Keeping To A Grocery Budget

As I'm sure you've come to expect, Wednesday means time for a new installment of WFMW! This week, it's being hosted by Don't Try This At Home because Rocks In My Dryer is in Uganda on a live-blogging relief mission.

So...what works for me this Wednesday? Well, I decided at the end of summer that I was going to make more of an effort to make and stick to (and that's the hard part of me!) a budget, especially a grocery budget. It shames me to admit that last year we ate more than our fair share of crap and that might account for the fact that my arse has expanded to unknown proportions!

So this year, I created a budget. I'm still fine tuning it, as I find things that I really should budget for, but when it comes to the grocery portion, I'm doing exceptionally well.

What's working for me, is that each Sunday, I create a menu for the following week, run out to the grocery store, pick up what I need for those meals, and I don't go back until the following Sunday. Not once. That means I'm not tempted to pick up a quick fix for dinner, or stop at McDonald's on the way home, because I KNOW what is for dinner when I wake up in the morning. It's not a scramble to try at 5pm to dream up something for the monsters to eat.

I'm hoping to stretch this to a two week shopping excursion shortly. Then all I'll have to pick up (maybe) in between major trips is milk. But for now, I'm doing very well on a weekly plan.

I've got another tip for creating menus, but that will have to wait until next week. Because this Wednesday, keeping to my grocery budget is what works for me.

Head on over to Don't Try This At Home to find out what works for others in Bloglandia.

Until later...