Meal Planning Challenge: Healthy Grocery Shopping Once A Month

“These days, my idea of living dangerously is going grocery shopping without a list”– Anonymous 

Grocery shopping once a month seems impossible. But with some strategic planning, everything can be possible.

We are busy, we are tired, and to not go to the store 1 to 2 times a week could really give us some extra time for things that matter. And this is how…

Planning Produce Purchases

This one is tricky since things are perishable. You may have to make a couple of quick “cheat” stops purely due to the logistics of how long things keep. However below is the list for the large trip:

• Fruit for snacking (amount dependent on how much your family will eat prior to it going bad)
• Frozen green beans (if your family enjoys them, stock up on sale)
• Salad stuff and veggies. Now here is the trick: when planning meals you are going to do the fresh vegetables first. The meals toward the end of the month are probably going to come primarily from your frozen vegetable stash.
• Produce required for any of the meal plans for the first half of the month. (You are going to make that cheat trip mid-month, so the second half of the month can be planned for separately.)

Lists and Local Bloggers

Find a blogger that lives near to you that lists local ads and deals. I honestly never thought of looking into that, but I have been too intimidated to coupon very much on my own when grocery shopping. This could really help me (and hopefully you.)

Then after finding all of these deals sit down to make your master list. If you shop places that price match then on your master list include the price that you are price matching for and the information that will help the cashier perform that the easiest. If you have the master list not only will it help your shopping, but it helps with your meal planning around the sales for that month.

Cooking Calendar Creation

Print out or get a calendar with enough blank area to write in meals. Now depending on how busy your family is you may want to pull out the calendar of family activities also. This will give you a little bit of insight into how much time you will have for cooking each day. If there are leftovers, you may only need to cook 4 nights a week and have leftovers other days. Try to plan leftover nights for when the kids have sports etc.

Purchasing Necessary Ingredients

Planning ahead with the calendar allows you to look at the things you will need for the week. You can plan meals that contain like ingredients, so you don’t end up being wasteful.

Extra Edibles and Essentials

Planning for toiletries, snack foods and milk can be challenging. This is how this can be cleared up:

• Consider freezing milk. If you know you go through a gallon a week, get 4 gallons and freeze three.
• Consider doing the same for cheese. Stock up and save.
• Try purchasing one large snack package for the month. For example a large pretzel package. Eat it and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Depending on how big your family is and the pickiness level there, you may need to have more than one option.
• Buy several boxes of the cereal that is on sale that week.
• Check toiletries stock before going to see how much you should purchase.

Make Your List According to The Layout of The Land

Take your list and organize it according to the sections in the store. This will help you avoid running back and forth through the store and make the most of your time.

For further tips please check out this site.

Featured photo credit: Flickr/Happy Worker via flickr.com

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