I periodically reveal our shopping and fridge in tiny stories. People frequently comment and ask about the things and “how” I shop. I’m trying to shop once for everything we need for the week. That provides us more peace of mind, more time, and I’m sure it saves us money on impulse purchases.

Our Food Budget Is Secret and I Would Like to Keep It That Way

I feel like we eat and buy a lot of food compared to certain families and a lot less compared to others. It’s probably very different, and I don’t want to turn it into a food and economics debate. The post is designed to inspire how to shop for up to a week at a time, as requested 🙂

I took photos of my previous purchase, which you can see here. Of course, it’s not all we use and consume in a week.

Weekly Purchases

Here are my weekly shopping tips.

• As always, feel free to leave comments, ask questions, or share your own methods.
• Plan your meals
• Making a weekly meal plan is the first step I take.
• I’ve started providing meal plans on the blog, and you can see them here – meal plans. I also offer a printable food plan and a freezer template.
• It is feasible to shop for a week without preparing meal plans, but you must know your family’s consumption.

Buying List

I don’t make a physical shopping list. I shop according to the meal plan, and I’ve gotten very adept at tracking our consumption. That’s the most crucial thing, and it’s arguably the most boring aspect of planning, at least to me.

I buy groceries both in-store and online, depending on my mood. In a physical store, I only shop once. Some may argue that you may save more money by shopping at more stores, and you may be correct.

Online grocery buying has becoming increasingly prevalent, yet I still get queries. Questions like….

Opinions Differ. I Can Only Say Yes

Isn’t it dull not to be able to pick stuff up? Yes, that may be the case, so I shop differently. I’ve recently just shopped online. It saves me from having to carry products, and I dislike having to go shopping in the rainy autumn weather. More time with the kids, and it fits our family.

Our Intake

Veggies

Every day, the kids get veggies in their lunches, and we eat vegetables at dinner. So it’s a big part of our weekly diet and a big importance. Depending on our needs, I switch between the vegetables. But I always purchase lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, and peppers. On average, we eat 2-4 cucumbers every week, along with a couple trays of bright and large tomatoes, snacks, and carrots. Also, depending on the food plan, asparagus, squash, mushrooms, herbs, etc.

Breakfast is nearly always fruit. They have fruit with their lunches and later in the day. a tray of grapes, nectarines, bananas and pears per week. We buy berries in the summer and oranges and tangerines in the winter, so it is seasonal.

Food

If I need to buy meat, chicken, or fish for multiple days, I buy larger packages.

Dairy

We drink 3-4 litres of milk weekly. Extra milk is bought when we need rice porridge or I need to cook with more milk. Someone wrote me yesterday that they used 8 litres of milk at home, which again made a great impact.

Aside from that I buy eggs and cream every week. We utilise plain and spreadable butter. We used to run out of spreadable butter, so I started buying two every week. We use it in our meals and on rye bread days.

We don’t buy much yoghurt since William consumes it all. I buy too many smoothies and yoghurts for my boys. We consume a lot of cheese. Brie and Gouda are favourites. I typically cook with mozzarella and cheddar, and we each have a favourite cut. When it’s on sale, I buy two. Cheese is easily stored, so stock up. 10-20 eggs each week depending on food plan and baking. I always have yeast on hand since missing it when you want to bake is the worst 🙂

Cuts:

Meat sausage, spicy sausage, cod roe, liver pate, and chicken are my favourites. I find it tedious since they consistently request the same topping. Lucky for them, their meal includes pizza snails, sausage horns, and leftovers. It can be a leftover boiled potato, egg, salad, spaghetti, etc.

More on this topic can be found here – packed lunches for kids.

Iced Foods

On busy days, I buy beans, bread, and french fries. We regularly have edamame beans and premade meals in the freezer. We also have frozen leftover meals and baked pastries.

Baked Goods

For this reason, we rarely buy buns. We buy biscuits and crispbread weekly. This is a household favourite. We also have favourites, therefore we buy stock from the same packaging. Every week I buy two packs of rye bread and we eat the first one before the next one. I purposely buy two packages. Then it lasts for a week without drying out.

I don’t review all dry things. There’s also coffee, tea, breakfast goods, spaghetti, rice, and so on.

Drinks

I buy Coke, Danish water, smoothies, and juice. I occasionally buy chocolate or juice, but the kids aren’t fond about it. We have water for dinner since it is healthful and the kids like it.

House Consumables

Then there’s the stuff I need around the house like toilet paper and garbage bags.

Sweets

Not to sound “holy”, but this category is also there 🙂 We adore cakes, chips, chocolate, and ice cream. We all have favorites, but we also enjoy mixing and matching treats.

First Meal

I’ve been asked a few times if the food can hold up – that is, relative to the date. I’ve been asked for milk and meat. The milk and meat we get through online grocery shopping may be a week old, but I always check through everything.

I re-date any remaining milk. When we buy berries, we consume them early in the week, and when meat cannot be stored, I freeze it.

Stock

I keep rice, pasta, flour, and other staples in drawers and cupboards. But we don’t have enough place, so we put some shelves in another room. If we had room, I’d like a modest fridge for food and storage. But what we have currently is fine and allows us to store toilet paper, cans, extra wheat, sugar, etc.

Plan and Track Your Intake

This is perhaps the most vital factor if you wish to buy for a week.

Find out how many vegetables you/I eat weekly. How much toilet paper, washing powder, rye bread, cold slices, etc. It takes a little effort, but you soon understand what to buy extra and what to cut back on.