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[quote=Anonymous]Look at the stores you regularly shop at and set a weekly or biweekly budget per store. Also give yourself a hard limit of how often you go.  For example, I allow myself one Costco trip every two weeks, one Wegmans trip per week, and one Aldi trip per week. If I run out of food early, then it’s scrape the pantry time. This encourages better meal planning and is much easier to manage than having a monthly bucket of food money.

It can also be helpful to separate out the meat budget, if that’s a source of heavy spending for you. I like having a weekdays target for meat costs and a separate weekend target to allow for roasts/grilling.

Consider breaking out snack food costs into per serving increments. Do your kids need individual Himalayan Salted popcorn bags from the warehouse store at $.80 per, or would they be just as happy with a baggy of homemade Cheerio/pretzel stick/mini marshmallows trail mix at ten cents a serving.

Stick to buying produce in season and on sale, and don’t overlook the frozen stuff. Wegmans sells very good quality frozen veg at a dollar a pound. Always give store brand a try at least once. Most stores will have a satisfaction guarantee, so you’re not out any money if you end up not liking something.

Know what your staples are and find out where they’re cheapest. Plan so you only buy those things at the lowest prices. For example,  no one is cheaper for eggs and milk and frozen veg right now than Wegmans. Costco is cheapest for lunch meat, block cheese and rice. Aldi is cheapest for seasonal produce, sliced and grated cheese, yogurt and snacks. [/quote]

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