Weekly or Monthly Groceries: What Actually Worked After Years of Testing Both
I have been a monthly shopper for most of my life; that was always the plan: one big trip, budget sorted, done. But as prices crept up year after year, my budget had to keep stretching with it, and I started noticing something frustrating: either the groceries did not last the full month, or the things I had not bought because there was still some left from before would suddenly run out halfway through. So I was still making unplanned trips to the shops even though I had not budgeted for them at all. Weekly vs monthly grocery shopping is something I have tested properly, not just for a month or two out of curiosity, but for years, because I was strict with money and did not have much room to move, no flexibility for emergencies, nothing spare other than for milk, bread or fruit. When something ran out, we either did without it, as inconvenient as that was, or we made a plan and cut back somewhere else to cover it.
So I decided to try weekly shopping instead, and for a good while it actually worked better. At month end I would buy the staples that do not really change week to week, detergents, toiletries, rice, sugar, coffee, tea, condiments, toilet paper, and this is also when I would swing by Sweet Xpress in Ottery and buy snacks in bulk, a big bag with fifty packets of chips, sweets, cookies, whatever they had going, for maybe R300, sometimes less, similar to how I break down the rest of my monthly shop in an earlier post on where I actually shop to save money. That covered snacking for the whole month in one go and meant I never had to squeeze crisps and biscuits into a weekly budget that was already tight enough. Then I would sit down and build a proper weekly meal plan for the whole month, week one, week two, however many weeks that month had. Two pots a week, each pot covering two days, then one odd day for something quick like homemade burgers and chips or omelettes or French toast, and Saturdays were usually a quick meal or takeaway if that week’s budget allowed for it.
Each week got R500, and that covered everything: bread, milk, the ingredients for that week’s meals. It sounds tight, and I know it might surprise some people, but once you actually know what you are cooking and exactly how much you need, you would be surprised what you can manage on. The meal plan itself had to be that detailed to make the R500 work, so if spaghetti bolognese was on the list, I was writing down canned tomatoes, green pepper, tomato paste, spaghetti, the actual ingredients that dish needed. Onions, potatoes, oil, garlic, chilli, those lived with the monthly staples, so they never had to come out of a weekly budget at all, which left more room for the things that actually changed week to week. And it was not always perfectly exact either; if a week’s ingredients ran a little over, I would either borrow from the next week if there was anything spare once I had worked out that week’s costs, or I would just adjust the meal plan until it fit under R500. At the end of each week I would go shopping for just that week’s list, and it worked, properly worked, for a long time.
What made it work was not just the planning; it was where I shopped. Once I had my list written out ingredient by ingredient, I would go through the brochures, the apps, the websites, and check where things were cheapest that week. Most of the time everything landed at Shoprite; their prices were consistently lower across the board, but if filtered coffee was cheaper at Pick n Pay or the dog food was on special at Checkers, that is where I would go for just that item. It takes a bit of time and effort, maybe an hour or two once a month sitting with the brochures, but it paid for itself every single time.
Just to be clear, I am not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the shops mentioned here; these are simply the ones that worked out cheapest for us at the time.
The thing that eventually pulled me off weekly shopping had nothing to do with the method itself; it was that I no longer had full control over the kitchen. Weekly shopping only works when one person is planning every single meal and buying exactly for it; the moment more than one person is deciding what gets cooked, or someone who prefers to cook by feel on the day rather than to a plan, the whole system falls apart, because your shopping list only makes sense if you know precisely what is being made and when.
Where I landed after years of switching back and forth
I went back to monthly, and for now that is what is working, though it comes with its own new reality. Prices are simply higher than they were even a year ago, so the budget that used to cover us does not anymore. I have had to add another R1000 on top of what I was spending before; we are a family of five, and it now takes R5000 to get us through a full month. Part of how I make monthly work is buying bigger where it counts, like going to Kekkel en Kraai for meat rather than the supermarket. So I’d get six kilograms of chicken in one go, three kilograms of stewing meat, because the price per kilogram is usually better there and it is one less thing to think about until next month. We still run a little short by month-end on the small things, nothing serious, the kind of thing you can do without for a few days, but the bulk of it lasts the distance. And whether there is anything left over from the month before or not, month-end means a full shop, every time.
If I am honest, after years of testing weekly vs monthly grocery shopping both ways, weekly gave me more control and less waste, but it asked for something monthly does not; someone else needs to want that same level of planning too. Monthly is more forgiving when the kitchen is not only yours anymore; it just costs more to run that way now than it used to. Getting groceries right is really only one piece of a much bigger question I keep coming back to, which I wrote about here.
Read more about how and where I shop for clothes: Where My Money Actually Goes Further (And Where It Doesn’t)