Making A Frugal Grocery List

A frugal grocery list is essential if you are trying to save money when you shop. Never, Ever, Ever, set food in a grocery store without a list. Shopping without a list is a sure fire way to get a nasty surprsie when you get to the checkout.

Remember stores are expertly designed to lure you into purchasing all kinds of things, but if you stay focused on your frugal grocery list you’ll be immune to their tricks!

So first things first, decide what you are going to eat at each meal for the next week, fortnight or month and make a menu.

Now here is where many other frugal writers will tell you to check your cupboards to see what you already have in stock and peek into the fridge to check on leftovers. Well we’re different here at the frugal zone.

We encourage proper meal planning and portion control, so that you don’t have leftovers that you need to try and use up in imaginative ways. Left overs are a sign that you are cooking too much and are most likely throwing good food away in the end. Go on admit it, you might save spoonfuls of this and blobs of that in the fridge, but they tend to sit there until you get around to throwing them out don’t they?

As for supplies already in your cupboard – LEAVE THEM THERE! Everyone should aim to have at least a six month supply of canned and dried goods on hand. You never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. A natural disaster, civil unrest, illness, job loss.

Grocery stores keep around 3 days of inventory on hand – this is known as JIT (just in time), any disruption to the JIT supply chain means empty shelves.

In the event of a job loss a 6 month supply of your food basics will be an enormous help and will hopefully sheild you from making the painful decision to pay bills or put food on the table.

So unless money is in very short supply when it comes time to go grocery shopping, leave your surplus in the pantry and buy in what you need for the meals on your menu.

Try to cook from scratch as much as possible and stay away from convenience foods. Convenience foods are expensive and pretty light on healthy nutrition.

A frugal grocey list will include

• meat
• rice
• pasta
• canned tomatoes
• eggs
• flour
• yeast
• onions
• carrots
• bell peppers
• garlic
• potatoes
• dried or canned beans and chick peas
• fruit
• cheese
• frozen or fresh spinach
• butter ( butter is much healthier than spreads containing hydrogenated oils)
• salad

It’s easy to whip up a few eggs, half a chopped onion, half a chopped pepper and a little Parmesan cheese and make a tasty omelet. Add a baked potato on the side and you’ve got a cheap and filling meal.

Use some flour to make tortillas and fill with salad and hummus made from garlic and chick peas – a tasty lunch that can be brown bagged.

Take some ground beef, canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, peppers, carrots and a few dried herbs and you’ve got a pan full of delicious bolognaise sauce to serve with pasta.

You get the idea, cook simple meals from scratch with basic ingredients – it’s easy!

And hopefully you can see why we advocate growing a garden, if it’s growing in your back yard you don’t need to buy it