Monthly verses Weekly Shopping

When I started writing this post I was supposed to be cleaning my house while the littles slept. Instead, my heart was racing and my mind was traveling between all possible outcomes like the energizer bunny on crack!

Usually I do monthly shopping. You see, where we live, we get paid a monthly salary. Yep, my peeps, I get money once a frackin’ month. This calls for extreme budgeting. Not only did I leave America where I got a nice weekly paycheck and only had to figure out how to get through 7 days at a time (oh how I miss you…RIP Weekly Check) but I ALSO left waitressing which meant no more money in my pocket everyday.

Oh…what am I becoming. How did the world become so dark and cold???

Ok…back to reality (snap there goes gravity there goes Rabbit he…..you know you’re singing that song by Eminem right now!)

Typically, just after payday I hit the town and do all my shopping…especially grocery shopping. I buy in bulk because bulk equals cheaper right?!?

I have this insane fear that we’re going to reach the last week of the month and not have milk and have no money…so I buy 10 cases of long life each payday. Makes sense to me!

However, fate is shaking up my life a little bit. We are currently without a car. Yep, you read that right…no car! We sold ours because we were walking everywhere as we couldn't afford the petrol! In all fairness, the thing was like a bottomless pit when it came to petrol. It was a carnivorous gas guzzling money eating machine and I hated it!

The reality now is that I cannot walk home with a months worth of groceries! So, I’m planning and switching to weekly shopping.

Thank You Google: If I had to walk with all my groceries, I'd totally get a trolley like this!

This scares me! It means a STRICT budget and no cushy filled pantry cupboards. It means knowing what I’m making in advance rather than just having my own mini grocery store at my cupboard….

I’m literally starting to sweat and my heart is racing just considering the possible negative outcomes!
I've never meal planned in my life. I make a general idea (i.e. mince Mondays, chicken Tuesdays, egg Wednesdays etc etc) and make whatever fits the profile. WHAT AM I TO DO??

Peeps… I need your help! I need my fellow planners out there to step up to bat.

Pitch a few ideas my way. Tell me how you handle weekly shopping. Tell me HOW TO DO IT!!! 

Convince me that there are cons to shopping weekly! Tell me your trick to making it work! Help me keep within a frackin' budget because I'm going off the deep end here people.

Pull me from the abyss of frackin' out!! (It's dark and lonely here!)

Shana..