You move an item from the shelf to your cart, then your cart to the checkout counter, then the counter to your cart, then the cart to your car, then your car to your house. Not to mention driving in the snow, waiting in line, not finding what you need, wasting an evening, etc. Sheesh!
For awhile now, I've been trying to find ways to streamline the whole meal planning/couponing/grocery list making/shopping/cooking process. It all just takes too much time! Over the years, I have made some modifications that have (I think) made the process
Step 1: I get the Sunday newspaper and keep the coupon inserts in a binder organized by the date so I can refer to it later.
Step 2: Over the years, I've put all of my recipes on my Shop N' Cook software. When I have a minute, I'll look for new recipes on food blogs, Pinterest, Kraft.com, etc. and copy them to my database. Easy.
Step 3: Every 3 weeks or so, I take about 5 minutes to pick out 15(ish) recipes to eat over the next few weeks and they populate into a shopping list on Shop N' Cook. I've set up the list to follow the layout of the Kroger store where I shop. I used to actually make a menu for the upcoming weeks but I found it was hard to predict when we might have left overs to eat, go out to eat, or not have a spare second to cook (or when Chris insists on eating frozen pizza). Now I just pick a menu item from the list the night before or day of. Also easy.
Step 4: Use the site Coupon Mom to figure out which items on my list have current coupons and I clip them from the coupon inserts I have saved.
Step 4: Go to the grocery store. Now, this is the step I am trying to modify. When I started making baby food, we'd order from Green Bean delivery. It is all fresh (often local and organic) fruits and veggies delivered right to your door. I'd get it once a month or less to fit our budget. It got me thinking, why not get all my groceries delievered to my door? (and thus remove the annoying shopping steps I mentioned earlier). Plus, then I can just shop online while hanging out with my family rather than dragging a baby out into the cold just for him to sit for an hour in a shopping cart. I started trying Pea Pod delivery. The prices were slightly more on some items and suprisingly comparable on others (this also replaced my Green Bean delivery, too). They also take manufacterers coupons, so I can spend time selecting items I have coupons for. Plus, it eliminates impulse buying. Since we track all of our expenses, after a couple months of using Pea Pod I'll be able to see how much/less money we're spending. It might be worth the extra time I'll have at home!
Step 5: I now have all the ingredients for 15 or so meals that I chose earlier. I keep that list out so that I can pick a meal to make each day. I usually try to buy frozen veggies instead of fresh so that the produce doesn't go bad before we eat it. However, when I have fresh produce, I star those meals so that I make them first. For Camden's food, I try to batch cook his purees on the weekend and freeze the extra in ice cube trays for later. Soon he'll be eating the same food we eat, so I'll be able to eliminate this step.
Step 6: Cook dinner for my family! (now if only I could find an affordable home chef)
I also often make small weekly/bi-weekly trips to Kroger for things we need that week (like extra milk or food to bring to a pitch in that just came up, etc).
-Costco (every 5 months or so) for bulk baby wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.
-CVS (every once in awhile) use coupons to stock up on toothpaste for 4 cents and things like that (I'm not as good as the "Extreme Couponers", though).
-Seven Sons Farm (every 6 months or so) - for bulk beef. We split 1/4 cow with Chris' parents
Let me know your process and money-saving ideas if you have any that work well for you!
1 comment:
You are kicking BUTT, Steph. Oh my gosh. Do you sleep?!
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