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You're on this budget and you're doing well sticking to it, until you go to the grocery store. Even though you try to stick to your budget, it's so hard with groceries being as expense as they are. Sometimes just buying the basic foods can knock you completely off your budget. Don't even think about buying the extras, like all the really good things we like to eat. This can definitely kill your budget. You find yourself going to the store every week to buy groceries because you continously run out of food. You're not buying enough groceries to last all week and you keep going over your budget on what you do buy. How do you keep and have groceries without going off your budget?
The first thing is to get yourself into the habit of going to the store once a month. Going to the store every week will definitely keep you from staying on a budget. Spending a little money every week can get away from you quickly. It's hard to keep track and maintain your money that way when you spend it weekly. Pick a day out of the month to do your major grocery shopping for the entire month. Buy all your basic items then and try to buy in bulks. You might think this will be more expense buying for the whole month at one time, but it's not if you buy your groceries this way. First of course cut out and use coupons. You can save a lot of money by using coupons. But besides using coupons, the best way to save money and allow you to set up a food budget and stick to it is to shop at several different stores.
Whatever day you decide is going to be your day to go grocery shopping, make it an all day event. Gather all the different grocery ads from each store and make your grocery list from that. By checking out several different stores you most likely will find something you will need from each one of them on sale or cheaper. This will allow you to get more groceries from spending less money. Also you can get some of those extra goodies that we usually do without since most of our money go toward the basic food items we need. How we get off our budget and can't stay on one is when we go to one store and buy everything from there. Whatever you need when you are at that store you buy it from there whether it's on sale or not. Which means no matter how expense it is at that particular store you are not saving money when you can go to other stores and get it cheaper or on sale. Using several different stores you will get more for less money and this will allow you to stay on your budget and get more groceries at the same time.
Yes going to several stores at one time can be a hassle, but it will be worth it. Make that day a fun day by getting with a friend to be your grocery partner. Pick a day where the both of you can meet up and spend the day grocery shopping together. To get what you want you might have to go to three or four stores, but it can be a fun day with someone else doing it with you. Swap out coupons with each other and make a whole day of it. You will be able to stick to your budget, have plenty of food and a happy family to go along with it.
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