How I Cut Our Grocery Bill in Half!

....Yes, IN HALF!!!...and we eat a lot :)

I am so absolutely excited about this that I'm pretty much exclaiming it to anyone who will listen! Because not ONLY did I cut our bill in half, I spent a whole 15 mins in 3 different stores buying a months worth of groceries! How I did do that, you ask?! Well, LET ME TELL YOU!!! :)

I planned ahead.

With a little planning, and a little time set aside dedicated to making my lists, etc, I was able to save hundreds of dollars and hours of time!! (not to mention tons of gas money driving to town week each for groceries!) Here's how I did it!.....

First I made a menu for the whole month...Breakfast, lunch and supper, along with any special snacks, desserts, or foods that we always want on hand, otherwise known as our "staples" (which I have written on a list so each time I make my grocery lists I can just scan the staples list to see what we need instead of trying to remember everything and then realize when we get home that I forgot something!). After I have a menu made, I make a grocery list of everything that I would need to make all my meals for the month. Next, I categorize my lists into my 4 different places I will get the groceries.

1) Azure Standard, my buying club/co-op that I order from once a month. They usually have some great deals on produce (.64/lb for organic apples, .69 for organic potatoes, .40/lb for oranges, those are just an example of a few from this month).

2) What I don't get through Azure I will get at Coborns b/c they have a large organic and natural selection and that is usually our first choice.

3) What I can't get at Coborns or what I want to get a better deal on I will look for at Sams Club. (Example, I buy huge bags of frozen fruit that I use almost daily for snacks or to put in smoothies).

4) What I don't get at any of the above places, I will pick up at Walmart. I only had to buy 6 things at Walmart this month...awesome!

And Walmart took 15 of my 20 total minutes of shopping. So how did I do the other 2 stores in only 5 minutes?????

I ordered online and picked it up at the store.

What is this sooooo awesome?!? Well, 1)You save a ton of money bc we all know that we WILL find something that we just HAVE to have while we are in the store that wasn't on our list, thus we end up spending more than we planned (esp if you are in Sams bc everything in that store is at least $10 and 2) It saves a TON of time in the store. Yes, you do have to shop online which takes time, but I would MUCH rather shop in my pjs, sitting with my feet up, after my kids have gone to bed than shop IN the store, with all my kids, with all the other people, waiting in lines, etc. Anyday.

Sam's Club has a 'click n pull' program where you just go to their website, log in with your membership card info, do your shopping, choose your pick up time and place your order. You go into the store, walk up to the membership desk, tell them you have a click n pull order, they ring you up, you pay, they give you your cart--all full with your groceries you've already ordered, and you walk out of the store in 2 mins flat. Awesome.

Coborns is the same way...you shop online, choose your pick up time, place your order and they have it ready for you at the store...BUT there's MORE!!!...with Coborns you don't even need to go into the store!! You just pull through the parcel pick up line, tell the guy that you have an online order, they call the service desk to verify which one is yours and they place it in your vehicle for you! WOW!

Do you see how much time this saves?!? Plus, you know you have all the food you need to make your meals so there's never any last minute eating out bc you 'have nothing to eat' AND it takes all the stress away bc you know what you're going to be making!!!

(And my co-op order is obviously ready for me...I order that online and just pick it up from the truck that it's delivered on)

So that's how I did it! And, honestly, the total for my groceries this month was HALF of what I normally spend...and it was all meals, and I didn't hold back :)

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! :)