Thrifty Thursday: Be Organized for Grocery Shopping

Make sure you have lists of your pantry, fridge and freezer- and this means not jut in your head!  I keep one list for my pantry, one for my fridge, and one for my freezer (but you can combine them) so I know what I have and what I don't.  After you make the list, make sure that you bring them to the store with you too :)

How many time have you been at the grocery store and passed the brownies and remembered that you needed to make some for a picnic you were going to so you grabbed a box???  Got home to put things away to find that you already had 4 boxes in the cupboard because you keep buying one every time you are worried that you might not have one.  Obviously, you can always use another box of brownies :) but it means that you might have just paid full price to get that item and didn't wait for them to be on sale.

The best rule of thumb is to know what you have so that you can get what you need.  At the end of the month, impulse purchases add up quickly to added money you didn't need to spend.  If you have a little extra money to spend, you can get some of the great bargains at your store and stock up.  It is also cheaper to buy more of something when it is on sale.  The boxes of brownie mix go on sale for $1 during the summer picnic season so if you buy a few more boxes, you save a lot of money (and effort) later because you have what you need to make those brownies without running back out to the store. 

Plus many Americans don't use the items before the expiration dates and end up throwing them away.  If you keep track of what you have in the pantry, fridge and freezer then items don't go bad.  You can use everything before it goes bad with just a little bit of planning.  Many families can go at least a week without going to the store at a drop of the hat if they just use the items that they already have.  It is a great challenge to see if you can do it!  It might mean one night eating pasta instead of having tacos but I think in the long run it teaches both the adults and the kids in the family that not everyone has it as good as we do here in the states.

Did you know that there are certain things that are on sale at different times of the year?  Summer is the season for ketchup, mustard, and pickles because it is the season for BBQs :)  Winter holidays is the time to buy flour for half the price.  If you have a little extra money in your budget, you can stock up on things that are cheaper for use later.  I don't know about your family but we use ketchup and flour during the whole year.  A few more items added to your cart when they are at the cheapest price can save your family lots of money through the year.

Stayed tuned for the next weeks posts on keeping a price journal in order to figure out when to buy and tracking family usage to figure out how much to buy :)