“Tuesday’s Tips” with Just Peachy Photography

In continuing the new series with Erika at Just Peachy Photography, I’d like to invite you to go HERE and see last week’s beginning post on her site.

If you’re familiar with last week’s post, start off your Tuesday with Erika’s first half of today’s topic, organizing recipes and creating shopping lists.

As before, read her post first and then see the link to my half at the bottom of her post. You will end up back here to read my half of the post below.

Happy Tuesday!

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ow that we’ve gone over how to accumulate recipes for your family’s dinners, it’s time to talk about grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping can be overwhelming if you don’t have three things:

1. a budget
2. a menu plan
3. a list

Before you go to the store, here are a few “steps” to help your shopping be less anxiety-ridden and more enjoyable!

First, decide on a budget. Perhaps you already have a family budget and know exactly how much you have each week/month to spend on food. Great! For those who don’t, it is very helpful to have a limit and know how much you can spend up to before you’re dipping into money for other expenses around the home. Our family sets aside a certain amount of money(CASH) each pay period to use on all food, toiletry and baby items. This is essential for me to do any shopping; I like to know my limit, so I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’m spending too much. Even if you set a budget for each shopping trip, it’s better to know what amount you can/will spend up to before it becomes a problem for your family’s finances. And once you know the amount, STICK TO IT! The only thing worse than not setting a budget, is setting one and then not sticking to it. It’s a waste of time, and I always feel AWFUL if I go over budget!

After your budget is set, decide on how often you are cooking. There a few options for how you will prepare meals (monthly freezer cooking, bi-weekly freezer cooking, weekly freezer cooking, day-to-day cooking), so plan how often you want to cook your dinners and then you can know how often you’ll need to go to the store. If you are doing a once a month freezer cooking session, you’ll need a big shopping trip at the beginning of that monthly period, which means more money up front for that trip. Be sure to consider that with regard to your budget setting! If you are cooking once a week and freezing foods or cooking each evening, then shopping once a week will work great! And if you are paid weekly or bi-weekly, a weekly shopping trip might work out the best. Just do what will work for your family and not just something suggested in some crazy lady’s blog. 🙂

With a budget and an idea for how often you will cook, you can now check your local ads! The front page of your stores’ ads are what they call “loss leaders”. These are hugely discounted items the store is using as bait. 🙂 They want to catch your attention with these discounts and sales in hopes of luring you into the ad (and then the store!) to get more purchases out of you! While you want to be careful not to fall into their trap and spend more than you planned, be sure to check that front page of a few stores in your area. You can find great deals on all areas of the store; then, if you can throw a coupon on top of that discounted item, you have a fabulous deal!

See you next week for the continuation of Tuesday Tips with Just Peachy Photography!!