All three men (the mini and the real men) in my house are great eaters. It was so much easier to feed them when one was nursing and the other could share a plate with me. I was basically just cooking for mama and papa. Over the years I have gotten pretty savvy at not breaking the bank at the grocery store and making minimal trips to the store. This typically involves some planning and a bit of patience.
I have three major things that have contributed to my successful grocery skills.
- I make a two-week menu and list.
- I use my Hy-Vee Fuel Saver card.
- I buy my fruit in bulk at Sam’s Club.
My grocery store trip begins long before I actually get to the store. I usually shop on Saturday mornings and begin making my menu the week before. When I make my menu I make sure I have my planner with all our evening and weekend events listed. I have access to the Hy-Vee weekly advertisement. I usually just pull this up on my computer, so I am able to look at the Fuel Saver ad and the regular in-store sale ad. I also make sure to have my handy 6×9 notebook that has a wonderful line down the middle—perfect for making a menu on one side and a list on the other!
I make a two-week grocery list in order to use my money most efficiently. I receive a paycheck twice monthly, and I like to use that money for groceries. Most all of the meals I make contain a meat, a starch, and a vegetable. I try to alternate between red meat and white meat each day, but that can sometimes prove to be tricky. I get a meat-free day about once every two weeks.
I signed up for the Hy-Vee Fuel Saver card over a year ago. At first I didn’t understand how to use it, but now I rarely get gas without it! Our biggest save was on Christmas Eve this past year. We paid THIRTY-FIVE CENTS a gallon. This was wonderful right at Christmastime; we had been to four Christmas celebrations and driven daily for shopping, and our funds were a bit tight. This is a wonderful program and has made me a loyal Hy-Vee shopper.
I am loyal to Hy-Vee, but I do shop at Sam’s Club for our produce. The boys in my house eat so much fruit that sometimes I have to make weekly trips to Sam’s. I always buy the staples—oranges, apples, grapes, and bananas—at Sam’s simply because you cannot beat the price for the amount of fruit you get. The rule in our house is that fruit is an “anytime food.”
I promise there are weeks when we eat out two or three times. There are weeks that I have to run to the store because I have forgotten a key ingredient. And there are times when I throw it all out the window and attempt to grocery shop without a list or a menu. Those weeks are tough, and those weeks are the most expensive. I am no pro, just a mama living the dream.
It’s always good to have the list! And to have 2 w of menus…great idea!
Sis, you know I am a list maker!! Thanks for reading!
Great ideas and love the “fruit is an anytime food” rule. Maybe you will post a two week menu in a future blog post, my boys get really bored of my weekly menu – could use some ideas to shake things up. Thanks for posting Julie.
Great idea Sarah!! Keep an eye out, I will try to put together a creative post about our menus!! Wedding planning and end of the school year mean this mama is mega planning!! Thanks for reading!!
Thank you for posting a realistic look at grocery shopping!! I have a family of 5 and they are all big eaters! We have meat at every meal also. I think I am going to use the fruit anytime rule in our house too!
Fruit is an anytime food rule ROCKS!!!! Thanks for reading Teresa!!
Yes, please share a weekly example! I shop weekly, but gosh, if I could get away with going 2x a month, that would rock! We sometimes have trouble with produce going bad before we can get to it all. I’m sure a planner is key! Great post! 🙂
Carly my thoughts about fruit going bad means I need to eat more fruit…I used to go to Weight Watchers and one of the things they pointed out was that if you are truly hungry you will eat a piece of fruit.. SOOO at our house we are obviously always hungry so we are always eating fruit..Thank you for reading!!
You rock! Great tips, great ideas. I only had one growing boy to feed and that was tough enough! Sure could have used the Fuel Saver card back then! 😉