budget cooking {and grocery shopping}

{are y'all ready for a SUPER long post? apologies in advance.}

So a lot of y'all asked how in the world I went to the grocery store for 30 bucks ... I decided it might be a good idea to do a post dedicated to budget cooking & grocery shopping ... 

Now y'all my $30 trip was no easy task ... Mostly because I am SUCH convenience shopper, but I'm trying to change my ways ... So here we are. :) 

So the first thing that I did was stare at search my pantry, fridge and freezer for things that I had on hand. I'm not sure about y'all but I am TERRIBLE about not doing this before going to the store and I end up with a TON of multiples. 

If only mine was this organized ... 

After I figured out what I had, I started making a preliminary menu for the week (or in my case 2) then I started searching the sale circulars for local stores ... This was one of the most time-consuming parts of the day. 

After doing this, and altering my menu some ... I set out to do the ACTUAL shopping ... And y'all this consisted of going to THREE different stores! 

While shopping, I took $30 cash with me and resolved to NOT spend any more than this ... I really think that this helped to cut down on the impulse buys (magazines, snacks, sweets, sodas).

Now for some tips I found on the WWW: 

~ MAKE A LIST & STICK TO IT! This is probably the most important .. Impulse buys really add up. If you do your research on what's on sale, make a list & stick to it, you will save lots of dough in the checkout line!

~ Buy only produce that's in season. This means planning meals around what's actually in season, which isn't always easy but definitely less $$. I also buy a lot of frozen veggies because they have all the same nutritional values as fresh and none of the sodium that canned veggies have. 

~ Learn to use leftovers. I'm NOT fan of leftovers but over the past several months have become a lot better at 're-purposing' food. For example, I made grilled chicken one night and with the leftovers I made pulled BBQ chicken samis (one of our favs). 

~ Don't buy 'convenient' food. It seems so much easier to buy the already cut & washed veggies or an already cooked rotesserie chicken, but it's not always the cheapest route. It just takes a little extra time to do these things yourself and can save a lot of MOOOOOlah! 

~ Going meatless one day a week can really cut down on food costs too ... I don't mind this at all, but for my meat & potatoes guy ... not so much! So we don't usually follow this! :) 

~ Speaking of meatless, beans & eggs are great, inexpensive ways to get your protein in! 

Ok now for some REALLY tasty and REALLY inexpensive recipes! 

Butternut Squash Pizza

SlowCooker Pork Loin 

Pot Roast with Mashed Pots

Garden Pasta

Red Beans & Rice {love Hillbilly Housewife}

Turkey & Balsamic Onion Quesadilla

I hope this helps y'all! :) Sorry for the SUPER long post! 

Happy Saturday! xo!