"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."

Chinese proverb

Grocery Shopping Once a Month...

http://www.creativehomemaking.com/frugal_living/monthly-grocery-shopping.shtml

Tip #1: I do my major grocery shopping twice a month. I get my meats and frozen veggies once every 6 months. The only thing I get weekly is milk (2 gallons a week) and fresh fruit (apples and bananas mostly). I stock up when there is a big sale and coupon like crazy. It is very nice not to have to run to the store to buy something or take the kids weekly for an hour trip. Once I got a good pantry stock, it was a piece of cake.

Tip #2: I only shop once a month for my family of seven. I take my oldest son (10), and both of us push a cart and load it up. He's a big help in lifting things from lower shelves (since I'm pregnant right now), and has even pointed out some great prices I would have missed. He also helps unload the cart at the checkout and bag up the groceries at the other end. I find that I'm able to buy all of our food, fruits and veggies included, and even an ample supply of "fun" food like chips, ice cream, etc. for under $250/mo., and that includes toilet paper, laundry soap, etc. We eat the most perishable foods first, like lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, etc., and save the apples, oranges and carrots for later in the month. Frozen and canned veggies and home-canned fruit keep our diet balanced, too. I plan out our meals in advance: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert and extra meals for the freezer. I can pick and choose what meal to make on any given day from the list, so we're not too rigid about it. Also, because I freeze about 14 extra dinners every month, we have a broad range to select from. When I was shopping all over the calendar, I was spending about $700/mo. I went to every two weeks, and lowered my spending to around $350. Going to monthly shopping trips has reduced it even further, plus I find I don't have to drag a whole passel of kids along to the store with me because I forgot to get pasta sauce, or whatever.

Tip #3: I love to do freezer cooking. It really has helped us from those nights when you don't want to cook and just go out instead. What freezer cooking is: stocking your freezer with pre-prepared meals. Some people cooking a month's worth of meals in one day, some do it every two weeks. I do it when I can. A good place to start (as it can be overwelming) is to just make 3-4 of the dinner you are making one night. For example, I made meatloaf last week. So, instead of just making one, I made 4. Only took a few more minutes and now I have 3 meatloaves ready to go. I line extra pans with foil (non-stick kind is great), put in the meat mixture, top with foil, and then freeze. Once frozen, I remove the foil covered loaf from the pan and remove the foil from the meatloaf. So now I have a frozen loaf the size of my pan. I then seal it up in a foodsaver bag and label it. Then when I want to cook it, I remove it from the freezer the night before (or morning before) and plop it in the pan to thaw and then bake as usual.

Tip #4: I try my best to do our major shopping once a month too. It DOES save a lot of money. I think it's that you are thinking of things in terms of the long run of the month when you do that initial first shopping and if you go several times a week you are more prone to buy a lot things you really don't need. It may seem like it's only a bag of cookies, couple bags of chips, extra but that all really adds up! We also go through a lot of milk here too. So that's a weekly thing. At least a gallon a day. My husband and kids drink it all. I HATE milk and drink coffee, water, and soda so I can just imagine what we'd go through if I drank milk too. During one of those "milk runs" I sometimes have to pick up some things like salad dressing, etc., if I thought we had enough but didn't. But I'd say I'm an advocate for once a month major shopping. I find it saves us money. I'd LOVE to get into the once a month cooking but I need to get into the "wanting to cook AT ALL!" mood first.

Tip #5: I make ONE shopping trip per month with the Non Mortgage paycheck. Then I back fill with one more trip for missed items or specialty items for parties, family dinners, etc. For a family of 4 with 2 big teen boys and 1 big eater husband I generally spend under $400/month. I try not to exceed $385. That will include the cat, her tuna, paper products, toiletries, etc. I make the list with the sale meats and shop there, bring them home and cook all that kind of meat on the next day. And the chicken on the following day. I will shop most of the sales at the local grocery chains. AND I will go to WalMart and Sam's. I keep a price bookso I know where I am at all times on prices. This is a simplified version because there are many factors to consider. Then, to answer the question about 'what's for dinner'. I wait till the last minute *well almost*. I keep a 30 day meal plan, which is how I know what to buy at the grocery store. And I only cook ahead the meats. So, I will slow boil 10 to 20 pounds of ground meat with seasonings, then pour off the water and fat (save if you like for broth later). Then I divide up the meat into freezer bags and lay flat to cool. Then I store those bags flat in my side by side freezer/fridge. I do the same with bone in skin on chicken. Let cool, save the broth in freeze in small portions for use later. I put 4 or 5 breasts in a freezer bag, allow to cool and put them in the freezer. I get a full month in my side by side without having to have or use my large chest freezer.

I like the sound of this, food shopping takes me ages and I could always do with extra cash. :)