I’ve been doing a Monthly Shopping Trip for over a year and a half now, and I really like it. If you’re curious how it all works in our house, you’ve come to the right place. Consider this a course and welcome to Monthly Shopping 101!
Don’t know what a Monthly Shopping Trip is? Neither did I. In fact, I was kind of flabbergasted as I began researching this whole strategy myself.
I would think to myself, “People actually do this?” as I scrolled through the 67th article on Pinterest. Yes, people actually do this.
What is a Monthly Shopping Trip?
A Monthly Shopping Trip is simply only going shopping for all household items one time per month. There are a million different ways families go about this. For me, I do my very best to stick to one big shopping trip per month.
Yes, there are months where we have to do multiple trips because things come up that we forgot about or didn’t consider. For instance, if there is a birthday party that we forgot a gift for. Or if we decide to host a big family meal, we may need a few more items for that (or to replace what we use for that event). Sometimes one of the kids gets sick, so my husband will have to pick up a prescription for us… you get the idea.
It’s not cut and dry, but it at least provides me with guidelines that I can stick to for best results. And the key is, those other extras are quick, in-and-out type trips (unless going to target…haha!) that can be tacked on to a day where we’re in town anyway or on my husband’s way home from work.
why do a Monthly Shopping Trip?
Saving Time
There were a few reasons I was intrigued by a monthly shopping trip for all household items, including groceries. First of all, at the time, I was working part-time, Monday through Wednesday. I was finding myself on the road to get groceries or run errands just about every Thursday or Friday.
Now, for some (most?) people this may not seem like a big deal, but we live about 25 miles away from the closest city that “has it all”, so I was spending gobs of time just driving – spending at least a solid hour round-trip, depending on where I was going, on the road to and from my destination.
I was supposed to be spending those two days off with my little guy, Myles, and instead, I was spinning my wheels between household shopping and household work. I realized after a few rabbit-hole Pinterest searches that I could change one of these tasks to make a big impact on how I was spending my time. So, I started down this journey doing my Monthly Shopping Trip (MST). I started in February of 2018, and am still going strong today!
Saving Money
Another reason I wanted to give this a go was two-fold – we needed to cut back on eating out and try saving money on random impulse buys or lunches/dinners out. We quickly ran through a couple of month’s bank statements and it was astounding the amount of money going towards eating out.
It was time to reel. it. in. Also, in case you’re unfamiliar with the chaos of child-rearing, it was becoming apparent to us “parent rookies” that staying home was just easier with a little one in tow.
Don’t get me wrong, I still thoroughly enjoy going out (with the kids and half of our house) just to enjoy a meal while being served and not having to clean up and do the dishes. It’s one of the best gifts anyone can give me (hint, hint)…that and straight-up cash, homey! Mama still likes some retail therapy! Anyway…where were we?
Ah yes, shopping. Here are four tips I have for pulling this off successfully from the get-go. The first couple of months were…interesting. I’ve learned A LOT about what works, and what doesn’t, so let’s get to it!
preparation is key for a Successful Monthly Shopping Trip
If you want this to be relatively successful and not a massive cluster in which you can never imagine putting yourself through again, you need to get some things squared away on the front end.
Create your list and check it twice.
If you don’t have a good system for your list-making, I highly recommend you go request a copy of my Master Shopping List template. You’ll be able to create your very own household Master Shopping List! It will be life-changing, I promise.
Clear out your fridge and pantry.
About two weeks out from your first trip, you should start throwing out any items that are expired, unused, etc. from your pantry and fridge. You are going to need A LOT of room for all the things you’ll be getting on your shopping trip. So, if you aren’t going to eat it or use it, purge it and move on. This is a great time to get in the habit of being a little creative about what you have on-hand and how that can turn into a nice little meal as you reach the end of the month!
Make sure you have room in your vehicle
for all. the. things. If you have an SUV or van, those are great vehicles for this shopping trip. I’ve done it with my Toyota Camry (four-door sedan) before, and it was a bit tight. Regardless of what you’re going to drive, clean it out a bit before leaving for the shopping trip. Make sure your trunk is empty! That’s prime real estate.
Start hoarding/gathering shopping totes
Because I go to Sam’s Club and occasionally have gone to Aldi, I needed my own bags. So, all those random totes that have collected in some random drawers and closets were finally put to use once I started doing my Monthly Shopping Trip.
I’d recommend getting at least 3 to 4 insulated totes, I have a large one from Sam’s Club and then two smaller ones, for your frozen/refrigerated items. Then I have probably eight to ten regular shopping totes for everything else. I just shove them all inside one of the big ones and keep it in the back of my shopping car, so they’re all ready to go for next time.
Side Note: I have to be a bit strategic with this because we use plastic shopping bags for our small trash cans at home. Since I started shopping monthly, we run out of those bags all the time! Which is great, right? I mean, when was the last time you were completely out of plastic shopping bags? I know we’d never run out before… like, ever. So, yay recycling and being environmentally friendly!
how I choose my Monthly Shopping Trip stops
Choose your stores wisely. I started out going to Aldi and Sam’s Club. But a few months into it, I was finding that I would be able to get everything but, like, five things from these two stores, so I’d have to make another stop at Hy-Vee to get those items.
Not a huge deal, but I was DONE by the time I needed to go to the last store, so I’ve since switched to Sam’s Club and Hy-Vee (typically). I’m hoping to go back to Aldi again because ours has been remodeled recently, so I’m hoping they’ll have more selection/variety!
My strategy here is to choose one bulk store (Sam’s) and one store that “has it all” (Hy-Vee, Target, Wal-Mart). I start at Sam’s Club and get as much as I can there. Then I finish whatever is left at Hy-Vee. If you have a smaller family, or just don’t want to buy things in bulk, you could try just doing one “has it all” store. When I go to Aldi, I usually start there and end at Sam’s Club. I try to get as many items off my list at Aldi because it’s so much cheaper!
time spent shopping
One thing you may not know about me is that I can “window shop” like no other. You can put me in pretty much any shopping environment, and I will look, and look, and look… and then I might go look some more at the things that really caught my eye. It just makes my heart happy, and I enjoy snooping and checking things out. I can’t help it.
So, that being said, you can probably make this whole thing go a lot faster than I do if you wanted to. But you’re probably not going to find as many cool things as me… juuust sayin’! The other part of this is that this is my one time a month that I get to go out and “shop”, so I take full advantage of this time! I also make it a kid-free and husband-free trip (which I HIGHLY recommend), so I just like to bask in the solitude and joy of it all (ha)!
I spend a good two hours in Sam’s Club, and then I’d say I finish up at Hy-Vee in an hour or an hour and a half. That doesn’t include driving, so it’s usually a good half-day shin-dig for me. I’m also kind of a freak (a cool freak) about packing everything in the car, so I do spend a good amount of time being intentional about how things are packed at each stop.
It’s just being smart – cold with cold, cans with cans, produce with produce… are ya picking up what I’m throwing down? All that effort makes it A LOT easier when unpacking back at the house.
While I’m out, I make sure to take my Master Shopping List with me and check off everything as I gather it. At Sam’s Club, I love to use the Scan n’ Go App to avoid all the lines and get out of there super efficiently. The list keeps you on track, don’t forget it!
Unpacking and storage
That’s it for the shopping portion! Congratulations, you did it! Once you’ve checked everything off your list you can head home. Once home you should have plenty of room for everything as you unpack.
As I mentioned, you’ll take all of your totes and pack them all in one bag and put it back in your trunk, ready for next month.
Tips for Storing
Here are my tips for storing everything to last a month and things I get asked about frequently:
- Produce: I get a lot of questions about fresh produce and how I’m able to keep it for an entire month.
- You’ve got to be smart and strategic when it comes to fresh produce. Obviously only buy things you’ll actually eat. Eat things that will go bad quickly, first. Bananas, avocados (buy them rock hard and they’ll last longer as you let them ripen), lettuce, berries, tomatoes, etc. all get eaten that first week (or so) of the month. I buy a spring mix, romaine lettuce, and a bag of spinach and eat through them, in that order, and we can have salads all month.
- I’m not a freak about things going bad… If it smells funky or looks bad, we obviously don’t eat it, but I’m not watching the clock on what’s been in the fridge for a week and needs thrown out. We haven’t died (or even been sick) yet. Once we go through the fresh produce, we move on to frozen/steamed veggies and canned veggies and fruits.
- Items to Freeze: I also get questions about dairy items and bread.
- I buy a few gallons of milk, and all but one goes into the deep freeze until needed. We haven’t had issues with the Sam’s Club milk, but make sure there is a decent amount of milk poured out of the container prior to freezing, otherwise, it may explode. I’ve never had any issues with this. If you do need to open the jug to pour some out, you can just sharpie the date you put it in the freezer. When I need to pull it out of the freezer, I just set it on the counter to thaw and then put it in the fridge when there’s a smaller clump of frozen in there…it takes quite a while.
- For cheese, I also freeze what I don’t need for those first couple weeks. I typically buy 3-4 bags of shredded cheese and 2-3 packs of sliced cheese. We go through all of that and don’t have any issues with any of it going bad by the end of the month.
- For bread/bagels/buns/tortillas I keep one loaf out for immediate use and freeze the rest. I haven’t had any issues with any of these, either. When I need a new loaf, I simply pull it out and set it on the counter to thaw. It doesn’t take long for these to thaw at all.
Whew! That’s it. Now you just need to be diligent about eating all that food! Commit to cooking and eating meals at home, taking lunches to work or making picnics for outings, and being strategic about what you eat and when, and you’ll do well.
It may help that first couple of months to do meal planning. I attempted to do meal planning when I first started, but I just couldn’t get into a groove with it. I do better figuring out meals based on the ingredients I have stocked.
When I get close to the end of the month I’ll do a quick scan of items that we still have and then jot down a list of meals that we can create based on those ingredients. Then we know exactly what we need to be eating to get our pantry and fridge emptied before the next Monthly Shopping Trip. And trust me, it is super gratifying getting to those last few days and your shelves are empty!
I hope you have some clarity and feel more prepared to make your Monthly Shopping Trip happen now. You can do it! Let me know how it goes for you. And, if you have any questions at all, please reach out to me! I’m happy to help.
To the chaos!
-mg
Here are other posts to help you learn more about MSTs:
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