Find Your Calculator
You will want to keep your calculator nearby so that you can see what the price of convenience and junk food is costing you. Be sure to not just figure it out on a weekly but monthly and even yearly cost.
Find A Grocery Receipt
If you can find a grocery receipt, sit down with it and a pen and take a long, hard look at what you purchased. Now, what I want you to do is be very honest with yourself and cross off just a few items that really were not necessary for you and your family to live. Try to get rid of the junk food items and replace those items with fruit or fruit juice (Fill half a glass with ice, fill halfway with water, and then top off with a favorite fruit juice). It is just as satisfying, healthier, and better on the waistline and pocketbook.
Figure Out What You Can Cross Off Your List
And then choose 5 - 7 items or cut back on them. Example: If you normally purchase two candybars and four packages of gum each week, purchase just one candybar and two packages of gum from now on. Or cut these items out completely. Same thing goes for bags of chips or smaller "to-go" sized bags. Get some really cheap plastic sandwich bags and go for the larger bags and repackage them, if you must, but don't throw your money away on conveniently packaged items. Make your own cookies, if you have to have them.
Eliminate Sodas, Bottled Waters, and Pre-Mixed Drinks
No more soda. Seriously. Not only does it have no nutritional value whatsoever, it is a drain on your family's monthly grocery budget. Instead, drink milk or make your own iced teas. Remember homemade iced tea? How about sun tea? Remember that? Let's get back to basics. Compare a large package of tea bags - even name brand, if you wish - to a case of soda. The package of tea is cheaper, and it will last you much longer. It will also be healthier for you and your family, and you will know what is in it. Use sugar or sweetener if you'd like. Purchase green teas or any other variety of already flavored teas to liven up your drink choices. Experiment, and stick around because I will be posting recipes for some great iced teas!
If you have a bottled water addiction, reach instead for a good water filter and use tap water.
If you or your children want pre-mixed flavored drinks, then go back to purchasing the store brand name or even Kool-Aid brand drink packages, and do it yourself! And please don't pay for orange juice in containers, either.
Remember how we used to make orange juice? Purchasing orange juice in my childhood meant that we went to the freezer section of the grocery store and purchased tubes of frozen orange that we watered down and shook up in a bottle when we got home. Doing things this way also kept us well-stocked because we always had a tube in the fridge. Less expensive and tasty, too. Leave Children at Home Whenever Possible
It is difficult to practice frugal shopping habits when you have children with you at the grocery store. From chips to cereal to candy, it will be an uphill battle that is best avoided, if at all possible.
