Stick to the plan, ma'am

This week I decided to wing it in the meal planning department.

It was a disaster.

Mental meal planning doesn't work for me. It just doesn't. Compiling a list of meals ideas in my head isn't enough. I have to write it down on paper. Plus, I need to ensure I have the required ingredients to make said meals. After dropping darling daughter off at preschool, I had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for meals for the next three days.

Quite simply, I was too lazy to meal plan. In some ways, I still am as I tend to make the same meals over and over again. Today I did manage to get my act together by opening up a cook book and surfing on the Internet in finding at least two new recipes. I've got a grocery list started and I'm ready to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I'd like to think I'll have fun, but I realize that grocery shopping has now become one of my regular and weekly chores. Sending out dear husband to do this task was so much easier, but I've discovered for me to meal plan successfully, I need to involve myself in the entire process, which includes going grocery shopping. Oh, the things I will do to meal plan.

Bulk shopping

About two weeks ago, when I was trying to find an obscure spice (it is likely not that obscure, but if it is beyond salt, pepper, and garlic powder it is classified as obscure in my books) I went to Bulk Barn. The problem with Bulk Barn is that the candy aisle is too big of a temptation for me. Regardless, when I was shopping for spices, which are much cheaper at Bulk Barn, a little thought occurred to me: "Why aren't I shopping here on a regular basis?"

I posed this question on the message board of a local moms group I belong to: can you save money by buying at the Bulk Barn? Respondents said yes it is cheaper to buy some stuff at Bulk Barn. They also noted you have to shop around because you can get some foodstuffs cheaper at other stores.

Last night, I returned to Bulk Barn to get supplies for next week's meals. As you can see from my receipt, no candy was purchased. I bought croutons for 97 cents. White liquid honey cost me $3.05. Steel cut oats, which were on sale, set me back 64 cents. Green split peas, $1.20; non-instant skim milk, $2.28; non-instant buttermilk, $2.38. In total, I spent $10.52. Total savings in regards to items being on sale: $1.19. Sweet!

I like the Bulk Barn for a variety of reasons. Although bulk in prominent in the name, I like the fact you can buy smaller amounts of various products. I have no need for a huge bag of powder milk, but I do need some for my bread machine. It would be ridiculous for me to buy a huge bag, spend $7 to $10 at the grocery store, only to use a bit of it before it expires. I plan on making bulk shopping a part of my grocery shopping routine, but I'll be skipping out on the candy aisle so I don't impact my waist line or my budget.

Not buying groceries isn't the answer to reducing our food bill

I think I mentioned it earlier this week that we didn't have any food and dear husband had to go to the grocery store and pick us up some supplies. It was a combination of laziness and financial frugality on my part. In December, we spent an insane amount on groceries, about $700. I thought initially we were in the $625 range (which isn't exactly good) but I later found a receipt in the bottom of my purse for about $75. I could chalk up our food expenses to the fact it was the holidays, but we did cash in some Sobey points, which helped out.

So this month I'm on a mission to reduce our grocery bill. Eating leftovers for the first little while helped immensely. But the leftover train has run out and I'm back to planning and making meals.

Earlier this week, dear husband started complaining that darling daughter didn't have all that much fruit. She did, but I guess cutting apples and clementines isn't all that appealing when you can wash and rinse berries. But we did start to get low on the basics so I had to break down and buy food. Now, I want to point out that I wasn't going to let my family starve in my mission to reduce our grocery bill. But I have discovered that we waste a lot of food when we have a lot of food in the house. It is easy to not use soon-to-be expired produce or leftovers when it is hidden in the back of the refrigerator. Although I still have a close eye on the bottom line, I've eased up on the purse strings a little. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them. I'll let you know how we fared at the end of the month.