Once A Month Grocery Shopping {Why & How}

Sharing why we decided to try once a month grocery shopping, how we did it, and how much we spent. This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my disclosure policy here.

I recently shared on Facebook that I was attempting to purchase a month’s worth of groceries in one trip, and I was surprised by how much interest it piqued. Some of you wanted to know the cost, while others were skeptical that my grocery haul would last a full month.

I’m not a grocery/meal planning expert and know that mistakes will be made. But it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t give it a shot because I fear failure. I used to go grocery shopping twice per month and it worked out well. Yes, this is a bit more aggressive, but I honestly think it will save us more money in the long run.

Why-

I mentioned that at the beginning of this year, my husband and I sat down to update our budget. I looked at our expenses for the previous 3 months to get a monthly average. Specifically I did this with our gas, groceries and expenses that vary each month.

I was shocked to learn that we were spending over $1,000 per month in food. I’m not kidding when I say that it made me sick to my stomach to look at that figure.

Here’s a little background as to why I believe this happened. First, I started getting busier and stopped meal planning. I didn’t devote the time necessary to plan our meals, so I would scramble at the last minute trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

Second, I didn’t schedule grocery trips. I would grab something here and there, or have my husband pick up items I needed on his way home. All of those small (and frequent) trips added up.

Third, I got comfortable because our income started to increase. I stopped paying close attention to our expenses since we had a little cushion to fall back on.

So that’s my why in a nutshell. This typically frugal gal dropped the ball BIG time, and I’m humbly admitting it. It was eye-opening to see the numbers and know that I allowed things to get that bad.

How-

Because I knew that drastic actions needed to be taken, I decided that I needed to shop for enough groceries to cover an entire month’s worth of meals. I knew that part of our problem was the frequent grocery trips and although our meals were always inexpensive, we always managed to add something extra in each our trips.

So to kick things off, my husband and I sat down to plan out dinners for an entire month. We also included breakfast items, lunch and snacks. I wanted to get as much as possible to ensure we didn’t have to make any runs to the store.

I went shopping with a very detailed grocery list to ensure that I didn’t buy extras. We shopped at Aldi, Costco and our local grocery store. It was quite the adventure, but I know it will be well worth it.

Some meal ideas for this month:

• Brown Rice with Chicken and Broccoli
• Cheesy Broccoli and Chicken Bake
• Lasagna
• Enchilada and Rice
• Taco Bake
• Homemade Tuna Helper
• Chicken Lo Mein
• Spanish Rice with Chicken
• Breakfast Dinner
• Egg and Tuna Salad Wraps
• Chili and Cornbread

Most of these meals use ingredients that are acceptable for the Trim Healthy Mama plan which I’m currently (loosely) following. I will double or triple most of our meals because I needed to keep our meal plan as simple as possible.

We also stocked up on eggs, turkey bacon, sausage, apples, clementines, bananas, onions, lettuce, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, broccoli, corn and canned fruit. We already had a lot of canned and frozen vegetables at home which helped a bit.

I noticed some skepticism when I shared a picture of my grocery haul, since we only bought one gallon of milk. One thing I want to clarify is that we don’t own a separate freezer (looking into buying one!), and our refrigerator is on the small side.

I know our milk and produce will run out before the month is up. However, my husband can easily grab a gallon when he fills up the car. The price is no different than our local grocery store, so we won’t be spending any extra money for this convenience.

I also get a lot of produce from my parents throughout the month, and I will likely make one trip this month to our local farmer’s market.

Now one thing I suggest to make the most of your produce is to use them in the order of their shelf life. That means that we are eating our bananas first (I bought two bundles, one which was still green) and clementines.

Next will be our apples and canned fruit since they have a much longer shelf life. We also invested in a Brita Pitcher and will get the return in our investment in less than a month. The water tastes great which surprised me since our tap water tastes awful.

You’re probably wondering what the grand total of our huge haul was. Once I finally calculated everything our grand total came out to $392 which also includes a huge supply of toilet paper and paper towels that will likely last beyond a month. This will feed two adults, 1 teenager, 1 tween and a toddler. My step-son is also here part of the time which I also factored in.

I’m sure that figure will go up slightly once we factor in milk and produce later in the month. However, I’m thrilled because it’s still much lower than what we were spending in the past few months.

And considering that we bought organic brown rice, low carb tortillas, THM-friendly pasta, olive oil and several other items that are a bit pricier, I think we did pretty good for our first attempt.

Have you ever considered once a month grocery shopping? I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips!