Welcome back to the grocery budget series I am in the middle of writing.  In this series, I will share the top 20 ways that I can think of that our large family uses to keep the grocery budget from getting out of line.  To learn more, visit our introduction.

We shop once a month. For non-perishable items, we shop one time per month.  If I run out of something unexpectedly, or realize I missed an ingredient I need for a recipe, I run to the local store – but only if I *need* it.  I try to find a different recipe or a substitution that will work because once we have shopped for the month, our grocery budget is gone.  We may run to the local grocery store once a week for milk (if our goats aren’t producing) but I try to plan our meals in such a way that we use fresh produce in the order that it goes bad (or, as it’s ripe from the garden), so really the only item we need to buy weekly is milk.   Sometimes I try to avoid that if we can buy using canned milk, and I also try keep milk on hand in the freezer, whether it is from our goats or a sale at the store.

Shopping once a month keeps us out of the stores where it is so easy to find something else we “need.”  While it’s very easy for me to say no, my husband is a little less strict with himself and we can quickly spend extra money at the store.