It’s no secret that Jay and I are doing some serious budgeting during this time in our lives. I mean, he’s a full-time student, and I’m a full-time stay at home mom. There is no source of income. We’ve already had to cut down on going out to eat – that’s a no brainer. 

Luckily, I LOVE to cook. It is so relaxing for me. I love cooking new things and figuring out what works together and what doesn’t. I can get pretty experimental in the kitchen. When Jay and I went over our spendings report of 2019, we noticed that A LOT of money was going towards groceries. 

I thought going to the grocery store was supposed to be cheap. How the heck were we spending so much money grocery shopping??? Well it didn’t take long for me to recall all of the pork tenderloin, fish, steak, etc I cooked over the past year. Not to mention the other ingredients, like goat cheese, prosciutto, cooking white wine. Yeah…I could have definitely done better. I think my logic there was “I’m cooking at home, therefore I’m definitely saving money and can cook whatever I want.”

Since looking at our budget, I have gone over the grocery receipts and have really taken note of what we were spending the most money on at the store. With that info, I have come up with a few tips on where you can cut costs. 

Buy In Bulk

I always try to buy non-perishable items in bulk when I can. This is not only better for the environment, but it often saves a lot of money. For example, looking now at the Harris Teeter website, they are selling a 6 pack of Angel Soft toilet paper for $6.99 ($1.17 per roll) and a 12 pack of Angel Soft toilet paper for $12.99 ($1.08 per roll). I know that a $0.09 difference per roll doesn’t seem like a lot, but it really does add up if you exercise this buy in bulk method with everything you can.

Buy Store Brand

Trust me, I know that there are some store brand products that just don’t cut it. Most of the time, however, I can’t tell a difference between store brand and name brand items. The store brand products are always WAY less expensive (like multiple dollars less expensive, which is huge as far as grocery items go).

Re-evaluate The Meat You’re Purchasing

This was a big one for me. Like I said above, I was not sticking to the less expensive meat options. I love a steak, pork tenderloin, fish, etc. but we just can’t be eating that for every meal. I get so tired of chicken and ground beef, though. After strictly buying chicken and ground beef for the past few months, I have realized that for many yummy fish recipes, you can just sub in chicken (adjusting the cooking time so that your chicken cooks all the way through). I also saw a delicious steak taco recipe the other week that I just subbed ground beef for. I used the marinade for the steak as the taco sauce. It’s kind of been fun having a little challenge and seeing what I can do with the less expensive meat options.

Re-evaluate The Cheese You’re Purchasing 

There are very few things that I love more than a good brie or goat cheese. Those cheeses can be pretty pricey though. Even parmesan and feta cost a little more than I would like to spend on cheese. I’ve found that subbing a less expensive mozzarella or Italian blend cheese works in place of feta or parmesan. It’s also less expensive to buy the entire block of cheese and shred it yourself instead of buying the pre-shredded cheese. 

Limit Alcohol

I love having a glass of wine or two when I cook dinner. It makes the whole thing so much more relaxing and enjoyable for me. I just can’t have one every time I cook. Looking at our grocery receipts, alcohol was such a big chunk of where the money was going. I’m not saying you have to cut it out all together, but maybe leave it for the days when you need a little more relaxing than most other days.

Cut Out Unnecessary Ingredients

When following a recipe, pay attention to what items you can sub or cut out all together. Common ones I sub are fresh spices for the dried spices that I already have. I mean, of course I would prefer fresh thyme for my meal instead of dried thyme, but I’m not going to pay $2.75 to have fresh thyme one time when I have an entire jar of dried thyme in my spice cabinet. I’ve also found that when a recipe calls for white wine, you can sub in chicken broth and a little lemon juice (again, I know white wine has a better flavor, but we’re budgeting here people). I also try to use up produce that I have that I know will go bad if I don’t use it. For example, if a recipe calls for a shallot, but I have half of a yellow onion leftover from dinner the night before, I’m going to use that instead.

I know these changes don’t seem like much individually, but since implementing all of them, we have cut down our grocery bill by about $50-$100 PER WEEK. Not kidding these have made a huge difference. I hope this helps all of my fellow budgeters out there.