First off take inventory of what you have on hand... go through your pantry, fridge and freezer, paper products, personal care products, baby needs... Make a list to refer back to when creating your grocery list... Old school paper and a pen...
Look ahead at the calendar take things into consideration such as birthdays, holidays, vacations, any event that you will need to provide a dish, look at once your kids get older, things like snacks for classroom or after school activities... If anyone takes their lunch to work.
On a side-note - I cook differently at different times of the year so you might want to think about that as well. Summer much lighter meals.
Spend sometime looking at the AD's before ever heading to the store, when I was working outside the home. I used my lunch breaks to check these out... look for BOGO, or 2'fers, or things like 5 for 5 / 10 for 10
A well stocked pantry is one of the most important things that you can do to help with the overall budget... Stock your pantry with how your family likes to eat...
Things like meal planning, freezer meal, cooking once for 2 meals...
Then make the list.. then shop by the list... for me pen and paper is a must so that I get everything and stay on task...
Every 2 months or so, I head to the Warehouse store - BJ's is the one we are using right now, You can use Manufacture coupons and their store coupons - on my list for here - Paper products, laundry supplies, drinks, Personal care items..I buy my bath-wash, DH's bar soap, razors for both of us, and deodorant. Some OTC items like ibuprofen, allergy med. Grocery items - Ribs and Porkchops, the ready made soup Panera and legal sourced.
I also shop for my parents while I am there, Gulcerna, Boost, soup, Atkins bars, vitamins, some personal care items...
Once a month trip to Walmart for certain grocery items, like salad dressing, certain can goods, rice in those plastic containers, drinks, coffee.
Every other week - Aldi - Produce, Chicken, Trout/Salmon, Hamburger, Pork Loin, cheese, butter and other dairy items, nuts, certain can good, I love the selection of item for a party, nice cheese's, pickles, olives... Pantry items, sugar, flour, brown sugar, seasonings, cooking oil, along with Chicken and beef stock... I also pick up items for my parents...
Finally Publix... which I will run in weekly to get things like eggs, or bread, I keep up with the BOGO's
Since its just DH and I now, we are empty nester's... I cook pretty much every night during the week.
I suggested meal planning, or knowing what your going to make before you get home and once your grocery are home and put away...
So with the meal planning for instance, I bought a large family package of chicken leg quarters,The family pack was on sale, I got almost double for only 2 dollars more and roasted them in the oven... part of them I marinated in a ginger sesame marinade, the other I just did a simple roast, basic garlic salt and pepper - I did them in 2 pans at the same time.. . So always check the family packs, look at the price per pound...
Meal 1 - I made marinaded chicken with wild rice ( already in the pantry), and steamed broccoli...
Meal 2 - I use 2 leg quarter just the meat, leftover wild rice and the left over broccoli, for like chicken fried rice, I added a couple shakes of soy sauce, some mushrooms, and onions...
Meal 3 - I used some the other 2 leg quarters for homemade chicken salad for my lunch this week...
So with one package of chicken I got 2 dinners and my lunch for 3 or 4 days...
Freezer meal or items
I will make a basic red sauce, use part and freeze the rest in different portion size... by keeping is more basic you can use it later on for whatever, by adding more to it.. When I make homemade meatballs I normally make around 100 or more at a time, my hands are already yucky so why not... again put them in different portion size freezer ziploc's. On a busy night take out a container of red sauce, throw in the meatballs, you can make meatball subs, or spaghetti and meatballs all you need is the pasta...
, good lord!!!! after looking at what my oldest uses on a regular basis (again-nothing extravagant) and knowing what savings can be gotten by stocking up IF and when those items are on sale vs. purchasing as needed i suggested that during recuperation we go through oldest's apartment freezer and pantry to do an inventory, post the inventory to prevent duplicate purchasing outside sales-AND allow me (with advance notice/permission) to take advantage of sales of the regularly used products which i can store in our larger pantries/freezers for repurchase at greater savings (i've done this in the past if i see something at costco but now we are in agreement to do this on a wider basis). we are set to embark on this project next week.
