Grocery Shopping Habit Tracker (Free PDF)

Most people say that they only go grocery shopping once a week, and for about 28% of shoppers that is true. The issue is that the average person actually goes shopping about 1.6 times per week.

What’s the difference? Well, for some people they can go shopping and get it done once, the rest of us either forget something we need or shop because we are bored.

Unfortunately, every time you set foot in a grocery store, you are much more likely to spend money and potentially go over your food budget.

Why Grocery Shopping Habits Matter?

I have talked to tons of people that all want to lower their grocery budget each and every week, but then something always happens. Whether it was a splurge or forgot to meal plan, their budget gets busted.

Now mistakes do happen and sometimes we just go off track. That is totally fine and expected. What we can do is track our habits and learn from them.

Once we know what we typically do, we can prepare in advance ways to change these habits that maybe aren’t so great for our bottom line.

So, for the next few weeks, I want you to track your grocery shopping or food buying habits. I want you write down the date you went shopping, what the plan was for that trip, if you had a list with you, and your total spending.

Free Grocery Habit Tracker PDF

This tracker is super easy to download or print at home. Go ahead and hang it on your fridge and use this as a way to be accountable for your food purchases.

I have included some questions to ask yourself once your tracker has been completed. These questions are not meant to shame you or make you feel bad, they are designed to make you think about your habits.

Once we know what habits we are working on, we can work to change them or adjust them to where you want to be.

Money and Food are really tied to big chunks of our life, and you would be surprised by what can affect them. Emotions play a huge part in how we spend money as well as what foods we eat.

How to change habits once we know what they are?

This one can be tough, but once you know what your habits are and you want to change them, you need to start by getting honest with yourself.

Set some goals and write down a plan to accomplish those goals. (A goal without a plan is really just a wish!)

I like to make 3 strategic plans to hit my goals. The first one is kind of easy to get me motivated to keep going. The second one is a little harder, and that third one sounds really hard on day 1.

Let’s do an example of wanting to change a grocery shopping habit:

Habit: Going to the Grocery Store 3-4 times a week

By going to the store this much, I am spending more money on wants and not sticking to my meal plan/budget.

Plan 1: For the next week, I will only go to the store twice. No matter what!

This is pretty simple, and I will have to be very intentional to keep this plan. I will have to double check my grocery list and make sure I have everything I need for my meal plan. I need to anticipate any needs that will pop up and plan for those.

Plan 2: Buy more snacks and sweets but make it part of my budget

I know you are thinking this is so not harder, but it can be. I will need to revamp my budget to be bigger, so I include snacks and sweets, or I need to shop smarter, so I have room to purchase these items.

This will take some strategic planning to make sure it gets completed. Maybe I need to start looking for sales on snacks, start making my own sweets, or something else.

Plan 3: Bulk vs Pre-Packaged to go cheaper

For the last part of my plan, I will need to really look at the snacks I am buying and determine if I can get these costs even lower by looking at the packaging.

If I am buying individually wrapped snacks, an easy way to lower costs would be to buy in bulk and portion them myself. If I buy plastic bags at Dollar Tree or try reusable bags, I can potentially save even more money.

Results

So, when I finished my habit tracker, I spotted my problem area (snacks & sweets) and now I know where to start.

I set realistic plans in place to help combat this budget breaker by limiting my trips to the store, including more snacks in my budget, and finding cheaper ways to snack.

By following these plans, I was able to keep the snacks and sweets but just purchase them in a smarter way that aligns better with my grocery budget.

Notice I didn’t say at any time to stop buying sweets and snacks. I don’t think that going without and depriving yourself short term or long term will lead to happiness.

The point of this exercise is to show you that you can afford any thing that you want, but you can’t afford everything all the time. We have to make priorities and plan for what we want so we can achieve it!