Less Trips to the Grocery Store

Along with menu planning, try to enter a grocery store less to save money.  Sure, you may think "I'm just going in to buy milk," but often time you'll find yourself leaving with more.  One tip that helps me is to visit a product specific store for the "quick trips."  For example, I'll go to the dairy to buy milk (its closer anyway) since I'm less likely to buy anything else there.

When you do shop, keeping yourself on a time crunch will help you focus on your list (yes DO make a list!) and prevent you from taking a leisurely stroll down the chip aisle.  (It's my husband's birthday, thus the chips here...and yes, there was a sale on cereal!)

And, when you do pick up those extra items (ahem, chips and chocolate) survey them before you check out.  (Do I really NEED this huge bag of M&M pretzels, or will a small bag be okay, or none?)  Chances are you probably don't need all the extra things that may have found their way into your cart.

My plan of attack is to make one big grocery store shopping trip a month, and then 3 more weekly small trips.  I'm currently on a task to eliminate those weekly trips for the time being, and doing the in-between trips at our local farmer's market and dairy.

Also,  the blog Heavenly Homemakers has posted FREE weekly menu planners much prettier than the ones I posted.  Check them out!