What area of your monthly budget is the hardest for you to keep?  For us, it’s always been groceries.  For most of my adult life, I’d set a grocery budget….totally overspend, and just accepted that as life and do it all over again the next month.  Then I became a SAHM…and staying within the confines of our grocery budget became a little more important to our 1 income family.  Our grocery budget is $300 a month, and staying under that isn’t always easy.  And let’s be honest: some months I still overspend.  But I’ve learned a few tricks, and developed some habits that keep me in that $300 range.  However, there is 1 grocery trick that saves me over $50 a month.

I wish I had some fancy way to say it, but basically….

Do it Yourself.

What do I mean by that?  It pretty much comes down to instead of buying “pre-packaged” or “pre-cut” or “individually packaged” food, just spend a few minutes at home doing it yourself.  It takes 5 minutes, and can save you over $50 a month.  Let’s take a look at my own list of items that I buy weekly (prices are from our local grocery store, HEB).

1. Cheese

Cut your own cheese sticks from a cheese block.

Savings: $4/month

• Cheese sticks (9 oz): $2.99
• Cheese block (8 oz): $1.99
• That’s only $1 saved each week, but at the end of the month that adds up to $4.

2. Fruit

Y’all…I know it’s convenient-but if you are buying cut fruit instead of cutting it yourself, you are wasting so much money!  Buy whole fruit, and cut it yourself at home.

Savings: $20/month or more!

• Cut pineapple: $4.98
• Whole pineapple: $2.98
• If you’re buying pineapple weekly, that’s $8 in savings at the end of the month.  This pineapple corer makes cutting your own pineapple SO easy!

• Cut watermelon: $7.98!!!!! (nooooooo!)
• Whole watermelon: $3.87
• Again-if this is a weekly expense, you could save $16 at the end of the month just by buying whole!  This watermelon slicer is a life saver!

3. Oatmeal

Those little packs of oatmeal are convenient.  And let’s be real, they’re dang good too!  But is it really that much more convenient than scooping oatmeal out of a large canister…?

Savings: $6/month

• Oatmeal packs (10 oz-10 packs): $2.32/twice a month
• Large oatmeal (42 oz): $3.28/once a month
• That’s about $6 saved at the end of the month.

4. Individually packaged snacks

You know what I’m talking about: little packages of goldfish, chips, almonds….you name it.  Yeah, these are great to throw in a lunch box or munch on during a road trip.  But you can also buy the bigger package and spend less than 5 minutes making little Ziploc packages yourself.

Savings: $12/month

• Individual goldfish packs (9 oz): $4.98
• Single bag of goldfish (7 oz): $1.72
• This is a weekly expense for us, and it saves me $12 a month just by putting them in baggies myself.

5. Coffee

This is a big one.  I love my Keurig-and I love the ease of making just a single cup of coffee.  But guys…K-cups are expensive.  Whenever I spot a sale on K-cups, I stock up!  But the rest of the time, I buy ground coffee and fill up my own K-cups using these nifty little things.  It takes, what? 10 seconds to scoop some coffee in there?  I think I can handle that.

Savings: $14/month

• K-cups (5 oz-or 12 pods): $6.49/weekly (especially if you have 2 adults drinking coffee daily)
• Ground coffee (12 oz): $6.74/twice a month
• That’s $14/month you save by scooping your own coffee

$56 in Savings

If you’re doing the math, that’s about how much I save on average each month by just doing a little bit myself.  Sometimes that number is even higher, depending on what other items I’m swapping.  If you’re struggling with your grocery budget, give it a try!  Think of it as someone paying you $50 to do something so minimal.  I don’t know about you, but I can think of alot of things to do with $50!

What are ways you save at the grocery store?  Big or small! Leave us your tips below!