I hope everyone is doing well and beginning to start return to some normal activities. Depending on where you live that may differ from state to state. I myself am very grateful to see this pandemic easing a bit. I live in NJ so the opportunity for any relief is welcomed. One of the areas I am hoping to get back to normal is my food budget. My food budget has been out of control during the last three months. I have offset that both mentally and monetarily knowing I was saving money on our eating out budget, gas budget and kids activities but that doesn’t mean I want to continue to spend crazy amounts of money on food. But looking back there were four main areas I see that caused my food budget to blow up.

1. In the beginning of March, with the concerns about the unknown circumstances we were going to be living in, we shopped WAY more that we ever have. By the third week in March we had already tripled our monthly grocery budget

2. I usually shop the grocery sale circulars. I see what is on sale, match my coupons to those items where I can and go from there. We were not able to do that at all over the last few months. I had to limit my shopping to one store based on the amount of inventory. Most stores had limited sale circulars if any and coupons were scarce.

3. My husband saw the impact of this pandemic way before I did. He, who usually does not grocery shop very often, was on fire. He contributed to our early grocery stock up in March with several shopping trips. He also has continued to online shop over the last months at Walmart.com, Ebay, Amazon and Omaha Steaks. He didn’t take time to take a very good inventory or meal plan either.

4. As I said in my last Youtube video, I had not been to a grocery store since mid-March and still haven’t been. Any grocery shopping I have done has been online and from local farms via curbside pickup. Prices were higher. There was no price comparisons going on. Plus substitutions were made for out of stock items which in most cases cost more.

But I am ready to take control back!

Here are 6 things I plan on doing to get our budget back on track

1. I am going to start physically going back into stores myself. I will maintain all social distancing practices and wear appropriate face coverings. But inventories are better and I need to purchase some items that no online shopping has been able to get for me .

2. To maximize your savings, it is important that you buy what is seasonally on sale. If you are interested in more specifics on seasonal items see my blog post about what I but in the month of August.

3. I am going to try and stack coupons with store sales by utilizing store circulars to maximize savings. Looking for coupons? Look at my links for printable ones on the top of this page. Also, check some of my previous posts for coupons on make-up and beauty supplies, pet items and allergy care.

4. I am going to limit my online shopping to those items which are truly good deals. No more panic shopping.

5. I am going to slowly start to rebuild our stockpile. We were fortunate to have a stockpile of groceries before March (see video for some tours) and then really beefed it up in the beginning of March. Now by using coupons and stacking them with store sales where possible as well as buying seasonal sale items, we can sensibly begin to rebuild our stockpile.

6. I am really hoping to start and use my grocery apps again which really help save me money. Ibotta, Checkout 51, Saving Star, Shopkicks and Fetch Rewards are my go to’s and really impact my grocery savings.

7. Lastly, DO NOT head to the grocery store without a plan! Have your list in hand. Need a head start? Grab this grocery list FREEBIE!

Want to see some of my stockpile?

This post contains affiliate links but all opinions are my own.