...with grocery budgeting.

As you already know, I am a pretty frugal person. I don't like to pay full price for much of anything. I clip and use coupons (my husband calls me the "coupon clipper"), I make things homemade if possible and most recently - I have started keeping track
of my grocery expenses.
My grocery bill has varied quite a bit. Some weeks I would spend $75 on food and other weeks, only $50. So, I decided to keep every single grocery receipt so that I could look back and see just what I was spending my money on, was it being used and not wasted, and what areas could I cut back on. In addition, I set a "budget" of $50 per week to spend on groceries (this does not include household items likes toilet paper, shampoo, etc). At first, I thought $50 seemed really drastic and unrealistic.
Now, why would I do this? We certainly could afford to spend $75 per week on groceries; however, the problem was that I was buying too much food more often than not and then that food was going to waste because we couldn't eat it before it expired or went bad. Not only the food waste matter, but if we could spend less money on a more appropriate amount of food, than that spare money could be put in savings or used on other expenses.
The first few weeks of trying to stick to my budget were a little hairy, but not a disaster by any means. For instance, week 1 - I spent $54.08. Week 2 - I spent $58.97 and week 3 - I spent $69.85 (not sure where I went wrong here!).
By week 4 ($44.18) and 5 ($45.39) I was doing much better. I am currently on week 6 and so far have spent $41.76 but will need to pick up a few more items before the week is done.
What do I do if I don't spend $50 per week? I add the money to the following week so I can stock up certain "staples", like boneless, skinless chicken breast or cereal.
So what are my secrets to success, you ask?

1. Make out a weekly meal plan and base it off the grocery stores sales. We receive the grocery store ads in the mail once per week. I keep them until I am ready to start planning the following weeks meals. I check out what is on sale and what recipes I have set aside/tabbed in magazines that I am interested in making. If the recipes ingredients happen to be on sale on that week, then it gets added to our meal plan.

2. Clip coupons, print coupons, trade coupons.
I clip coupons from the weekly coupon inserts and I also print some from online. Did you know Target.com has printable coupons on their website? I also check out the www.commonsensewithmoney.com blog - which lists weekly deals at various stores and how to match up sales with coupons. There are also numerous links to printable coupons. Sign up at a products website to gain access to more printable coupons (ex: Stoneyfield Farms has printable coupons to those who sign up on their website). Coupons.com is another great site.

3. Match up coupons with sale items.
My husband eats cereal for breakfast like it's going out of style. Cereal is frequently on sale and there are almost always cereal coupons to be had. Therefore, I only buy cereal with a coupon when it's on sale.

4. Shop on "double coupon" days if your grocery store has them.
The main grocery store I shop at will double your coupons on Wednesdays and they currently are also doubling them on Saturdays as well thru September. They do have some stipulations - you can only have 5 coupons doubled (up to $1) and you must spend $25 before tax and store discounts are deducted. Another grocery store near us doubles coupons on Mondays and Tuesdays but there is no minimum purchase required.

Now, stacking sales with coupons and then having those coupons doubled is REALLY the way to go. Recently, Starbucks ice cream pints were on sale for 2/$5. I LOVE this ice cream, but at $3.99 per pint I rarely buy it unless there's a sale and/or coupon. This time, I happened to have coupons and a sale! I bought 3 pints of the Starbucks ice cream (we have a deep freezer - so I can stock up on things I love). Regular price with no sales/coupons would have been $11.97. The sale price for 3 was $7.50. I had two coupons - $1 off one pint and $1 off 2 pints. Both of those coupons were doubled to $2 each. So $7.50 - $4 in coupons = $3.50 for all 3 pints! My kind of deal.

5. Shop several stores if needed to get the best deals
Sometimes while reading the sale ads I will see that 3 items I really need are on sale at
store ABC, and another 10 are on sale at store XYZ. So which store do I go to? Both! I am lucky in that we have 2 grocery stores, a Target with some groceries and an Aldi's all within a mile of each other (and within about 2 miles from my home). Therefore I will shop at several stores to get the best deals and because they are so close to each other I don't feel like I am wasting time/gas driving around from one to the other.

6. Stack store coupons with manufacturer coupons.
Of the stores I shop at, Target is the only one that I know of that let's you stack a Target coupon with a manufacturer coupon (when you use 2 coupons for the same 1 item). Target coupons can be printed on their website, found in coupon inserts and are mailed to your home. I have been able to score some good deals this way - especially on toilet paper, tooth paste etc.

7. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean you have to buy it.
*sigh* This has been a hard one for me to overcome. I used to see things on sale and think I had to buy it, because "gee, that never goes on sale, I should get one". Then come to find out, I never got around to using the sale item and it went to waste. Only buy what you need!

8. Bring a calculator.
In order to keep track of how much you are spending or to find out the best price of a product of varying weights.

9. Use cash.
I always use my debit card to shop. However, I find I spend more on groceries that way. So, I went to the bank and withdrew $50. I then took that with me to the grocery store (and pretended it was ALL I had) and noticed that I was much more vigilant of what I was spending because I was trying not to go over the $50 amount. I ended up only spending about $39 that trip but saved the remainder in an envelope and used it later in the week to buy a few more items.

10. Join a CSA!
We joined a 26 week CSA and we receive plenty of organic produce, therefore I buy very little produce at the grocery store (in fact I only buy stuff that we don't get in our CSA). There is absolutely no way I could buy the same amount of organic produce at the grocery store for as little as we pay for our CSA (it averages to be $12.50 per week).

11. Stock up when there is a sale on frequently used products (if you NEED it!).
As mentioned before, I only buy cereal when there is a sale and I have coupons. I usually end up buying 10 boxes of cereal and that lasts quite a while before I need to buy more for my husband. Same with boneless skinless chicken breasts. The sale price around here is $1.99 per pound. I don't ever buy it for more. This price may only come around once per month, so I stock up when it is on sale and store it in our deep freezer.

I think that's it so far! Feel free to comment with your tips as well! I could always use more!
Stay tuned for the next post - wondering what the heck I am able buy for $50 per week? I'll show you what I buy and for how much and I am going to type up a weeks worth of meal plans (with all the ingredients listed) and break down the cost of each meal from the grocery bill.