Grocery Budgets Anyone?

[SunChick]

I didn't know you could freeze milk. does it change it any? Milk gets so expensive and we do use it quite a bit. I am loving all the good tips

 

[MandyH]

I'm glad there are others on here that do like me LOL!!! My family thinks I'm crazy (until it's time to eat) for all the stuff I do. I have a food dehydrator, FoodSaver, meat grinder, all sorts of crap that I use A LOT. I buy in bulk, watch the clearance racks, use my coupons, and have a big garden. We eat a lot of meat too and me buying whole loins, slicing them myself and storing in FoodSaver bags saves us soooo much money. I buy whole pork loins when they are cheap, whole ribeye loins when on sale, chicken breasts when on sale and slice and package and freeze. I NEVER don't have something to cook. I shop at Kroger because I have wal-mart AND Kroger IS cheaper. I use my Kroger card and they send me loads of coupons. They go by what you buy every week and actually send coupons for the stuff you normally buy. There are a couple of salvage stores near us and I scored some major deals last week. Viva paper towels for .35 a roll, the huge thing of liquid Tide for $10.50, the huge packs of Charmin for $3.99, Skintimate shave gel $1.01 a can, my husbands deoderant, pull ups, cat litter and lots of other stuff I can't even remember. I bought enough stuff to last us 4-5 months easy, for nearly nothing. The only reason I didn't get more was because there were people fighting in the aisles and I couldn't get through LOL!!! I recommend looking for the salvage stores nearby because they save you TONS. I go to the grocery store about every 10 days for the stuff we HAVE to have like milk, bread and fruit, the rest of the time I just keep my eyes out for stellar deals and grab them when I see them.

 

[b.hromada]

These are great savings tips!

Now that its summer, my kids, my boys to be exact, always have a friend or two over, and most times, they stay the night. I've started calling our house "the flop house"!

Summer, it gets so expensive for groceries, when the kids are out of school. I love these tips, and its fun reading how other people are saving money! Thanks everyone!!

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I don't have much to add on helping you get to your goal, I do not use coupons they never seem to be what I use or would regularly buy. We have food allergies that include Wheat and dairy so that adds to our grocery cost because those tend to be the cheapest way to stretch your meals (noodle meals, breads,tortillas etc) I just added up our eating out totals and grocery totals for this month and we are at 483.00 ouch, I used to spend 225.00 a month when we were able to eat wheat/dairy products. Try getting your produce at the farmers market and grow what you can will save you money also. Get back to basics, no processed foods they really drive up your grocery totals, drink iced tea, it is a lot cheaper than soda and a lot better for you than all crud that is in soda. No fruit drinks at our house the kids drink massive amounts of water and never complain. Rice is a great filler and you can make so many great dishes out of it.
When I was starting our family I loved the series of books called The Tightwad Gazette she goes a little further than I would be willing to do to save a buck but well worth the read when starting down the path of saving. Also I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's money makeover books/cd's He is realistic and down to earth with getting out and staying out of debt.

Cook meals that add up to two or three meals.
Homemade rotisserie chicken, first meal eat the chicken, second either boil off the bone for soups/stews or pick off meat for chicken nacho's.

Crockpot pork roast, first meal is the roast whole, what is left makes taco fillings, enchiladas, tamales, shredded pork (adding BBQ sauce) sandwiches.

Those types of meals will stretch you meat budget.

Love this topic and reading what others do is interesting

 

[ChickenToes]

No soda, no processed foods, cook as much from scratch as possible, and limit cleaning products and paper products. I clean mostly with white vinegar, and I don't use paper towels for cleaning, I use rags. No paper plates, napkins, etc. Veggies are cheaper than meat, so I grow a garden every year, and almost anything I cook has more veggies in it than meat. Use rice, beans, pasta, and potatoes to stretch a meal out.

 

[Quillgirl]

Eazy Mealz looks very cool. It does cost $5 per month for the menus and the cost of groceries is for dinner only (it looks like.) So your grocery bill would actually be larger when you add the cost of other meals and incidentals. Having it would take some of the work out of menu planning and help establish a grocery budget for those that have never done so.

I do think it's worth looking at the tips for coupons on the site. These are things I already do to save, but I use couponmom.com (free service) when i make my shopping lists for the week. This would also work in conjunction with the Easy Mealz plan, for those that use it, and could save you even more money. I usually save around 35% off my bill every trip using this site.

Our total grocery bill per week is around $120 for everything: breakfast, lunch, dinner and extras for 7-10 days for 4 people and a dog. If I were REALLY frugal and bought off brands and less meat, I could probably cut the bill to $75 or less. Look at the methods and tips on couponmom.com also for money saving ideas.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

And here I thought I was a shrewd shopper! I learned quite a bit though reading this thread! I am a bargain shopper for EVERYTHING. From food to clothes, to shoes, if it's not on sale or drastically discounted, I won't buy it. My kids have become so accustomed to my shopping habits that they know exactly what I will or won't buy, and how much is TOO much to pay. My store of choice is Aldi's. Now, not everyone has one in their area, and to be honest, in order for me to get to one, I have to travel about 40 miles, but it is soooooooo worth it! I buy all of my basics at Aldi's. I buy my tomato sauce ($.25 a can) there, at least 2 cases at a time, I buy crackers, flour, sugar, ground turkey ($1.19 for a lb. It's in a roll. Bought 4 rolls today), cheese, milk, etc. I can spend about $200 there and leave with 2 carts worth of food. I tend to not buy much meat there though as it's not as cost efficient as I would like. I will then head over to WalMart where I stock up on fish. My family can only agree on 3 kinds of fish, tuna, salmon, and tilapia. Tilapia is actually quite cheap and WM sells a BIG box with about 30 pieces in it for about $11. 4 pieces of fish at each meal, it means each box lasts through about 7 meals, give or take. I like to make a mustard sauce for my tilapia. Mustard is very inexpensive and not bad for you. I mix it with vinegar and a few spices, and pour it over the fish, and pop it in the oven. Fish is tasty and seasoned cheaply, and everyone is happy. I will also buy the salmon there in the 4 packs. Each bag has 4 pieces in it. It comes out to about $1.10 per person with the salmon, so we eat more tilapia than salmon. Tuna at Aldi's is only about $.45 a can. Much cheaper than anywhere else. I buy generic for everything too. The only things that I consistently buy name brand are my mustard (sorry, but it HAS to be Plotchmann's or nothing at all, the others are too bitter!), my laundry detergent (I buy powdered as I learned that it goes A LOT farther than the liquid does), my dish soap (Ajax is only a buck and it works great!), and pads. We here have A LOT of skin and food allergies, but I recently discovered that Aveeno has made their own body washes and shampoos and conditioner, so naturally, I went looking for the generic equivalent. I found it at CVS.

Next I will have to see if WalMart has a generic version. But I buy medicines, except my allergy pills, those are behind the pharmacy, and only Alavert will work, generic, body wash and soap generic, almost all foods that I haven't already bought at Aldi's, I will buy generic. I can my own preserves, I cook often times from scratch, and we eat A LOT of soups. We're trying slowly to create a garden, but I have so much nerve damage that I can't properly grasp a shovel to turn the Earth over (not to mention the fact that I was recently in a car accident and can now add shaking into the list of bizarre things my body does), and my mother, well, she has high blood pressure already, and we think she may recently have had a mini stroke, so we try to keep her from doing anything too strenuous, so it falls to my kids, 10 and 11, to turn the Earth over, and they are trying really hard, lol. My younger DD sat down and by hand pulled the grass in about 1/3 of the space we plan to use. Her sister then came in behind her and tried to sink the shovel and turn the soil. Here it is almost July and nothing really has been planted. I'll be lucky if I can get broccoli and cauliflower planted this year. But, somehow, some way, we'll get that soil turned, and when we do, I'll be planting like mad. I want to grow a ton so that hopefully I will be able to can enough fruits and veggies for a whole year at a time. I get free black raspberries (just have to find the hidden spots where they grow and go pick them), and my neighbor has given me the go ahead to come down to her spare property where she has these trees growing. We think they might be apricot trees. The fruits are soooooo yummy, and bite size. Well, my neighbor said I can come get as much as I want. So I'm going to pick them like mad this year! Hopefully I can get some peaches from another neighbor. I plan to can those too. I'll also buy frozen fruits on sale in bulk, and then can them. I go apple picking in the fall and make my own apple butter. Main cost? Sugar. I reuse the jars, so all I really have to stock up on is sugar which I get for a fair price at Aldi's. I really should use my crock pot more than I do. I'd LOVE to get a good recipe for pulled chicken. I'm personally not much on pork, however I do like pulled pork a lot. I just prefer to use chicken.

 

[Slinkytoys]

Try the website Hillbilly Housewife. It has a lot of good advice and a menu for a family of 4 real cheap.
Slinky

 

[PineappleMama]

Ours is "Whatever's Left After Paying The Bills"

Some week's that's been $20... other week's that's been $200.

On the $200 weeks I stock up on the good sales, so that when the $20 week rolls around all I need is milk and bread.

Probably not all that helpful, but it works for us.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Thats our problem..MEAT. I cant have a meal without meat.(its how i was raised..

..).. and with big boys in the house it gets expensive. Summertime is always so expensive for us with the kids home from school..

Thank god for my chickens! The boys WILL be eating ALOT of scrambled eggs and egg salad sandwiches for breakfast and lunch...