"How to Buy Groceries on a Tight Budget"

With unemployment on the rise, many people are finding it difficult to adapt to lower grocery budgets while still making quality food at home. While it is an adjustment, don't let a limited budget negatively affect your health or the health of your family. With a little bit of foresight, planning, and intentional purchasing, you can eliminate excess spending from your grocery purchases and make healthy, high-quality meals for yourself and for your family - no matter how tight of a grocery budget you have.

Plan Your Meals

One of the biggest culprits that cause people to go over their grocery budget is a lack of planning. Allowing your groceries to be bought on your daily whim will cause you to make more trips to the store and not use the food you already have at home — thus resulting in excess spending.

Take an hour out of your Saturday (or whichever day you have some extra time) to sit down and plan your meals for the week. Choose meals that you can make in larger quantities to eat as leftovers for lunches, like pasta dishes, or meats that you can recycle for other meals, like roast chicken. You can use leftover meats for salads, tacos, or even breakfast scrambles.

When you plan your meals for the week, make sure to account for breakfasts and lunches, as well. Meals that you will not use leftovers for should still be planned, so you have everything you need at home and you won't have to go out at the last minute. 

Make a List

Once you have your meal plan, compile all the ingredients you will need into a grocery list. Make sure you include absolutely everything you will need, including spices and condiments, to avoid extra purchases.

Once you have your list of ingredients you need for your meals, take into consideration snacks and pantry staples that you may need. It is a good idea to purchase pantry staples gradually or as you run out, rather than all at once, to lighten the monetary load between purchases. Some examples of pantry staples to keep stocked:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Honey
• Oil
• Pasta
• Pasta Sauce
• Canned beans and vegetables
• Spices — salt, pepper, etc.

The list above is not exhaustive — any shelf-stable foods that you use on a regular basis are considered pantry staples. Put these items on your list as you need them to keep your pantry stocked.

The most important thing is that you make your list thorough and exhaustive. This ensures that you will not make any unnecessary purchases. Stick stubbornly to your list and purchase only what you need.

Shop Online

Online shopping has boomed over the past few months and, while it can seem like a hassle, can actually be a huge money-saver. When you make a trip to the store, the merchandise is strategically laid out to get you to purchase more — often things you don't need. A thorough grocery list can help mitigate these temptations, but a quality grocery list plus online shopping (the elimination of browsing and "hunger shopping") equals grocery budget success.

When you shop for groceries online, you can go item by item on your list, search the online database with it, and put it in your cart. No more strolling past unhealthy and unnecessary temptations in the grocery store. Check out our online shop for high-quality groceries - from produce to meat to pantry staples and everything in between. We even carry organic groceries!

With just a little bit of planning and a great online grocery store, you can easily keep your grocery budget. Good luck!