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Challenges about Budgeting and Grocery Shopping

Budgeting and grocery shopping is one of the best ways to trim down your monthly expenses and daily spending- but there are dozens of challenges out there- especially the advice that is ultimately unrealistic. Here is a list of budgeting and grocery shopping challenges and how you can make them realistic strategies to save on grocery shopping! Challenges about Budgeting and Grocery Shopping Challenge #1- Unrealistic Research I've spent a lot of time scouring Pinterest and have not felt entirely satisfied with the results. Some articles seem too unreasonable to be applicable. More often than not, it comes down to unrealistic costs of groceries . For example, I cannot find 1 gallon of milk at my local Walmart for $1. And our Dollar Tree out in Montana doesn't have a grocery section- we do have a freezer section, but it is only 2-3 doors of frozen dinners. And our bread and produce is not as cheap as the other articles. What I have done to get around this challeng
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Dinner for 30...Days

Meal Planning Before a Move
In 28 days, Kyler and I are moving to Bozeman! We are going to be living in a two bedroom 538 sq. ft. flat. I am SO EXCITED! I have been so pumped to pack since about June...But now that that time is here, it’s been overwhelming. So I looked up what and when I should pack from four, three, two, and one week from the day we move.

Here it is for you ladies too!
So I have done most of my purging and reorganizing of my craft stuff and setting the stuff I need to donate aside. Next is to tackle that list of packing. But also, to get rid of the food we have in our fridge, freezer and cabinets. We are moving 300+ miles and I don’t want to bring everything in the kitchen down to the last cracker. I couldn’t find anything on Pinterest that had anything to do with mealing planning before a move, so I decided to do it myself.
This took me two days- but only like 4 hours I bet- of working on a month long meal plan that will take us from July 17 to August 12 (which is when my husband will move to Bozeman, he has to move a week before me because of work).
I did find tips for moving and one of them was for food: make Crock Pot Dump Dinners. Make a dinner in the Crock Pot ahead of time, freeze it,  and on the day you move into your new place, set it up in the kitchen; dump it, and forget it. Then when you’re hungry, it’s right there waiting for you. It’d also be good for the next couple days of working on settling into your house.
And then it dawned on me, it would ALSO be good for the week before you move. Sure, you can do pizza nights before you move, but that can get icky and expensive. So here are the steps I took to get ahead of my future self that is sure to be tired after packing and moving.
This week I gotta clean out the kitchen, I am going to pack everything in the kitchen except for the following:
  1. A few regularly used cooking utensils
  2. A mixing bowl,
  3. Knives
  4. Crock Pot
  5. 1 pot, 1 pan,
  6. 1 baking sheet
  7. 1 small casserole dish
  8. 1 personal-sized casserole dish
  9. Meatloaf pan
  10. A couple plates, bowls, mugs & silverware - enough that you can use the dishwasher as little as possible.

NOW DO THESE STEPS!
  1. Inventory- I went through my fridge, freezer, cabinets and pantry areas and marked up nearly everything we had. I wrote everything down on a notebook and made tally marks for items that we had more than one of.
  2. Focus- focus on meat and veggies in the order listed below. The meats will determine how many of each meal you can make, ex: 10 chicken packages from Costco have 2-3 chicken breasts, and if alone, I can cook up to 30 dinners. Keep your focus in this order:
    1. Meat- determines how many meals you can make of each meat.
    2. Fresh Veggies- this is the most obvious, they are the most perishable.
    3. Frozen Veggies- you want to leave the house with as little frozen foods as possible.
    4. Canned Veggies- not as much of a concern unless you don’t want to lug around a bunch of canned foods when you move your stuff to the truck, from the truck and into the kitchen.
  3. Write it out- Write a list of dinners that are fast, healthy and will use up as many ingredients that are ALREADY in your kitchen. For example, I have the chicken already, a can of corn, and a glass mason jar of black beans. I really enjoyed my Crock Pot Mexican Chicken Chili recipe, so I will make it and bag the rest for later.
  4. List Ingredients- You may or may not have to do this, but there were some of my recipes that I had to jot down real fast to compare what I have in the fridge/freezer and what I need to buy at the grocery store. *Don’t go shopping for the whole month of the foods, just buys the meats and produce that you need a week at a time.* Now make a list of all the groceries you still need to buy for your dinners.
  5. Write it all Out- Day by day, list out all the dinners you’re gonna make for the next four weeks. Highlight in a favorite color of all the dinners that can easily be doubled or even tripled for a Crock Pot Dump Dinner. Label the baggies, pop them into the freezer and enjoy them later.

Happy cooking & happy moving!
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