How We Do Once-A-Month Grocery Shopping

 

I've mentioned here and there that in our family, we do once a month grocery shopping, and every time I mention it there is always someone asking me how exactly that works - well, here is my attempt to explain it!

Why We Shop Once A Month

First of all, why do we grocery shop once a month?  The short answer is that our family lives in a somewhat rural area, and this is one way we save money.  

1. It saves us money on gas.  

2. It saves money on impulse buys.  

3. It saves money on duplicate purchases.

Not only does shopping once a month save me money on the gas it would take to drive to the grocery store every week, but I find that with shopping once a month, I spend less money than if I tried to shop once a week.  Grocery shopping comes with the temptation for impulse buys, and so limiting my trips to the store cuts down on that temptation.  I also think that going once a month helps me keep track of what I actually have left in my pantry, so that I'm less likely to buy something that I actually already have at home.

I actually had once-a-month shopping modeled to me by my mom when I was growing up - we often went shopping just once a month, with short stops in between for perishables.  So it was natural to continue doing my shopping that way as an adult.  I have been once-a-month shopping since Derek and I were first married, though it has definitely become more challenging as we have added more mouths to feed.

Essentials For Once A Month Shopping

1. A deep freezer.  It is a definite advantage if you want to grocery shop just once a month to own a big deep freezer.  If we didn't have one, I don't think I'd be able to go a month between shopping trips.  We have had a deep freezer for our entire married life because we are a hunting family, and when we get something we need a big freezer to store our supply of meat for the whole year.  I use the deep freeze for more than meat though - I buy alot of fruits and vegetables in frozen form, and I freeze our bread until we need to use it.  I buy the big bags of cheese and freeze half of it until we need it.  

Another benefit we have - which is not an essential but is really helpful - is that we have a second fridge in our garage.  It's an old fridge that was left there when we moved into our house, and it still works great, so we use it for extra space for items that need to be refrigerated.  Not necessary at all, but it is an advantage we have for once-a-month shopping.  You could definitely shop once a month without two refrigerators though - I did for years.  A second freezer, on the other hand, is probably necessary if there are more than 2-3 people in your family.

2. A place to buy in bulk.  Since we shop once a month and have a larger family, buying in bulk is a must. We have a Sam's Club membership currently, and we get alot of our most-used items there - cheese, honey, eggs, apples, peanut butter, etc.  It saves us money, and I don't have to worry so much about running out of an item before the month is through since we are buying bigger quantities.

3. A place to store food.  It was alot harder to buy a month ahead at our old house because we didn't have a pantry and we had limited cupboard space in our kitchen.  I ended up storing alot of bulk items in our laundry room, which was not ideal, but it worked!  But you definitely need enough room to store the food - if you don't have the space, once a month shopping is probably not feasible.

How I Do It

After my confession on how I am not great at meal planning (I'm working on it), you are probably wondering how I manage to shop once a month if I don't plan out our meals.  Well, I do plan meals in a very general sense, just not specifically from week to week (that's where I struggle).  

At the beginning of the month I go through our pantry to see what we still have in there, and I start to form some ideas of what I could make over the next month using food I already have.  I usually can come up with a pretty good list of ideas this way, and then I start my grocery shopping list by filling in the ingredients that are not in my pantry.

Next, there are several items that I know we are going to need each month, regardless of what I end up making for dinner, so those go on the list.  Typically it's these items:

Basic Ingredient List

Frozen chicken

Cheese

Bread

Cereal

Oatmeal

Rice

Beans (canned or dry)

Noodles

Broth

Tortillas

Frozen Vegetables

Frozen Fruit

*Some Fresh Produce 

Peanut Butter

Honey

Sugar

Flour

Eggs

Butter

Olive Oil/Coconut Oil

Milk

Extras (for baked goods):

Nuts

Raisins

Craisins

Chocolate Chips

You can make alot of different types of things with basic ingredients like this, so I try to make sure we are stocked up on the basics.

I usually have a pretty good idea of how much each item is going to cost (at least I did, before inflation started messing me up), and so I start to calculate the price of all the basic things I need to get.  Then I know how much wiggle room I have for the things that add the "flavor" to the menu - specific spices I'll need, condiments, special types of noodles, or any other unique ingredients - which I buy in smaller quantities.

The Shopping

After I come up with a really good grocery list, I usually have to schedule out at least 6-8 hours to get the shopping done.  This is when I take one of the kids with me and we have a "mom day", with shopping a good lunch, and a small toy or treat.  It's a fun and practical way to get our one-on-one time in!  As I go through the store and check items off my list, I try to think about how much of each item we will need for the whole month - we typically end up with ten loaves of bread, for example, most of which will get put right into the freezer at home.  

I usually pick one non-perishable item each month to stock up on as well, and I'll buy two or three months worth of that item (for example, if it's noodles, I'll buy 20 extra boxes of noodles).  Stocking up here and there ensures that there is always something we could make out of basic ingredients when things start getting scarce at the end of the month, and it's also a comfort having a stock of some basics when supply chain issues and inflation start affecting things.

Then I take my ridiculously full cart to the checkout.  Is it a little embarrassing - yes!  But if any comments are made I just say I have five kids and only shop once a month, and that clears things up.

For transporting things home in my car, I usually bring the cooler and a huge freezer bag for the frozen items, to prevent them from thawing out while we finish our shopping.  If it's a really hot day, I'll buy a bag of ice as well to help keep things cool until we get home.

Storing The Food

As I mentioned, there are alot of items that we end up freezing each month.  

-All the meat that is purchased goes immediately into the freezer.

-Bulk bags of cheese are opened and separated into two freezer bags.  We put one into the fridge to use, and one in the freezer, ready to be pulled out when we need a fresh bag.  We also freeze extra blocks of cheese.  Freezing does make block cheese crumbly though so we don't freeze unless we have to.

-We freeze all loaves of bread and tortillas that are not going to be used right away.

-I freeze any fresh produce that is freezer-friendly and that I know we won't be using right away.  This is a fairly new practice for me. For example, this month I bought fresh ginger and celery in bulk, with the intention of chopping it up and freezing it for later use in soups and other recipes!

Aside from freezing, I also have started buying these five gallon buckets with gamma seal lids for my grains, and I want to get extra buckets to store flour and rice - it's just a safer way to store larger quantities of dry goods to ensure mice, moisture, or insects don't get into it!

Touch-Up Trips

Usually a couple times of month we make a very quick stop at the store for perishable items that won't last the whole month, like milk.  We may occasionally have a craving for a specific meal, or I might have missed something on my grocery shopping trip, and we'll buy ingredients for that specific meal.  But for the most part, we don't have to do a shopping trip until the beginning of the next month.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you do about produce?

This is definitely the question I am asked most often. As I mentioned, we do buy alot of vegetables and fruits frozen, or freeze certain things ourselves - for recipes that call for vegetables, such as soups or casseroles, I feel that frozen vegetables are easier to store and work just as well.  We use frozen berries for our cereals and yogurt, and frozen fruit for smoothies.  Frozen produce can keep in the freezer for quite a long time, and the affects to the nutritional value are negligible, so you are still getting most of the benefits of fresh fruits and veggies!

Other produce actually does keep quite well in the fridge.  For instance, we buy carrots, apples, onions, and oranges fresh and keep them in the fridge, and they easily last most of the month before looking a little wrinkly or old. Potatoes last really well just in our pantry.  I buy alot of peppers (bell peppers, jalapeños, etc), and they keep for around 2-3 weeks in the fridge.  

With produce that does not keep as well (tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.), if I bought them for a specific meal, I try to make that meal toward the beginning of the month rather than toward the end.  And for certain produce that we might like to have on hand, like bananas, I'll just buy some when we make our 2-3 milk stops during the month.

I will say that I live in a pretty dry climate, and that does help me when it comes to making produce last.  I imagine areas of higher humidity may be worse for produce longevity.

Do you plan out thirty meals at the beginning of each month?

No, ha! As I mentioned, I don't think I am good at meal planning on a weekly basis, much less a whole month.  What I do is think through the ingredients I have and come up with a list of possible meals for the whole month - sort of a list of options that I keep in the back of my mind.  It's usually a list of 10-15 meals that I could potentially make (because I know there will be leftovers, nights eating out, nights that we just wing it, etc).  Then I'll just make sure I have all the ingredients on hand for those meals (plus usually a few new recipes I want to try).

Maybe this is just us, but typically the meals we like to eat are different arrangements of alot of the same basic ingredients (see my basic ingredient list above).  If I have those on hand, I can make most things I want to make for the month, without having to plan out every detail.

I'd love to try this to save money, how should I start?

I haven't got this question put exactly this way, but I'm including it here to address how it could look to start shopping less often.  If you have a good amount of freezer/refrigerator space and are currently shopping once per week, you could start by stretching out your grocery shopping routine from one week to two weeks between, and see how it works for you.  If it goes well and you like it, you could move to three or four weeks next and see if you find it manageable or helpful!  

If you don't, that's fine too!  Shopping once a month won't work for every family.  It works for us because  (1) we live in a rural area about 40 minutes from the nearest big town, (2) we eat rather simply (no special diets for anyone in our family), and (3) we have a good amount of freezer space, and (4) I get particularly tempted to buy "extras" when I am in the store, so being in the store less is very helpful for our budget.  You may not have the same situation, benefits, or struggles that we do, but if you think shopping less often would help you, start slow until you find that sweet spot for your family!

If you have any other questions, drop them below and I'll follow up!  Or if you grocery shop once a month, I'd love to hear.  I feel like an aberration most of the time, since most people seem to shop once per week!