battling the grocery store - tips and hints to surviving shopping day.

There are really only two ways to approach grocery shopping - you either enjoy it, or you hate it. Most people I know loathe making their weekly shopping trips. From friends to family members, most of us say the same thing - we always end up spending a fortune. With rising food costs and the ever-increasing need to shop natural and organic foods, we often push our cart begrudgingly to the car, feeling like that God forsaken supermarket just sucked out our souls - and our savings accounts.

But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm no grocery shopping professional, and on weeks when Rob and I need shampoo, dog food or randoms like toothpaste and makeup remover, I walk out spending way more than usual. That being said, I've gotten much better. I live so dangerously close to a grocery store, I have to make an effort to plan ahead so I don't make daily trips - and sometimes I still find myself there 4 times a week. But I've had several people ask me how I grocery shop, meal plan and budget without clipping a single coupon, so I thought I'd share what I know about that habitual hour of shopping I do every weekend. Some of you may laugh, knowing you shop for well under what I spend a week - and if that's the case, I encourage you to share because I love saving money just as much as the next girl. Keep in mind that if you're already busting your butt to save at the grocery store, all of this will probably sound mundane and obvious to you. But if you're showing up at your local supermarket once a week with nothing but a shopping cart and a handful of ideas and wondering how you spent $125 when all is said and done, you may find this helpful. 

Here are the basics: I shop for two people, once a week. I budget between $75 - $100 per week for groceries. This includes breakfasts, lunches and dinners at home. If I spend less than $100, I usually take the rest out in cash and keep it aside for extras I forgot about and need to pick up through the week - and let's face it, you always forget something. 

Plan, plan, plan. I know meal planning sounds overrated and time consuming, but it is vital to saving money at the grocery store. I don't plan every single meal out, but I do plan dinners - not only does this keep me from veering off track with my eating and weight loss goals, it keeps me from buying random ingredients at the store and then never using them at home. 

All the cool kids make shopping lists. Once you have a plan for meals for the week, make a list. I break mine into four categories - produce, dairy, meat, aisles. Break down each meal by ingredient and list it where it belongs. Mine is broken out based on where things are in the store - I do a perimeter round first (as you should, because that's where all the fresh foods are), then hit up the aisles. Having everything broken down by area leaves no questions for me - and no thinking. And no thinking means fewer opportunities to look at those ice cream bars or something with brand spankin' new packaging and think ooooh, shiny - I could make something with that this week, right? Wrong. Stick to your list. Do not make eye contact with other things. 

Be realistic. When I first started meal planning, I'd plan for every night of the week. It sounded super ambitious - 7 days of home cooked meals? I must be the most disciplined 20-something on the planet! But realistically, I would always have food that went bad or didn't get used. Rob and I eat out, on average, about twice a week - and usually on weekends. Planning meals full of fresh ingredients that could go bad is a great goal, but not realistic for us. Once I gave up trying to be perfect and settled at planning a solid 4 meals a week, with at least one leftovers potential, I stopped throwing as much spoiled food out at the end of the week. 

Less is...well, less. I learned this the hard way, and still find myself learning. I buy lots of produce - we eat tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, but I often over estimate our needs. I'll buy three zucchinis, knowing I'm using them as a side one night, but we only ever end up using two - which means one always goes to waste. The same usually goes with tomatoes, avocados, and bags of fresh lettuce. It takes you some time to figure out what you typically use, but start paying attention. This also goes hand in hand with basing your weekly needs off your meal planning list. Also - I buy one or two fruits per week. If I buy grapes, strawberries, watermelon and bananas, half of it gets thrown out. I'll switch it up every week, but I buy 1-2 good fruits and we mix those up through the week. 

Reuse ingredients. Try to plan only 1, maybe 2, ingredient-heavy meals per week. Buying 5-6 ingredients for multiple  recipes gets pricey, and often times you don't need those ingredients afterwards, making it a total waste of money. Also - if you make any kind of meat in bulk, reuse the leftovers in different ways. I did this with buffalo chicken this week - do not even get me started on the hundreds of ways you can reuse shredded buffalo chicken. Tonight we made buffalo chicken rolls, and tomorrow the leftover chicken will go on top of a baked potato. 

Cut a side dish. The notion that we need to eat a meat, a starch and a vegetable is total horseshit, in my obviously unprofessional opinion. I eat pretty low carb, or at least focus my meals on whole, natural foods. We will make a good meat on the grill and a heaping pile of roasted vegetables or corn on the cob and be full. The starchy sides like rice, potatoes and pastas, albeit delicious, are often unnecessary. I'm all about fueling your body and I encourage you to do so in the best way possible, but not every single dinner needs to be a three course meal. 

Don't buy lunch food. This is really a personal preference. Since I only have to cook for two, we often have lots of leftovers, which makes for perfect lunches the next day. I stopped buying deli meats, sandwich stuff, soups and most snacks, and we typically eat last night's leftovers for lunch instead. Yeah, sometimes it gets repetitive and boring. But if we don't, we end up a) spending money on lunch food and b) throwing out our leftovers.

To put this into practice, here's what my grocery list looked like this week. Keep in mind that I'm going to be out of town this weekend, leaving Rob alone. I had to plan for meals that made leftovers for the weekend since, let's face it, he's probably not going to cook. I planned dinners out for the week, leaving enough for leftovers and purchasing the bare minimum for lunches, knowing in advance that Rob would have to eat out a few times this week due to his work schedule.

Sunday: (returned home from out of town) Garlic & herb chicken with corn on the cob
Monday: spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs and marinara
Tuesday: Crockpot buffalo chicken, made into buffalo chicken rolls, roasted zucchini/yellow squash
Wednesday: leftover buffalo chicken on baked potatoes, corn on the cob
Thursday: spicy sausage pasta from Emily Bites
Friday: leftover pasta from Thursday's dinner
Saturday: Rob on his own, Emily Bites pizza "logs" for lunch
Sunday: TBD - I have to send Rob to shop on his own this weekend. Lord help us all. 
Breakfasts: Southwestern scramble in a mug (Southwest Egg Beaters, Laughing Cow Queso cheese and Applegate chicken and maple sausage links)

Produce:

1 spaghetti squash

corn on the cob (pack of 5)

1 package broccoli slaw

2 baked potatoes

2 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 bundle green onions

1 bag romaine lettuce, for lunch salads

Grapes

Bananas

Dairy

Land O'Lakes Saute Express - Garlic & Herb (this is the easiest "on hand" ingredient for last minute chicken recipes!)

1 block pepperjack cheese

Southwest Egg Beaters (usually 2/$5 at Kroger - I leave one at home for Rob, take one to work for me)

1 wheel Laughing Cow Queso cheese

Meat

Turkey meatballs

1 package chicken tenders

1 package chicken breasts

Johnsonville chipotle chicken sausages

Aisles

Marinara sauce

1 large bottle Frank's buffalo sauce

1 packet Hidden Valley ranch mix

Egg roll wrappers (to be used for buffalo chicken rolls, and EB pizza "logs")

1 box high fiber pasta

Applegate chicken & maple sausages

dish soap

Things we had at home that we needed for recipes this week: Rotel, blue cheese, pepperoni and reduced fat mozzarella string cheese for pizza logs, and low sodium chicken broth.

It's really not a perfect science - and sometimes I walk out of there spending a fortune after I feel like I've put adequate efforts into planning. Other times, I feel like I wing it and get away with only spending $50. I am a huge advocate for meal planning - both for health and weight loss reasons, and for budgetary purposes. You're less inclined to eat out when you know you've got chicken set out for that evening's recipe, and much less likely to eat out for lunch when you get to take yummy leftovers for lunch instead of a plain turkey sandwich.

Whatever you do, make a list. And if you're into couponing, I'd highly recommend it. I just have zero patience for hunting down coupons, printing them out or cutting them out of the papers.

And my number one tip for surviving the grocery store? Don't bring your husband. And make a Starbucks run beforehand - since drinking wine while grocery shopping is most likely frowned upon, nursing a giant iced coffee every time you're overwhelmed by soccer moms who let their kids run wild in the aisles will help push you through the hour.

Happy shopping, and happy Hump Day!