8 TIPS ON HOW TO SAVE TIME & MONEY ON GROCERIES

 As a working mom, I really struggle in managing my time; from taking care of my family to handling my career and work commitments.  So I put an extra effort in budgeting my time and money as well in every task that I do, and one of them is grocery shopping.  Here are my tips that I'm practicing and learned to save our precious time and hard-earned money when grocery shopping:

1. Set a budget for grocery shopping

    We can really save money if we seriously set a budget in all our expenses, and grocery shopping on a budget is the best way to start.  But before I create our family's grocery budget, me and my husband create first our monthly budget for our finances as a whole.  We track our monthly expenditures so we know where our money is going each month.

2. Have a weekly meal planner

    Planning our meals in advance is very important.  I make sure that we know exactly what we’re going to eat for the week and I usually ask my family on their preferred food before I go shopping.  This helps me to reduce the chances of going over our budget and encourages me to get creative with the types of meals I will create for a week.

    When choosing the meals that we want for the week, I pick simple, yet healthy, recipes that we love and that will only require few ingredients.  I also look for recipes that share some of the same ingredients, because choosing complicated recipes can easily absorb the entire week's budget for the reason that it will require more ingredients.

3. Create a grocery list

4. Organize your fridge and pantry

5. Don't shop when you're hungry and tired

6. Shop around and compare prices

7. Track your expenses while you shop

8. Pay for your groceries in cash