I wish I could alleviate what inflation is doing to
our grocery bills, and even I, a seasoned savvy shopper and meal planner feel
frustrated at the high costs of things these days! But what I can control in the face of high prices
is how my household plans for, cooks,
and utilizes what we spend our money on. That’s truly the ticket to maintaining
control over our grocery budget.
So
how can we do this? The philosophy I live by revolves around the concept of
“cycling” when it comes to meal planning, shopping, and eating. It may just be
a term I coined, but it is the heartbeat of how my kitchen runs and how I can
control what we spend, save, and waste. Simply put, grocery cycling means that
you meal plan thoroughly for a certain amount of time, shop for that period,
and then, most importantly, commit to “eating through” what you have in the
house until the next “cycle” begins without cheating. Within that cycle, you
can be flexible and move meals around, and you can certainly go out to eat if
you want, but you stay committed to not shopping again at all until the next
cycle begins.
Here
are a few benefits of meal plan/grocery shopping cycling:
· Shopping
less frequently is more time efficient. By going to the store as infrequently
as possible, you are saving all that time you spend running to grab something
every other day. Infrequent shopping need not equate with rigidity; you’ll
still have plenty!
· Even
though it may seem like you spend more at once, you are actually saving money
in the long run by committing to a cycle-shop because you are reducing the
impulse purchases and utilizing what’s at home.
· You
avoid lots of food waste (which is also like throwing money in the trash) by
committing to eating up what you’ve already bought and making do with what you
have. It can force creativity and increase gratitude, yet if you’ve shopped
correctly, you won’t feel deprived at all.
· You
develop recognizable patterns and predictable behavior around food and eating
habits when you get used to cycling, and that makes it easier to meal plan in
the long run. For instance, it becomes easier to know when your family needs a
certain item or is likely to run out of a snack when you have this type of
reliable system in place. This also helps you figure out what quantities to
get, which ultimately will save you from overbuying and overspending.
Finally, cycling relies
upon and hones your organization. Who doesn’t want that? Life is busy and often
unpredictable, but the very act of meal planning for a stretch of time and
utilizing food from that plan actually makes it easier to be flexible when life throws curveballs. All successful
businesses are so because of having systems in place, and your kitchen is no
different. Try it out!
