Here’s a secret hack to save 50 to $250 this week depending on the size of your family.
So the secret hack is to not grocery shop this week. Or if you grocery shop every two weeks don’t grocery shop for the next two weeks.
We probably have enough food in our cupboards to last us a week or two ANYWAY, so just by using up what we have, we can save a ton of money.
If your family is normal, it’s recommended to have your grocery bill be $100 per person per month. If you have a family of three, your grocery bill should be around $300 a month and $75 a week.
Some of you will live in high-cost locations and some of you will have family members with specials diet. It’s okay to adjust this budget range according to your life.
So your food budget should be in this range. If you have a large household, like me, with 10 people, your budget will be $1000 a month. And for this awesome hack, you can save $250!
Smaller families will save on the $50-$125 range. But even then, that’s a great amount to save in one week!
How to Go Without Grocery Shopping For a Whole Week
So you may be wondering, “Okay, cool. Just like don’t go grocery shopping this week. That’s TOTALLY feasible, KT.” >insert eye roll here<
Look! Hear me out. I bet you can last many days without needing to go grocery shopping.
If your cupboards are literally bare with cobwebs, that this isn’t the challenge for you. Go get some food, yo.
This is for the average person who keeps their cupboards stocked while continuing to grocery shop week after week.
I bet you can last a whole week with what you have in your cupboards. A lot of people have a week’s worth of food buried in the pantry.
The only time these food items get touched is when the person goes through their pantry and throws out a bunch of expired food items.
SAVE THE FOOD FROM GOING BAD
Use it up. Eat it up. Take this week to do so.
Follow My Steps
If you haven’t already, check out my ebook on how to cut down your grocery bill without couponing. You can get a free boot camp of the ebook by signing up below.
Now, you can follow my steps to shopping your pantry and making a meal plan with what you already have.
Focus on shopping your pantry, cupboards, fridge, and freezer. Make a meal plan with what you have stored away in these areas.
You want to try to make 7-21 meals depending on your eating habits. Some people eat the same oatmeal for breakfast and have plenty on hand. While others need to plan out all 21 meals throughout the week.
So write down the meals you could make. And be sure to jot down meals you can make with adjustments.
Get Creative
Planning with the intention of not buying anything can get challenging. Usually, with this method, you can spot plenty of pasta. Then you find that there’s no sauce, so you add spaghetti to your meal plan and jot down sauce on your shopping list.
But this week there is no shopping list.
So you have to get creative.
If you are missing in an ingredient to try to make the recipe without it or try to substitute it with something similar that you have on hand.
Dice tomatoes can be replaced with stewed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes. Pasta sauce works for any type of pasta. You can do without milk in recipes and replace it with water.
You can use a different type of vegetable or bean.
Whatever roadblock you run into trying to think of a creative way around this because this week, you’re saving money and you got this!
Cook Immediately
Once you have your meal plan set, get down to business and cook immediately.
Take the day and just cook all the meals on your list. This step is going to help you stay the course and complete this challenge.
When you have something edible on the meal plan, but it’s not your favorite thing to eat, you may want to quit at the sight of it. You may just want to conveniently order out that night.
Cooking it beforehand forces you to complete this challenge because it’s already made and you don’t want to waste it. Wasting food is throwing money in the trash.
So get cracking. Start cooking. Meal after meal until it’s done.
Put the food in the fridge and freezer and take your damn shoes off because not only are you saving money this week, but you are RELAXING.
Relax
Oh, would you look at that? The meal planning for the week is done. The cooking is done.
You have freed up a ton of time.
Now you don’t have to look at all the ads and sales. You don’t have to drive around. You don’t have to go grocery shopping. And you don’t have to cook all week!
YOU GET TO RELAX!
How fun is this challenge?
While you’re relaxing you can take some time to figure out what you are going to do with all your savings.
What to Do With the Savings
What will you do with the money? Depending on the size of your family, you just saved $50-$250 for the week.
That’s a nice chunk of change!
Here are some good money moves to make with your savings:
- Pay a bill
- Put it towards a debt
- Put it in savings
- Invest it
- Put in your IRA
Putting your money towards these channels will propel you forward towards your money goals.
How Much Did You Save?
This challenge is great because it saves you a week’s worth of your grocery budget.
It prevents food from going bad in the deep depths of the cupboards.
It frees up time so you can have a break from grocery shopping activities.
All around this challenge is a win!
Although, the meals may not be up to par with your taste buds. The savings and knowing the food won’t be wasted has never tasted so damn good.
This has been my awesome quick and easy hack to save you $50 to $250 depending on your family.
You can use this money for other bills or you can use it to invest or save.
It’s going to be so awesome to have a relaxing week knowing that you are saving BANK!
No shopping, scoping out ads or extra math for you. No, no!
Are you up for the challenge?