See my first post about Once a Month Shopping if you missed it.
Judging by the feedback from my last post and pictures on Instagram, y’all are super interested in Once a Month Shopping. And I know why – because after three months of doing it, I am totally hooked! You have asked lots of questions, so I am here to answer them and share an update on how it’s going.
First, let me remind you that I first learned about how to do this using the book My Grocery Budget Toolbox from my friend Anne over at Authentic Simplicity. It’s a great book for anyone looking to maintain their sanity and do the best by their grocery budget. And no, I’m not an affiliate – the book is just awesome. If you are really ready to make this change, you’ll love this book!
I’m going to answer some questions below that you’ve asked me. I hope they help and kick start you into shopping this way too!
1. Did you run out of lots of food and get hungry?
Well no – here’s a look at our fridge on the morning I left to go shopping. Did we run out of things? Yes – but we didn’t go hungry. Using this method allowed me to clean out some of my stockpile, and I imagine that will work the same way each month.
2. What did you do for fresh produce??
I used Anne’s tip and saved some money from my BIG trip so that I could have Barry run to the store when I ran out of produce – I think we ended up making two trips for bananas and lettuce. So, I only had to make the one big trip.
My method was to buy a lot of fresh produce that would last about two weeks and then use frozen items for the last part of the month – this worked GREAT! And don’t be fooled by those who say produce only lasts a short time…sure, some of it does, but some of it lasts a LONG time – think winter squash, apples, oranges, onions, and carrots.
3. Did you save money?
I saved about $25. Yeah, that’s a lot, but let me clear something up. My reasoning for this method is so that I can just shop ONCE and be done all month. I can go for the day ONE time and not have to do it again – and really, shopping for a whole month doesn’t take that much longer than a weekly shopping trip.
Also, I’m only putting groceries away ONE time, a task I really hate doing anyway. So, I’m doing this for time savings…and because getting the kids out once a week and trying to corral them at the grocery store makes me want a lobotomy.
4. Did you cheat?
Nope – I did have the opportunity to go to Trader Joes, so I didn’t pass that up. I spent some money I had squirreled away for a rainy day, so it didn’t interfere with my grocery budget. I stinkin’ love Trader Joes and their chocolate rocks.
5. How much is your grocery budget?
Our grocery budget is currently $400 a month for the four of us. This doesn’t count our rare treat of eating out – that’s part of our entertainment budget. We make do with the $400, but sometimes I use money from SMC to buy extras we like to have…stuff we don’t NEED but we ENJOY. Also, sometimes we have to bump up our food budget for the month – like when we had our pig killed and had to pay for 231 pounds of pork.
6. Where do you shop?
I shop primarily at Kroger and Sam’s Club. In the summer months, I shop at the Farmer’s Market too – I allot $100 a month for food from the Farmer’s Market. I like to get as much produce there as I can. But in the winter, ours only meets once a month and I’m a pansy and don’t like to be out in the cold.
7. How much did you spend where?
I spent $165 at Kroger and $220 at Sam’s Club, for a grand total of $365. That leaves me $35 for bananas and lettuce later in the month. I know that’s plenty.
8. What do you buy???
This one makes me laugh! 🙂 I buy produce, meat, dairy, and baking items…everything you guys are buying.
9. Will you keep doing this?
Yes!!!!! I. Love. It. Barry watches the kids for me and I get to spend some time with my mom…and I get free samples at Sam’s. What’s not to love?
10. Do you think I can do this if I don’t have an extra fridge and freezer like you?
I sure do…wanna know why? Because I have two friends that do it (Erin and Anne) and they don’t have the extra cold storage space like I do. Although I will say that if possible, an extra fridge or deep freeze is a HUGE blessing and a great idea if you have the space and extra cash – buy used.
11. Do you make your meal plan before you go?
No, I don’t. I wait until I get home – because I don’t know what I might buy. I buy what is on sale and what I find on clearance…and I don’t always know that until I get home. I plan weekly using Plan to Eat.
12. Can you give us a sample menu plan?
I don’t have a set menu plan I use. I vary mine based on what I have…and I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking at food, so I have a zillion recipes to try – I like trying new stuff each week. 🙂
That being said, we ARE working on a menu plan feature for this website that will be a subscriber option. More on that coming soon. But we are super excited about it!
I think that’s it! If you have more questions, just leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them. I’m so thankful to Anne for her book and for walking me through this new venture. I totally love it and I’m glad I started doing it. BOOM!
I don’t find it is the food that eats up the money but the other stuff we have to have. Washing stuff , derodant, paper towel, toilet paper etc. I can deal with food. Yes I know I can make soap but I’ve tried and it doesn’t work right or doesn’t smell good at all. SO gave that up.So what do you do about that stuff?
I usually purchase most paper items via Amazon Subscribe and Save. For other random items, I just purchase them as needed from Target or another store. I don’t count those as my groceries.
I have tried different methods: shopping weekly, shopping every two weeks, etc. We have tried the shopping monthly too and it has helped a lot. My husband is an educator and receives his paycheck once a month. So the week prior to him receiving his paycheck, I write a monthly menu and include breakfast, lunch, supper, desserts for Wednesdays and Sundays (those are our dessert nights), and snacks. We have a family of six and I homeschool all four of our children. This has been a life safer as well as has saved us time and kept us at or under our monthly grocery budget. The only thing we buy during the month are milk and eggs.
Usually I shop once a week for groceries. Sometimes, I’ll go 1 1/2 or 2 weeks between trips if my list is short (don’t want to spend the gas on a small trip!) or if there is a holiday or “bad weather” day around the same time I’d be shopping. It’s bad enough shopping in the afternoon (we aren’t morning people), but forget it when there’s a holiday or storm warning! 😉
I have the same problem as Jen mentioned: Making a menu plan and not sticking to it. I might get to that day of the week and decide that what I have planned doesn’t sound so good anymore. =( Of course, being early pregnant, most meals sound great in the morning and awful by supper time! Or, even worse, the food will smell wonderful and I’ll be hungry but feel ill as soon as I take a bite. =P Boy, am I looking forward to the 2nd trimester!
One last thing… I actually like taking a child with me to the store. That way, when I’m talking to myself it doesn’t look like it… or that I look crazy! lol
I so want to try this in an effort to be more thrifty and domestic. 🙂 It would probably be easier with 2 kids to go once a month considering once this baby is born it will be attached to me half the day lol. I just can’t figure out how to save money at the commissary this way. The produce is awful! Going off base means braving the German economy. No Kroger overseas 🙁
We are stationed at Garmisch and I have 4 small children including 2 year old twins…I totally recommend buying on the economy! We go to the commissary once a month for a few packaged items and things like toilet paper, shampoo, etc…but if you have an ALDI or LIDL nearby the quality is so much better and it’s often cheaper than the commissary too, espcially for produce and dairy. Plus the meat and milk are better…Germany allows no routine antibiotics or hormones in their cattle, even if you’re not buying the bio (organic…which is readily available and pretty cheap at the discount grocers). My kids LOVE going to the store here because the first thing we do is let them push the blue button on the bread machine for pretzels…29 euro cents for a giant soft pretzel…keeps them happy most of the shopping trip! Just tell the cashier when you check out how many they ate 🙂 Plus I have found SO much cheap stuff at Aldi and Lidl…I’ve gotten all my kids snow gear there, christmas decorations, metal water bottles, etc. etc. at so much cheaper and better quality than I could find at the PX! They have random stuff all the time so I always check if I have the time. Plus every time we go we get one or two new local foods to try (okay so it’s often chocolate in one form or another, but also different fruits, vegetables, whole grain fresh breads for so cheap, etc…)
A few quick tips: bring your own shopping bags, don’t forget your 1 euro coin for each shopping cart, and when you check out you first put everything back into your shopping cart as the cashier quickly rings it up, THEN pay, THEN roll your cart over to the “packing counter” (a long ledge nearby, usually under the front store windows) to bag up your groceries. Or if you forget, like I often do, just throw them all into an empty box! They usually have a big bin of them near the store entrance. Try it a few times and I think you’ll LOVE it! We do!
I agree with the shopping once a month. I have been doing that for a year and now I have moved to once every three months. It takes a lot planning. I have built up stores to carry me through 9 months if necessary. I buy only what I need when its on sale and stock up. I put up my garden, use a food sealer, smoke, and I started Dehydrating. My plan is to work to once a year shopping. Ex.Three months ago I bought 40 lbs of chicken for $31.60/. 79 lb. I season, sealed the pieces then froze them.
Love the update. I’m midway through my first month and so far I love it! I do my Menu plan first. Otherwise I would never think to buy something like ricotta for lasagna. Lol. Making your white chicken lasagna as we speak 😉
See – ricotta is something I always keep on hand. 🙂 I have a loooooooooooong list of those items.
Hi Stacy,
I find this such a great tease… I’d like to try it, but I’m nervous because I’m constantly going over my grocery budget :S I’m right now making a list of my ‘necessities’ and wondering what some of your dairy necessities look like, and their quantity. I feel like I’m adding too much dairy. I live in Canada, and as far as I understand our groceries are a bit pricier than those in the US. My necessities seem to have me over $500/month. I’d love some extra ideas. I’m also terrified of forgetting something important! Thanks 🙂
How are you going over your grocery budget? If you budget that amount, where is the excess coming from?
I was inspired by your first Once a Month shopping post to give it a try, and I think it is really going to work for me. One of my challenges is that I am cooking for one, and I don’t want to eat the same thing for a week at a time. I am fortunate in that I have access to a deep freeze. I am halfway through the first month, and I know what works for me is to plan the whole month’s meals (lunch & dinner). I also borrowed my daughter’s dehydrator and used it on 10 pounds of sweet onions and 10 pounds of apples that were a great deal at Costco. Amazing how small they become (using quart mason jars to store). I usually shop the sales, and I have to not read the sale circulars to avoid the temptation as well as just don’t go to the store. I use alternative milks such as coconut (canned) and almond, and keep 1/2 pints frozen to use up leftover amounts that would go bad.
There are tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnns of great single serving recipes on Pinterest! I know because I look for them – I love single serving recipes. 🙂
You bought frozen chicken nuggets??? That just blows my mind!!! I bet your kids will love them. 🙂
Yep – I buy chicken nuggets. I buy hot dogs too. I also buy tortillas and chips. 😉
As much as I love this idea in Theory? It doesn’t work for me in Practice.
BUT. I have five Men in my house…all in the preteen-adult range–two of whom work Hard for a living. I need to buy a cow to keep enough milk and cheese and yogurt in this house for any length of time. I know. I tried. Hubs and I have been having a serious discussion regarding a second fridge (to store extra milk, cheese, etc.)….but that is a future, non-essential purchase.
The other problem I found? If it’s in the house, they will Eat it. So even if I earmarked things for meals later in the month, invariably someone used it before they were supposed to. Plus I’ve got six cooks here–who all make meals every day, three meals a day, seven days a week. We rotate the responsibility (since I truly HATE to cook), but you know someone is going to make something one day that somebody else was gonna make later in the week…and chaos ensues.
So I do a once a week shopping trip, and if somebody’s having a meat special or something I just allot a bit more that week to stock the freezer back up. Surprisingly enough? You can feed five men (even hungry teenagers) on $100/week. But I do need to get a cow (and a pig) for the freezer next year. It would be much less headache!
PLEASE tell me you found the Kerrygold (sp?) butter at Kroger??!!! I’ve just in the past week or so heard about it & am interested in trying it at least once.
I’m already being a rebel against what the medical doctors are telling us my hubby should eat post-surgery anyway (umm…hello – margarine? I don’t THINK so, thank you very much!). Now if I can only get him to hush up about it while we’re sitting in said doctor’s office & let the non-processed, non-plastic, non-pretend food get into his body and help with the healing from the inside, I’ll be doing good. 😉
Yep! I get Kerrygold at Sam’s and Kroger. 🙂
I’m happy to see chicken nuggets in your cart 😉 That’s one thing I always say I should make, but I have bought the Tyson in the past as the ingredients are quite decent for a processed food. I’ll read those Dino ones next time I’m in. Also, do you like the Sam’s coconut oil? I haven’t bought it yet, but it’s a great price! I didn’t like it was in plastic because then it’s hard to melt it.
It was my first time buying the nuggets and the oil – I knew someone would point those out. LOL I love the oil! I keep it on top of my toaster oven, so it’s almost always liquid. It was just to see if I liked it – and it’s a total win.
I haven’t made any of the nuggets yet. I’m kinda anti-Tyson. 😉
you don’t worry about a plastic ‘jar’ on the toaster oven?
I don’t have the time/energy to boycott/avoid companies LOL
Oh – I have all my oil in glass. 🙂
I so want to do this! Or at least twice a month shopping. My problem is my husband is addicted to the grocery store. No, really! That man goes a few times a WEEK. He just loves it. But he can’t just go pick up an item or two. He sees sales and can’t pass them up, even if its something we don’t need then. Drives me crazy! We have so much food right now that I could probably not food shop for a good 2 months, no lie.
I do have a question for you regarding this. If you don’t plan your meals beforehand, how do you ensure you’ll have all the ingredients you need? That’s always my problem. I tend to pick recipes and then realize I don’t have 1 or 2 of the key players on hand, and that frustrates me to no end.
I’m weird – I like the challenge. I keep necessities on hand. And if a recipe calls for something I don’t have, I either don’t make it or I make a substitute. I swim upstream. 🙂
haha. Well, you’re a lot better in the kitchen than me! Most of the time when I try to tweak a recipe it turns out to be a disaster. Actually, most of the time when I took its a disaster, lol!
🙂 Cooking is my happy place. But, I know a lot of people make a meal plan before they go (my BFF), so it’s totally doable.
I was also wondering about this…If you dont have your meals already planned out, how do you keep from just “impulse buying” at the grocery store (ie, “eh, a little of this, a little of that…sure, gold crusted pistachios! Why not!!?”) I would SURELY go over budget that way, lol!!
🙂 I keep a running tally in my head so I know how much I am spending. And I’m not an impulse buyer. But I know a lot of people make their meal plan before they go – so that’s totally an option. I just don’t do it that way. 🙂
Got those same skewers at Kroger for $1 even though they were mistakenly in the $1 bin – all of the packages – and rang up for almost $3 (always, always check your receipt or watch them ring up your groceries). 🙂
Love seeing this! My question is about milk. We go through about a gallon every two weeks (for a fam of 4 – we don’t drink much milk). I always get the date that is furthest away but don’t usually see any that is a month out. Would you include that in the “Barry run”? (My hubby is a Barry as well!)
I also go to McCoy’s Salvage fairly regularly and would hate to miss it if they had something fabulous (say 11 pounds of asparagus for $3.99 like last week). We get a LOT of produce there and it saves us significantly over the grocery store. Would you just include that in the “Barry run,” too?
We get raw milk on a weekly basis, if we didn’t, then I would get enough for half of the month and then go half way to get bananas and milk. And really, I thought I would miss deals like you’re talking about, but I don’t. Strange feeling.
Hi Stacy, thanks for the two posts on once a month shopping. My in-laws have done once a month shopping for decades and I knew a family in high school that did the same thing. Both families did it for budgetary reasons. I have most recently tried filling my freezer (we have a large vertical deep freeze) and pantry on a quarterly basis. The stores I like to shop at, Costco, Trader Joes and Woodman’s, are an hour away from me. So I really am saving on time and gas by shopping this way. As a bonus, both my kids are in school full time. So I plan to shop on a weekday and have about 6 1/2 hrs to complete my task. It usually takes this long. I started this over the summer months so my access to farmers markets and stands made the quarterly shopping easier. We’re still learning as we go and making adjustments. It will be interesting to see how the winter months go. When I did my large shopping trip at Costco two weeks ago, I experienced sticker shock at the check out. They had to get supervisor approval to process my check. I guess because it was over $500. It took me 3 days to get all the groceries put away. Looking at the piles of food all over the kitchen, my 8 year old daughter exclaimed that this must have cost a lot of money. My husband didn’t want to know what I spent. I admit, the dollar amounts are always more shocking when buying quarterly.
I’m curious as to what your on line shopping budget is. It looked like your $400. budget was for your brick & mortar stores. I have been monitoring our grocery budget since January 2013 and we’ve been averaging around $760./ month for a family of 4. This includes my on line shopping, brick & mortar shopping, a locally farmed 1/2 pig, and processing venison into ground. I’m still trying to figure out why this is so high. We don’t buy cow’s milk, commercially farmed meats (with the exception of lunch meat over this past summer), and our packaged snacks are a rare treat. The high grocery budget probably relates to my family’s dairy & gluten issues. I’m still examining my budget and receipts to discover my downfall and what we can do without. But I digress.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences with us!
You’re lucky to have a local TJ’s. 🙂 As far as online shopping goes, that varies. I usually use my income from SMC to pay for that. Why? Because it’s not stuff we NEED – it’s usually just stuff I want and that is good for us, but we could totally do without if we had to. Make sense? Barry’s income is enough to provide for everything we need. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips. I have started trying to do once a month grocery shopping as I get paid once a month and my husband is laid off. It’s a struggle to get started and menu planning has helped. We do it before we go shopping though.
So plan to eat is half price right now, I’m not in the U.S. will it still benefit me? I’d appreciate your thoughts on this Stacey 🙂
It’s not 1/2 until Black Friday. 🙂 But yes, I think it would. I really REALLY love it.
Okay, this may sound like a dumb question, but how do you get started doing this financially? If I already need to buy food weekly, how do I find the money to shop just once the next month?
We have 13 people in our family, so dh and I have been trying to get on a budget to even see how much we could (or should) be spending monthly on food.
Hmmm, maybe my question should be how does one start a budget? I know every dollar needs a name but how do you start one?
Humbly,
Janet… mamachildress
countrylivingmama.blogspot.com
You can’t do this type of thing without a good budget. 🙂 Do you have our free eBook on how to set one up? It comes with free forms. If you get my emails you can have access to download it in each email. It’s at the side or bottom…can’t remember. It’s called It’s Not About Money.
Thank you! On my way to download your ebook. 🙂
Holler if we can help!
Yes. Every time I sit down and map out a budget then walk to the kitchen and find we’re out of essentials. Because I’m twenty mins drive from The nearest store I end up thinking I got to make this journey count and then I end up spending too much money. I guess I just got to go without for a while until the money is ready and saved up
Yay! I’ve been doing once-a-month grocery shopping for almost a year and a half now and still LOVE it. I’ll take that big monthly trip to the store over weekly trips there anytime. Also, it really does save us tons of cash. People usually don’t believe me when I tell them what I spend on groceries every month for our family of 7!!
How often do you have to buy milk? And I see you buy organic milk, how much of your food budget is allocated for milk? Thanks for this, I am trying to figure out going shopping less often and I’m having difficulties, because of the milk lol
I don’t buy organic milk – we get a weekly allotment of raw milk. Otherwise, I would buy enough for half of the month and then send Barry half way to buy more milk and bananas. I pay $35 a month for milk. 🙂
I love shopping monthly using Azure Standard, bi-weekly trips to Costco for strawberries, grapes, bi-weekly trips to Whole Foods for 4 milks (they freeze good and there’s a discount on 4), and I get weekly produce box from Door-to-Door Organics. This method has worked well for our family and now Azure Standard delivery bi-weekly to our drop so that will help a lot too!
Azure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are SO BLESSED!
My struggle isn’t with the buying of groceries, but how to save up a whole month’s budget worth of cash to go on that big of a trip. We are a family of 6 and I find that we can rarely just not buy groceries for a whole paycheck and get ahead in that area. Any suggestions on how to stockpile the cash needed?
Well, we use a budget. Are you using a budget? We budget at the beginning of the month and I don’t go shopping until around the 15th of each month. So, we have two paychecks under our belt at that point – one from the 30th of the prior month and one from the 15th of the current month.
Yes, we use a budget and shop 2x/month (around payday). I guess my question/concern is how do you go from biweekly shopping to monthly shopping. I’m not sure we could skip a pay period and just not buy anything. Do you have any suggestions of how to transition, so we can save the money from one check and combine for a large trip to start OAM shopping? (clear as mud?!)
The easiest way I can think of is to work up to it. If you can’t go 2 weeks without replenishing, could you at least go 2 weeks without replenishing EVERYTHING? After a few of those, you could probably get “ahead” enough to make it work.
My mom always shopped once a month – so I grew up with that role model. but…. I LOVE Trader Joe’s too much to shop once a month – I totally knew you would fall in love with TJs, too. They are always getting new, super awesome (mostly healthy) products, too!! My other main shopping place (and I do that once a month or less is Costco – so similar to Sam’s Club). I hope you are well… I’m just super busy with my 5 loves to check in as often as I’d like.
No it’s not similar at all! You lie! 😉 I hear that Costco is WAY WAY WAY better!
I did the OAM shopping in October and loved it! I make a menu for the whole month before I begin, though. I LOVE always knowing what’s for dinner. Having that answer with meat thawed and all the ingredients already make it a lot more difficult to cave in to the “pick something up on the way home” temptations. Many thanks for your blog, Stacy! I love it!!!
I love knowing what’s for dinner too – it’s such a relief! 🙂
I am absolutely coming to hate shopping. It’s only become more “enjoyable” (and I say that loosely) when I can time it while my daughter is at school, and early in the morning when the stores are quiet. And I can study labels without feeling like people are staring at me. I would love to be able to get on board with this with more efficiency. I’ve been doing something a bit like this the last month or so, since we get paid once a month, with only small fill-in runs for bananas, milk and lettuce. With a bit better planning (lists) I think I will get better at it. Thanks for pointing our your friend Anne’s ideas.
We love once a month shopping! We have been using this method for several months and have noticed more savings overall each month and we seem to always have left over frozen goods to carry over for the next month. Costco is awesome for monthly shopping if you have access to one.
Thanks so much for all of your tips Stacey! Love your blog 🙂
I’m so loving the bananas. 😉
Also, you’ve inspired me. I’m going to seriously give this a try. Soon. Not today, but soon. 🙂
*Burp* Oh sorry – I just ate a banana.
I really love the idea of once a month shopping. I generally make my big trips twice a month with lots of smaller trips dispersed throughout the month. My biggest downfall at the moment is that I am totally random when it comes to what we eat. I have tried a menu plan but then I don’t feel like eating what is on the menu so I make something else. And then I will find a recipe somewhere I haven’t tried and decide it looks good, but oh darn, I don’t have those ingredients. So I make a trip to the grocery store for 3 ingredients and come out with $50 worth of food. TERRIBLE! I am working on that. 🙂
🙂 I don’t mean to be ugly – but it seems like you might just need to MAKE yourself stick with the plan. Sometimes I might not feel like what’s on my plan for the day, but I make it anyway – and by the time I get to eat it, it tastes pretty delicious! 🙂
And if you think I’m being ugly, I totally apologize.
Definitely not being ugly!! You are so right, I need to make a menu plan and then stick to it!!
Sometimes I’m entirely too blunt. 😉
My husband and I toyed around with once a month shopping, that is our goal. So far, we shop 2x a month, on pay day….and for our family of 9 (going on 10) we try to keep it at $400-$500 a month, including health and beauty and dog food etc…Still working on the one time a month thing…though 2X isn’t too bad, if someone wanted to try that first and work up to once a month slowly….and during really lean moments I have just gone once a month, with a quick trip to the local store for produce, milk etc.