If you happen to be on a limited grocery budget (and “limited” looks differently depending on your situation…. let’s just say mine is definitely “limited”!), then you understand how difficult it can be to provide healthy whole foods for your family without dipping into the retirement fund. OK, maybe a slight exaggeration for most of us, but really, it can be very stressful to keep your grocery budget in the black when you’re working with limited funds.

There are a lot of money-saving tools for your grocery budget toolbox these days, and I believe all of them work well together and all deserve a mention on any frugal foodie blog. But there is one valuable tool in particular that doesn’t get a lot of press yet can be super effective in keeping your grocery spending under budget.

I’m talking about Once a Month Shopping (OAMS). Based on the almost-daily google searches that lead people to my blog, I’m guessing I’m not the only one curious about this method of grocery shopping, how it works, and how it saves money. For my regular readers, and for those who found me through Google (Hello! And welcome!), I want to take this opportunity to briefly describe how I do OAMS, and how it can save money in the long run.

Let me warn you before I get started: It takes a bit of discipline, and it requires more planning than even my previous carefully planned weekly shopping trips. In the end, though, I really believe it saves a lot of money… and time! As a busy WAHM with a toddler and infant, I can totally appreciate anything that saves me those precious commodities.

How to Get Started with OAMS

Just Jump In!

I suppose it would be wiser in some ways to actually spend a month noting and recording your family’s eating habits, so that you could start in on the process with that knowledge under your belt to guide your shopping decisions. And I think there are those whose temperament would really do well with more careful planning, and for them, I’d advise to go ahead and take some time to research before jumping in. For most, though, I think it’s better just to get started and learn as you go; you’ll figure out pretty quickly what your family eats and how much of certain items you need to buy to last a whole month.

To reiterate this point, I will mention that shortly after I was inspired to begin the whole OAMS process, I actually did sit down and come up with a whole list of the foods I thought my family would eat in one month, and the approximate cost, and I was so horrified by the total that I dropped the whole idea for several months. When I finally “jumped in” and just did it, I squeezed my eyes shut, held my breath… and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought.

So how do you “just jump in”? Easy! You’ll probably be coming off a pretty well-stocked pantry, fridge and freezer like I was, so the first month might even be the easiest. You start by making a list.

Make Your List Wisely

Go around your kitchen, including your pantry, fridge and freezer, and make a list that includes all the following:

• Foods you need that you are already out of
• Foods that you are almost out of
• Foods that you will run out of in the next few weeks AND you know you can’t live more than a day or two without them (chocolate chips are not included in this category. OK, in emergencies, they are.)

If you have access to previous meal plans, read through the meal plans to get an idea of what you ate on a regular basis to help you shape your list.

If your list is largely filled with the following food groups, you should have plenty of food to keep you going for a whole month:

• Meats (Fresh meat, as well as cured meats, like bacon and lunch meat)
• Produce (lots and lots of produce)
• Dairy (milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt)
• Baking supplies (flour, sugar, honey, butter, oil)
• Starches and grains (rice, pasta, oats, etc.)

If your list has a lot of snack foods, junk foods, or processed foods, those are not going to last long, and you will quickly find yourselves hungry.


Fit Your List to Your Budget

There are several parts to this, and depending on how aware you are of your grocery spending, will be more or less difficult than other aspects of OAMS. First of all, if you don’t have a firm monthly budget amount, figure that out right now. You may also need to consider which paycheck you should organize your big shopping trip around. For us, that’s the middle of the month.

Also, keep in mind that while the majority of your shopping is done in one big trip, you’ll need some money for weekly trips to stock up on perishables, essentials you missed in your OAMS, and any loss-leader major sales you can’t afford to skip. For us, that means we spend about 70% of our monthly grocery budget once a month, and spread out the remaining 30% over the remaining weeks (keeping in mind there are sometimes 4 and sometimes 3 remaining weeks before the next big trip).

Once you know how much you can spend, then you need to know how much things will cost. This you can learn as you go, if you don’t already have a firm idea of prices in your area. For the first month, though, just make an estimate of the prices (rounding off higher rather than lower so you’re not surprised in the end). Add up your total estimated cost, and if it’s more than you can spend, go back through your list and cross off anything you can afford to live without or do with less for now. Get rid of any non-essentials for now - if you have any money leftover after buying what is necessary, then, and only then, you can get the marshmallows or the graham crackers or the chips (although you shouldn’t).

Find the Best Price

If you don’t already have a price book - mental, digital, or black-and-white - start one as you go about your first monthly shopping. If you put off OAMS because you don’t have a price book, then you’ll never do it, because it will seem like such a daunting task. However, if you compile it as you go about your shopping, it will help shape your future trips, and you will learn much more about the foods you really want to know where the best price is.

Start looking at every single grocery store circular that comes through your mailbox or with your local paper. Even if you don’t normally go to that store, browse quickly through the ad and see if there are any deals or prices that catch your eye. If you see anything, add it to your list, go to that store to purchase those items, and while you’re at it, make note of their prices on items you buy a lot (milk, eggs, flour, etc.). I was surprised recently to find that a store I never went to very often has absolutely the best bottom dollar price on canned coconut milk, something I use all. the. time!

Don’t forget about the non-grocery stores. I always do some of my shopping at the Walmart Supercenter or Target, because their food prices are often (but not always) considerably cheaper even than grocery store sale prices. The downside is that they don’t double coupons, but even so, the price is often better than I can find elsewhere. Drug stores also always have certain food items on sale, although I’ve found they aren’t usually the healthiest offerings. And along the same lines, don’t forget about the specialty stores - sometimes local bakeries run specials that offer a better price on some baked goods (like really healthy freshly milled whole grain bread) than I can find anywhere, or even make myself. And some ethnic stores (Asian, in particular) often have great deals on certain items unique to their cuisine.

And don’t forget about the world wide web. Now that we live in such a virtual world, we can do our grocery shopping virtually, and I’m not talking about ordering at Safeway for home delivery. No, there’s a lot more variety than that! Amazon.com in particular, often has great deals on groceries, especially through their Subscribe & Save program. I almost always get my brown rice flour through Amazon.com, because they usually have a price that can’t be beat. I’ve also seen excellent prices there for coconut oil and other very healthy products. Also keep your eyes peeled for Groupon-type deals for local food sources… I’ve seen and taken advantage of daily deals for health foods stores, bakeries, organic suppliers and more in my area.

Now That You’ve Started, Keep it Up… and Keep Track of It!

No matter what, once you are done with your big monthly shop, purpose that you are not going to go back to the store except for that weekly replenishment of produce and any other absolute essentials. If you run out of something, make do or do without. You’ll be surprised by how creative you can be… and by how little you actually need what you thought you would die without. So you ran out of rice? OK, eat pasta instead. Or barley. Or that package of quinoa that has been languishing on the shelf for months.

Keep track of how much you spend on foods, and the prices you find as you go about your shopping. Use a spreadsheet or a notebook, but do keep track. That way, when you go to plan your next monthly trip, you’ll have a better idea of where the best prices are so you can shape your list accordingly. Every month, add to this list the new prices you find - I’m still adding to mine because it’s an ongoing, almost-never-ending process.

Also keep track of the food you actually eat. I don’t write this down anywhere, but I make a mental note of how often I have to re-supply certain foods. Some it’s more often, some it’s less. I’ve found that 6lbs of sugar can last over 2 months, but a 32oz container of honey will only last 1 month. I can stretch certain meat cuts into 2 meals, but some never go that far (my DH can plow through any cut of pork like it’s the last meal he’ll ever eat, so I can’t count on anything but a 4lb roast lasting longer than one meal!).

Plan a Menu

What really helps me live off the food I buy once a month is planning for it, and using the food I buy wisely. Posting my weekly menu plan here on my blog has been such a tremendous help to me - so much help that I seriously don’t mind if no one else ever even looks at it but me! (Although I’m always happy if someone finds something useful on my blog.)

Part of using the food I buy wisely means allotting it carefully, so we don’t eat it all up at once, leaving the cupboards bare for the rest of the month. To that end, I’ve come up with some guidelines when developing my weekly menu. In each week, I fix certain foods for only one meal so that I don’t use them all up right away. For example, a weekly meal plan will probably feature:

• one rice dish
• one pasta dish
• one potato dish
• one chicken meal plus one meal made from the leftover chicken
• one other meat-based meal
• one tuna based meal
• one breakfast meal
• etc.

Not only does this help me plan my menu, it helps keep our grocery consumption in check, a win-win!

Of course, there’s a lot more to OAMS than this, and I plan to visit the topic again as time allows. If you have any questions about my experience, please do ask, and I’ll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability!

Now I want to know about your grocery shopping habits! Do you shop once a month or once a week? Or just whenever you need food? Do you have a grocery budget?

Find the complete series here:
How to Make the Most of Your Grocery Budget Dollars: Just Jump In to OAMS!
Five Ways OAMS Saves You Money
How the “Mini Trips” Work
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 1
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 2
Sample OAMS Trip

Hungry for more information about reducing your grocery budget? These tips and many many more can be found in my eBook, Your Grocery Budget Toolbox. It’s available in .PDF format, as well as Kindle and Nook, for only $7.99. Click here for more information.