Meal planning and budgeting . . . getting started P.4!!!

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

We were talking about that last night and I think we budgeted it out to roughly $600 / month in food and $250 eating out... but we of course want to get it down if we can...

What's next?



PS. I found the tuna recipes... printed... yummy!

 

[#1California Chick]

Quote:
How many people (and what are their ages) are you planning to feed on $850 or less each month?? Any special diet requirements??

Cindy

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Just me and my boyfriend. No special diets except that neither of us likes processed pre-packaged food.

 

[#1California Chick]

Quote:
WOW!! That means that you have a budget of $28.33 a day for both of you for food!!! ($850/30). Even if you keep your eat-out money of $250, it still amounts to $20 per day -- a princely sum!!! And the fact that you don't like processed food makes it even easier and healthier!!!

I can see that this method of planning meals ahead of time (including lunches) could save you big bucks!!! Since you live in San Diego, where local fresh fruits and veggies are available almost all of the year, you should have NO problem cutting your grocery bill to $300 or less per month. You will have to decide if the $250 in eating out is worth it (how many meals do you get for this???) If the $250 is mainly for lunches, you need to tote your own!!! The leftovers will make great lunches!! (at NO additional cost!!).

In addition to planning your meals, you need to check the local supermarket ads. These usually come out on Tuesday, effective for Wednesday to the following Tuesday. You can always change the meals for the next week to accomodate the weekly sale specials (which help to keep the costs down even further!). This is why many meal planners do their planning on Wednesday for the next week. If you routinely watch the ads, you will see many trends (certain things are on sale every so often). When they are on sale, buy two or four --but only if they are things that you usually use!!!! When chicken thighs or pork chops are on sale for a good price, I buy a large package or two and freeze them. Then I have inexpensive meat until the next sale!!! Put the meat (chicken thighs, breasts, legs, pork chops, etc) on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer and freeze them individually. When they are frozen, put them in a zip lock bag. Then you can take out just what you need (they are not all stuck together). You don't have a full size freezer??? FRom what you can save in ONE month in meal planning, you could buy a freezer!!!!

Now how about a garden??? In a couple of months, you should be able to plant a wonderful garden that will last for months in your region!!! And what you don't eat every day -- you can can for the winter months. Think tomato sauce already prepared or salsa. (Water bath canning is easy!!)

Let me know if you have any questions!! I would be happy to help you with any aspect of your meal planning. Lord knows that everyone needs to save money in this recession, anyway that they can!!!

Cindy

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

WOW!! That means that you have a budget of $28.33 a day for both of you for food!!! ($850/30). Even if you keep your eat-out money of $250, it still amounts to $20 per day -- a princely sum!!! And the fact that you don't like processed food makes it even easier and healthier!!!

I can see that this method of planning meals ahead of time (including lunches) could save you big bucks!!! Since you live in San Diego, where local fresh fruits and veggies are available almost all of the year, you should have NO problem cutting your grocery bill to $300 or less per month. You will have to decide if the $250 in eating out is worth it (how many meals do you get for this???) If the $250 is mainly for lunches, you need to tote your own!!! The leftovers will make great lunches!! (at NO additional cost!!).

In addition to planning your meals, you need to check the local supermarket ads. These usually come out on Tuesday, effective for Wednesday to the following Tuesday. You can always change the meals for the next week to accomodate the weekly sale specials (which help to keep the costs down even further!). This is why many meal planners do their planning on Wednesday for the next week. If you routinely watch the ads, you will see many trends (certain things are on sale every so often). When they are on sale, buy two or four --but only if they are things that you usually use!!!! When chicken thighs or pork chops are on sale for a good price, I buy a large package or two and freeze them. Then I have inexpensive meat until the next sale!!! Put the meat (chicken thighs, breasts, legs, pork chops, etc) on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer and freeze them individually. When they are frozen, put them in a zip lock bag. Then you can take out just what you need (they are not all stuck together). You don't have a full size freezer??? FRom what you can save in ONE month in meal planning, you could buy a freezer!!!!

Now how about a garden??? In a couple of months, you should be able to plant a wonderful garden that will last for months in your region!!! And what you don't eat every day -- you can can for the winter months. Think tomato sauce already prepared or salsa. (Water bath canning is easy!!)

Let me know if you have any questions!! I would be happy to help you with any aspect of your meal planning. Lord knows that everyone needs to save money in this recession, anyway that they can!!!

Wow I would LOVE to get our grocery bill down to 300, but I just don't know if that's possible... bread is almost $5 a loaf and butter was 6.49 yesterday at the grocery store.

The eating out is usually when we're hungry and haven't had anything to eat so last minute decision, so we can definitely cut down there.

I do check all the ads as well as clip coupons.

Also I buy in bulk and break them down and freeze them.

We have a regular fridge/ freezer combo and a small chest freezer.

We have a year 'round garden and are working on our next rotation now...

I would love to get a pressure canner, but haven't had the chance yet... I don't know how to waterbath can yet...

I've finished my 1 month menu, but how do I turn it into a grocery list?

I really don't know why we spend so much at the grocery store, other than we must eat a lot lol....​

 

[#1California Chick]

I don't know where you buy butter, but I have been buying it for $2.50 a pound for the entire month of December at Safeway!! Butter is always cheaper at each major holiday, so I buy 4 to 6 pounds. They keep in the refrigerator for months or can be frozen. And last week I saw it for $1.89 a pound at Costco.

Got to keep your eyes open for good deals!!

Cindy

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

okay then! glad to see you are already on top of that

and super glad you found the tuna recipes . . . you're going to love them

so then a grocery list is the question. Let me make sure I understand what you are asking . . . you have created a months menu and a months worth of ingredients but you want to break it into 2 week shopping trips? If that's the case you might be going about it the hard way.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Yes. LoL. I guess since I don't know what I am doing of course I go about it backwards lol.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

ok then lets work on how to make a shopping list . . . I hate the grocery store lol it may show

7 columns:
Dairy, Canned Goods, Frozen Food, Meats, Fresh (fruits vegis bread), cleansers, Toiletries . . . go ahead and print this off from excell, then you won't have to do it ever again (I also hate uneccessary redundancy

also adjust this to suit YOU. I rarely if ever use frozen foods so my list is lacking that column, and I buy my canned goods in bulk for the year so that column in rarely used. (you are going to be sooo organized!)

I think breaking it into two weeks can come in a bit, since you have months plan lets start there.

So go through each meal for each day and write the ingredients on a starter list (ie 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 can of kidney beans) as you come to recipes that require more of the same thing total it up (ie 1 can of tuna + 1 can of tuna = 1 can of tuna = 3 cans of tuna). transfer your totals to a master list, now you know what you need to buy for the month

))))

again I hate the store, it cost me time, money, gas and I usually wind up wanting to kill someone

I do what bulk shopping I can at costco, Winco or walmart you will have to decide what is best in you area. and then I buy my fresh stuff at the bakery, the farmers market, or my local co-op (like a trader Joes). But it's all on one list so nothing gets forgotten. I do go shopping weekly but pretty much just for the fresh stuff.

ok then coupons - some one brought them up so I am going to mention them but I don't want this to turn into a post about how much is not enough or too much to spend. everyones income/priorities/living situation/budget are as unique as they are, so if we can stay away from the numbers or comments about too much or too little I think it would be friendlier. That said I don't use coupons, I'm not saying someone else shouldn't, but for me they take up more time than they save me in money (I make more in an hour than I could save in an hour of clippping/organizing coupons) also I find that the majority of them are for processed foods which I don't use, or cleansers (amazing how much of the grocery budget they will eat up if you let them) which I buy in bulk at a considerable savings from costco.
Soo let me know when you've go that done and we'll go from there!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

K working on transferring all my 2 week foods to a grocery list, then will do it for the other two weeks, then will break it down into your 7 columns.


Also, I didn't include toiletries etc... I guess I always considered those separate... should I be doing that too? Will it help save money? We just buy what we need when were out... lol.