Shopping every other week...any suggestions/input?

[XUfan]

Long story short...my husband's hours got cut at work, and that cut our monthly income by about $200 before taxes. Neither of us make much money at all, so this is a BIG bite out of our income!!

Since I can't do anything about making any of the bills smaller (we're on level billing on all of our utilities, so it's the same amount every month), I have to cut back somewhere. And...since we don't go out, or eat out, or spend money on lottery tickets or anything else but gasoline for the cars...it's got to be the groceries!!

So...we both get paid every other week...and we both get paid the same week! My idea is to do our regular shopping the week we get paid. Then, on the other week, just get the essentials (milk, bread, eggs, produce). But...I know I won't be able to pass up any free deals, so I'll grab them too!

Anyway...does anyone else here only shop every other week? If so, what are some tips you can give me? I'm not even sure what to ask, since I've never had to do this before! I do have a really good stockpile, so we won't miss any meals!! LOL!!!

Any help is truly appreciated!!

[loveebella]

My husband get paid 2x a month and I get 100 each time for a family of 4 with 2 under 5. I would advise you to 1 Get the Essentials first and foremost 2. Stock up whatever you can. 3 Only get what you need.
I always go into the store with 5 items on my list and leave with over 20 things thus blowing my budget, I try to ration out my money so that the week after he gets paid I still have money for the sales and to stock up. It is so hard though when I am like ooh we need chips or ooh we need ...?...
I guess the main thing I would say is make sure to save money for the next week just incase there is a killer sale.
I personally get evrything I am going to need to last me until next payday. I usually end up with 20-40 left which I try to use to stock up with at CVS WAGS. I have hole's in my pockets though and the longer I hold onto it the bigger the holes get :/
Don;t know if I helped kind of just rambled on.

[saving-n-va]

I used to shop once a MONTH! That was before couponing and stockpiling. Boy that last week of the month was a killer. Thats when I started doing once a month cooking.

From the "what I learned" files: (lol)
1. menu planning is a must - plan for all meals, plan a couple extra meals incase of company, a potluck etc.
2. Powdered milk is not evil. LOL I used it for anything that called for milk in a recipe and occasionally snuck it into a milk jug to make the milk last longer.
3. Taking advantage of sales on ESSENTIALS will be vital but remember....ESSENTIALS. Meat, produce, etc. You will just have to limit yourself to what you can spend. For example if chicken is on sale, get enough for a couple weeks or month, not 3 months. etc.
4. I suggest doing some make-ahead meals - that way if your money gets tight those last few days before payday, you will have a few things in the freezer to get you through.
5. If you really want to stretch the budget...add water to a bottle of shampoo, laundry soap, 409 etc to make it last longer.
6. Now sit down for this one.............just don't look at the ads on the weeks you can't afford to shop!!! I know, I know, drastic, but if you don't know its on sale, you won't miss it and won't feel bad about missing a deal.

I just told dh today that I'm going to start shopping the grocery store every other week, and then one stop at CVS, Walgreens a week at the MOST for the next few months.

[mom2lucas]

DH gets paid 2x a month, and I get paid once a month. I make a menu and rotate my stockpile as needed while menu planning. I do my major shopping for meat and nonperishables during the week DH gets paid. The next week's shopping will consist of perishables, which I prefer to do at our local farmer's market. It's cheaper than the grocery store, and they have better produce. They sell local eggs and name brand milk (the cheapest in town, even). I make most of my own bread, which cuts out another run to the store. ("oh, we're out of bread...better run and get some." leads to spending $25 on unnecessary things we don't need.)

I do frees either week because, well, they're free.

I use a couple of cooking blogs to help me get creative with meals because there are only so many times a week we can stand to eat grilled chicken. I have found some really likable recipes with some really unlikely ingredients to use from my stockpile. I like Eat At Home Cooks, Crockpot365, and Mommy's Kitchen.

[thecouponclippa]

I used to do this.. even while couponing. To be honest, I never could make it work. Instead, I just chopped my grocery budget in half ( it's $150 for two weeks... $75 ( I just brought it back up because I got re-employed) so I take $75 to the stores and that's what I'm allowed to spend that week. There was just no possible way for me to make it work. By the time the two weeks are over, we're out of perishables, need X, Y or Z and I always seemed to miss the good sales that way. That's just me though. ( this is before I had a major stockpile. I'm still on every week shopping.)

[XUfan]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm sure I'm going to have to find my own way of doing this, but it's good to hear how others have done it. (Of course, my ideal situation is for someone to offer my husband a better job, so that I don't have to fix this!! LOL!)

I do think it would be hard to stop looking at the ads every other week, though. Besides the fact that I'm on HCW for hours every day...and alot of the discussion (and PMs that I get) are about the sales that week, there's also the mass media to contend with!! If Kroger is having a big sale, it's on the tv and radio constantly. So...I can try, but don't think it will work!! LOL!

Oh, and just so you know...the every-other week pay isn't something new. Just the pay cut. I've already been using half of the grocery budget one week, then half the other. With the pay cut, the grocery budget is cut dramatically...so I doubt I'd be able to get many deals at all if I tried to shop every week with a smaller budget. I'm just thankful for a full storage room, and a jam-packed freezer!

Keep the ideas coming!!!

[cpaige]

If you have an extra freezer, it's a huge help! I food shop at night, so that I can get deals on the meats for the BF! He breaks it all down, and has about 8 meals from one nice size chunk of meat that cost about $3.00. I easily save over $70.00 on meats just by going at the end of the day. As long as you are going to freeze it right away, it's fine. I am also able to buy extra bread and milk, just in case! Good luck!