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Meal planning is one of two major game changers when it came to our family once and for all sticking with our budget. It is what helped our family go from spending over $1,000 a month on food down to $400!
Follow along in our monthly meal planning and grocery shopping to get tips and ideas to help your family do meal planning on a budget.
Related Articles:
- Free Printable Meal Planner
- Pesto Tortellini Recipe
- My Favorite and ONLY Grocery Rebate App
- 13 Easy On the Go Meal Ideas
I’m also always sharing our daily frugal living tips for summer survival over on my Instagram stories! It’s super fun over there so don’t forget to follow along!
Our Family’s Monthly Grocery Budget
If you are new here, hi! You are probably interested to know what we set for our monthly grocery budget. This is how we work it.
$380 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 $35 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.
The key to sticking to monthly meal plan on a budget is to make sure that when you are making your grocery list, you put for every single item an estimated cost and then total what you expect to pay at the register.
It’s a super simple step that you can do to make sure you stick to your grocery budget. I make it even easier for you with this free meal planning printable.
My Favorite App for Grocery Shopping on a Budget
No mom has the time to spend continuously scanning apps over the holidays 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!
April is a crazy month for us! Side note, I wonder if I will ever not have a “crazy month” in my future. Do I say this every month? It sure feels like it!
When I know a month is going to be crazy, the most important part of meal planning is #1 making sure that it actually gets done. #2 Being sure that I am strategic in using our family calendar in collaboration with my meal planning.
Take a peek to see how that looks…
We are doing things a bit new for the monthly meal plan around here. In an effort to make things one step easier for you, the monthly meal plans will now be sent directly to your inbox.
The first of each month the brand new meal plan will magically appear in your email. Leaving you with no searching or hunting it down on the internet.
To be sure you don’t miss out, you can sign up below of my free email newsletter where you are sure to find even more Pearl Life tips!
April 2019 Grocery Haul
Take a peek at what it looks like to buy all non-perishable or freezable groceries for this exact meal plan. Were we able to stick to the budget this month? Watch the grocery haul video to find out!
I’d love to hear any questions you have! Leave them down in the comments below!
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About Brittany Cooper
My name is Brittany and I am devoted to saving our family money in everything we do. Yes I do coupon but that is not the only frugal thing I do. I'm a bargain hunter, tester of all things DIY, trip planner, our family’s chef, and lover of all things chic. I may be obsessed with being frugal but I still love to add bits of beauty to our home. Decorating on pennies works, it just takes a little patience. I am a firm believer that with a bit of planning you can save your family a lot of money.
