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Showing posts with label Tips And How-To's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips And How-To's. Show all posts
Our family has never paid more than $200 per person per month for groceries, and we are often well under that amount. Whenever I mention that to people, I get questions about how we manage to spend so little on groceries each month. In this post I am going to give you all my tips and tricks for saving money on groceries. If you aren’t doing any of these currently and start applying them all, I feel pretty confident in saying you will save money!
However, I am very aware that each family is going to have their own unique dietary circumstances. Regional grocery prices vary, and that also plays a role. Each family also has family advantages and preferences that are going to play into the grocery budget.
For example, our family has a deep trunk-style freezer and an ancient extra fridge in the garage that allow us to buy in bulk, and you might not have that (though I feel strongly that deep freezers are a good investment). Our family has five kids but only one of them is a teenager so far. We might tick up our grocery budget as more of our kids reach the bottomless-pit stage. Our family also buys very little red meat because we hunt for our meat, and that’s cheaper. If I had to buy red meat, I’d tick up our total grocery budget by another $100 a month or so.
Still, I do very much believe that if you apply these strategies faithfully, you will save a noticeable amount of money, regardless of what other restrictions you might be working with.
Let’s Make An Agreement…
Before we start, I just want us to all understand that saving money on groceries is all about choices and trade-offs.
There are some challenges we all face in grocery shopping that are outside our control, but there is a lot that we can control. As you read, you will be evaluating your own values and deciding where you are willing to spend extra money and where you want to try to save. If you decide to spend where I would save, it’s not that one of us is right and one is wrong. These are just the choices we are making for ourselves and our families, and it’s okay if they are different.
For example, our family chooses to not buy organic. If it’s important to you to buy everything organic, you are going to spend more money than me. That’s just the way it is. Each of us are making choices about how we choose to spend our money, and neither one is inherently better than the other. If we are both comfortable with the trade-offs we are making, we can just set the moralizing aside and focus on the money-saving strategies! This is a no-judgement zone from me, and I would like it to remain a no-judgement zone in the comments as well. Agreed?
Ways To Save Money On Groceries
I’m going to cover basic strategies in this section - some of them so basic the average reader may roll their eyes, but I want to cover everything. Some of these points will be expanded into additional articles, but alot of them you could apply right away. Find a couple that you aren’t already doing and try to implement them, remembering that it takes a while to build or change a habit.
1. Buy Generic Brands
It is truly amazing the price difference between brand-name and generic brands, and this is across the board. I’ve compiled the price of basic old-fashioned oats for you as an example:
Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $3.69 at King Soopers
Kroger Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $2.79 at King Soopers
That’s almost a dollar you could save on just one item at King Soopers by buying generic, and that’s not even taking into account current coupons which could reduce the generic brand cost further. If you can save an average of a dollar per item buy buying generic, that could add up to a significant amount of savings.
And I’ll tell you a little secret - the generic brand is almost always the exact same thing as brand name. Sometimes the generic brands are even packaged in the same factories as brand-name items!
There are occasional items where you may find that the brand name is cheaper, and if so, go for it.
There may be items where the generic and brand name products are noticeably different, and you may sometimes prefer the brand name product over the generic version. I would encourage you to see if you can change your tastes to accept the generic version. Give the generic a few months and see if you still care about the difference. If you really decide that the brand name is worth the extra cost to you for certain items, go with peace and buy that brand name. At least you have weighed the options and are making conscious decision instead of letting brand names be the default.
How I Do It: I almost never buy the brand name version of anything, unless there is no generic version, or unless I notice the brand name is on sale and happens to be cheaper. My Exceptions: Oreos, Malt-O-Meal Mini Spooners (semi-generic), and laundry detergent.
2. Shop At Cheaper Grocery Stores
Not all grocery stores are created equal, and if you want to save money on groceries, you need to put aside your prejudices and choose your grocery store based on average prices.
Sometimes the price at a less expensive grocery store may be better than even a sale price elsewhere. Let’s look at our oatmeal example from the last section, shall we? Here I’ll compare generic prices at three different stores:
Walmart Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $2.66
King Soopers Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $2.79
Target Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $2.89
Safeway Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz. - $3.49
You’ll notice that Walmart is at least 13 cents cheaper than the next option, a whole 83 cents cheaper than if you bought the same item at Safeway!
You may think these differences are petty, but I assure you, across the fifty different items you might buy in one grocery trip, a few cents here and there does add up to a decent amount of savings. Let’s compare eggs, for another example:
King Soopers Eggs - $2.79/dozen
Walmart Eggs - $1.97/dozen
Now, depending on where you live, you may hav more limited grocery store options, but I would encourage you to expand your travel for groceries if it would make a difference. You don’t have to shop at the grocery store closest to you. You can combine trips to make driving for groceries more economical.
How I Do It: I live in a rural community, and technically my closest grocery store is Safeway. But I don’t shop there. I pick up groceries another 25 minutes down the road at Walmart whenever I happen to be headed to town anyway. I buy almost everything at Walmart and Sam’s Club, which I find to be the cheapest grocery stores within an hour of me. There is a King Soopers and Dollar General a little closer if I need to make a quick stop for 1 ingredient, but I would never do a full shopping trip at those stores.
As an aside, I’ve had many people comment to me how they can’t stand the environment of Walmart. They want a nicergrocery shopping experience. If that’s your choice, that’s fine; remember, everything here is about trade-offs. If you want to pay more for a better experience, that’s your choice, just be aware there are cheaper options out there.
3. Cost Per Ounce Matters
Remember, saving money on groceries often comes down to cents, which adds up to dollars. The reason we buy generic is because of the savings of cents per ounce. But we can also save per ounce by buying in bulk.
Let’s compare oatmeal again (we will use King Soopers to make the point here):
Kroger Old-Fashioned Oats, 18 oz - $2.79 (15 cents/oz.)
Kroger Old-Fashioned Oats, 42 oz. - $4.49 (11 cents/oz.)
Quaker’s Old-Fashioned Oats, 160 oz. - $7.98 (5 cents/oz.)
As you can see, it is much less expensive to buy even the name-brand oats if I buy it in bulk! But even if I don’t buy in bulk, I save almost a third of the cost if I buy the larger size at King Soopers.
If it’s an item that you know you eat alot of, or if it’s a shelf-stable item, see how many cents per ounce you can save by buying a larger size. Think in percentages instead of cents if it helps you quantify the savings. If I buy oatmeal at Sam’s, I am getting 66% off the regular, non-bulk price at King Soopers. If you do this for multiple items, it actually adds up to alot of savings by the end of the month!
How I Do It: Unless I am a couple days until pay day and trying to keep the actual dollar amount low, I always check the price-per-ounce and buy according to that. I may spend more for one grocery trip, but I will save in the long term.
That leads me to my next point…
4. Buy In Bulk (When It Makes Sense)
I just showed you how much you can save by buying in bulk with oatmeal. Let’s try comparing a few more items.
505 Green Chili - $3.92 each (at Walmart)
505 Green Chili - $3.33 each (3-pack at Sam’s)
Peanut Butter - 12.1 cents/oz. (at Walmart)
Peanut Butter - 10 cents/oz. (at Sam’s)
Frozen Chicken Breasts - $2.98/lb. (at Walmart)
Frozen Chick Breasts - $2.70/lb. (at Sam’s)
Hummus - 27.2 cents/oz. (at Walmart)
Hummus - 14 cents/oz. (at Sam’s)
Some of these differences might not seem like much, only a few dollars here and there. But remember, if we do this for as many items as we reasonably can, the savings do add up at the end of the month.
Now, there are occasions when buying in bulk may not be less expensive, so back to our earlier point, always check price per ounce!
Some other times it may not make sense to buy in bulk are when you know you will only use a small amount of an ingredient, when you are buying things that will go bad quickly, when you are working with limited fridge space, or when there is a very negligible difference in the bulk price (less than a cent per ounce).
How I Do It: I check to see if there is a bulk option whenever it makes sense, and it’s almost always at least a little cheaper - and sometimes, as in the case of the oatmeal, it’s a significant percentage off. I pay for the Sam’s Club premium membership, which gives you cash back for every purchase you make, which you can then apply toward paying the membership fees whenever they come due - so I only end up paying $40-60 dollars each year ($5 or less per month). The savings from buying in bulk do outweigh that small fee in the end.
5. Think In Terms Of Price Per Meal
When you are planning out meals, I recommend thinking of how much a particular meal is going to cost per person.
For instance, I can feed everyone in my family spaghetti and meatballs for about a dollar per person. That’s a great, cheap meal, and we eat it a few times per month! On the other hand, I’ve calculated all the ingredients for something like lasagna, and it comes out to about $4.20 per person, four times as much. If we ate meals at that price every time I cooked dinner, we’d be spending much more on groceries each month. I save those more expensive meals for special days, or limit them to once a week.
Another thing you can do is think of ingredient substitutes or similar meals you could do for less. For example, spaghetti pie is a meal that tastes very similar to lasagna, and it uses similar ingredients - but because it uses cheaper meat and less cheese, it only costs about $1.70 per person.
How I Do It: I aim for the majority of our dinners to fall between $1-2 per person. Lunches and breakfasts typically cost less than that because of buying in bulk.
6. Try To Limit Pre-Made Items
In general, it’s going to be cheaper to purchase ingredients and make your own items than to buy pre-made foods. This is especially true for pre-made/frozen meals and baked goods.
For example, I can make a loaf of sourdough bread for literally a few dimes worth of flour and salt (as opposed to buying a loaf for $3-5)! I could make up to two dozen cookies for around $3 worth of ingredients. Even the one frozen meal I do buy often - frozen pizza - I probably could make for less from scratch than if I bought it pre-made.
I’m not saying there is no place for pre-made meals, because there definitely is. It would take alot of time to make pizza from scratch, and we usually eat pizza as a last-minute decision when we have a movie night, so I’m willing to pay for convenience sometimes. But if I paid for convenience all the time, that could really add up. We try to make things ourselves as much as possible. It usually tastes better than store-bought, and it saves money.
How I Do It: I stock my pantry with ingredients, instead of fully made items.
7. Shop Online And Do Grocery Pickup
We truly live in an interesting time, and one of the perks of living in 2025 is that we have the option to have someone else do the shopping legwork for us. I can’t tell you how much time this saves!
The money-saving ramifications might not be immediately obvious, but it does end up saving money in multiple ways as well. Here are the benefits:
-I can schedule pickups around times I am already going to be near the grocery store, which saves me gas money.
-I can check my pantry to see what I already have before checking out online - so if I already have it, I don’t accidentally re-buy it.
-I can check multiple grocery stores for each item to make sure I’m getting the best price - for instance, I was about to check out with my 5 dozen eggs at Sam’s, but I checked Walmart and saw they have 5 dozen eggs for a dollar less. That’s a dollar saved!
-I have time to sit and consider my grocery total before checking out, and I can contemplate what items I could eliminate or swap out to stay within my budget.
The only drawback in shopping this way is that it provides less opportunity to model smart shopping habits for my kids, which is something they would get more if I took them with me to the store. I am thinking of remedying this by picking one kid per month to sit next to me at the computer and walk through my process.
How I Do It: I mostly shop at Walmart and Sam’s. At the beginning of each month I take my time crafting a grocery order and schedule it for pickup when I will already be going to town. Walmart has free grocery pickups after a certain dollar limit, and Sam’s has free pickups if you have the premium membership (which is more cost-effective because of the money-back deal I mentioned above).
8. Shop Only Once Per Month
This is a strategy I use that I know saves me a decent amount of money each month.
The reasons why may not apply to everyone, but what I find is that whenever I make a trip to the grocery store (or place a grocery order), I always end up spending more than I originally intended. I might be hungry when I’m ordering and add a few more treats than I planned. Maybe I’ll think of a certain (more expensive) shampoo I wanted to try, and I end up adding it. I might think of something that’s running low; maybe I could wait to buy it until next month, but because I’m shopping and thinking about it right now, I go ahead and buy it.
These incidental or impulse purchases can really run my total up, and once I’ve thought of buying something it can sometimes be hard to talk myself out of buying it. And this happens every time I go to the grocery store. By limiting my trips to the grocery store each month, I limit my opportunities for impulse purchases, and thus save money.
How I Do It: I always get questions about this when I mention it, so I will be devoting a whole other post to it soon. Put your questions in the comments and I will make sure to cover them when I write that article.
Most of the previous tips are things to think about before shopping…here are a couple to think about once you have the food home.
9. Reduce Waste And Eat Leftovers
You can plan to make a little extra dinner in order to have leftovers for lunch the next day, and that is going to be less expensive than making a whole other meal for lunch. Keep an eye on the food you already have in your fridge and make it a goal to not throw anything out. If you make a double meal, you can get two dinners out of it - and once again, for some meals that’s more cost effective than buying and making a smaller amount.
For instance, with my recipe and how much my family typically eats, making enough chili for two full meals (instead of one and half) is a difference of one more extra-large can of chili beans - which is only about $2.98 at Walmart. So we can get an extra meal for less than a dollar more per person, just by planning to make extra.
How I Do It: I plan to eat leftovers either for dinner or lunch within one week; after that it might not be safe anymore. For some dinners I make extra and count on having meals of leftovers, so some meal ingredient costs will count for two meals for the whole family, further reducing the price. The less you waste, the more money you can save.
10. Be Frugal With The Snacks
Snacks between meals can add up to quite alot of extra costs, so I recommend being very aware of what kind of snacks you are buying and how expensive they are. If you find your family snacks multiple times throughout the day, you can also work on changing your snacking habits, and that will save money.
Think about the kinds of snacks you are buying, and whether you could get more bang for your buck by buying items a different way. We don’t eat alot of chips (because they are expensive!), but when I do buy chips, I buy a box of individually-packaged chips from Sam’s club. This might seem contrary to some other things I’ve said, but here is why it works: not only am I getting a better price in bulk (56.9 cents/oz. for a bag at Walmart, as opposed to 41.3 cents/oz. at Sam’s), but having pre-portioned bags will stretch the chips further and prevent excess snacking, which will ultimately save money.
How I Do It: I think hard about how many snacks I can get out of each snack-food purchase, and how much I’m paying per snack. I have to with five kids! I don’t encourage alot of snacking in between meals, and I don’t snack a ton myself. My kids might have one snack mid-morning and one mid-afternoon, and I buy things that are cost-effective for us. Snacks that I have found to be a good value are mini carrots with hummus, pretzels, animal crackers, veggie straws, trail mix, and cheese sticks. I buy all of those in bulk. When we want something sweet, I also make our own treats (brownies, apple pies, cookies, fudge) instead of buying pre-made treats, which is much more cost-effective.
As I was preparing to write this post, I asked my husband if he would let me take over his fraction of the grocery budget for an experiment. He likes particular, high-protein food items, and he was doing his own shopping so he could pick out the exact items he wanted. He is a pretty smart shopper, but he doesn’t go to the extra label-scrutinizing lengths that I do.
He humored me though and gave me his usual shopping list. This month I bought all of the things on his list, using the strategies that I shared in this post, and hauled all the items home. He looked at the two boxes of food and said it was probably more than he would eat in one month - and I had bought it all for half the cost that he usually spends! So I know these strategies do work - it takes a little extra effort and brain power, but for our family it’s worth it.
I know this is alot of information. Some of you already do some of these things. Pick one or two that you aren’t doing and see if you can implement them!
If you have not been shopping this way at all, trying to apply all this at once might be overwhelming. Look through my points and choose just one or two things to practice this next month. Once those couple things become a habit, you can add a couple more in.
Another post will be coming soon with tips on how to shop once a month.
If you have any specific questions, put them in the comments.
If you have any additional money-saving tips to share, I would love to hear those as well!
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!
Utah is a state with the third highest number of national parks - five - which is an impressive number considering it's size compared with the other top contenders (California and Alaska). Of the five parks in Utah, our family has now visited four of them during various weekend trips.
Even though our visits were short, I did learn a few things about these parks, and I thought I would share a few quick tips about each. While I'm mainly focusing on things that I wish I would have known before going, as an average hiker and parent of young kids - things I would have done better or differently - each and every one of these parks was gorgeous and well worth visiting!
(Perhaps I will eventually update this post once we have crossed the final park - Canyonlands - off our list.)
Zion National Park
I was very excited to visit Zion National Park, since I've heard people rave about it as being the prettiest in Utah. However, our visit was ill-timed, and I think my expectations were so different from reality that it was hard to adjust during our short visit. Here is what I wish I would have known:
There is a shuttle that takes you into the park.
Unlike most national parks we have visited, Zion is accessed mainly by a public shuttle system - first, one to take you from your parking to the Zion's entrance, then another shuttle to take you to various locations within the park. At the time that we visited, cars were not allowed in the park at all unless you had a special permit for one of the more technical hikes, and there was very limited parking close to the park entrance. Had we known this, we would have arrived much earlier in the day to ensure a good parking space, and to possibly avoid the shuttle to bring us to the park entrance altogether. We ended up waiting in line to get on the park entrance shuttle for about an hour, in the sun, with five kids. It took us about three hours total, between finding parking and the two shuttle rides, to finally get to the place where we wanted to hike.
It is best to research the parking situation before going.
One of the reasons it took us so long to get to our hike is because we struggled with figuring out where we could park. The road to Zion National Park leads through several canyon towns, and there are various places where there are hard-to-interpret "no parking" signs. We ended up parking about 3/4 of a mile down the road from Springdale (the town around the entrance to Zion), in an area that was clearly allowed parking, and walking to the shuttle location. Quick tip: There are NINE shuttle pickup locations along the route through Springdale, so I would recommend not stopping at the first one. We waited in line for an hour at shuttle stop #9, the closest to our parking, just to discover once we were on the shuttle that there were multiple stops we could have walked to, a little further down the road, that had no line at all. When we left, we also discovered that people had parked all along the road, even in front of the "no parking" signs, and it didn't appear that anyone had been given a ticket, so it was possible that we could have gotten away with parking closer. Honestly, with the insanity of parking for Zion, even if we did get a ticket for parking closer in the wrong place, it may have been worth the $125 fine.
Try not to go on weekends that will be super busy (especially for your first trip).
With the way this trip worked out, we ended up being on Zion on the Saturday before Memorial Day - possibly one of the busiest park days of the year. When we finally made it to our trail, there was literally a line of people walking both directions on the path, which made for a not-very-nature-filled walk. Our experience would have been wonderfully better had we gone on a quieter weekend, so that's my top recommendation!
Take a walk near water.
As hot as the day was, it was such a relief when we walked into the narrow side of the canyon via the River Walk, and we were able to finally sit down and relax next to aqua-blue water. There were other people around, but that part of our day was quiet and beautiful. Quick tip: Make sure you check with the rangers on whether it is safe to get into the water! When we visited there was an algae bloom, and there was a toxin that could cause paralysis in young kids in the water, so they recommended we not let our kids in the water at all. It was still a cool and pretty rest spot though, and we overall enjoyed the visit just because of the grandeur of the cliff walls in Zion!
Arches National Park
When we visited Arches we spent a whole weekend there, and Ic an say it is certainly worth spending more than one day there! Arches is perhaps my favorite Utah national park, and our visit there was nearly perfect. Here are my tips:
It's not a mistake to go there in summer, but bring more water than you think you need.
When we visited in August (yes, in August), it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit! Thankfully Arches is one of those national parks that you can drive through to get to all the trailheads, so our air-conditioned car was our home base. However, we went through so many water bottles! We ended up drinking all of our water and breaking into our stash of soda in the cooler after we ran out. Every time we got back to the car we were dripping sweat. After each return visit to the car, each of us downed a new bottled water or pop can. I remember reading when we arrived that you needed about a gallon of water, per person, per three hours (or something ridiculous like that). They were not exaggerating. If you go in the heat of summer, load your car up with water.
Plan more time than you think you need.
This could be a tip for all of Utah's parks, but I especially wished we had more time at Arches. Even though we got a full 8-hour day there, we still didn't get to do all the trails I wanted. In addition, the parking can get a little difficult in some of the smaller lots, so there are traffic delays to consider too. I wished we had another full day there!
Do some stargazing.
Perhaps our best memory of Arches was heading back into the park in the evening - not only did we get some gorgeous photos in the evening light, but after the sun set we set ourselves up in an empty parking lot, grabbed some licorice, laid down on the still-warm sidewalk, and stared at the stars. Arches is an International Dark Sky site, and the stargazing there was amazing. My kids got to see their first meteor, which is something they still talk about.
Bryce Canyon National Park
If I'm ranking Utah's parks according to my own preferences, Bryce is right up there next to Arches! I loved that we could drive into this park, and the views were breathtaking.
Plan to walk somewhere, even with little kids.
When we got to Bryce Canyon, we planned a walk along the rim, and then a short hike down into Queen's Garden. The rim walk is very easy, and you'll get wider views than if you just drive to the lookout points - it's a smooth path, so it would even be easy with a stroller. Just make sure your little kids don't get too curious about the edge! The Queen's Garden is a little tougher, but it was easy enough for my preschoolers and neat to get down into the canyon a little ways. As we explored, I was also very impressed with the Navajo Loop trail. It is a very windy trail that goes right down into the midst of the Canyon's hoodoos, the spiky rock formations. It was a little beyond our hiking level right now, and I wished our kids were a little older so we could attempt it! My second grader and I went down the Navajo trail a little way to the "window" in the canyon wall, but we lacked the amount of water we needed (and the hiking stamina, especially for the kids) to attempt going further. Maybe next time.
Go to Mossy Cave and see the waterfall.
This was a highlight of Bryce for us, and I think it would be a perfect trail with which to end the day. To get to it, you have to go out of the park, through the nearby town of Bryce, and back into the park on another road, but the water is well worth the short drive. My kids enjoyed wading in the river and trying to cross a "log bridge", and I was quite impressed with the waterfall. One guy even walked up behind it!
Capitol Reef National Park
On the way home we made a very short stop at Capitol Reef Park. I'm glad we did so we could see what it was about, but I learned a couple things.
Spend a whole day at Capitol Reef to get a worthwhile experience.
We only had a couple hours to stop at this park on the way home, and we quickly discovered that we didn't have time to hike to any of the really interesting destinations. It is a very pretty area, so it was still worthwhile to us to drive through part of it and say we had been there, but I wish we had planned in more time. This is a park that you need several hours to explore properly. Because of that, I have only one other "lesson learned" at this park...
If you want to see the arch, you'll need to hike to get to it.
When we looked up brief information in maps and decided to make a detour to see Capitol Reef, I was under the impression that we could quickly see it's rather impressive arch (you can even walk on top of it!). I tried to figure out if we had to hike to get to it, but couldn't find any information in the brochure. We drove to the area on the map that was labeled with the arch, and saw a sign saying "Arch viewpoint". Well, we looked high and low and searched all around the ground for some sort of trail before we finally spotted it very far off in the distance. We then tried going on the arch trail for a bit to see if we could get a better view, before someone informed us that we would have to hike for an hour or two at least just to get a good look at it. If we had known that, we might have planned a full day to see if we could make it there, but as I said, we only had two hours and I'm not sure the hike would even be friendly for small children. A final tip for this section might be: do your research before you visit any national park with kids, and if you spontaneously decide to stop at one like we did - well, you'll have to take what you can get!
Overall, all our experiences at Utah's National Parks were pleasant and worthwhile to us, even when they didn't go quite as expected. All of them (so far) are arid and hot landscapes, so water is a must, but many of the paths are smooth and easy for little feet. We'd definitely visit any of these areas again if we get a chance to in the future, and Canyonlands is still on our list!
Have you been to any of these National Parks? What tips would you add for families?
Nature study is something I want to make a more consistent part of our homeschool. I've been saying that for a while actually, but I've also found nature study and nature journaling a bit intimidating. What was I actually supposed to be looking at? What are we supposed to be learning? How do I nature journal if my drawing skills are limited?
What Is Nature Study (And Why Should We Do It)?
First thing first, for those of you who might be new to homeschooling, nature study and nature journals have been around for a long time, but in this modern homeschool world you'll most often see it associated with the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy. Simply Charlotte Mason is a good website for a deep-dive into Charlotte Mason and her methods, but for my purposes here, the definition from dictionary.com is:
n. the practical study of plants, animals, and natural phenomena as a school subject.
I personally love the idea of nature study as a way to introduce scientific skills to kids. True science is all about observation and experimentation. As far as observation goes, nature study is a wonderful way to practice that scientific skill in the real world. Nature journals are a way for kids (and adults) to keep track of their nature observations so they can begin to notice patterns in the natural world.But How Do I Do Nature Study?
While I know all this with my head, the actual nuts and bolts of doing nature study is the part that becomes intimidating. If you do a simple online search for nature journals, or if you purchase any nature-journaling books or resources, the level of skill these artists possess is amazing. No matter how hard I try, my nature journal is not going to look so detailed or impressive.
Thankfully, I've begun to realize this year that a nature journal doesn't have to look like that to be worthwhile. You don't have to have any art skills at all to keep a nature journal, really. The point of nature study and keeping a nature journal is to develop the habit of observation. The point is to be still in creation, and notice things, and then keep some sort of record of it.
There are a few things that have helped make our nature study and journaling a little easier and a little richer, and I wanted to share a few thoughts on that today. These small encouragements are coming from me, remember - a very amateur and non-artist homeschool mom. I'm hoping that means these tips will be actually useful for the average person reading this. Let's dive in!
Tip #1 - Just get outside a lot.
This tip seems so obvious as to be ridiculous, but what I mean is - try to practice just getting outside regularly before you add nature journaling into it. If you and your kids are mostly homebodies, getting into the great outdoors more is the first step. Go outside and enjoy your surroundings without the pressure of studying anything first, especially if your kids are young. Go on a hike, do schoolwork outside more, have a few picnics. Perhaps after you've developed the habit of getting outside as much as possible, taking the jump to actually studying the things around you will be a more natural step.
Tip #2 - Do a botany study.
Despite living in the mountains for most of my life, before this year I knew surprisingly little about plants. I've never had a green thumb, and any botany knowledge I gained when I was in school had long ago faded from my brain. I wasn't even very excited to do a botany program with my kids for homeschool science this year, but it turns out knowing more about plants makes nature journaling a whole lot easier!
If you think about it, the main category of living things that you will see ever time you step outside are plants. They are also the best thing to draw and observe for nature study because they don't move much. I don't know why we didn't do a plant study sooner - it would have helped us so much with nature study from the beginning.
Knowing more about the plant kingdom has made me feel more equipped for nature study - now instead of just staring at my surroundings, wondering what things are worth writing down, I have some specific things to look for when I'm looking at plants. And because I feel a bit more knowledgable about plants, I'll be able to help my kids with remembering what we learned and developing their skills on a part of creation that is easy to observe and draw.
(We used Apologia's Young Explorers Botany curriculum - it is a good level for mid elementary aged kids, I think.)
Tip #3 - Don't judge your own drawings (and don't let your kids judge theirs either).
We just finished our botany curriculum yesterday, and the last chapter in Apologia's Botany was on nature study. I found everything in that chapter really helpful and encouraging, and some of the following tips are things I gleaned from there.
The book made a point that I thought was well worth remembering, and it is this - no one starts out nature journaling as an expert. You start wherever you are, and as you get in the habit of observing and writing things out in your journal on a regular basis, your skills will grow.
Consistency is something I want to work on with nature study, because consistently practicing observing and recording nature is what will lead to really useful learning. But I'm also applying it to my rather simple drawings - no one starts out drawing as a developed artist, we hope to grow with practice.
I think it's also important to realize that our drawing skills may never improve to level we would hope, but that doesn't mean nature journaling isn't worthwhile. It's okay if your drawings are never impressive. The point is to learn how to observe and document accurately. Drawing is just one way to do that. Which leads to the next thought I had...
Tip #4 - Don't draw at all.
If drawing is what is holding you (or me) up from enjoying nature journaling - well, who says we actually need to draw at all? We could just write out descriptions of what we see instead. We could paste an actual specimen from a plant into the pages of our nature journal. We could even take a picture and slap that in! This is a very fresh realization for me, so I'm going to have to think about different ways we could do nature journaling aside from just drawing.
Tip #5 - It doesn't just have to be about the observation.
This is something else that I read in Apologia's Botany that I never thought about before - nature journaling doesn't have to be just dry scientific observations about living things. We want to write down what we observe, but this is a nature journal. It's okay to include poems or Bible verses that come to mind, to write out something fun that happened while you were outside, to play around with different ways to describe with written language the beauty that we see. I've always come at nature journaling from a scientific bent, but the thought that I could include...anything I want, really...makes it a little more exciting.
Tip #6 - Help your kids write what they see.
This tip is more about making nature study something that your kids can enjoy. If you have really little kids, don't make nature study turn into a frustrating writing practice session. Let them draw a picture, ask them what they would like you to write in their journal, and then write it for them. Our family is at a stage when most of my kids don't have the endurance to write out a bunch of information, and I want us all to enjoy getting outside and recording what we see. I want it to be a sweet memory. Helping my kids with the writing is one way to make the experience less frustrating while we are developing the habits of nature study.
Tip #7 - Find some resources that inspire you at your family's stage.
When I first started trying to find resources for nature study, all I could find was this really intimidating book about nature journaling. Since I'm not an artist, I couldn't imagine myself ever being good enough at nature study for that book - much less my young elementary kids! I searched a little more, and these are a few resources that have made nature journaling seem more doable for my limited artistic abilities and young family.
Apologia Exploring Creation With Botany - The same book I mentioned above, this is a great curriculum for gaining meaningful knowledge to use in a nature study. It'll help you know what to look for when it comes to observing plants. Comes from a creationist Christian perspective. I'd say 2nd Grade and up!
Note: I'm hoping to do their Flying Creatures book this spring to add more bird knowledge to our nature study attempts. I'll update once we get through that book.
Exploring Nature With Children - If you need some inspiration for how to integrate nature study into more homeschool subjects, this is a great resource! It has a different nature study topic for each day of the year, and includes poems, nature walk ideas, book lists, and other activity ideas. Could be adapted for any grade.
100 Easy And Fun Creative Nature Walks - I love this ebook for ideas on how to involve younger kids in nature study! It'll get you looking for different types of things each time you go out. Good for preschool through elementary at least.
Raising Up Wild Things Nature Journals - Raising Wild Things is a blog and shop with many nature study resources - I just bought her winter nature journal and I'm excited to use it with the kids. She includes basic information that would be useful for winter nature study, along with journal pages and worksheets to get you started, and website and book lists for further learning. And all beautifully illustrated in a. non-intimidating way! Good for elementary ages.
The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie - If you are not sure what to record when attempting nature study, this book has a bunch of information and ideas of what kinds of things you may want to write down. I think this book has a lot of great inspiration. I forgot I had it until I was writing this post, and I am going to pull it out much more this spring. Comes from an evolutionary and environmentalist perspective, so be aware of that. Good for elementary school and up.
Nature Anatomy and Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman - If you are excited to jump into the artistic side of nature journaling, these books would be good inspiration! They are basically a published nature journal, with lots of good information included! Some mentions of evolution and millions of years. Good for elementary and up.
That's all I have, friends. I'm still figuring out nature study as I go, but I hope some of this was helpful!
Okay, all my homeschool nature study experts (I know there are some of you reading), what tips would you include? And if you've never done nature study with your kids, have you found it as intimidating to start as I have?
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