One of my best and most favorite productivity habits I’ve developed recently is doing our grocery shopping biweekly. It’s been so awesome I actually postponed the post I had for this week to share it with you today. PLUS I’ve included a great CHEAT SHEET of our keto essentials that shows EXACTLY how we kept our budget last month under $500 for a family of 5!
When I first set out to meal plan and grocery shop 2 weeks at a time I’m not going to lie, the idea was fairly overwhelming. However, with two small children constantly in tow, venturing out to the grocery store on a weekly basis was maddening. All 3 of us came home exhausted and ill-tempered. It often put a big grey cloud over the remainder of my day. I knew I had to grocery shop but I felt there had to be a better way! Read More
Benefits of Grocery Shopping Biweekly
Now that I grocery shop every two weeks I feel like we literally have a vacation from that stress. Even on the days that I do shop, it’s not the day ruining event it was before. I don’t know why, exactly. Best I can figure, knowing that I won’t have to do it again for a whole two weeks keeps my spirits high.
In addition, it frees up huge amounts of time. Every other week I’m able to use the time that I would have spent meal planning and shopping with my kids doing fun stuff instead, like visiting the children’s’ museum.
Grocery Shopping bi-weekly also saves us money! Even though our budget is tight, impulse purchases still happen–especially because I have 2 small ones in tow. With biweekly shopping, I am able to save money simply because we are in the store less often! (I could probably save even more if I were to utilize services like grocery pickup. However, I have found some of the non-list items I pick up are things that should have been on my list! If you are a better list maker, use grocery pickup to optimize savings.)
Making Peace with Missing Out
Anyone who knows me knows I am frugal. Naturally, one of my biggest fears was that I would miss out on great deals on the weeks I’m not shopping! Truth be told, I might be. And that’s ok.
Time itself has value, but it’s not necessarily monetary. The time I save with biweekly grocery shopping combined with the stress relieved has more value then the money I would have possibly saved by continuing weekly shopping.
I’ve found the best way to avoid the stress of the deals I am missing is to avoid looking at the circulars altogether on off weeks. I can’t miss what I don’t know, right?!?
Planning a Big Grocery Shopping Haul
I do shop the circulars for the week that I am grocery shopping. Shopping sales allows us to keep our budget for our family of 5 under $600 for the month. Shoot, we cleared last month at just under $500! That’s with John and I eating Clean Keto!
We have 4 grocery stores with ads in our area: Fry’s, Safeway, Sprouts, and Bashas. Of course, there is also Walmart. Our high standard of eating, when applied to our budget, requires me to shop sales at more than one store… Especially as Walmart no longer price matches.
It’s not uncommon for Walmart’s store brand to be less expensive than a name brand on sale somewhere else. I keep an up-to-date “low price list” of what we normally pay in my planner. This gives me an easy way to determine if whatever is on sale is a better deal. One area that I save the most money with sales is fresh meat and produce.
Properly Storing for Freshness
Obviously, if you’re buying groceries to last a 2-week stretch keeping everything fresh and safe to eat is a must! I have 3 key tips for maintaining freshness:
- Firstly, I freeze the meats intended for week 2. Sometimes I buy meats in bulk to take advantage of great deals. I repackage these large packages into meal-sized servings, which is usually #1.5 for our family.
- Condense packaging on freezer storage items, if possible. We remove outer boxes in favor of bags. Then we puncture the bags to release air so items can be stacked and packed in more efficiently. Many of you may be hesitant to do this, as storing open packages can cause freezer burn. Keep in mind, though, if you adhere to your meal plan, all foods will be used within two weeks. It is unlikely that freezer burn would form in such a short period of time.
- Fragile veggies and fresh herbs like asparagus, romaine, and cilantro get their ends trimmed and put into water before going into the fridge, much like a florist
does fresh flowers. This keeps them crisp and super fresh! Just make sure to keep where they are unlikely to be spilled and change the water every few days. - We go through a good amount of eggs and like a variety of cheeses. Open cheeses go in the lunchmeat drawer. Additional cheeses in the back of the fridge. I also store my stock of eggs in the back of the fridge. The open carton stays easily accessible on the top shelf.
- Use common sense. When it comes to dairy, eggs or other refrigerated products I haven’t had problems with things being safe to eat, even after their “expiration” date. That being said, if something smells or tastes “off” don’t eat it, expired or not. And trust me, if you’ve sipped bad cream, YOU KNOW.
Final Tips
Before you head out on your own massive biweekly keto grocery shopping trip here are a few final things to keep in mind:
Allow yourself time.
Don’t be in a rush! Looking for great prices, planning out two weeks worth of meals, and actually doing the shopping itself; the process behind planning a grocery shopping trip of this magnitude can take a good bit of time. Especially in the beginning. But with practice, it does get quicker and easier!
Not everything is suitable for biweekly grocery shopping.
We might make a quick run to the store on the non-shopping weeks for milk and highly perishable foods like bananas. If I had a larger freezer I would stock milk, unfortunately, I don’t. As it is, I also never know how much milk my kids will use in a two week period. Sometimes it’s barely one. Others they push 3 gallons. Same with bananas, sometimes they want a banana daily, other times, not at all for several days. With that level of unpredictability and my hate of waste, stocking these things doesn’t make sense for us.
Learn to keep stock of your household.
When shopping weekly, running out of household products is rarely a big deal, you’re headed to the store in a few days anyway. However, once you discover the joy and freedom of not having to go the store weekly you won’t want to revert. Renewing stock of household products, like to toilet paper, cleaning products and toiletries BEFORE actually running out is the key. I keep an extra of all our household items in stock. When that extra item goes into use, it goes on the list. If you wait until it is out it is too late, a trip to the store will likely be needed.
Change your mindset.
When you are grocery shopping on a biweekly basis there are few things you need to mentally prepare for. The big one for me was the total at the register. Of course, grocery shopping to cover a longer period of time will cost more. That’s pretty obvious. However, spending that amount of money in one day of shopping can still be offsetting at first!
Additionally, you need to keep in mind that you are buying food in quantities and the condition to last 2 weeks. This means if you usually go through 1 package of ham in a week you need to buy 2. If you buy foods like avocados or strawberries and intend them to last the 2 weeks, not only do you need to buy more than you usually would, but also buy some less ripe than you would for immediate use.
Prepare your kitchen to handle a big grocery shopping haul!
A huge mistake I very nearly made when starting off biweekly grocery shopping was with my fridge. There was barely enough room for all the groceries I had brought home!!! I planned on repackaging the meat to freeze the next day, so we put a chair in front of the fridge to ensure it would stay tightly sealed overnight. If it had popped open half a month’s worth of food would have been lost! The time and cost of replacing that loss would have likely cost my sanity as well- lol! So make sure your fridge is pretty empty before setting out on your grocery shopping excursions!
You’re all set to shop!!
I’m so excited I’ve been able to share my biweekly grocery shopping method with you! I hope it is as awesome for you as it has been for me. As I mentioned I love being frugal! Comment below if you if you have any money saving tips to add. And of course, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to post them as well, I’m happy to answer them!