Grocery Shopping....UGH!

In an effort to blog more, I may share more of my mundane life than you really want to know......

I don't know about you, but I dislike going to the grocery store.
Probably because it's such a chore for me. I thought maybe
blogging about it might make it "fun".

Here goes nothin'!
I start out by making a menu. Because I don't like grocery shopping, I make a menu for at least 2 weeks and sometimes 3 0r 4. If I am really lucky I can squeeze another week of meals out of what I buy before I even have to go back. Yep, I hate grocery shopping.

I first write the meal ideas down and then add them to the menu calendar. This way I can try to think of things we'll be doing on those dates. Maybe something easy if we have a long day or something in the crockpot if I have to be somewhere else that evening.
Crockpot cooking is my favorite way to cook! I love that I can cook in the morning and when I am tired at the end of the day, dinner is ready!Our menu usually consists of tried and true favorites, but especially when the kids were young, I would get out my recipe books (of which I am not lacking) and search for something new to try out. I would try to have a "new" meal at least once a week.

We found several of our family favorites this way!
Coming up with 14-21 meal ideas is no easy task. And it can take me a while! To make the ideas flow, I will have a "theme" for a certain day. This month I chose Thursday as a hearty soup night! Mexican for Monday, Chicken on Wednesday and Crockpot Tuesday are past ideas! Of course, when the weather is nice, we grill all weekend long!
I've also tasked family members with coming up with ideas and as the children got older, they also cooked one night a week! Usually it was something simple like Hamburger Helper, but hey, I didn't have to cook!
When I am feeling ambitious, I also like to go through the cupboards and freezer and write down what I already have and try and come up with meals that include those ingredients. This is a money saving technique I learned when we were first married.
I always try to have a magnetic list pad on the fridge so I can write down things I need from the store as I discover I'll be needing them such as coffee, paper towels and such. While I am making the menu, I add to this list the ingredients I need for the meals.

Then there are those coupons. What a chore! But so worth the investment of time. I can save anywhere from $30- $50 using those trusty coupons! And, nope, the Commissary doesn't double them, but I sure wish they did.

I subscribe to the Sunday paper for coupons, clip them from product boxes, get them from friends (thank you, Christy & Chrystal!), get them off the store shelf and pick up coupon books from the store. Ideally, I should clip them once a week so they don't stockpile, but this week I found myself cutting so many on Sunday that I had to take several breaks and do something else cuz my back was hurting.

I also sort though my coupons and get rid of all the expired ones so I don't have to worry about that while I am shopping. How I miss having the kids help me cut and sort the coupons. I am sure they don't miss it though!

Well, that is how I do it!

If you've got some time saving tips or money saving tricks up your sleeve, I would love to hear them! I haven't ever tried printing coupons off the web, so if you've done that, I'd love to hear from you on how that works!

Have a blessed day!
~Angel