I love delicious food. I also love making
it healthy and budget friendly. About a year ago my friend introduced me to the
idea of reverse meal planning. Basically, you shop clearance at stores and then
meal plan based on what you get. I was really bad at this but now I am much more
creative with my meal planning and we end up wasting less food. You can learn
about this approach by reading this blog
https://sixonabudget.com/we-went-from-1500-per-month-on-groceries-to-233/ .
I have
learned where I can get the best deals on certain foods so I will go to
anywhere from 2-4 stores a week (it has become a strange hobby for me!) I
wanted to share what I have learned now that I have it down to a system.
Ralphs (Or other Kroger stores) has
the best clearance selection of all the grocery chains I have explored. I will
check the produce section first for packaged cut up butternut squash, (for butternut
squash mac n cheese) mushrooms, (to add to my ground meat) salad kits and then
the bagged produce they sell for 99 cents. Their pantry clearance section is
hit or miss[RB1]
but I have found great deals on healthy-ish snacks for kids, sparkling water,
cereal and even wine! Then I will check the meat clearance section where I
occasionally buy stew beef or steaks (Gianna’s favorite). Next is the deli
section where I scrounge for deli meat but usually end up skipping this section
(unless they have good quality hot dogs or kielbasa). They almost always have
clearance rolls, bagels, cakes, donuts cookies etc. but I will just stick with
bread or bagels for a treat. Lastly, I check for clearance organic milk
(otherwise I just buy regular) as well as yogurt/cottage cheese on clearance. It
is exciting to see what is on clearance, but you have to have self-control, or
you could end up spending a lot of stuff you don’t really need.
Grocery Outlet- I mainly go to
for Lara bars (they are only 37 cents each and the flavors vary) and random
snacks that are 99 cents. I will occasionally buy canned goods if they are
cheaper than Aldi prices. They also sell the Costco size veggie straws for
$3.99. They also have an awesome healthy food/organic section. I have found
Lakanto monkfruit sweetner for $5.99 a GIANT tub of refined coconut oil for
9.99 as well as coconut MCT oil for $9.99. This has helped me follow the trim
healthy mama plan without spending tons of money 😊
El Super is an
amazing Mexican supermarket that opened near us!!! We get fresh corn tortillas that
are cheap as well as most of our produce from there. They have insane deals on
produce (3-4 lbs oranges for a dollar, 2 lbs zucchini for a dollar) and the quality
is pretty good as well. This is great for us because we eat A LOT of produce!
After going to
2-3 of these stores, I go home and meal plan based on what I have at home and what
I already have . I tend to stock up on ground turkey when it is around 2
dollars a lb and then chicken when it is closer to a dollar a lb so those are usually
my proteins. Everything else that is needed I get from Aldi.
Aldi has the
best deals for most things except produce. Almost every week I buy whole wheat
bread, romaine lettuce hearts, cherry tomatoes and canned goods. I recently
started buying dried beans and cooking them in the instant pot to save even
more money. Aldi has great deals on dairy, lunch meat, eggs (under a dollar per
dozen), frozen cauliflower rice and frozen fruit. Aldi is rapidly expanding so check
out if there is one near you- you won’t regret it!
I
am blessed to live in a town that has all these stores within a ten-minute
drive which makes this feasible while working part-time and raising toddlers.
My kids come with me most of the time but occasionally I get to go shopping by
myself and it feels luxurious :P If you don’t have these stores then I suggest
you do some research/ ask around to find where the best deals are. We end up spending around 600 a month on groceries, diapers and eating out. I could definitely trim it down quite a bit but I buy certain staples even if they aren't on sale and we like occasional treats. In my next post
I will focus more on what kind of meals we make and what some of our go-to
quick recipes are 😊
