This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Visa Clear Prepaid program and the Kaiku® Visa® Prepaid Card.

Sticking to an all cash grocery budget is tough and if you follow, my monthly goal update posts you know that it has been one of my 2015 goals to go back to carrying all cash for our purchases. I have been failing miserably at carrying cash consistently.

So, I thought I would take the Visa Clear Prepaid Shopping List Challenge while on my “stock-up” shopping trip. I typically go on a stock-up trip three times a year, sometimes less depending on how successful my hubs’ hunting trips were that year.

During my stock-up trips, I typically purchase meats, canned goods, baking goods, and the supplies I need for my homemade laundry detergent. The reason for my stock-up trips are to help me stick to my low cash grocery budget of a $100 a week and by stocking up three times a year, I can usually lower my grocery budget even more.

How to Plan a Stock-Up Grocery Trip

When planning your stock-up trip, you will want to make a list of all the things you need in these categories:

Meats
Canned Goods
Frozen (like frozen veggies or fruits)
Baking Supplies (flour, sugar, etc.)
Other Supplies (like the supplies for my laundry detergent or paper goods)

I usually list the meats that in order of priority, like ground beef (can be used in numerous dishes), steaks, chicken, pork chops, chuck roast, and ribs. This way, if I do not have enough room in the budget for all the meats, I know which ones are my “must haves”.

Sticking to Your Budget

When on my stock-up trips to the grocery store, I budget $150 since I know that I will be purchasing several meats that may not be on sale and I try to buy them in bulk to take home and separate and freeze using our vacuum sealer.

During the Visa Clear Prepaid Shopping List Challenge, I still wrote out a shopping list (using the method described above) and tracked how much I was spending while in the store to ensure that I did not go over my budget. I essentially treated the Kaiku® Visa® Prepaid Card as if I would cash. I can definitely tell you that sticking to your grocery budget is always easier when you know exactly how much you can afford and you either shop with cash or use a prepaid card option like the Kaiku® Visa® Prepaid Card which qualifies for the Visa Clear Prepaid program.

Reason being, if you only have $40 cash with you and your total ends up being $43, you do not have enough money to make your purchase.

Prepaid cards don’t allow you to spend more than your budget since overdraft isn’t allowed, so they’ll help you control spending.

The downside to using a prepaid card is the fees and I have used many prepaid cards before when traveling (I always take one with me when we travel overseas) and the fee structures always confuse the daylights out of me. This time around, however I was able to know how much the fees were upfront and I was able to pay for them when loading my card at Walmart (which was also super easy even with two crazy kids in tow).

With the Kaiku® Visa® Prepaid Card, one monthly fee plan covers your day-to-day activities like purchases, point-of-sale cash back and in-network ATM withdrawals. As a part of the Visa Clear Prepaid program, you can use your Kaiku® Visa® Prepaid Card with confidence because you know exactly what you are spending (including the fees) and can easily stick to a monthly budget.

So, there is no fee per transaction and obtaining your card is super easy. The Visa Clear Prepaid seal means cards are designed to have an easy-to-understand monthly fee plan that covers your day-to-day activities. You’ll know when you pay a fee and when you won’t.

This makes the challenge easier for those of us, like me, that are wanting to carry-cash, but fail at remembering to run to the bank.

How do you make sticking to a budget when stocking up at the grocery store easier?

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