Thursday, August 18, 2011

Frugal Friday ~ Steps 1 & 2 of Once a Month Shopping

Here we go! The once-a-month-shopping adventure begins. Sometimes I still can't believe we are trying this.

Step One should definitely be discussing the idea of only going into department and grocery stores on one day a month with your spouse. If your husband is not on board, it will never work because he will either (a) go to the store anyway and spend more money than budgeted or (b) he will be very grouchy when he does not get all of his needs on the list and you are not making the weekly or daily runs to the market.

This went fairly well for me. My husband is usually on board for anything that will save us money and he is always ready for something new and exciting. Personally, I think the thought of a complete months worth of groceries stacked in the back of our van was enough to win him over :) He will be blogging about his own frugal adventure in Healthy Home Fitness here.

Step Two is research. First you need a general list of the things you will be purchasing. We generated this list from the grocery list that was already hanging on our fridge and taking a complete inventory of our fridge, freezer, pantry, bathroom, and storage room. I also downloaded a couple of master grocery lists to help remind me of things that I might forget. I found the most useful ones here and here.

We have also begun Step Three which is price scouting. More on that next week.

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