How To Reduce Your Grocery Bill (part one)

With prices currently skyrocketing, times are tough. Join me as I show you how to reduce your grocery bill with tips, tricks, and techniques learned while raising a family of 9 children. In this three-part series, you will find some ideas which include topics such as

1. A guide to my monthly meal planning, plus a free download to start planning yourself!

2. How I shop the specials to reduce my grocery bill

3. How I buy in bulk and links to places that you can also start buying in bulk

4. How I shop once a month to help facilitate the Monthly Menu Planner and how to continue to shop the specials as well

5. Preserving

Save money with these simple but effective ways of making every dollar stretch further

You may have seen some of these tips and tricks before and you may use some of them already yourself. But here are the ways that I have developed over the 30-plus years of bringing up my family.

I have always been a bit of a “from scratch cook” and along the way, I have taught myself how to use what I have and how to make the dollars stretch further.

Over the years of bringing up such a large family, times could be tough, and I was looking for ways to reduce my grocery bill, so I have planned, prepared, and stored what we eat. It has saved us on many occasions. Learning how to cook with what you have in your staple pantry has been key to my success, but it hasn’t always been that way!

One of the scariest moments I had as a mother of then 4 was when we hit a bit of a rough patch. We had a visit from my in-laws, and they could see we were struggling. I was already great at making things work and stretching our dollars further but at this particular point in time, the cupboards were getting pretty bare.

My mother-in-law lovingly made the statement “if you have flour and potatoes, you have a meal” My reply was “if you have neither what then”?

The conversation was left there, but she really must have thought about what I had said because after they had left, they returned an hour later with some much-needed bags of food. Too which we were eternally grateful for.

We had learned a huge lesson in those tough moments of need.

• 1. Don’t be too proud to ask for help

• 2. Always make sure I have a good stock of supplies for hard times

• 3. You can never predict when times will be tough (the last few years have proved this)

• 4. Learn how to cook with what you have

• 5. Be prepared

• 6. If you have a staple pantry and inventory, you have a meal

Follow me as I let you in on some of the ways we save in this three-part series. The 15 ways I show you how to reduce your grocery bill. It will also be broken down into more in-depth posts as we go along. Please join my email list so you don’t miss any new posts.

1. Make a meal plan

Using a meal plan helps you be organized and saves you from unnecessary trips to the grocery store

I used to meal plan one week at a time, but I found I just never stuck to it. It didn’t matter how organized I tried to be I could never follow it for any length of time!

That’s when I came up with my monthly meal plans and gosh has it been wonderful. You sit down at the end of every month as a family and choose meals to add to the calendar. It doesn’t have to be in the order of the actual days you will eat it.

Therefore, you can just come up with anything on any given day and fill it in a space on the calendar. I will go into depth in my separate blog post explaining how to fully use this free resource.

Here is the link to the Farmers Wife Homestead Seasonal Monthly Menu Planner all free to you.

Make sure to leave one day per week for a leftover’s night. Those are the nights that are for easy toasted sandwiches or use up the different leftovers that are hiding in the back of the fridge. I will link my post on how it all works here once it is available. So be sure to watch out for that.

This method has saved us so much money as we don’t go to the supermarket every week anymore. It has also saved us a lot in wasted food. I shop at the butcher or vegetable shop for fresh fruit and vegetables as I need them. I also do most of my bulk buying at my local Gilmours. (look for your local store).

Google where your local bulk store is.

Other bulk-buying companies are

Davis Trading

Moore Wilsons and also

Binn Inn you can find some great products there as well.

The other big bonus for planning a monthly menu is avoiding the dreaded – what the heck am I going to make for dinner dramas. I don’t know about you but that is my most hated part of cooking.

I get utterly sick of the “what would you like for dinner kids” conversation to only get chorus replies of “oh I don’t know” and “whatever’s” I swear if I had a dollar for every time I have heard those two phrases I could retire ALREADY!

This method helps because you only have to sit down once a month to plan out all the meals that have already been shopped for. So, all you have to do is pick one from the calendar either the night before or the morning of. Once that meal has been eaten it is then crossed off.

Planning this way gives you the freedom of making choices not only about what you feel like that day but also about the weather on the day or any other prior arrangements on that given day. Things pop up and because you don’t have that structure of a weekly plan you have other choices at your ready to lean on.

Of course, you can still use the monthly menu planner weekly, however, the tip to saving money is to stay out of the supermarket. That is why the switch to monthly buying which has enabled us to save so much!

I actually encourage you to continue shopping weekly at the start of the process, unless you have the upfront money saved to do a BIG shop straight up to stock your staple pantry.

Meal planning helps keep you in control of your budget. While times are tough, and you are wanting to know how to reduce your grocery bill more, my planner will help because you are not buying unnecessary items that are just going to sit on the pantry shelf.

We all have unexpected situations arrive but with my plan, you will be covered. You just choose from the list that you know you already have all the ingredients for.

If you would like to learn more, I have several meal planning videos, but you might enjoy watching the first one explaining how it all works. Learn all about my methods as I feel like I would take this whole post up talking about it. I love it THAT much!

Here is the video showing you how easy it is. How to Monthly Meal Plan with Ease | Plus a free kit to print off yourself

You can download the free kits or get it in the description of the video in the above link.

2. Shop the specials

I know this seems too easy; I mean we all shop the specials, right?

However, I now mostly only buy my groceries when they are on special. When the pandemic started, I felt there was a need to make sure we had a fully stocked pantry. I felt we needed to be a bit more prepared because

• 1. I work away from home for long shift hours, which rotate through the week

• 2. We live just under an hour from our biggest town with supermarkets. They also started to limit amounts and with a large family to feed, that did prove difficult

• 3. Times are tough, and I had to figure out ways to reduce my grocery bill

I have always been a bit of a planner, and I would normally have a well-stocked pantry available. However, when the pandemic hit, I had just been buying from week to week and I wasn’t as stocked up as I would normally have been. I could see so many normal staples flying off the shelves and we couldn’t get many items as we were unable to get to town.

So once again I started to plan ahead and store a little extra at a time. This took some time as the limits were in place so I just stocked up what I could and now I have a great staple pantry base and inventory to pick from.

I made a list of all the normal things we needed on hand and took note of them when I was walking around the supermarket. If something was on special on my list, I would buy 3 or more of those items.

Supermarkets usually have a cycle of specials and during this stocking up period, you will get to know when your usual products come on special. I would then keep buying more items while they were on special, again to maintain my pantry supply.

Here is an example; you need to buy sugar in bulk and the supermarket has a 4kg pack for $9 but you notice the same type of sugar in the 1kg pack for $2. Buying 4 of the 1kg packs is cheaper than buying the 4kg pack. Sometimes it isn’t cheaper, so just keep an eye out for that.

This now means I mostly only ever buy when an item is on special. It’s pretty cool to know that I am not paying full price now on most items.

3. Buying in Bulk

This helps with keeping a fully stocked pantry but also saves you money

This is something I have always done. With bringing up a large family I always have bought in bulk. Sometimes buying large amounts isn’t as cost-effective, so make sure you are reading the unit prices when you shop. You will soon get to know what is a good price and where you can get it cheaper.

How to reduce your grocery bill?

Times are tough and finding ways to reduce your grocery bill is so easy when buying in bulk. It is a great way, to be prepared, and shop your pantry. This allows you to stay out of the supermarket. Let’s face it how many times have you made a list of maybe 10 items and come out with 20 plus items and a half-full trolley. Me, I have plenty of times!

So, the best way for me to save is to just not have to go there in the first place! When I do, I am strict to only get the specials I am after.

What if I don’t have a large family like you?

Easy get a group of friends or family together and go into a mini co-op.

Make a list of the staple ingredients you use and go into it with others. For example, I buy a big 6L of tomato sauce at Gilmour’s and I pay roughly $11 on special for that 6L. (depending on the price at the time). I brought a small squeeze bottle which we just refill from the big one. You could share the big tomato sauce for example and add it into the smaller bottles to pop in your fridge.

The current price of 3x cans is $3.80 for 575g each can. That equates to just over 1.5L for roughly the same price. That then gives you 4.5L for nothing more. Of course, prices will vary, and this is just a small example. If you think 6L would take you a year to use that is where coming up with a mini co-op is great. You can share the items and pay a fraction of the costs.

I will be making another post all about bulk buying and also how to store your bulk goods. So, watch out for that!

4. Once a Month Shopping

Yes, that is right once a month shopping!

Times are tough, how to reduce your grocery bill is all about staying out of the supermarket! Trust me I know it seems like this is not achievable and yes it can take some time to get to this point. However, if you don’t start now where will we be in say another 6 months’ time? How will the market look then? How will inflation be hitting us then? These are all the very reasons why I do what I do.

Does this mean I am perfect at staying out of the grocery store? In truth NO!

Some months I will go a couple of times. However, it is usually if I have missed something that I did not plan to run out of or there are some very good specials that I know will save me heaps in the future. For example, if my husband’s coffee comes on special and I know that we are starting to get low. I will absolutely go and grab those at the special price and any other great specials I see at the time.

BUT I only go and get what I absolutely need to stock up on. Sometimes if you look close enough the special isn’t actually that great. Look under the price stickers! They can be very cunning in getting you to think it is a great deal when in fact it isn’t. You are better off waiting until the cycle comes around and it is a better special.

In my meal planning post, I will go into this more and I will also have a YouTube video about this as well.

5. Preserving

Preserving doesn’t have to mean you need 1 acre to achieve it.

While gardening is an awesome way to save on reducing your grocery bill, you don’t have to grow all your own produce. Buy when the produce is in season and bulk buy it at its lowest prices.

Options for preserving your fruits and vegetables are plentiful. Here are a few ways to preserve

• Freezing
• Pressure canning in jars
• Water bathing
• Dehydrating
• Freeze drying
• Pickling
• Fermentation
• Curing
• Smoking

Just to name a few! There are plenty of books on all of these subjects and I will include a list of them in my post about this. While times are tough, finding out how to reduce your grocery bill is to read up on techniques for becoming more self-sufficient. One of my favorite ones (can be found HERE) is all about self-sufficiency and is written by John Seymour. He has several editions. I was given a copy from my parents, and it is a much-cherished book.

An example I have for you on how to reduce your grocery bill

I like buying onions in bulk during Autumn when they are at their freshest and cheapest. Buy 10kgs at a time and preserve them for later use through winter. We usually have a garden with lots of onions growing but this current year I didn’t have a garden as I was recovering from some injuries.

I diced and sliced some onions and popped them into freezer bags, there is no need to pre-blanch them as they will not stick together. The beauty of having bags of pre-cut onions is a time saver when preparing food. I now no longer have to chop up and cry in my meal prep. Just simply grab the amount required and start cooking them. No need to thaw!

Also, I dehydrate some sliced onions, and I then store them in glass jars. This means I have some shelf-stable onions in case the freezer dies, or the power goes out.

We also make caramelized onions to pop into jars and water bath them to use for months ahead.

I will cover more preserving tips on my blog in the coming months and will also have YouTube videos as well. Here is a video on how to save onions and Potatoes.

We also preserve many other foods. It has been over a year and a half since I have brought a can of pineapple. I now process them myself. I buy pineapples during the summer months when they are cheap. Each pineapple gives me several jars of diced pineapple.

The taste of the fresh pineapple is out of this world, and I will never buy tinned pineapples again!

It is very simple to water bath can them in jars and I will be showing you how to in further posts and videos.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, this is just part one of the three-part series on how to reduce your grocery bill.

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