Looking to save time & money?
Then I have a quick tip for you: grocery shop once a week!
A typical scene at the grocery store when I am checking out goes a little something like this: I pull up to the check out line with a cart full of groceries, a man with 3 items in his hands steps behind me, takes a glance at my cart with wide eyes and quickly dashes to the nearest available line.
I often feel like I’m the only one in the store with more than a dozen items in my cart. Everyone around me has just a few items in their basket. This leads me to believe that many people are shopping more than once a week. (Or maybe they are simply living off bread, ice cream and orange juice.)
Shopping once a week takes planning and (obviously) takes time, but it also saves money and time.
One weekly trip to and from the store for a 45 minute to 1 hour shopping trip is a better use of your time than multiple trips to the store for 10 to 15 minutes.
One weekly trip to the store keeps you focused and prevents impulse buys and extra unnecessary spending.
Grocery shop once a week, save time and money and make your life just a little less busy.
Extra tips
If you want to shop just once a week there are 2 things you will need to help you accomplish this goal.
- You will need a meal plan. Read about 5 reasons to meal plan here.
- You will need a grocery list. Learn how to organize your grocery list by categories here.
Need some simple meal ideas? Check out this post.
What about you? How many times do you grocery shop each week?
Until next time,
Charissa
For more quick tips, read here.
Great tip, Clarissa! I also find it it saves me money and time to meal plan and shop once a week. I’m a teacher with 3 year old twins, so getting to the store during the week is not easy! Looking forward to checking out your easy meal ideas!
Sorry, *Charissa* autocorrect!
No worries! 🙂
Yes, Gina, getting out even once is an effort, so why not get it all done then?!!
I only shop once a week, but I also buy almost exclusively whatever is on sale only for non-perishable items (and those which can be frozen). We only have one grocery store, which is probably a good thing, or I would be spending too much time price comparing. My Safeway receipt shows a savings of 25% or more most of the time, even up to 40% sometimes, since I started really focusing on this strategy. Before it was usually around 15%.
Sticking to the sales is a great money-saving strategy, Crystal.
This is very helpful! As a single parent to two kids it can get really expensive food shopping, so I try and keep shopping weekly to a minimum. I do struggle to stick to a meal plan though as I change my mind a lot of the time x
Glad it was helpful, Rochelle! Don’t worry about keeping your meal plan too rigid. Come up with a list of 5-7 meals for the week, but don’t stress about assigning a meal to a night. Definitely keep some super-easy, any night options on hand, too!
This is definitely the ideal scenario. Getting to the grocery store just once a week is a great idea and encourages you to be way more efficient time and cost wise. Sadly, we don’t have access to a car so it becomes really difficult to get everything in one go. One day… 🙂
Yes, not having a car changes things, Kathy. My sister lives in NYC and doesn’t have a car, so she definitely has to grocery shop more than once a week. Grocery shopping once a week is a great way save time and money, but it might not work for everyone. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Great tips! Meal planning is something I need to get better at. I end up buying food I never make or running out to the supermarket in the middle of the week because I need food for dinner. The links you’ve shared are very helpful as well.
Thanks, Naya! Meal planning sometimes seems more overwhelming than it really is. I am going to be doing some more posts on meal planning in the future so stay tuned.
I feel like the grocery store is my second home, seriously. haha I need to spend more time planning our meals
Lesley,that’s funny! But I think you make a good point, without a meal plan, multiple trips to the grocery store are inevitable. Stay tuned for more meal planning posts!
In general when I do groceries I need to tote all 4 kids along(all under the age of 5) so often my cart is full before I even start! I really need to start meal planning though, it’s one thing I know would make it easier but for some reason I’m still not doing it.
Hi, Jacqueline, yes, 4 kiddos makes for a full cart! I will be doing more posts re: meal planning so stayed tuned!