Once a Month Grocery Shopping Experiment
Like every other Thursday,  yesterday the pile of grocery food circulars came along with the newspaper and for the first time I did not break out in a cold sweat! I am 48 years old and fear the grocery flyers.
Welcome to our Once a Month Grocery Shopping Experiment!
I have been grocery shopping for 28 years for the family and for 28 years I have loathed the task. I have tried everything. Shopping with cash, shopping with a list, shopping when I am full (epic failure, this makes me not want to buy anything), meal planning. You name it I have tried it.  The problem is I really am paralyzed by all the choices. I try to make a list based on the flyers and to get the best deals but it is just so overwhelming I inevitably forget something which requires another trip to the store. And once inside I see something shiny and end up going in for eggs and leave spending $40 on stuff I don’t need!
Please tell me I am not the only one!? There has to be other neurotic grocery shoppers out there somewhere!
When I looked at our bank statement for June we made an astonishing 43 food purchases (37 of which were grocery, 7 fast foot)! And that does not include the cash purchases. Talk about a major waste of time and money! Something has to change, and fast!
When shopping at Costco on the weekend to pick up some supplies for a barbecue we are hosting, a light bulb went off in my head! What if we only shopped once a month for our groceries! I almost felt instant relief.
Now, I should explain that my initial thought was Costco would be the best place for shopping a month at a time. Costco and I have had a very casual relationship in the past. We have been members for a couple of years and rarely go. The stack of grocery flyers we get each week made me believe I had to shop at ALL of those stores to get the best bang for our buck! When I was shopping at Costco on the weekend I took the time to note some prices and was pleasantly surprised that the deals are pretty good. Not everything is cheaper, mind you, but overall not too bad!
So here begins the experiment. For the next three months we will be grocery shopping only one time per month. While we know we will not be able to get everything we need at Costco, we will do what we can there. We will also choose one local grocery store with the best overall offers the week we are shopping.
We will save $100 of our monthly budget for our Saturday morning visits to the Farmer’s Market, which is the only shopping activity I enjoy, to stalk up on fresh fruit, veggies and eggs.
 In preparation for this experiment I will be cleaning out all of my cupboards and as you can see, they are in bad need of some organizing!  I cannot even believe I am showing them!
The pantry. Small, but ample storage space when organized.
The lazy-Susan! Looks like someone else has been lazy too!
The cupboard above the microwave, usually used for snacks.
This will help me take inventory of what I already have and what we have bought in the past and is now shoved to the back of the cupboard and forgotten (which is a clear indication we didn’t need it in the first place)! We also have a chest freezer, and a baking pantry that holds all my flours, sugars and other baking ingredients.
Once a Month Grocery Shopping Experiment Rules
1. Stay on Budget
2. Shop only 1 day in the month (plus farmers market on Saturdays)
3. Eat at home
4. Prepare a doable menu plan
Are there any other monthly shoppers out there?  How do you plan your shopping list?  I would welcome and appreciate any suggestions or advice and, as always your comments really do make my day!!
Next Friday I will do an update so you can to see how our first monthly shopping trip went, how I planned my shopping list and how the cupboards look now!
Wish me luck!
I want to do this, but I definitely have to plan the meals out. Have you found a good free meal planning site?
I usually just write out weekly meal plans, but always get sidetracked and don’t follow them. I am not too good with structure 🙂 I am planning to choose 30 meals for the month (for dinners of course) and just choose one a day, in no particular order. I will be posting about it a bit more next week. I have heard of a paid site though, called Emeals, that several people use and give good reviews! And I just came across this post about monthly shopping http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/2014/06/e-h-m-july-2014-monthly-meal-planner-next-grocery-store-lessons/
Even though I would love to do this, we have to grocery shop at least once a week, sometimes once every 2 weeks. Its just me and my husband living at home so we usually do not over spend. I use coupons and it helps a lot. I just know that if I tried the once a month shopping, we would be hitting the store for things we are out of a least once a week!
I am looking forward to your update on this.
It is going to be a lesson in discipline for me that’s for sure! I will have to make a list and check it twice so I don’t forget anything 🙂
meal planning is one of my worst failures… My schedule can be so unpredictable at times that I just “don’t feel like eating that” or “cooking that”. I’m hoping that this summer, I’ll be able to get into the habit of pre-planning and prepping meals ahead of time. You are not the only one.
Hey Maureen! I’m happy to hear that I am not the only one that loathes food shopping. I used to fight with my domestic partner over going to the grocery all the time because I hate so much. I actually started once a month shopping in May. It’s the smartest thing I have ever done. I just spend one day planning, shopping, prepping and organizing my ingredients, then it’s no worries for the rest of the month. I have just been using a two week plan for my groceries and doubling everything, though I must confess I am a very boring eater. Before I started this I was eating veg chili 3-5 days a week, so it’s not like it has been a major change for me. Have you checked out the blog Blissful and Domestic? She walks you through how she plans and shops, plus she talks about how to handle your veggies and perishables. Good luck! I look forward to hearing how it goes!
Hey Maureen! I’m happy to hear that I am not the only one that loathes food shopping. I used to fight with my domestic partner over going to the grocery all the time because I hate so much. I actually started once a month shopping in May. It’s the smartest thing I have ever done. I just spend one day planning, shopping, prepping and organizing my ingredients, then it’s no worries for the rest of the month. I have just been using a two week plan for my groceries and doubling everything, though I must confess I am a very boring eater. Before I started this I was eating veg chili 3-5 days a week, so it’s not like it has been a major change for me. Have you checked out the blog Blissful and Domestic? She walks you through how she plans and shops, plus she talks about how to handle your veggies and perishables. Good luck! I look forward to hearing how it goes!
Thanks for the tip Kathleen! I will definitely have to check out Blissful and Domestic!
We have storage/space limitations and it would be very hard for me to shop only once a month. For years I have been grocery shopping weekly. It is the only way I can manage my meal planning- two weeks overwhelms me.
I am pretty tight on space as well, but I am hoping with some strategic placement I will manage! Fingers crossed 🙂
We shop monthly at Costco for our family of 7. Dh does the produce and milk run weekly, and I’ve started shopping at Giant every other week. We’ll see how it goes in the fall when I need to be more mindful of my time.
Wow, 7! And I am complaining about shopping for 4!!
Interesting blog post! Loved the caption on the lazy Susan photo – it made me laugh out loud! Good luck on the project!!
Looking forward to seeing how your experiment turns out. I am also fearful of the flyers and my grocery budget has pretty much went out the window!! Can’t wait to see your results.
I always say I would like to shop 1 time a month, even 2 times a month. But its more like 2 times a week. Having to pick up veggies and milk in between. I do bring a list, but its general and never based on meals I want to make. I can’t wait to hear how it goes.
I wish you luck with shopping once a month. I have been doing this for about 3 years now and I definitely love the time savings and pocket book savings. We use our local farmer for fresh fruits and veggies too, but we find we go every week to get milk since storing it for a month is not easy for us.
Great post, Maureen. And I really enjoyed reading through the comments. Good luck with your 1/month shopping. I’m eager to read your follow-up posts. I never look at the grocery ads and I don’t use coupons. For the past 4 years I’ve had the schedule of grocery shopping every 2 weeks. I plan out meals for 2 weeks at a time and make up my shopping list ~ I get a few things at Costco and everything else at our local Winco (a super awesome, great prices store) and we buy our raw milk at a local year round produce stand. I also keep a running list of things I’m low on or run out of and add those to my bi-monthly shopping trips. I now only spend $470/month for 3 people which is a HUGE savings over what I used to spend. Before our strict budgeting and planning I easily spent $200/week at Costco alone! Yikes! Now I save lots of time and money.