do you ever check Natural Grocers? I freaking love that store! They’ve had organic broccoli on sale for like $1.79/lb for about a month. I have about 30 jars full of bulk items. hehe
I haven’t seen one around here…I am going to keep my eyes peeled for it. And my pantry is PACKED with jars, too. Packed.
I’m seriously impressed with your $75 weekly grocery budget. I pray that we stay under $100 and there are only two of us
Well having the meat (that we got from my in-laws) helps a lot!
I don’t use coupons typically either except the ones that I get from my store in the mail based on what I’ve purchased before, then I actually get $ off of produce (buy $5.00 worth, get 1.00 off, something like that) You just can’t clip coupons for produce and healthy whole foods! I can usually stay around 100.00/wk for the four of us but we buy alot of produce and that’s the bulk of it.
I use just about the same system, it’s the only thing that works out well now that I’m shopping for two now.
This post came at such a perfect time, thank you. I have recently started shopping more at nutrional stores and hoping to buy more in bulk. The salsa jars are such a fabulous idea! And I do hope that someday I can keep our grocery list for two under $75 a week. PS Baby A is absolutely adorable.
Well thank you! It was around $65 until we had the babe…those diapers/wipes/pounds of blueberries cost us an extra $10 a week usually.
Menu planning and list making has saved our budget!! Love going to our bulk food store and the local healthy eats store to save as well!
Smart idea to give Adrienne a pen to chew on instead of the cart! Just yesterday I was watching my nephew randomly start chewing on the edge of a store display yesterday when we were at the mall (EWW).
I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who are great with coupons too–I go to sites like hip2save, which will calculate deals by combining company coupons with store coupons–but it seriously takes a lot of time to plan all that out! In the end I usually decide to just pay an extra buck. But I think if you get in a good routine, it can be really helpful.
I love that you used the word “grody” in this post. (And I love each and every baby picture, duh, as always!) It’s super fascinating to see how someone else does their planning and shopping. I especially like the highlighter trick. And we need a meal board in my house… usually I email the plan to my hubby and then he can’t ever remember what was in the email
I used to do it on the computer too, but I could never remember what was for dinner either. Now it’s right in my face.
Sounds like a weekend project to me! Now I have an excuse to do this: http://pinterest.com/pin/200199145905480955/
Adrienne in the shopping cart is precious! I love her tummy!
great post! i still have to make it to the grocery store this week…
i also have the SAME notepad with the magnet on the back?? it was from the $1 bins at target
I teach healthy cooking and nutrition to low income families through Cooking Matters Colorado – we always say the steps to ensuring the best value on your shopping trip is to plan a menu, make a list, review your pantry to make sure you aren’t buying a second can of the thing you already just bought (don’t you hate when you do that?!), clip coupons ONLY for the things on your list, then try to limit your spending to what’s on your list. BTW, did you know only 2% of all coupons printed are ever redeemed? (PS glad to know you snagged some of that bison – don’t you love it?!)
I can’t imagine people grocery shopping without a plan! I’d be wandering around for hours if I did that. And probably only come out with peanut butter, frozen pizzas, and toilet paper at the end of it all. (and yes, the bison is delicious!)
Have you seen those cart covers they have for chewing babies? I can’t bring myself to spend $30 to buy one for my 10 month old, but I also keep putting off making one. (The material and pattern have been sitting on my craft desk for at least 3 months).
If I give her a pen/teething ring/ anything else to chew on she just throws it on the floor and continues chewing on the cart. Something about those cart handles is just so delicious. Probably all the disgusting germs…
Mmmm germs. (yes, I too have seen those cart covers. I may need to invest.)
can you be my personal shopper? yes? what about my personal food photographer because I suck?
Just get to LA already!
Is it sunny there? If yes, I’ll be there tomorrow…or this afternoon. You pick.
Have you ever heard of the coupon game? One time I tried to play by clipping coupons I found in the newspaper, magazine and the internet and had one “fling” trip to the grocery store…I spent 27$ but “saved “49$” one time…It was pretty fun!
very time-consuming though! I want t little binker bean like you’ve got to accompany me on grocery trips! can’t wait for a family of my own (but I will wait 
)
She definitely makes grocery shopping more fun!
hahaha love the photo of A at the computer. such a great post!
I like the salsa jar tip! I always think about how I need to transfer my grains to jars and always have intentions of buying mason jars, but of course I never remember to. Salsa and pickle jars I have, though!
I am always trying to “budget” our grocery spending. I have figured out how to get the shopping done faster though. Throughout the week I make my list but before I go to the store I redo my list in the order of the store aisles – that way I don’t end up having to go back and forth if I skip over something on my list.
i would kill to spend 75 for a week. geez, i spend that much for lunch at whole foods sometimes…obviously i need some roll around on the floor time.
i store bulk grains and nuts in old marinara jars.
I am SUPER impressed that you only spend 75 a week!!! Just for myself, I have problems meeting that quota…
Ha, your little routine is so similar to mine+ Misty’s…. except Baby A is a lot better behaved. Seriously, I can’t keep Misty IN the trolley…. I have seriously considered tying him to it, but I think that may be illegal.
Love recycled jars for bulk bin goodies…. jars are fun
They have little buckles (like seatbelts) in our carts to strap the kiddos into, but thankfully I haven’t had to use it yet. Probably soon.
Yip, they have the belts here too – and my 16month old has worked out how to un-clip them (!) From what I have noticed, girls seem to be a lot better behaved (or more relaxed?) at this age… Misty’s cousin (a girl) was born on the same day (they are 2 hours apart!) and she is quite content sitting in her stroller, without even the strap on…. where as Misty would jump straight out and be heading off to play in traffic with half a second! Oh they are funny creatures these babes
We pretty much do the exact same thing, but I try to get everything at Whole Foods now or it’s too time consuming. haha.
Gah, I wish we had a WF near us!
Normally I rank on folks like you because you make me feel inferior. But I will praise you for all the good things you give your baby and I hope your hubby appreciates the yummy menu you prepare. Food is medicine and we need more folks that prepare whole, healthful foods like you do. More families would be happy around the country if this was the case.
I don’t mean to make you feel inferior at all!! Just sharing what I do. Thanks for your kind words.
Of course, that was a back-handed compliment. I was trying to be funny!
The only thing more adorable than those jars is your handwriting and the only thing more adorable than your handwriting is your baby.
Every time Adrienne licks the shopping cart I think of that line in your book (Cashew Ginger Carrot Soup recipe) when Lulu licks the cart. What is it about those dang carts?! (and yeah, I pretty much have your book memorized)
Great post. I am doing pretty good with the meal planning, just need to get it out of my head and on the chalkboard. Hey you probably have covered this question, yet being kind of new I was wondering do you eat meat or mostly are you veggies. Just wonder how you get the protein in with all your hard workouts with crossfit. Hmm maybe shopping carts have protein….ewwwwww.
Maybe that’s the appeal of chewing on the cart?! To answer your question, I DO eat meat. I don’t eat it very much because I don’t really love it. Once in a while I’ll have a few bites of chicken or steak, but mostly, I stick to veggies. I just eat what I want when I’m hungry, stop when I’m full, and don’t worry about protein/carbs/fat. My body is pretty good at telling me what it needs…I just have to be sure to listen.
This might seem like a silly question but how do you get your salsa jars clean enough to use for storage?? I’ve saved some spaghetti sauce jars and cannot manage to get the smell out of them enough to feel comfortable storing things partiicularly grains in them…after soaking, hand washing and running through the dishwasher it still smells strong of tomato and garlic…help!!
I love that our names are even spelled the same. It’s by far the coolest way.
She’s a cutie!
The best way! Meeker actually picked the spelling…I was going to go for “Adrian” but now I love the spelling we have.
Love this post! i thought I was the only one who went to two different grocery stores for items! Happy weekend, friend.
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Love this post! And I am Adrienne’s biggest spanish fan!! how cute she looks eating blueberries
I think you do a great job….having the bison meat helps and you guys eat a lot of meatless meals too(that helps so much). When you get a Ben or ask your other teenage mom friends this….they EAT EAT all the stinkin time! With this list I see just a few things you could get coupons on: Brown mustard(French’s brand), enchilada sauce(maybe), Eggland Organic eggs I paid 50 on clearance eggs at Safeway the other day or not about to expire $1.00 OR you can buy the Soopers repacked eggs(white cartons) I get organic, brown ones when I open them up to look…it looks weird but hey I pay $1.19 for big brown eggs! Pasta whole grain always coupons for that item. Cooking spray but Soopers brand is typically cheaper
Pbutter- I buy Skippy Natural, Planters Natural and when that coupon comes out I get them online and buy 6 jars!! Nuts but again Ben can eat 1 jar of pbutter in 8 days! What else…..I think you did great!!! Coupons work IF you buy items you use. Oh lara bars….hard to find coupons but you can go to the company site and requests them! xoxoxxo
Come budget for me!!!
Hi! I found your blog thru Pintrest (mushroom-pesto painini…or however you spell it). I <3 it!! Your baby is NOT helping my baby fever!!!
I love that you use yummy whole foods! I also loved the comment about coupons, I'm surprised you haven't had a crazy couponer attack you yet! I used to coupon pretty hard for shampoo/soap/cleaners before I switched to natural products. It is a-freaking-mazing what crap people buy foodwise. "I got 75 free boxes of fake mac and cheese!" Ew. If you email companies you can generally get a coupon thrown your way for good products though, sometimes the coupons are for free products! I got a free container of Horizon sour cream the other day!