Time for a long overdue update to our adventures in once a month grocery shopping which I first mentioned here a couple years ago. The short of it is this method didn't work out for us for regular grocery needs. It seemed that no matter how much planning we did we always ended up needing a few things here and there and had to make multiple trips to the store anyways. We also found that we'd overbuy on some items for fear of running out leading to overspending and also that I will drink a month's worth of beer in a week given the opportunity.
During this time we also changed up our eating habits to include more fresh fruits and veggies which don't keep for a month so we've have been doing just a couple of larger car trips with walks or bike rides to pick up things here and there (although we've been slacking on this lately with the summer heat as our excuse), including the occasional Friday evening beer run (or walk).
Once a month trips to Sam's Club on the other hand are working well for us as we have regular staples we consume in predictable amounts every month. Cutting down on trips also cuts down on the number of monthly pizza combos purchased which is becoming increasingly important now that we have to buy a slice for our twins and a (2nd) slice for our 14yr old man child. That said, buying in bulk isn't always cheaper as quite a bit of what Sam's sells is name brand and I would definitely recommend comparing prices as we've found quite a few store brand items that are actually cheaper per unit weight (oz, lb, etc), something that's pretty easy to do in the age of cell phones that allow you to snap a quick picture of the price tag for comparison. A notebook will also do if you're old school.
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