Does anyone monthly grocery shop?

I shop primarily by the month. This is what I do. I shop the adds to see what is on sale at my local stores and if I can get enough out of them for a months of menus.

What I would suggest is making a menu for the month and shop that way, the cheapest way would be with coupons and by the adds but it does make it hard at times if you do not have several stores to choose from in your area. If you shop at a warehouse club such as Sams or Costco monthly shopping is easier here but you do have to watch the prices to make sure you are getting a good deal.

I shop once a month and have for many years! When I started I made menus. Just take a piece of paper and make 7 squares across and 5 rows down and you’ll have a template with 35 squares to use each month.

I mark the days of the coming month in one corner of each square and then my daily menu. When I have my month filled in I then use it to write out my grocery list. I freeze milk and bread stuffs.

Last month I made my quarterly trip down to the LDS Food storage center and also restocked all my dairy for the year. This coming month I will restock non food items mostly plus I know how much meat, poultry and cheese we use each month so will replenish that also.

You’ll learn how to make it work for you as you go along. I can thank the military for starting me out doing this as for several years we could only shop at the military commissaries once a month and the prices were and still are much cheaper there. I do buy 1 gallon of whole milk a week for my kids- 1% and skim milk freezes very well but the whole milk tends to separate and leave clumps swimming around when frozen.

I hope this helps you! I only shop once a month now because I leave 90 miles from anything except Wal-mart! I find them very expensive and their meat is unfit to eat!

But as my family moves toward being self sufficient my monthly trip will probably become an annual trip for just what we can’t produce ourselves! I love having our years supply on hand! It makes it so I can shop in bulk and get things when there is big sales going on!

When I started once a month shopping I was just getting exactly what we needed each month. At the end of the month the cupboard was very bare! With 7 hungry mouths I learned a lot those first few month’s!

In 1996 we started laying in canned dry goods and now we have everything we need except some medications we only are able to keep 90 day supply on hand. We have been experimenting with herbs and found several that will work in an emergency so have those laid in for Asthma. We found when we went off all refined sugars and starches and we work very hard here so our blood sugars leveled out and no more problems in that area.

“We have been experimenting with herbs and found several that will work in an emergency so have those laid in for Asthma”

what kinds of herbs are those and how do you prepare them? My boyfriend has asthma and absolutely hates medicines.

i got a list packed away and it might take me awhile to get to it (dh is finishing the basement without emptying it out to do so i may never find some stuff again!) i can tell you off the top of my head that stinging nettle will stop an asthma attack cold! unfortunately nettle is a grass plant and i’m allergic to it but i can take up to 3 ok after that I break out in massive hives. So we keep Nettle for emergency use.

I can pop on capsule of it and with in seconds I can freely breathe again. So far I’ve only needed one and then I was ok. I’ll contact you on the others when I find them!

@bcoffey68359 108825 wrote:

Wow Brchbell that is awesome I wish I could stockpile a whole years worth of food -how did you mange this. I mean I do have some that I buy extra of – but not a whole years worth – where do you store it all -I have trouble with keeping a month. I m going to try and freeze milk -my freezers are pretty full of meat -I usually buy 1/2 of side of whatever -I agree wal-mart’s meat does suck -it is really unfit even for animals – thanks for all of the help -Bobbi -ne

It has taken me several years to get up to a real full years supply of everything we need. Don’t even try to picture it if you are just starting! instead just put aside a certain amount each month.

what can you afford? $50, $2?? Larger amounts you can buy stuff each month.

$7 you could go to the store and buy a case of what ever is on sell and set it aside. You’ve started your food storage! Don’t think about the full year thing yet!

Just get what you can and set it aside. I always mark the date I got it on top of the cans. (2/09 for Feb 2009) After awhile it will start piling up and you’ll start thinking “what am I going to do with all this?!!”

the 3rd column write down what you need to get. I have a nice big pantry (on the complete other end of the house! Arg!) Where we keep the current month’s needs.

I have a nice big room in my basement DH is building shelves for me right now! currently I have my dry goods (wheat, oats, flour, corn meal, ect) in #10 cans and boxed. I have them stacked 11 boxes high and 12 boxes down double walled with the label out on both sides.

He said each shelf needed to have a 2″ drop (front is 2″ lower that the back. You need a piece of board across the front to stop the cans. Otherwise it is open in front & back.

Drop you cans in back and pull from the front. I’m using that to rotate canned soups, fruits, vegetables as soon as he gets them done! Right now we got cases, sacks, boxes all over the place.

the 1st time we thought we had a years supply was in 1979 and we both lost our jobs and we’re both laid off for a full 2 years! We got $403 a month to live on and that just barely covered our house payment. We weren’t allowed to work or they would remove us from the recall list. We did odds farm jobs to earn food & cash.

Stupid stuff like we hand weeded an 80 acre field of soybeans! What we thought was a years supply lasted 8 month’s and then we just had wheat, ended up being soft wheat so I couldn’t make bread with it! It was a hard time but we sure learned a lot!

I made up 91 different menus and that’s what we used to decide what we needed to store. Dec 2008 we had a severe ice storm. No electric or phones for over 3 weeks.

Kids had to wear ice spikes to go take care of animals. But we did ok for the whole time and the kids still talk about how much they enjoyed it. that’s when we turned off the satellite so we could spend more time together as a family talking, playing a games/puzzles.

It saves you money because you have a cushion so that you can shop when prices are lower and stock up and not buy when prices get really high.

When you freeze milk remove the lids to let some air in so the plastic jug doesn’t burst when it freezes. A lot of people say you have to pour a little out but I’ve done it this way for many years and never had one burst.

Hope this helps you!

yes and no. I do like this: I buy the main box from angel food ministries and then I supplement with one trip to the grocery store a month. I bought January’s box (which came in late January) and then made one trip to Save a lot and then Today when we got our box for Feb, the freezer was so packed that I have to start thinking about getting a small deep freezer.

@mdowdy 108720 wrote:

“We have been experimenting with herbs and found several that will work in an emergency so have those laid in for Asthma”

what kinds of herbs are those and how do you prepare them? My boyfriend has asthma and absolutely hates medicines.

Ok, by now you probably think I’ve forgotten you! But I finally found my list! i think I already told you about Stinging nettle, but Mullein and Lovelia herbs also work!

You can learn more about these herbs at Botanical.com – herbal information, organic herbs, books, & hydroponic supplies or http://www.hipernatural.com

Some of these I’ve been able to find locally but some I have to just buy ahead and store in case needed. the sites I listed above will tell you what parts of the plants to use. I chop them up very fine and put them in capsules.

If you can find someone locally who really knows herbs and plants is a best help you can get! I was surprised to find Mullein growing down by the creek and I thought it was a useless weed! I got a guy that told me about these and he’s coming back this year to show me what other wonders I have growing here.