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How To Makeover Your Grocery Budget And Save Money On Food:
I’ve been working on my grocery budget for years. I’m constantly trying new things in my attempts to keep it manageable. I do really well for a couple of months and then get lazy and end up wasting money again.
It drives me nuts, but I just struggle with the cooking/meal planning aspect of budgeting. I always through it took too much work and was too time-consuming.
I was wrong – as I often am.
I’m kind of stubborn and like to figure things out myself. I’m not sure why after all these years, I keep thinking that I’ll get different results when I’m doing the same thing over and over again.
I finally said enough is enough and took a class called The Grocery Budget Make-over.
[clickToTweet tweet=”I know I’m a dork, but meal planning has seriously changed my life. #grocerybudget” quote=”I know I’m a dork, but meal planning has seriously changed my life.”]
I’m actually meal planning, cooking and saving money. It is life changing. I’m so excited.
Cooking has always been a chore. It still is, unfortunately, the class can’t solve all my problems.
I will probably never like cooking. However, I’ve discovered that cooking is so much easier when you take the time to plan out meals in advance and wonders of wonders actually have the ingredients on hand you need.
I know it is such a shocking concept to most of you who actually like to cook and are organized in the kitchen.
For the rest of us, The Grocery Budget Make-Over Class will change your life. It is inexpensive and I paid for the class the first time I went grocery shopping using some of the techniques I learned.
At this point, I finished the class two months ago.
I’m still making all of the changes needed, but in the last two months, my grocery bills have decreased by $75-150 from my previous average spending of $450-500 per month.
Here is the deal, I do use a few coupons, I use the Ibott app and I watch for sales. What made the difference for me was learning to meal plan.
I’ve tried meal planning in the past. Maybe I was just too lazy, but I could never get it to work for me.
Something finally clicked when I took this class and it started working. I think the big difference for me was that I needed clear directions.
In the past, I’ve always tried to meal plan based on a few random blog posts and some grandiose ideas.
It never worked because I never actually had a plan. We all know how well things work without a plan.
The Grocery Budget Make-Over classes were simple and easy to follow. Erin Chase (who also created the $5 Dollar Meal Plans – which are amazing) made the classes interesting and informative.
There were tons of worksheet and guides that were designed for all type of different people. Everything was designed to make grocery shopping just a little tiny bit easier.
There was something about having my meal ingredients clearly listed by the meal that worked so much better than my typical haphazard list.
Even if you are already a great meal planner and grocery shopper you may want to check out this class.
I’m an expert at finding good deals at the grocery store and shopping based on sales and I still found additional ways to save money.
If you are a non-cooking person, then I cannot stress enough how awesome these classes are. Seriously for the price, you can’t go wrong. If you follow even a portion of her advice you should pay for the cost of the class within 2-3 weeks of implementing some of the changes Erin recommends.
Erin Chase is offering a free Grocery Budget Makeover Workshop which starts on 9/4. This workshop is absolutely amazing and will give you tons of free, helpful advice. This workshop is what got me hooked on Erin’s classes.
Seriously who gives out this much free advice?
Even if you don’t take her full class, you’ll save money just from taking her free workshop.
I know a lot of you are like me and feel that meal planning either doesn’t work, takes too much time, or is going to save money.
After taking this class, I totally disagree. Effective meal planning is quick and easy and will save you money on groceries.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Effective meal planning is quick and easy and will save you money on groceries. #mealplanning” quote=”Effective meal planning is quick and easy and will save you money on groceries.”]
On a quick side note, I’m just covering the meal planning aspect of the Grocery Budget Makeover Class in the post. There are a ton of other areas she covers like stock piling, couponing, kitchen hacks and freebies.
The other areas were great, but for me, the meal planning is what resonated.
Either way, if you are struggling to control your grocery budget or like me and just searching for ways to get more bang out of your buck, I highly recommend Erin’s class. Give it a try, for the price you have nothing to lose!
For more Money Saving Tips check out these posts:
Money Saving Posts:
- 14 Money Saving Tips to Lower Your Grocery Bill
- 5 ways to Stop Spending Creep from Destroying Your Budget
- How to Cheat Your Clothing Budget and Still Dress in Style
- How to Avoid Busting Your Budget
How to Budget:
- Two Unbreakable Rules of Budgeting
- How to Budget If You Have An Irregular Income
- How to Set Up a Percentage-Based Budget
- How to Create a Budget
My wife and I realized that we were spending WAY too much eating out or grabbing dinners the night of. Once we sat down and really began meal planning it was LIFE changing. Not only did it save the normal “What do you want for dinner?” conversation but it saved us a TON a cash. Additionally, we were able to plan for lunches throughout the week which also helped! Like with all things its all about getting into a routine.
Eric,
You nailed it. It does take a bit of work to start meal planning, but once you have it down it really is the most amazing thing ever. I can’t believe I waited so long to actually get organized. I really do hate cooking that much!
Amy
My wife and I changed our grocery shopping habits around a year ago. We now buy from several stores to get the best prices. This has brought our food bills down dramatically.
It’s easy to get sucked into the convenience of shopping in one store and of course it takes us more time now we shop around. But as a local convenience store owner told me when I told him the price of his bread was expensive, “it’s convenient… not cheap!”
You nailed it. There are times when I’m willing to pay the price for convenience, but when I have time, shopping (and watching the sales) around definitely saves lots of money.