If you’re on a budget and cringe when thinking about grocery shopping for the holiday, here’s what you can do to help curb the bulk spending.

Once Purim’s over and everyone’s back on routine, I start going down the Passover aisle looking for things that are on sale and non-perishable (or freezer-friendly) that my family uses.

I’ll start out by buying a few things on my Passover shopping list instead of buying “Chametz items” or all year-round things. This keeps me from going over budget-by swapping things out to make room for Pesach purchases.

To store these items, I clear a shelf in: the laundry room, coat closet, or if you’re comfortable, high up in the pantry. I then keep the Pesach items in their shopping bags and put them in the designated shelf until my kitchen is Passover-friendly! (Same can be done in the freezer.)

I’ll continue to do this until the week before Pesach. By then, I’ll just need to purchase fruits and veggies and the milk and eggs and any last minute things I didn’t get to. The cool thing about that last week is all of my grocery budget will go towards Pesach food, and I won’t even need so much!

Of course, this method will look different for every person. You might be hosting all the meals, going away, or hosting just few. You can tweak this to work for your needs. For some families, maybe a bigger budget is needed starting right after Purim so it’s spread out over the month.

Maybe you’re going away and you’d like to consider donating some foods or grocery gift cards to help others pay for the holiday. #justathought

If you’ll need a ton of meat, see how creative you can get with making dinners based on what’s in your pantry so you can stock up at the butcher.

Most of us are willing to rough it and make things work for these few weeks before Pesach. If that’s you, it’ll allow you to spend more of your grocery budget on Pesach foods.

It helps to have an idea of what to buy. Download this Pesach shopping list for your reference!

Hope you found this helpful! If you try this method or have any questions, I’d love to know! Reach out @shaatraclub