I have a confession to make. Mrs Credit Card is away for a couple of weeks and I am left to do the grocery shopping (no takeouts for me). But it is an interesting exercise to go through a grocery budget and deciding what to buy for the week. Here is what I did and the saving lessons I took from being the grocery shopper.

1. Clear Up Youe Closet - How much canned food do you have in your closet and fridge? I was surprised to find lots of stuff in my kitchen cabinets. I have been steadily clearing them and finishing as many canned food as possible. I think all of us tend to buy more stuff than necessary and keeping storing stuff. I probably saved quite a bit eating what we already have. Admittedly, I am better off eating fresh food, but i simply cannot stand any canned food idling around.

2. Making my grocery list - Being alone for a couple of weeks, I tried to be organised by just having a couple of types of meals in a week. I decided to have pasta on alternate days and basic potatoes and meat on alternate days. Salad is a staple every day as well as some fruits like pears and strawberries. This helped me keep my shopping list simple.

3. Use Your Grocery Card - Mrs Credit Card always reminded my to show my grocery card as I could get discounts. True enough, I did get a couple of discounts after the cashier swiped my card.

4. Use Your Coupons - I have to admit that I have slacked in this area. Mrs Credit Card has always cut coupons. She knows which coupons appears in which newspaper, which day of the week. I told myself that I was simply not going to waste my time cutting coupons. Hence, I probably missed the opportunity to save some money from coupons. On the other hand, what I intend to buy may not have coupons?

5. Stop Buying Junk Food - As Mrs Credit Card was not around, I stopped buying Oreos, Ritz or any other “stuff to snack on”. It prevents me from snacking and I cut down on junk food as well.

5. Use a cash back credit card - Whenever I go to the the supermarket, I always charge my expenses to my Blue Cash® from American Express as it pays 5% cash rebates on supermarket spending once your annual spending on your card exceeds $6,500. Many people still use cash to shop at the supermarket, but I use my credit card to get “cash rebates”.

Well, this sums up my experience the last two weeks doing grocery shopping for myself. It’s been a long while since I did that ages ago. I’m probably more savvy now. But if there was anything I could have done better, please leave a comment below.