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Basically I understand this will contain tips that most people will probably know or have heard of. I never really was up for the idea of meal planning, however I truly regret not implementing this sooner. I used to go to the store and just buy whatever, not really thinking about, "Do I already have 2 cans of pasta sauce at home?"

 

First step is take inventory of what you actually have, and what you actually eat. I cannot tell you how often we would throw things away because we didn't eat it on time and it spoiled.

 

My biggest revelation was to meal plan, MAKE A LIST, & stick to it. I would often find myself just saying to myself, "Oh this looks good, Ima get it." Yeah treats are nice every once in awhile, but not $50 worth every trip to the store. Ground beef and chicken breasts are things that I like to eat and are very versatile. RePurposing meat is what is saving me the most money. For example, I like to bake up a couple chicken breasts and make them into:stir fries over rice, enchiladas, tacos, and soup. If you use lots of vegetables it takes a surprisingly small amount of shredded chicken to make each of these.

 

We also stopped buying juice and sodas. If we really want something sweet to drink we will make Kool Aid (but the generic kind). Also I have got in the habit of baking a small cake on Sundays. By small I mean half a box. Its small enough to where we won't have to throw out any that would remain uneaten and its a treat for the week.

 

Weekly grocery trip generally looks like this:
Pack of 4 chicken breasts
1 pound of ground beef
2 bell peppers
1 red onion
head of lettuce
2 packages of mushrooms
3 cucumbers
package of shredded cheese
3 jalapenos
1 can of corn
tortillas
loaf of bread
almond milk
a couple red potatoes
bag of frozen vegetables (either carrots or green beans)
bag of rice

 

I used to spend $100 a week on groceries. Now we spend roughly $150 A MONTH. Max spent is around $200. I usually only buy meat every other week. Items like pasta, kool aid, cereal, oatmeal, etc are things I was buying often and not necessarily using up every week so I have lots of that in the pantry. Bacon is something I used to buy every grocery trip, then I realized how expensive and unhealthy it actually is. Another thing that helps is that my work provides free bananas, apples, oranges, and cup of soups. For breakfast during the week I will have fruit and oatmeal. Lunch is usually salad and a soup. A little about myself: I work full time, work out 5 days a week, and am in school almost full time. Some days I feel like I don't have enough time to cook but it always gets done. There are things I could probably go cheaper on but this is what is working for me right now. I know that nothing I have posted is really groundbreaking, but hopefully encourages someone that it can work.



April 30, 2018 at 10:23PM

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