frugal groceries Archives

The Ultimate Frugal Shopping List for People Who Always Forget The Essentials

April 22, 2025 By Teri Monroe Leave a Comment

frugal shopping list ideas — Image Source: Pexels

Today, it’s even harder to be frugal when grocery shopping, especially with inflation. According to the Economic Research Service, grocery prices have risen by more than 23% from 2020 to 2024. If you want to save on groceries, you have to be strategic. You’ll also need to go to the grocery store armed with a shopping list. Here we’ll discuss how to save on all the essentials, even if you always forget them.

Pantry Staples

The best way to save money on groceries is to start stocking up your pantry stash. Wait until essentials like rice, beans, and pasta go on sale. Then, you’ll save even more money by buying these items in bulk. You’ll continue to save money if you utilize your pantry when cooking meals. Many pantry staples add affordable bulk to meals that help you keep the overall cost per serving down.

Vegetables

For frugal shopping list ideas, pick up vegetables that don’t spoil quickly. You’ll definitely want to grab a bag of potatoes, onions, and carrots. Each of these has multiple uses and doesn’t cost a lot. You may want to consider canned or frozen vegetables as opposed to fresh.

Fruits

Buying fruit, especially cut fruit, can drive up the cost of your groceries. Instead, you’ll want to buy staples like bananas and apples. Usually, there is at least one variety of apples on sale per week. Additionally, canned fruits are usually the cheapest option.

Bread

Some breads go bad more quickly than others. Sometimes, cheap white bread like Wonder Bread is the best choice. If you prefer other varieties like sourdough, you may want to consider making your own to save the most money.

Dairy

With the average price of eggs high right now, substitutes may save you the most money. You can substitute applesauce or mashed bananas for eggs if you’re baking or silken tofu for savory dishes. Cheese can also be expensive if you purchase it from the deli counter. Instead, look for store brands or sale items.

Meats

To save the most money, you don’t need the best cuts of meat. Look for manager’s specials or things like country-style ribs, ground turkey, thin-cut steaks, or sausages. You usually can get a good deal on any of these items. With the right recipe, you won’t have to sacrifice taste either.

Paper Products

Toilet paper and paper towels can cost you a pretty penny if you buy an expensive brand. Instead, you may want to buy items on Amazon and utilize a subscribe & save deal or apply a coupon. You can find the best Amazon deals on Jungle Deals.

Frugal Shopping List Ideas

Don’t wait to purchase the essentials if you want to save money. If you truly want to be frugal and save on your groceries, you’ll have to look for the best deals and buy essentials during sales. Then, you can start to build recipes around these items.

Stolen Money: 8 Things Do Immediately After Finding a Bag of Money

Teri Monroe

Teri Monroe started her career in communications working for local government and nonprofits. Today, she is a freelance finance and lifestyle writer and small business owner. In her spare time, she loves golfing with her husband, taking her dog Milo on long walks, and playing pickleball with friends.

5 Steps I’m Taking to Lower My Grocery Budget in 2024

January 15, 2024 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Grocery prices soared last year, and my budget took a hit. However, I paid more for groceries not just because of inflation but also because I got lax with my spending. When I added up how much our family of four spent on groceries in 2023, I was shocked. My laziness and lack of awareness had cost our family thousands of extra dollars! I decided to lower my grocery budget by 20 percent this year. Here are the steps I’m taking to do that:

5 Steps I’m Taking to Lower My Grocery Budget in 2024

Meal Prep

I used to meal prep, but in the last few years, I thought I was too busy to do it. Wow, was that a mistake! Starting on January 1, 2024, I began meal prepping again. This time, I invested in cute lunch containers. On Sundays, I make three meals that serve 4 to 6 people. I separate those meals into the containers, and for the next five days, my daughters and I reheat the meals when we’re ready to eat.

By meal prepping, I only have to buy ingredients for three meals, so we’re buying less. Plus, we only eat the same meal twice a week, so the food doesn’t get boring.

Shopping Different Stores

We have food intolerances and can’t eat gluten or dairy, so I shop weekly at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods for groceries. This year, I’m going to those stores once a month to buy the foods I can’t find anywhere else. The rest of the time, I shop at Walmart or Aldi for our produce.

Joining a CSA

I spent $750 this month to join a CSA. Beginning in early summer and running through 20 weeks, I will get my vegetables from the CSA each week. Most CSAs give you a certain amount of produce and choose what you get. However, this CSA lets you pick which veggies you want, and you can take as much as you and your family can use in a week, so I won’t have to supplement.

Expanding Our Garden

Last year, we had a small garden that gave us fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and beets. This year, we plan to expand it to store some for the winter to reduce our produce costs when the CSA ends.

Ordering ½ Side of Beef

Finally, we ordered a half side of beef at a discount. We will get the meat sent to us every three months, so we don’t need to have room to store the entire ½ side. Instead, we get a quarter of it every three months. This will be our primary meat supply, but we’ll still buy chicken and fish.

Final Thoughts

I’m hoping these steps will help to lower my grocery bill significantly. I plan to keep you updated as the months go on. If I’m successful, our family could save hundreds of dollars to allocate to other needs, such as our college fund for our children.

The Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

The Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

November 14, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

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

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.

5 Tips to Save on Groceries This Year

Feed a Hungry Teenager without Breaking Your Grocery Budget

MelissaB