Grocery Budgets Anyone?

[Elite Silkies]

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...

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't eat so much meat

I told them we were going to cut meat out of our diets, and they had a fit!

 

[PineappleMama]

I'm really lucky that my DH and kids aren't all that picky...

When I make pasta quite often I don't bother with meat... considering that cheese and bread (aka Mac & Cheese, Pizza) process as protein I don't worry nutritionally ... but I also don't always like the greasiness that comes with using HBR... rather make meatballs and add them... pain in the butt, so I'll make a HUGE batch, cook them and freeze into batches and then all I have to do is defrost and toss them on top.

Salisbury Steak is a favorite too... meatloaf I always make two, since the oven's on, and freeze one.

When HBR is on for a good price I take advantage of that, and the easy meal that'll be good to go later.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Yumm..meatloaf, havent had that in a while... now i want to make that this weekend..

I put cream of mushroom soup in mine..

My favorite that hubby cooks is country fried steak with sausage gravy... God.. i dont even want to know what the inside my arteries look like....

 

[PineappleMama]

I hear you... I'm a mashed potato addict.

Our wall oven has never worked.. so we have a toaster oven, which ironically isn't much smaller than the 60s?70? actual oven. Anywho, I've found one distinct advantage to this 'problem' is that in hot weather I can take the oven outside and plug her in and bake to my heart's content without heating up the house... meatloaf in the summer! WOOT!

 

[Quillgirl]

Meatloaf, cold and cut into cubes, is very much like meatballs... just meat-cubes! Other than sandwiches, this is my favorite use of leftover meatloaf: mixed with pasta sauce on top of spaghetti, or mixed with sauce and macaroni and topped with mozzerella then baked. Yummo.

 

[Jkioneil]

i wish i had 1200$ bucks a month for food. we just get by. There are 9 of us. we spend about 500$ a month on food and at the end of the month we are eating canned goods and whatever we can put together that is edible. lots of rice. we shop at several different stores. winco for some stuff costco for dairy, bread and produce, and meat we buy flour and rice and other bulk items once every three months. We will shortly have our eggs from our girls which i am waiting for with bated breath and we just try ad get good deals as we can but it is hard. i am excited you posted this so we can try some of everyones ways to save money. if we can eat well all month for 500 we will be pretty dang happy. we also grow a lot of our own food here on our suburban farm. we have our ladies for eggs and meat. we have fig trees, walnuts,strawberries, blueberries,rasberries,blackberries, cherries,apples,pears,plums,and a veggie garden too. that helps a lot. But our frieds and family call me chicken lady and my husband is married to the chicken lady...guess he has not earned a title yet... they all think we are crazy. they wont when they are eating all our wonderful eggs!!

 

[bargain]

Family of 3-4 at $25 to $30 a week ....includes paper goods, personal items (shampoo etc) and dog food. Heavy coupon users and also grow and can/freeze....

I'm not supposed to mention sites but see coupon mom, also southern savers site and hot coupon world for coupon and savings ideas - works if if not double and trippling coupons. Best of luck and be blessed.

 

[BowChickaBowMow]

That's who I was trying to think of .... Coupon mom.. (mentioned in above post) and another vote from me for Hillbilly Housewife. They've changed the site since when I first started using it... so you'll have to browse around there, but have wonderful tips and recipes. The ones that saved me the most..... homemade laundry soap. I use the dry/powder mix, my mom uses the liquid recipe. Also the bread recipes from there have been a huge budget saver. I make my homemade yogurt, saves a ton, as my kids and I love yogurt. You can flavor it too, so we have fun w/ that. Also any chance for harvesting free fruit/veggies from friends/family, take advantage of it! Then freeze or can what you can't use right away. Yes, it's a little extra work, but sure helps with the grocery budget! Love the thread!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

We go fishing in a neighbors pond for FREE. That is free food AND free entertainment with the family for an afternoon! We also take any and all deer meat that folks don't want to fool with butchering. It goes into the freezer, the dehydrator, or the meat grinder immediately. We swap produce with neighbors for other produce or eggs. We shop sale items ONLY, at 4 stores. I have a store for canned goods, a store for meats, and a store for specialty items, then another for everything in between. My daughter has food allergies, so I have had to get creative, but I still spend WAY less than most folks. We can't eat hot dogs due to her allergies, most of the super cheap foods are off limits

Still, I spend around $50 a week for 3 now that DD 18 is not here. If DH would quit drinking 2 12 packs of sodas every week we'd spend even less...but that'll happen when I turn into a turnip.

Anyway, coupons are a waste of my time, store brands are better unless you get some like Walgreens that has rebates and such and things are FREE with the coupon. I save a good bit doing that. We grow/raise a good bit. When meat sales are good the freezer is packed. I make homemade waffles and bread. We cook a bunch from scratch as it is additives that DD is reactive to. When ground beef is on sale and not much room in the freezer...precook it, it takes up a lot less space that way. I also freeze and reserve leftovers. When we have a whole bunch of leftovers in the fridge we often have dinner smorgasborg...everything gets pulled, cut up into individual bites, and piled on a pizza pan in the middle of the table...they are usually quickly devoured and you get to start all over

Also, I am sneaky and cheap, if the milk gets low mid week I WILL add 16-20 oz of water to it, and it is never noticed. Also, I add a bit of oatmeal to hamburgers to spread it farther. There is a slight texture difference if ya get too much though. Anytime I cook chicken/roast/crockpot meats I save the broth for soups or flavoring rice and such. NOTHING gets wasted around here. Mom taught me early to save where I can, but then I take it to extremes sometimes

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

Growing anything you can greatly reduces the grocery bill. We grow tons of tomatoes and make our own spaghetti sauces, ketchup stewed tomatoes; yellow squash that we have fresh all the time and cut and freeze alot of it too; cabbage, green beans, cantalope, watermelon, pumpkins and lots of different peppers.

We get all of our beef from a cousin that pasture raises cattle for $2 lb no matter the cut. And hopefully next year we'll be raising enough chickens for ourselves. I usually only buy pork when it's on sale and buy as much as I can and put it in the freezer.

I do most of the cooking in the house and during the summer I slow cook alot of meals. During the cooler times though I make some big meals and the grocery bill goes up a little.

A lot of great ideas from others - going to have to put some to use.