grocery shopping — The Happiest Home

10 ways to save $20 (or more) this weekend

by Meagan Francis on September 27, 2013

I shared a while back that we’re cracking down on the budget to get out of debt. I’m wrapping up our first month back on a cash envelope system, something we’ve tried before but have never been able to stick with (I’ll have another post on that soon.)

The upshot is that, wow, using cash really does make you more aware of how much you’re spending! And having more money in the bank at the end of the month is also inspiring me to find more ways to tighten up even further.

So I’m challenging myself to spend at least $20 less in every category than I budgeted for last month. Here are a few ways I’m saving that you can put into effect this very weekend: [click to continue…]

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Shop Weekly, Plan Monthly: unexpected strategies for reducing food waste and cutting your grocery bill

by Meagan Francis on February 1, 2013

When I first started grocery shopping more often with the intent of buying less food and reducing waste, I did it all wrong.

I tried to spread my shopping out so that each week, I’d spend roughly the same amount of money and bring home roughly the same sized haul. I knew I didn’t want to go to multiple stores every time I went grocery shopping so I’d randomly hop around depending on my budget or how much time I had available.

The problem was, of course, that my non-method method didn’t account for the unpredictability of life – that in a busy week I might go through more convenience foods, while in a slower week I’d use up all the flour and olive oil. And going to whichever store I felt like and trying to get enough food for a week or more meant I wasn’t shopping each store for its strengths.

By trying to follow a rote, one-week-fits-all shopping pattern, I missed a huge opportunity to save money, reduce waste and stock my pantry and fridge in a smart way. [click to continue…]

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4 Ways To End The Eating-Out Cycle

by Meagan Francis on January 29, 2013

When I started taking a closer look at our grocery budget a couple of years ago, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t nearly as high as I’d feared. After entering all my bank transactions into an online budgeting program, I learned that while there was definitely room for improvement, my grocery bill made up a pretty reasonable percentage of our household spendings.

So where was all that “extra” money – you know, the bucks I couldn’t seem to account for at the end of the month – going?

Looking at the other slices of pie on the color-coded chart, I gulped. No, we weren’t spending that much on groceries. But yes, we were spending a lot on food – restaurant food.

I’m a big fan of eating out, and count great dining with friends and family among life’s biggest pleasures. But when you’ve got a family of 7 including teens and growing “big kids”, there’s no real way to economize even a fast-food meal – it’s stinking expensive, no matter what; and completely out of proportion with the quality of the food or the experience. As a once-in-a-while event, eating out is wonderful. But it’s no way to feed a family day in and day out.

Then there were the meals I’d shared with my husband. Some had been wonderful, while others were utterly forgettable and definitely not worth the price tag. No wonder I was so far in denial about how much we’d actually spent on them.

So I set out to cut down on our family’s consumption of restaurant meals. And I found that, when you’re trying to eat out less, it helps to understand why you’re doing it so much in the first place. After identifying four basic reasons we visited restaurants too often, I was able to come up with some solutions to steer our eating habits back toward home:

Reason 1: Boredom. When life is feeling humdrum, dining out can seem like a quick fix. But honestly, I’m pretty rarely blown away by a meal out – in fact, my husband and I have started calling most restaurant experiences “The fifty-dollar disappointment.” Sure, there are amazing restaurants out there, but exceptional meals tend to come with a price tag to match. To be able to afford those great dining-out experiences, I need to cut back on the mediocre ones that I’m only craving because I’m bored with the usual routine.

Solution: Jazz up mealtime a little bit. Some ideas:

More meals with friends and family. Sharing a nightly meal is one of my favorite ways to make dinner time more fun: you get to share the expense and workload of getting dinner on the table, and it can turn an ordinary Wednesday night meal into a fun little party.
Try new things. I’m a back-to-basics kind of cook, but every now and then it’s fun to experiment with new dishes, or even just an alteration on an old favorite.

Reason 2: Lack of Planning. It’s easy to say we don’t have “time” to cook at home, but is that really true? Or is it more that we didn’t plan ahead? True, if it’s 6:00, I haven’t taken the chicken out of the freezer yet and there are no veggies in the fridge, I “don’t have time” to go grocery shopping and then come back and prepare a meal by a reasonable time. But if I’d had everything on hand, putting it together would likely be quicker than a trip to pick up takeout (and a whole lot faster than corralling the whole family to a restaurant!)

Solution: Better planning! Creating weekly menus and doing my shopping on time leads to fewer stressful moments digging through the pantry and fewer last-minute runs for pizza. Meal planning can be simple, but it needs to be part of the weekly routine.

Reason 3: Date Night Syndrome. For much of our early parenting years, my husband and I rarely went out: lots of little kids and nursing babies, lack of child care, and a serious budget crunch made “date nights” few and far between. So whenever we managed it, we made the most of the date with a full-on meal experience including drinks, appetizers, an entree, and desserts (one each.)

But since our youngest is now 3 and we have two kids of legal babysitting age, heading out for an hour or two with my husband has never been easier. When we first realized our relative freedom, we initially went on a restaurant-hopping spree…and since we were still mentally stuck in that early-parenting stage where nights out together were scarce, we continued to treat each “date” as a blowout. It’s one thing when you’re doing that quarterly, quite another when it’s once a week!

Solution: We need to get creative about what it means to go on a “date” instead of always defaulting to the standby of a nice dinner. Some ideas that are cheap or free:

Go on an ‘afternoon date’ for happy hour or an appetizer, then join the rest of the family for dinner
Have dinner with the family, then head out for a drink or dessert and coffee.
Have more “date nights” in the house – a game of cards, shared TV show or just a quiet conversation after the kids are in bed. Sometimes my husband and I like to feed the kids early and then make a separate, fancier meal for ourselves that we can eat after they go to bed.

Reason 4: Too Busy. Feeling frazzled at dinner time is often an indicator that my life has gotten a little too busy. If I feel pressured to check my email fifteen times between 6 and 7 PM, or have a hard time managing dinner because I’m driving kids around at that time every day, or can’t seem to wrap up my work day by 5:00 most days…then it generally means my priorities have gotten a little out of whack.

Solution: Take a hard look at my evening shuffle and see if there are things that need to go. Sometimes extra “busy-ness” is a temporary thing that I just have to get through – but sometimes, it suggests that I’ve taken on too many responsibilities or have let the kids get over-committed. We all have different levels of tolerance for “busy”, but if I can’t set aside a Kitchen Hour at least three times a week, I start to feel off-balance and have to scale back.

Did any of the above reasons for eating out too much strike a chord with you? What helps you keep restaurant meals under control?

These tips were originally shared at The Happiest Mom.

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5 Simple Strategies for Reducing Food Waste (And Saving Money!)

by Meagan Francis on January 22, 2013

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In my last post in this series (sorry, I know it’s been a while!) I wrote about how many popular grocery-store-saving strategies just don’t work for me. Couponing, bulk-shopping, freezer-meal-cooking…they’re all solid methods for some, but don’t fit my personality, circumstances, or organizing style.

In fact, those strategies can have quite unintended consequences for me! Many times I’ve found myself buying a product I never otherwise would, just to use a coupon. More than once I’ve cooked a huge batch of some casserole or other, only to toss half of it out when nobody seems interested in the leftovers.

So many grocery saving strategies seem to revolve around getting as much food as you can for as little money as possible. But cost-per-ounce is only part of the equation. I’ve come to realize that what we do with food at home is just as important as how much of it we’re able to get for $100.

After all, I could spend hours shopping sales and carefully cutting coupons, but if my meal plan is bloated and leads to throwing food away, I’ve wasted my time in addition to food and money.

Based on a lot of trial and error, I’ve come up with a formula that works for us:

Shop Less Often + Buy Less Food + Make Simple Meals + Plan Great Leftovers + Shop The Pantry = Save Money, Time, And Food.

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1. Shop Less Often

I’ve experimented with every-other-week shopping, but I find that my “stock up” mindset seems to take over in those circumstances and I wind up with way too much food. I can sometimes stretch the time between store trips to 9-10 days, and the challenge of having to use items from the freezer and pantry can be a good exercise in resourcefulness, but I also operate best on a routine and find that setting aside a certain day of the week for shopping usually works best.

2. Buy Less Food.

Since I’m easily overwhelmed and distracted, loading up my shelves with tons of food at once is a sure path to waste. A well-stocked pantry is one thing, but a crisper drawer loaded with wilting produce and shelves so crammed with condiments and cheeses that you can’t find your way to the leftover chicken just leads to food going bad.

There are a few foods I will stock up on sale (meat, because I can freeze it; bread, because it will always get used) but one of my most effective money-saving strategies has been to simply buy less food at each shopping trip.

3. Make Simple Meals Your Family Loves.

Rest assured that I’m not talking about a steady diet of chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, here (though I’m definitely not above having a couple blue boxes on hand at all times.)

But I’ve found that there are certain dishes – beef stew, spaghetti, black bean tacos, roast chicken, baked salmon – that always disappear at my house, and that focusing my efforts on making them as nutritious and tasty as possible just makes more sense than taking a gamble on more exotic recipes most of the time.

That’s not to say I never experiment or that all of my meals pander to kid-pickiness; just that it’s a lot more satisfying and cost-effective to set down a dish that everybody can’t wait to dig into, than one that mostly gets pushed around on the plate (and later winds up the trash.)

4. Plan Great Leftovers.

One of my biggest meal-planning mistakes used to be shopping for too many main dishes without creating a real plan for leftovers. So even if everyone loved the stew, the next day it would get bumped from memory by a roast chicken, and then we’d have two containers of leftovers to deal with.

Now I try to put gap days between big meals, and treat leftover ingredients as being worthy of attention rather than an afterthought I’m trying to pass off on repeat. I’ll often plan new sides and veggies to accompany the main dishes that didn’t get finished, or come up with whole new meals (soups, stews, etc) to utilize leftover ingredients.

For example, last night we had baked salmon with smashed potatoes and broccoli; tonight we’ll finish off the salmon over brown rice mixed up with what’s left of the broccoli. There’s something about the psychology of getting a “new” meal (albeit one made with ‘old’ ingredients) that just seems to make everyone happier about eating it.

5. “Shop” The Pantry and Freezer.

Buying less food at once can take a bit of adjustment – I definitely went through a phase where I felt like there was nothing in the house to eat.

But I realized that having fewer perishables in the fridge forced me to get more resourceful and use what I do have in the freezer or pantry – and trust me, it’s usually plenty. It can also work to shake the kids out of always reaching for the “easy” food (another sandwich, etc) and get them thinking creatively about how to turn basic ingredients into food!

These tips may not be mind-blowing, but I think sometimes the simplest strategies for saving money in the kitchen can also seem like the most intuitive. Our culture has definitely adopted a “more is always better” mentality, and it’s easy to let that muddy up the way you shop and plan meals. As far as I’m concerned? Less is more, and the simplest path is often the most direct route to getting dinner on the table.

Is food waste an issue in your house? Do you have waste-reducing strategies of your own? Please share in the comments!

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The Beginner’s Guide to ALDI

by Meagan Francis on December 10, 2012

Scroll to the bottom of the post to see who won last week’s ALDI giveaway!

Last week, I shared a post about my early ALDI-shopping roots, how I recently rediscovered the store, and why I am quickly becoming a shameless ALDI evangelist.

But though I recommend that anyone – on any budget – give ALDI a shot, I know that the first visit or two can be overwhelming. Navigating unfamiliar brands and an unusual checkout process might intimidate all but the most adventurous shopper without a little advance preparation.

So I’ve created this beginner’s guide to help you make the most of your Aldi shopping experience. Enjoy!

1. Check ads and make a plan.

Like most supermarkets, ALDI publishes its weekly sales fliers online. But while you might be accustomed to getting acquainted with your neighborhood’s flyer when you get to the store, I strongly recommend looking at the ALDI flyer ahead of time, especially on your first few visits.

First of all, there isn’t much of an entryway at ALDI stores where you to stand around and browse sales. And secondly, because of the unfamiliar layout and since the special buys change often, you might miss some fantastic deals if you don’t plan ahead.

2. Bring a quarter.

One of the ways ALDI keeps prices down is through its shopping cart system – you stick a quarter in a slot to get a cart, and then return the cart at the end of your shopping trip to get your quarter back. I keep one in the car and a couple in my purse at all times so I won’t be unprepared!

If somebody offers you a cart while you’re getting out of your car, just give them your quarter. And don’t forget to retrieve your quarter at the end of the trip!

3. Bring your own bags (or be prepared to buy them and/or scrounge for boxes)

15 years ago, when I first started shopping at ALDI, nobody in my area carried canvas shopping bags yet. So my sister instructed me to gather empty cartons and cardboard trays as I shopped, and I’d use those to get my purchases home.

Now that I have a stash of reusable bags, I just bring those – but scrounging for boxes is definitely still an option! If you forget your bags and don’t see any empty cartons, no need to panic: you can buy bags for a few cents each. Or, I suppose you could just push the cart out to your car and unload it directly into your trunk!

4. Keep an open mind.

When you first walk in to ALDI, the first thing you spy will likely be a display of brightly-colored bags of chips with unfamiliar packaging and logos. “Real” food comes later, so just walk on – but keep those eyes peeled for great deals on snack goodies.

I usually pick up a bag of pistachios within the first 15 feet or so of the front door, and the wine is right in that area, too. Just about halfway down that first aisle, you’ll find fantastic prices on baking goods and pantry staples. Cereal is a little further down on the right. Walk slowly and look around.

Keep in mind you aren’t shopping at ALDI for the ambiance. My store is bright and clean, but it’s not fancy. If you need an “experience”, save that money and spring for a latte or lunch later.

5. Take your time.

Between the unfamiliar packaging and new brand names, it pays to walk slowly. Remember that at ALDI, options are limited by design. So if you walk too fast, you could easily blow right past the canned goods or cereal. The store is small, so even if you walk at a snail’s pace, you aren’t likely to take anywhere near as long as you would at a superstore.

6. Don’t be afraid to circle back.

Since ALDI is laid out differently from many grocery stores, you may find yourself compelled to go against the flow and return to that first aisle again, or make several loops around the other aisles. Just plan for some wandering and don’t worry about it. Everybody else is just paying attention to their shopping and they aren’t going to notice that you’ve wandered down aisle 3 four times.

7. Read labels.

Yes, when you see a box of granola bars for $1.29, you might wonder if they’re made of sawdust. So take a few moments to flip boxes around and read those labels. Many times, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that the ingredients are comparable to, or sometimes even healthier than, major brands.

8. Start small.

If the idea of replacing your usual grocery store trip with ALDI is too overwhelming right at the beginning, give yourself some specific parameters for the first few trips.

For example, on one of my first trips when I started regularly shopping ALDI again, I went there for the sole purpose of buying food for an upcoming party. So I focused on chips, crackers, wine, soda, nuts, and gourmet cheeses. Other times, I’ve shopped with baking supplies or a holiday dinner in mind.

Limiting your shopping list on the first few ventures out will make it easier to check things off the list and walk out feeling successful.

9. Try something new.

ALDI’s low prices and special buys make it possible to try things you might never have cooked before. Case in point: I recently bought a frozen lobster there on a whim, and had a lot of fun cooking it. Sure, the regular grocery store has frozen lobster, but with the huge selection (and high prices) in the seafood department there, it never would have occurred to me to buy one. Sometimes when there are fewer options, it forces you to be more creative with what’s available!

Remember that ALDI has a fantastic guarantee – if you don’t like something, you can return it for a replacement AND a refund. So there’s really no risk in trying something unfamiliar.

10. Be prepared for the check-out line.

Cashiers at ALDI work incredibly fast, so don’t be caught off guard. Load up your purchases on the conveyor belt and get your money ready! (Keep in mind that Aldi accepts cash, debit cards and EBT cards, but not credit cards.) If you need to purchase bags, you’ll find them below the conveyor belt.

As the cashier scans your purchases, he or she will load them into an empty cart at the end of the aisle. You’ll then give the cashier your empty cart and push the full one over to a counter at the front of the store, where you’ll do your own bagging/boxing.

Don’t be intimidated by this! I have found that because I’m not rushed – and, let’s face it, because I’m older than 16 and have quite a bit of experience unloading groceries at home – I can do a much better job bagging my own groceries than the average teen bagger at the traditional supermarket.

Like any other new activity, there’s a bit of a learning curve when you first start shopping ALDI. If you choose to look at it as a fun, brain-challenging adventure rather than a chore, you can actually have a lot of fun getting accustomed to this new way of shopping. And after those first couple of visits, when you realize you can buy a very large portion of your family’s food at ALDI and save a ton of money in the process, you’ll be glad you stuck it out.

Congrats Crystal and Laura, winners of The Kitchen Hour’s $25 ALDI challenge giveaway! I’ll be in touch soon.

**If you’re looking for more resources on shopping ALDI, two of my favorite bloggers cover shopping there extensively! Kristen at The Frugal Girl is a long-time ALDI fan whose posts helped inspire me to give it another shot, and Amy Clark of MomAdvice.com writes a column called ALDI Queen with recipes and shopping tips. I’ll be featuring both Kristen and Amy on The Kitchen Hour soon, so stay tuned!

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How does Aldi keep its prices so low?

by Meagan Francis on December 4, 2012

When I was a broke young mom feeding my small family on a weekly grocery budget of $47.50, every penny – and I do mean every penny – counted big-time. My sister turned me on to ALDI as a great way to save money on groceries, and for a long time I shopped there out of necessity.

After several moves and a few boosts to our household’s bottom line, at some point ALDI fell off my radar. I guess I associated the store with my younger, poorer days, and now that I could afford to shop at the regular grocery, I didn’t want to go “back” to my ALDI era.

A couple of years ago, though, I decided to give ALDI another shot. And was I glad I did! I was amazed by how many great deals I was able to find, and overall what a pleasant shopping experience I had.

I have to admit, though, I was still a little flummoxed by those so-low prices. So last month, when I was invited to a blogger event at the ALDI headquarters in Illinois, I asked a lot of questions…and learned that:

Efficiency is the “secret” that keeps ALDI prices low.

I think Americans are naturally suspicious of low prices. If something is inexpensive, we figure it must be junk. But during our tour of the ALDI store in Batavia, we learned that things customers might not even notice, like having several bar codes on each item so that cashiers don’t have to do as much twisting and flipping, can make a big difference in how efficiently a store can function.

ALDI’s backbone is based on carrying a limited number of basic items that most households want, so there’s less wasted shelf space. Even their shelving is super-efficient: dry products are shelved right in their shipping cartons; milk is carted from the truck, into the store, and directly into the cooler in the same large shelving unit. ALDI won’t put out a product until they’re satisfied with its quality, and each item is backed up by a double guarantee: if you aren’t happy with your purchase, you can return it for a refund AND a replacement.

No, you won’t have endless selection at ALDI, and there is often only one type of a specific product. But that’s not always a bad thing, for those of you who, like me, occasionally get overwhelmed by the endless options at larger supermarkets.

goat cheese; just one of the products I was surprised to find at my local ALDI

And there is actually a very nice selection in certain areas of the store. Every week the store introduces 20-30 Special Buys, which could be anything from gourmet chocolate to cilantro and give you the opportunity to pick up a few items that you wouldn’t always find.

Other sections of the store offer options every week. During the store tour, I had to interrupt the store manager to ask a very important question: But what about bacon? And I learned that there are at least three kinds, including thick-sliced and center cut. (Whew! I take my bacon seriously.)

There is also a great selection of cheeses, including specialty cheeses like brie and gouda, and a decent wine selection.

During our tour of the headquarters, we did a blind taste testing, and while not every wine rung my bell, I can say their Tempranillo ($4.99) is a very nice everyday table wine, and that their cheeses were just as good as the national brands.

ALDI also carries hormone-free milk, high-fructose corn syrup has been removed from its breads and some snacks, like granola bars, and the stores are starting to carry more organics as a response to customer preferences.

Speaking of efficiency, ALDI employees are crazy-efficient.

If you’ve ever shopped at ALDI you know that those cashiers move fast. During the store tour I learned that all employees are trained to work in all different areas of the store, which makes the work force as a group much more efficient. They also don’t have to mess with things like scales (there are none at the register!) or bagging (customers do it!). The result is that fewer employees are needed to run a store like a well-oiled machine. At the same time, ALDI employees enjoy more-than-competitive wages (starting rates for the store we toured were over $12/hr) and benefits, even for part-time employees. ALDI really takes care of its workers, and that’s something I appreciate.

I’ve been burned by inexpensive wines before, but considering the Tempranillo is an award-winner, it didn’t feel like much of a risk. (psst: it’s better than a lot of $15 bottles.)

It’s worth a shot.

If you haven’t shopped at ALDI in a while, it’s worth another try – the stores have undergone many changes, including remodels and lots of new merchandise.

And if you’ve stayed away from ALDI because you don’t “have” to shop there, consider this: over the last couple of months I’ve been making a point to shop at ALDI twice a month, and the savings have been significant. So significant that it has allowed me to invest in other things that my food budget didn’t always allow for, like more organic produce and free-range eggs from the traditional grocery.

When you’re shaving $100 off your grocery bill every other time you go shopping, it frees up a lot of food budget for things you might otherwise have not had the wiggle room for, like signing up for Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), buying half a local cow to keep in your freezer, or spending more on the brands you’re really loyal toward. Or, heck, maybe it will allow you to go out for a nice dinner a little more often.

It’s all about balance, and ALDI is a great way to keep your food budget lower so you can spend in other ways that matter to you.

So here’s my challenge to you:

Head over to the ALDI website and make sure you have a nearby store on the store locator.
Check out the Weekly Ad or Special Buys flyer for your local store. Does anything in the ad surprise you? Is there a product you didn’t know you could get at ALDI?
Either by pretend “shopping” online or by making a visit to your local store, figure out how you could spend $25 at ALDI. What would you get? Compare that to your regular grocery. Is there a difference?

And here’s where it gets fun! Two of you will win a $25 ALDI gift card to carry out your own ALDI challenge!

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment below. Did you learn anything new about ALDI in this post? Have you ever been to an ALDI store? Based on what you know now, would you be more wiling to give it a try? Do you have any favorite ALDI products? Your comment can be about anything, just make sure you leave a valid email address!

If you subscribe to The Kitchen Hour via email (and leave an additional comment letting me know) you’ll be entered twice.

The contest will close at 9 PM EST, Sunday, December 9 and two winners will be chosen at random. I’ll announce the winners in a follow-up post next week, in which I’ll share some beginner’s tips for shopping ALDI.

In in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t receive any compensation from ALDI for writing this post or attending their event (though I did get some great free food!) But ALDI and I have a long history, I’m excited to be reunited with the store as a once-again regular customer, and I’m turning into a bit of an evangelist. (Just ask my friends. They’re probably tired of hearing about it, though several of them have let me know they’re saving a lot of money there!)

My guess is that if you give the store a shot, you’ll turn into an evangelist, too.

Good luck in the giveaway and I can’t wait to hear what you think.

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Grocery Shopping & Meal Planning Strategies, Rule 1: Know Your Strengths

by Meagan Francis on November 12, 2012

Over the years, I’ve tried several different grocery-shopping and meal-planning strategies, with varying levels of success.

During my extremely cash-strapped years of early motherhood, I’d bounce from store to store, searching for deals, relying on double coupon days and stocking up on sale items to get us through lean times. I remember well a time when my weekly grocery budget for myself (pregnant), my husband, and my then-toddler son was exactly $47.50 (though I don’t remember how I came to that number, I suppose it was whatever was left over each month after paying the rent and utilities, divided by four!)

In those tough, tight years, I experimented with once-a-month-cooking, once-a-month-shopping, semi-extreme couponing, and many different combinations of beans and rice. And while some of these ideas worked out (yay for beans and rice!), others didn’t stand the test of time.

I think what I’ve learned is that in order for any grocery shopping or meal-planning strategy to work, it has to fit your particular personality and circumstances. For example, as a young at-home mom trying to feed a small family on an extremely limited budget, I had more way more time than money: not only was clipping coupons and driving from store to store necessary to stay within my budget, but I had the hours available to do it.

But now that I have a career, five kids and more money to spend, I find that I value my time a little differently than I did back then. If a register coupon seems like it’ll be useful to me, sure, I’ll stash it in my purse for the next visit. But I don’t go looking for circulars anymore. Likewise, while I shop at several different stores over the course of a month, I almost never drive around to multiple stores in one day and am often willing to pay a little more for a product I need that’s right in front of me than to drive across town to get it cheaper.

Neither approach is right or wrong; it’s just based on the reality I’m in at the moment.

Knowing yourself and what matters right now is valuable when it comes to cooking, too. For example, while I think once-a-month cooking is a fabulous idea in concept, for a habit-driven person like me, it’s a lot more effective to create a routine centered around a small amount of cooking every day than to try to do it marathon-style all in one weekend. (The same principle explains why I try to do a load of laundry every day, rather than letting it pile up and tackling it on the weekend; and why I would rather spend a few minutes packing lunches each day than 20 minutes packing a week’s worth on Sunday.)

It’s easy to let those blog posts demonstrating dirt-cheap coupon-fueled shopping hauls or pretty Pinterest pics featuring stacks of beautifully-labeled freezer meals get you down or make you feel inferior.

If that kind of shopping or cooking works with your current time constraints and budget concerns – and if it’s a good match for your time-management style – then by all means, go for it!

But if not, I think it’s a lot more valuable to focus on your strengths and tendencies and find ways to use them to stay in your budget and manage your dinner-prep time.

If you aren’t a planner, you might miss some opportunities to save money. But you can capitalize on a spontaneous nature by picking up that almost-too-ripe produce at a discount, knowing you can pinch-hit and figure out a way to use it tonight.

If you don’t have the patience to hit multiple stores in one afternoon, maybe try shopping at your “go-to” store three times a month and supplementing with the discount chain once a month (more on this strategy in a future post.)

If you find that bulk shopping leads to food waste, try implementing a “no-shopping” week where you plan only meals based on what you’ve got in the fridge, freezer or pantry.

And if you find that shopping every couple of weeks leads to a fridge so stuffed you forget what’s in it, see if smaller, more frequent shopping trips keep you on track – yes, even if they go against “conventional” frugality wisdom.

Don’t let the way you think you “should” be get in the way of making the most of who you really are.

Even time-strapped, spontaneous, out-of-sight-out-of-mind, grocery-shopping haters can save money at the supermarket and come up with a workable meal-planning strategy. But it all starts with understanding yourself.

Here are some questions to consider while you figure out what kind of strategy works best for you:

Are you the type of person who thrives on making a ‘big event’ of something? Or are you more likely to stick with a plan if you incorporate it into your life little by little, day by day?
Do you get a rush out of checklists, shopping circulars, and long shopping trips? Or do you start to shut down after about the thirty-minute mark, forgetting half the things on your list while filling in all the empty spaces in the cart with wine and chocolate?
Which of these statements is more true for you right now? When it comes to grocery shopping, “I have more time than money” or “I have more money than time”?
Do you have a dedicated shopping day? Do you tend to work grocery shopping in around other things, like driving kids to practice? Or are you most likely to put it off until the last minute, only running to the store in an emergency?
Do you enjoy grocery shopping? Or is it a huge chore?
When you get home after a trip to the store, do you immediately put everything away, possibly even prepping veggies and fruits and cleaning out the fridge at the same time? Or do you toss the perishables in the fridge and freezer and then flop on the sofa for a rest because you feel spent?

Remember, there are no “right or wrong” answers; no “good or bad”. It’s all about understanding yourself and giving up on some mythical idea of the “naturally” frugal or organized home cook. If you understand your strengths, tendencies, and financial and time needs, you can learn how to work with reality…instead of against it!

So, (if you need a permission slip),

I hereby excuse you from: coupon-clipping, freezer-stocking, bulk-shopping, or circular-studying.

If those things don’t excite you or just don’t work with your current circumstances, I promise you don’t need them in order to save money and/or get real food on the table. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be writing a lot about simplifying the whole meal-planning and grocery-shopping experience so it works for YOU – especially if you, like me, have struggled with making some of the typical budgeting and meal-planning advice work in your real life.

I can’t wait to delve into this topic – I have a feeling there are a lot of “us” out there!

PS: Speaking of saving money and meal planning, make sure to tune in this Wednesday for my podcast with Melissa d’Arabian, host of the Food Network’s “10 Dollar Dinners” and author of a brand-new book by the same name! I loved talking with Melissa because her advice is so sensible and realistic – and her book is chock-full of surprising tips and tidbits that can help you make the most of shopping and cooking…however YOU like to do it. I’ll also be sharing Melissa’s French Onion soup recipe tomorrow, so be sure to check back!

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