How to keep your grocery shopping under control: Make your list of staples

I know maybe some of you are looking for ways to get your grocery budget down or to save a bit of money, pay down debt etc. So are WE!

In January we spent $472 on groceries for a family of 5 ( read about that here) I'd like to get that even lower.

One thing that helps me is to make a "Top Ten" list if you will. When money is tight and you are trying to really make those nickels and dimes count- it's good to just make a very very basic list of what you can get by with for that shopping period. Now I realize that you could live off of beans and rice if you had to ( or whatever else you have in your home) but I'm talking about really thinking about what your family eats and what it would take for you to have a variety of meals for a month. Some could be staples you already have in your home so you would need to buy those items. Then whatever money is left after you buy your top ten list you can then prioritize other things your family would love to have. Mine looks something like this ( please note that we have all the eggs we can manage because we have chickens, so I don't ever buy eggs at the store.) We also have an abundance of deer meat and sausage from deer and boars that my husband or daughter harvested this past year- so I don't buy meat at the store either.

1. Tortillas (I realize they may be easier to make- but we like the convenience of having them read all the time. We use for breakfast burritos, bean burritos and wraps.

2. Pinto beans  ( dry and in the 25 lb bags from Sam's- I use to make beans, refried beans, chili etc.)

3. Flour- for baking and such again buy in bulk from Sam's

4. Butter- sometimes my Kroger has these on sale for $1.99/ lb. I'll buy 10 or so then and freeze them.

5. Coffee- my husband would disagree but for me this is certainly in my top 10- I like a brand that I buy in bulk from Amazon using my Swagbucks and other point type of rewards. I haven't actually spent money on coffee in quite sometime.

6. Milk- for baking, cooking, for the kids to drink etc. I buy skim milk from Sam's for $2.25 a gallon- cheapest place around here

7. Rice- long grain brown rice bought in 25 lb bags from Sam's- used in soups, stir fry, burritos, casseroles

8. Peanut Butter-  stock up when the Kroger brand goes on sale- kids eat with apples or bananas, I use in baking etc.

9. Apples- I try to buy apples as all the kids eat them, take them to school for a snack, my husband and I take them to work for snacks etc. We have no preference on variety and I just buy what's on sale and looks tastiest- we have a few small trees that haven't started producing much yet but normally get about 20 apples per tree in the fall. Not a lot compared to how much we eat.

10. Spinach, salad greens, lettuce etc. - I buy whatever appears to look freshiest, be on sale etc. We actually can grow a lot of our own greens from Spring to early Winter but when we don't have any they make my 10 ten list. We use the for salads, to top burgers or sandwiches, in wraps, tacos etc. We normally always have some sort of green in the fridge to munch on.

I also freeze and can a lot of fruits and vegetables from the garden during the summer- so we normally have quite a bit of frozen corn on the cob, jelly and jam, salsas, tomato sauces, frozen strawberries etc. I realize not everyone has those on hand.

So what do you think? What is your in your top 10 that didn't make mine???