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When you are grocery shopping on a budget, navigating the grocery world can become redundant and boring. Mindlessly walking through the aisles, buying the same boring food that you did last time.
That’s why I personally LOVE seeing what other families put on their meal plans and what products they choose when they shop at places like Costco.
This month our goals in grocery shopping on a budget were to try our best to stay away from foods that were overly processed and stick with products that contained more natural ingredients. All while sticking to our monthly grocery shopping budget of $300.
Please be easy on us! Haha! We are in the beginning stages of the learning to shop healthy and natural products!
Our Family’s Monthly Grocery Budget
If you are new here, hi! You are probably interested to know what we set for our monthly budget. This is how we work it.
$300 for consumable goods for our giant monthly grocery haul. $160 for non consumable goods. In addition to that, using our cash envelope budget we use $25 each week for fresh produce and milk.
In order to be able to take advantage of sales throughout the month, we budget $40 each month to use when I see a super great deal. We will then freeze or store that food and use it in planning the following month’s meal plan.
My Favorite App for Grocery Shopping on a Budget
No mom has the time to spend continuously scanning apps looking for the best rebate offers and sales. Which is why I have minimized my rebate strategy to help maximize my savings in the smallest amount of time.
My very favorite app to us is Ibotta! I have done an entire tutorial on how to use the app to maximize your savings. But in a nutshell this is how I do it, I do my normal grocery shopping first.
Then once I get all my groceries home, I will quickly open the app and search the two stores that I just went shopping at to see if there are any rebates that apply to my groceries. There are usually 3-4 that I can claim. This saves me around $5 each time I use the app.
If that doesn’t sound like much, trust me! The three minutes that it takes me to save $5 is 100% worth it! These small savings add up quick and once you hit $20 you can cash out in PayPal or Venmo, or choose from a bunch of really awesome gift cards! I usually choose Target and treat myself to a well deserved “mom’s only” snack!
If you are new to Ibotta, sign up using this link or the code: qybjrj and you will automatically get $10 after you claim your first rebate! So easy!
November 2017 Monthly Meal Plan
You can download this month’s meal plan by clicking the image below. In the free PDF download, each of the dinner ideas will be linked to the recipe.
Also available for free, is my Meal Planning on a Budget Toolkit. It’s broken down in a unique way to help you stick to your budget and avoid last minute surprises at the checkout!
Here is a tutorial on how to maximize your savings with the meal planning toolkit.
More meal plans with irresistible recipes on a budget:
November 2017 Grocery Haul
What are your favorite foods to get at Costco? I would love to chat about it in the comments below!
Thanks for stopping in and I will talk to you soon! Xoxo
FREE Printable - Meal Planning on a Budget Toolkit!
There are three things that helped our one income family build an emergency fund, pay off over $20,000 in debt, and start saving to buy our first home and MEAL PLANNING is one of those!
By using this Meal Planning on a Budget Toolkit you will start to see YOUR MONEY build up in your bank account, all while saving time and stress at dinner time!
Deirdre
November 8, 2018 at 4:05 pmI’m curious as to why you separate your consumables and non-consumables into separate lists/receipts??
Brittany Cooper
November 8, 2018 at 8:25 pmGreat question! Because I use a cash envelope system and I have separate budgets for each. Makes it easier to plan spending. 💜👍🏻