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Welcome to 31 Days:The No Spend Month. If you are just joining me for the first time, you may want to start on Day 1.
Two years ago, I cut our grocery budget by 40% per month with just one changes: meal planning. I know that seems too simple but I talk to moms all the time that are spending $600-800 per month in groceries because they don’t meal plan.
My routine is this: Hubby gets paid every other Friday. So I plan our meals for 2 weeks at a time and then grocery shop on pay day. Again, too simple, right? It’s the one method that consistently has kept our grocery budget down for 2 years.
With our busy life over the summer and my sheer laziness (ahem), I didn’t meal plan much. And our budget paid the hefty price.
Pay day is this Friday so I’m working on our meal plan now in preparation. Because I’m cutting over $100 off our regularly grocery budget for No Spend Month, I want to eat as much food from our pantry and freezer as possible.
If you’re like me, you might not know what’s hiding in your pantry and you really don’t know what’s in the freezer – particularly that one in the garage.
I had to do a little pantry reorganization and most importantly – an inventory of what I already have. This will help me finish my meal planning (tomorrow’s topic).
If you’re up to the task, print off a pantry and freezer inventory list and get started. You might just be surprised at how much food you already have on hand!
So what’s hiding in that pantry or freezer of yours that you didn’t know you had?
The pantry is half full…the freezers are pretty much empty following an across-the-state move. I got rid of everything I absolutely didn’t need, and I’m still struggling to replace things. I like your inventory pages!
What an amazing idea! I will take an inventory and see if I too can reduce spending.
Thanks.