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The Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

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Benefits of Buying ONly the Groceries You Need

For the last few years, I have had a higher grocery budget, so I’ve stocked up on food. I do this for two reasons. First, we have food intolerances—specifically, we can’t eat gluten or dairy—so we need specific foods in the house. Second, I find having a stocked pantry makes mealtime easier. I never need to go out to eat because I have everything to make several meals, depending on what we’re hungry for. However, I recently watched a YouTube video that intrigued me. Based on this video, I’ve experimented with buying only necessary groceries each week for the last few weeks.

Steps I Took to Implement This Change

During the last few weeks, I’ve set a grocery budget of $140 per week for my family of four, which is much less than the $215 a week I typically spend.

I make a menu plan and grocery list the night before I go to the grocery store, so I know what meals I’ll cook during the week. I also try to choose recipes that will utilize ALL of an ingredient. For instance, I needed to buy green cabbage for a stir fry. But I only needed to use half the head of cabbage, so I picked another recipe that would use the other half of the cabbage later in the week, so I used ALL of the cabbage up that week.

Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

While I never thought I would enjoy shopping this way, I did realize several benefits of buying only necessary groceries each week.

I Saved Money

We saved a lot of money shopping this way. Over two weeks, we saved $150! This was in part because we were not stocking up on food. However, we also saved because I had limited food in the house, and we HAD to utilize the food we bought.

We Had Less Food Waste

Benefits of Buying Only the Groceries You Need

We typically have very little food waste, but shopping this way eliminated food waste. As I mentioned, I was mindful of finding recipes that would use up ALL of an ingredient. Previously, that other half of the green cabbage might have lingered in the refrigerator for a while. We would use it. . .eventually, but when we did, we might have to cut out some bad spots because we let it sit too long before using it.

Final Thoughts

This way of shopping enhanced how I shop and menu plan. Even better, the benefits of only buying necessary groceries each week were that we saved money and reduced food waste.

However, even though this strategy worked for me, I like to have a stock of food at home in case we can’t shop due to bad weather or limited supplies. From now on, I plan to stock up occasionally to resupply my pantry. Still, for the foreseeable future, I plan to buy only what I need and continue with this experiment to see what other benefits I realize.

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Our Favorite Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

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Our Favorite Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

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Ways to Save on the High Cost of Meat

The prices in the grocery store keep rising, especially for protein. Like most people in the country, we try to keep our grocery budget within budget despite inflation. However, we still want to eat healthy meals and rely on something other than carbs to fill us up. So instead, we use these ways to combat high meat prices.

But First, a Clarification

We are not vegetarians and have no desire to be. We like carbs, but we don’t eat a carb-heavy diet. Instead, we try to eat a well-rounded diet, including plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Our Favorite Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

Here are the strategies we use to save when buying protein.

Buy Direct from the Farmer

For years, my husband and I bought a ¼ side of beef direct from the farmer. We’d get a lot of ground beef and cuts like chuck roast, T-bone steak, and stew meat. We didn’t buy the latter items at the grocery store because they were too pricey for our budget. However, buying directly from the farmer saved us money so that we could enjoy the more expensive cuts of meat.

Buy Clearance Meat at the Grocery Store

I love to buy meat from the clearance rack for other types of meat. For instance, a week after Easter this year, our local grocery store had eight-ounce packages of diced ham on sale for .49 cents! I bought five of them and used them in soups and omelets over the next few months. We also frequently find sausage on clearance. My husband cooks those up on the weekend, slices them, and packs a few for his lunch. Typically, he’ll eat about ¾ of a sausage with his lunch.

Use Meat as a Condiment or Meal Component

Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

We almost always use meat as a condiment or meal component. For instance, we’ll add about three ounces of meat to our spaghetti, which makes four servings. Or, we’ll make soup with one-half pound of meat in it. Likewise, stir-fries are a great way to eat a lot of vegetables with a small amount of meat.

If we make steak, we’ll serve the four of us a portion of the steak so that a 10-ounce steak will feed all four of us. We’ll have ample vegetables on the side.

Add in Some Starch to Stretch the Meal

One other idea is to add some starch to stretch the meal. For instance, I like beef stew as is, but my husband and kids always add a bit of rice to it. They enjoy the flavor, and it helps to stretch the meal further.

Final Thoughts

While we are all struggling to maintain our grocery budgets now, know that this time of high inflation will recede. However, we always combat high meat prices with these strategies. We prefer to eat this way, regardless of what the economy and grocery store prices are doing.

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5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

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Tips to Save on Groceries

The price of groceries recently! Ouch. In the last few months, I’ve been shopping the same way I typically do, and yet, my grocery bill for my family of five has increased several hundred dollars, and my freezer and pantry are emptier. Enough is enough. The food prices are rising rapidly, but I’m utilizing these tips to save on groceries this year.

Prices Will Be High for Awhile

Prices will be high for a while because of supply chain issues due to the pandemic and the current war in Ukraine. However, if you’re willing to change your behavior and preferences, you can save on groceries this year, even with the market instability.

5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

Change Your Menu

Our family makes every meal at home, and we don’t eat extravagantly. However, I’m looking at changing our menu. We’re gluten-free and dairy-free. That means staples for most people, like bread, cost us significantly more to buy gluten-free. During this time, I’m limiting how much bread we use and instead am switching to naturally gluten-free carbs that are cheaper such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and rice.

I’ve also searched the Internet for low-cost meals. Many bean-based recipes appear, but my family doesn’t want to eat beans several times a week.

Instead, I look two different places.

Depression-Era Recipes

For Depression-era recipes, I love the YouTube channel, Great Depression Cooking. Clara, the host, shares stories about her life and frugal recipes her family ate during the Great Depression.

Frugal Recipes Around the World

Tips to Save on Groceries

To make meals more interesting, I’ve prepared frugal meals from different countries. Some of our favorites include Colcannon (Irish mashed potatoes with cabbage), Okonomiyaki (Japanese cabbage pancake), and Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish omelet with potatoes and onions).

Use Less Meat & Fish

Part of our strategy to change the menu involves using less meat. Sometimes we have meat-based meals, but I’m currently trying to avoid having those regularly.

Find Meals with Reduced Meat

Instead of meat-based meals, I’m trying to make meals that center around vegetables and starches with some meat. When I do that, I can use less meat. For instance, when I make spaghetti, I add about six ounces of cooked ground beef. That half pound of meat is cheaper than using an entire pound for our family of five. I also look for soups and chilis that require a half-pound of meat or less.

Buy Cheaper Cuts

We enjoy roasts and steaks when we buy ¼ side of beef, but we haven’t purchased beef that way in over two years, so we’re only eating ground beef, which is the cheapest form of beef we can find.

Likewise, I still want to have fish in our diet, but I have found cheaper ways to buy it. I can buy cod pieces at Trader Joe’s for $4.49 per pound. Whole fillets cost approximately $10 a pound, so I buy cod pieces and make fish cakes instead of serving fillets to my family. We’re getting the benefits of eating fish at a much lower price.

Allocate Some Money to Stocking Up

One of the best ways to lower your grocery budget is to save some money each week to stock up on sales. Let’s say you have $150 a week to spend on groceries. You might use $120 to buy your weekly groceries and reserve the additional $30 to stock up on items that are on sale.

Maybe you find a clearance sale on ground beef marked down to $2.99 a pound instead of the regular price of $6.99 per pound. If there are ten packages available, you might buy all 10 for $29.99 total. (This is a deal I found two weeks ago, and I snatched up all ten. I promptly went home and made ten meals. Most of the meals are in the freezer now, so we can eat them in the next few months, saving us money on our upcoming grocery trips.)

Some weeks you may not find any good sales. That is okay. Let that $30 rollover, so the next week you have $60 to use for stock-up buys. Then, when you find a good sale, you can take advantage of it without wrecking your grocery budget.

Try Reverse Meal Planning

Some people carry this idea further by reverse meal planning. Instead of going to the grocery store with a list of items you need to buy, you go to the grocery store and look for food on sale or clearance and try to buy only those items.

Then, when you get home, you make a meal plan based on the items you already have. If you bought cheese at a discounted price, and you have ham from a sale two weeks ago, you might combine the two together with potatoes and milk to make scalloped potatoes for your family.

If you’re creative and can think of ways to use different foods, reverse meal planning can help you keep your budget low even when food prices are high.

I use this strategy, but only for a few meals a week. I’m not creative enough to plan all our meals this way, especially with our dietary restrictions.

Order Online

5 Tips to Save on Groceries

Another option is to order your groceries online. Some people love ordering this way because they limit their impulse buys. You only order what you need, so you can stick to your grocery budget.

I do sometimes place online orders, but our local grocery store is often out of the items that I order. Therefore, I only place online orders about twice a month. I like to go into the store to find discounted and clearance items, which I can’t do when I shop online.

However, by using both online shopping and going to the store on alternate weeks, I can save money.

Final Thoughts

The cost of groceries is high, but I’m hoping by regularly using these five tips to save on groceries this year, I can avoid going over budget.

How are you fighting the high price of groceries?

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