I’m a big Costco fan. I’m pretty sure that I save money going there. And frankly, who doesn’t love buying 200 rolls of toilet paper at a pop so you don’t have to think about it for a couple of months? I tend to hit Costco every 6-8 weeks and when I go, I stock up. This is where you have to take a long term vision of your grocery budget because if you’re stuck in a $75 per week place, you’d never go to Costco.
There are a few staples that I love to buy at Costco that I save a pretty penny on. For example, I nabbed 10lbs of sugar, 50lbs of flour, 6lbs of tortilla chips, 3 lbs of coffee, 4lbs of shredded cheese and 2.5lbs of peanuts, among other things. The tab for food stuffs? $191.51. We’ll see how that jives with our grocery budget over the next few weeks.
This week, our meal plan looks like this:
Thursday: grilled cheese, tomato soup and apples
Friday: pizza and pears
Saturday: sausage, mashed potatoes and oranges
Sunday: Ethiopian lentil stew, rice, green beans and cantaloupe
Monday: chicken and broccoli casserole, rice and cantaloupe
Tuesday: black bean and quinoa burritos with guacamole, oranges
Wednesday: leftovers
The tab at my grocery store? $47.05.
So, for those of you keeping score, I’ve spent $378.51 out of the $400 we have budgeted for groceries this month. Clearly, we’re going to spend a bit more than $400 since I plan to go to the grocery store one more time this month. But, I’ve set myself up beautifully to be under budget in February because I have the house completely stocked after my Costco trip. That’s where a little bit of long term vision is an asset.
You may also notice that we don’t eat a ton of meat. That’s true. We go meatless about half the time. Ever since I had massive tofu cravings during my third pregnancy (yes, I know that’s strange), I’ve had less of a taste for meat so I tend to cook and eat less of it.
Anyway, my savings tips this week?
If you have a club membership, exploit it for bulk savings. I save a ton of money buying things like artichokes and peanuts in bulk.
Use coupons. I subscribe to my Sunday paper for the coupons. When online coupons become more digitized and less piss-away-your-printer-ink-for-$.35-off-your-yogurt, I’ll make the switch. Anyway, for $54, I get the Sunday paper year round. I save an average of $3/week off my groceries by using coupons, occasionally much more. That’s about $160/year. Minus the cost of the paper, call it $100. Does it take a little effort? Yup. But I’m not the type to see $100 on the ground and walk by it because I’m too lazy to bend over.
You can check out websites like coupon mom that match the coupons in your Sunday paper with sales at your local grocery store to get the best savings. I get a lot of free toothpaste that way.
Happy eating!