Once a Month Grocery Shopping Series
Welcome to our Once a Month Grocery Shopping series! Do you dread going to the grocery store once or twice a week? Are you scrambling for dinner ideas every night? Is your grocery budget out of control? Once a month grocery shopping can save you time and money. You will learn how to make a master grocery list, inventory your pantry and freezer, and make a monthly grocery list to get almost all of your groceries in one trip. It may take a lot of your time initially, but you will see a drastic difference once you put the plan into place!
Once a Month Grocery Shopping
I used to think it was impossible to buy most of my groceries only one time a month. After my husband and I had our third child, trips to the grocery store became so tedious that I absolutely dreaded them. I hated meal planning and I hated dragging all of my little kids into the grocery store once a week.
It never failed, we would go into the store and I would give in to all the little things that they wanted. Those extras that were not originally on my list added up, so our grocery budget became out of control.
I needed to figure out a way to save money on groceries, and I wanted to do it with the least amount of time spent in the grocery store as possible. I suggested to my husband that we try grocery shopping only once per month. At first, it sounded daunting. How in the world were we going to plan all of our meals, make a list, and manage to shop in one day, but we decided to try it. We LOVED it.
There is so much freedom for me in only grocery shopping once per month. Yes, it’s a lot of work up front. Yes, we spend a good chunk of our day shopping (though this can be eliminated with store pick-up! Yeah!) But the freedom lies in having a meal plan for the entire month, and only having to think about the majority of our grocery shopping only once per month.
Here’s my disclaimer. My family really enjoys fresh fruit and milk. We do make a run halfway through the month to pick up milk and the fruit and fresh veggies that we eat. So, I know, maybe it’s not truly once a month grocery shopping. However, depending on your diet, whether you’re fine with eating frozen and canned fruits and veggies, it is still possible to shop only once per month.
Our mid-month stock up isn’t a big deal. It’s just time to grab the essentials and we are done!
Here’s a couple of things I DO NOT DO when grocery shopping once a month:
- I don’t use coupons – I don’t have time to sort coupons.
- I don’t specifically shop sales. Yes, I will buy items on sale if they happen to be on the day I’m shopping, but I don’t plan to shop around sales.
- I don’t shop at a ton of stores. I use Sam’s Club and either Kroger or Wal-Mart.
- I don’t rely on packaged treats. We do buy a few packaged treats, but I stick to whole foods, tortilla chips, and ingredients to make treats.
Below you will find all of the posts in this once a month grocery shopping series.
Inventory Your Pantry and Freezer with a Free Printable
Making the Monthly Grocery List
Real Life Once a Month Grocery Shopping Menu Plans and Grocery Hauls
Large Family Monthly Meal Planning for April 2018 – How I Plan a Monthly Menu and Shopping List
Want all of this information and the printables you can’t get anywhere else in one place? Get my eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Once-A-Month Grocery Shopping.
