Hi all, with the new year comes new goals, right? This year our family has decided to make some major adjustments to our budget. With those changes comes changes to our grocery costs. In this economy most people are having to raise their grocery budget and we, well we will be drastically cutting out grocery costs.

I’m not sure how it will go, but with the goals we have as a family something has to be cut. Grocery cost is one of the areas that I think I can work harder at and save us money. So what does that mean?

Well for us that means we are cutting out the store bought junk food (not all of it) but we will be quite picky in what we choose to purchase. If we buy something it will definitely be on sale, with coupons and hopefully a rebate available as well. We won’t be buying fruit snacks anymore. With 2 kids in braces and another that tends to get cavities very easily we have decided that fruit snacks can be cut from our budget. And to be perfectly honest they really aren’t good for our bodies anyway.

We also won’t be buying candy (except for special occasions such as holidays), cakes, cookies and brownies, etc. It doesn’t mean we won’t eat those things it just means we will be making them from scratch instead. This will help us to know that we really want the item versus just grabbing and eating it because it’s there. If we have to make it ourselves I think we will be choosier on what we eat.

I have made a food inventory of everything we have in our house (including household products, health and beauty, and even medications). This was an absolute eye opener of how much we actually have. It’s easy to say “there’s nothing to eat in the house”, but truly there is so very much. We have been blessed and it’s not fair of us to waste any of it. We are going to practice being good stewards over the blessings God has provided to us.

With this food inventory I have a paper copy and a spreadsheet I can open on my phone if I’m at the store and need to double check if we need something. I’m not sure how this will go and how I’ll keep up with it, but I’m going to try.

Now that I have a food inventory it should be easier to menu plan with what we have in the house and only buying the necessities for meals. I will also keep an eye open for clearance meats, and pantry items that may be on stock up sale prices that may have coupons and rebates to pair with it.

Hopefully, this will help cut out all the impulse shopping that we tend to do. Plus it will help to clean out the freezer and cupboards of food that has been long since been forgotten. It’s not bad food, just been sitting waiting to be used.

So tell me what are you going to do to help yourself this year?