Just a quick check in this week to catch you up on our new grocery shopping habits and to invite you to a challenge!

I am in total awe at how much money was going completely to waste in the grocery store with my old shopping habits.

I am finding it to be easier to come out of the grocery store with a decent cart of groceries within our budget. It's been a process.

I reviewed my shopping receipt this week and was shocked to find that I AM ROCKIN' IT!

I stayed right on target this week even with the added expense of buying lunch stuff for my son that I haven't usually been buying.

Those totaled $45 of the budget because I purchased deli meat that most of the family ate as well.

Considering that when I started I really struggled to keep within the budget without making that purchase it's a real step up.

A CREATIVE WAY TO PAY BACK YOUR LOANS – EAT AT MOM AND DAD'S! 

He had been buying his own lunches at work but has decided that he needs to save money so takes a lunch now. The irony is that he needs to save money to pay us back for a car loan. Hmmmmm.

He's enterprising, I'll give him that! 

SAVE AND REVIEW YOUR RECEIPTS

All joking aside, obviously this is taking a large chunk of our grocery budget. The deli meat alone cost $37.00. I bought 2lbs twice.

On the upside, it's a novelty to have it in the house so consumption will go down as soon as everyone is used to it here. 

And I am going to be looking at alternatives for him and see if I can do some more economical sandwich and lunch alternatives.

And shop the specials. I broke my own rule and forgot to see what was on sale at the deli. I just bought 'the usual'. That is the wrong thing to do when trying to save money grocery shopping.

THE REAL SHOCKER

The real shocker was that when I looked at the receipt, there was a good list of things on sale or I had a coupon for.

This amounted to huge savings, to the tune of $20 not counting the money I am also saving on shopping the sales in produce – I'm figuring about another $10.

If I maintain that or better over the month, that's almost like a week of free groceries according to our budget. Add to that the fact that our food budget itself is less than it used to be, we are really cutting down on food expenses.

FRUGAL FRUIT 

I make it a point to buy good fruit for my daughter's lunch instead of processed junk (at one time, that is almost all she ate, no kidding).

It was really expensive but I thought it was a necessary thing.

Now the fruit expense isn't such a big deal. I buy only what's on sale and there is always a good selection.

I still have room for improvement in my grocery bill, but I am well on my way.

How about you?

Are you doing coupons?

Shopping the flyers?

Planning your meals?

I would love to hear all about why or why not and how it is working for you! 

OH, THE CHALLENGE! 

I'm going to start posting my grocery savings every week and invite you to do the same. Come on back every week and let us know how much you saved and what you saved on. It will help you to track and help you to stay motivated and accountable. You can even keep a running tally!

STEP IT UP A NOTCH

Grocery shopping is just part of my complete plan for world domination saving money.

Dig right into the nitty gritty and get on my list to be notified when I have my Making Change – Queen of KAOS Simple Home Budget Plan ready for you – I'm offering it at no charge.

Meantime you will get a free ecourse of 5 lessons to give you some ideas to get you started.

You can hop on free here…

Making Change Simple Home Budget System – Get your money for nothing.