Why Grocery Shopping More Often Will Save Me Money

Last Updated on September 4, 2015 by Janell

I have always thought that if I went grocery shopping once per week with my meal plan, I would be able to stay on budget. But now I am starting to believe this is not true. Life gets in the way and I throw out way too much stuff. Plus when I go grocery shopping once a week I feel like I need to stockpile stuff that one day I may need.

Here are some of the things that I tend to waste.

Bread - I don't have a huge freezer so I can't just throw the loaf of bread in the freezer. So when I go weekly shopping I always grab a loaf of bread but we may not end up using the current loaf because we have leftovers for lunch. I have this issue with bagels sometimes too because my kids like 2 different flavors.

Yogurt - Our family loves yogurt but sometimes we just forget about it and it expires. I hate to throw this away because I usually buy the organic, Greek type and it's not cheap!

Fruits and vegetables - we all love these so when I go once a week I buy everything that I think my kids will eat during the week. They do eat it a lot but it always seems like something goes bad and we have to throw it away.

This wasted food can really add up. So I really think if I go to the store 3-4 times a week, I will go and just pick up what I need. I will not buy what I think we might need because this is how we end up wasting things.

I still believe meal planning is important - so I will write down several meals we like and go shopping for tonight and tomorrow's meals and snacks. Plus I will grab any fruits and veggies we are out of. I am not going to buy anything until we are completely out of it. I think trying to plan too much is what gets my in trouble. We live less than a mile from the store so it is not an inconvenience for me to shop more often.

For example, I have chicken defrost for dinner. So I am going to make Chicken Tinga Tostadas. So I will run into the store and get some cabbage, tomatoes, tostadas, and sour cream. This will probably cost about $10 but we will also be able to eat it for lunch for the next 2 days.

• Read my first update - So Far So Good! 
• Update #2 - I spent a little more but I needed stuff for the kids' school lunches.
• Update  #3 - How Grocery Shopping More Often Saves Me Money (August Grand Total)

Now that we are going to be back in school I am going to use my freezer crock pot meals more. I have 40 of them and I hope to have about 10 more very soon to publish. Even if I have our dinners set I am going to need to go to the store to grab fruits and vegetables for school lunches. Plus we may want a side salad with dinner.

What about you? Do you waste a lot of food? Im going to try it for about a month and I will get back to you about how we did. (Here's the results of using this method in August!)