I’m linking up with Molly from StillBeingMolly.com and Carly from LipglossandCrayons.com for Funday Monday!

*Josh and I are moved into our new house and we couldn’t be more excited! I promise I will be back to posting a couple of times a week and will be sure to give you an update (with pics) about the house ASAP!

When you’re living at home or being supported by your parents there are so many different things that one can take for granted.

The fact that there is always toilet paper in the house. The fact that when you go to do laundry (hopefully you’re doing your own laundry, because if you’re over the age of 10 you should be equipped enough to do your own laundry), there’s laundry detergent and fabric softener. The fact that there’s a cabinet full of various medications to soothe aching heads, runny noses, and scraped knees (because you fell walking in your heels down the stairs). The fact that when you open the fridge or pantry there’s (normally) something at least close to edible in there, or the fact that dinner will be served at 6:30pm, regardless of what time you get home from wherever. And the biggest thing we take for granted is the source of all of those other things—someone is doing the grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping is one of those things, similar to house hunting, which makes you feel pretty cool when you start out. You’re at college, on your own for the first time! You can buy literally whatever you want and no one is there to say no. You can fill your cart with Diet coke, powdered donuts, chips, Oreos, peanut butter, brownie mix and frosting, Greek yogurt and maybe even some fruit, because after all you are on kind of a diet—I mean Spring Break will be here before you know it. Toss some Lean Cuisines and some Ramen noodles in there and I mean, that’s grocery shopping. Ever wonder why the food tastes SOOO good when you come home for break? Yeah, it’s because Mom is usually a little pickier when it comes to what goes into her cart.

That may have worked in undergrad because you were probably a stone’s throw from a Moe’s, Chick Fil A, that hibachi restaurant that has BOGO sushi rolls, or the Mexican place that had $4 fishbowl margaritas and $1 tacos on Tuesdays and Fridays. Or was that just me?

Anyway, when you get married or move out on your own, and you can’t rely on that money from Mom and Dad every month to buy food, you need to get a little thriftier. Plus you probably no longer have access to a free gym that was included in your tuition AND you’re working 8-5 so you’re probably too tired to run 12 miles like you used to anyway.

One of the more tedious aspects of being a wife and grownup is grocery shopping. Unlike when you were in college, you really need to have an idea about what you’re going to buy and how you’re going to use it/make it last the whole week before you walk through those doors.

When we were first married, we spent a RIDICULOUS amount of money on groceries—like $400 for TWO people. Granted that was only $100 a week, but that was on top of the $150-$200 we spent on going out to eat. So we would spend around $600 per month on food. I love to cook and wanted to make a different meal every night with all fresh ingredients and that adds up. I needed to think smarter about what we were eating, the ingredients I was using, and making better use of leftovers.

So every month, we would set our grocery and dining out budgets based on our total monthly budget and what we spent the previous month.  On Saturday I would start meal planning for the week by taking a look at our schedules, what we already had in the pantry/freezer, what was on sale at the grocery store, and the recipes I wanted to try out that week. I used a template, like this one, to plan the meals*.

A typical weekly menu looked like this:

• Sunday- Italian Drunken Noodles
• Monday- Fish Tacos
• Tuesday-Leftovers
• Wednesday- Tomato and Basil Bisque with Grilled Cheese
• Thursday-Leftovers or Breakfast
• Friday-Out to Eat or homemade pizza
• Saturday-Leftovers

* I posted a meal planning post here

Once I had an idea of what I was going to cook for dinner, I looked through the pantry and freezer to check for recipe ingredients. Whatever we didn’t have, I wrote down on our list. Then I took stock of what basics we needed, like milk, cereal, bread, eggs, toilet paper and paper towels. I asked Josh what he needed for lunches—normally deli meat and cheese, yogurt, fruit, and granola bars—and added those the list. And after looking at what was on sale at the store, I would add items like ice cream or English muffins or bagels—things we didn’t necessarily need but we would eat.

Once I had my complete list, I did something that is incredibly OCD but I think saved us a lot of time—I put my list in order by the aisles we would go through at the store. All the produce went first, then anything from the bakery or deli, then fish and meats, then cereal, etc. until we hit the last aisle which was bread and dairy. If you were wondering why I was so excited about the grocery store map from this post, I’m sure it’s sinking in for you now.

Be conscious of what you’re buying—are you going to use it before it goes bad and do you really need it? Sticking to your shopping list will help you stick to your budget and keep you from being surprised at check out.

I hope this helps you tackle the monster that is grocery shopping. It’s a chore that we all have to do, but it doesn’t have to be unending and unbearable if you’ve prepared ahead of time.

–Mrs. Dominico

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