Just curious who else is living super frugal

[Rathbone]

Checking back in... I have been away for a while. Insee this thread is still going strong. Nice!
Frugal on my friends!

 

[HeatherLynn]

I was reading a post on a mommy forums about the cost of feeding our families. The amounts listed were a touch shocking to me. People thought they were being very frugal when spending ONLY 1200 a month to feed a family of 8.

I have a family of 6 and we eat on so much less than that. So I thought I would put together a sample menu and shopping list for a week. This is only a sample I wrote out based on a typical sorta week. It might give some ideas. Others might have ways I could make it a touch healthier. I have converted to making almost everything from scratch. I do cheat with a few box items like bread mixes. Anywho this is what I wrote down. Its hard for me to break it down into a week because I plan monthly but I did my best.







How to feed your family for less at ALDI
Feeding a family of 4

Day 1
breakfast: Irish oatmeal/ milk
Lunch: yogurts, chips, and ham sandwiches
Dinner Spaghetti and meatballs, green beans or corn cinnamon quick bread ( left overs are great for breakfast)
Day 2
Breakfast: Cinnamon quick bread, banana, juice
Lunch: turkey joes/ green beans
Dinner: pork loin, mashed potatoes/ corn , beer bread
Day 3
Breakfast: french toast/ kefir
Lunch: peanut butter sandwiches/ carrot stick and apple slices
Dinner: ravioli/ tomato and meat sauce, salad
Day 4
Breakfast: Irish oatmeal, banana, milk
Lunch: Texas toast , spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce
Dinner: baked chicken, pasta w/white sauce
Day 5
Breakfast: cranberry orange muffins
Lunch: tuna sandwiches/ apple slices
Dinner: baked wild caught salmon/ mashed potatoes/ asparagus
Day 6
Breakfast: cheese omelet
Lunch: chicken noodle soup, corn bread
Dinner:BBQ beef biscuits, green beans cinnamon bread
Day 7
Breakfast: cereal banana milk
Lunch: left over BBQ beef biscuits carrot sticks and apples
Dinner: baked chicken, scalloped potatoes, beans, beat salad beer bread

Shopping list






tomato paste 1.18
pesto ( walmart) $3 usually lasts me for at least 10 dishes
pasta 4 4 packages
meatballs 2 1 package
Irish oatmeal 1.79
2 gallons milk 5.58
Whole wheat bread 2.97 3 loaves
banana 2lbs 88
peanut butter 2.89 ( last price I had listed so its a couple months old)
jelly 1.79
pork loin roughly $4
eggs 2.78 2 dozen
beer bread mix 3 2 of these
corn bread mix 1 2 boxes
lunch meat 2 packages 5
cheese blocks 4 2 of these
cinnamon quick bread mix 3 2 of these
salad mix 1.99
bag carrots 1.99
bag apples roughly 3
canned green beans 2.76 4 cans
canned corn 2.76 4 cans
asparagus 1.99 1 package frozen
butter ? ( I cannot remember but will make a guess) $3
Sloppy joe mix .89
condensed milk ( for white sauce) .89
Parmesan 1.99 small but enough to make white sauce a few times
1 lb ground turkey 1.99
1.b ground beef 2.99
3lbs frozen chicken breast 5.49
apple juice 3.38 2 bottles
cereal 3.38 2 boxes of the low sugar kinds they are cheaper
Kefir 2.79
scalloped potatoes 1.98 2 boxes
chips 1.99
cranberry orange muffin mix ( name brand starts with a K super yummy) 1.99
Danimals 4 ( 2 boxes)
mootubes ( just like a gogurt) 2 ( 1 boxes)
biscuits 2 tubes 3.98 ( makes roughly 32 biscuit cups to add the BBQ meat to)
1 package frozen ravioli 1.99
tuna 1.68 2 cans
Mayo 1.89 small jar

Total 107.85

Some things may be left out like salad dressing but these are more than 1 time use items. To even it out I also included several items like the Parmesan, pesto, and jelly that are multiple use.
This is actually very close to how we eat but there are 6 of us so.... but still we usually only spend around $400 a month to feed everyone. I added eggs which we provide ourselves. We also provide our own canned beans, corn, beats, jellies, and apple sauces. When I have time I also save money and make my own biscuits. We buy a ton of yogurt and kefir as you can see. I have toddlers and these just make life easier. More expensive also but easier. The blocks of cheese are used in omelets and cubed for snacks.

I love love love the steel cut oatmeal. Its cheap at Aldi too and a half cup makes a HUGE amount of oatmeal. A bit of Cinnamon and my homemade vanilla YUM

 

[Bullitt]

Wow, you put a lot of work into that information. I think you should post this information in a new thread so more people will see it.

 

[RHRanch]

Wow, you put a lot of work into that information. I think you should post this information in a new thread so more people will see it.

I agree, and could you add the recipies for the quickbread, etc?

 

[vmdanielsen]

Wow! really impressive! I have to say though, Doing everything exactly as you are, with the same exact grocery list, I would never be able to do it at $107 here in the northeast. prices are way to high here. $5.58 for 2 gallons of milk? We pay that for 1 gallon of milk!

Keep up the good work!

 

[zzGypsy]

that's an interesting exercise... looking at how other folks eat and what they're paying.
our menu would be different in that we're meat+eggs+a carbo of some sort for breakfast, with more cheese and milk (hubby drinks about a quart a day) but we're able to produce our own milk & yogurt. and a lot of crockpot stuff (stew, soup) made with whatever's on hand. that and I feel totally deprived if there isn't *some* sort of a treat in there somewhere (cookies, pumpkin pie) although not every day.

I don't like the daily-cooking routine so when we're working best, I batch cook meals, pack them and freeze them. we need to add another freezer, and when we do I'll resume doing this - I'll spend a day cooking and pre-packing meals, usually enough for 2 weeks of lunch/dinner. then we'll use those and add on fresh items (like salad) or do fast-to-make like sandwiches instead. I pack some things like soup in larger batches instead of individual meals.

 

[Totalcolour]

I was reading a post on a mommy forums about the cost of feeding our families. The amounts listed were a touch shocking to me. People thought they were being very frugal when spending ONLY 1200 a month to feed a family of 8.

I have a family of 6 and we eat on so much less than that. So I thought I would put together a sample menu and shopping list for a week. This is only a sample I wrote out based on a typical sorta week. It might give some ideas. Others might have ways I could make it a touch healthier. I have converted to making almost everything from scratch. I do cheat with a few box items like bread mixes. Anywho this is what I wrote down. Its hard for me to break it down into a week because I plan monthly but I did my best.



Shopping list

tomato paste 1.18
pesto ( walmart) $3 usually lasts me for at least 10 dishes
pasta 4 4 packages
meatballs 2 1 package - make your own, cheaper, healthier!
Irish oatmeal 1.79
2 gallons milk 5.58
Whole wheat bread 2.97 3 loaves
banana 2lbs 88
peanut butter 2.89 ( last price I had listed so its a couple months old)
jelly 1.79
pork loin roughly $4
eggs 2.78 2 dozen
beer bread mix 3 2 of these - make your own, cheaper
corn bread mix 1 2 boxes - make your own, cheaper
lunch meat 2 packages 5
cheese blocks 4 2 of these
cinnamon quick bread mix 3 2 of these - make your own, cheaper
salad mix 1.99 - cheaper to get the non-bagged, you can get over twice as much for the same price
bag carrots 1.99
bag apples roughly 3
canned green beans 2.76 4 cans
canned corn 2.76 4 cans
asparagus 1.99 1 package frozen
butter ? ( I cannot remember but will make a guess) $3
Sloppy joe mix .89
condensed milk ( for white sauce) .89
Parmesan 1.99 small but enough to make white sauce a few times
1 lb ground turkey 1.99
1.b ground beef 2.99
3lbs frozen chicken breast 5.49 - if you buy it whole, you have the carcass for soup
apple juice 3.38 2 bottles
cereal 3.38 2 boxes of the low sugar kinds they are cheaper
Kefir 2.79
scalloped potatoes 1.98 2 boxes - make it yourself, it's cheaper AND healthier
chips 1.99
cranberry orange muffin mix ( name brand starts with a K super yummy) 1.99
Danimals 4 ( 2 boxes)
mootubes ( just like a gogurt) 2 ( 1 boxes)
biscuits 2 tubes 3.98 ( makes roughly 32 biscuit cups to add the BBQ meat to) - Cheaper to make your own
1 package frozen ravioli 1.99
tuna 1.68 2 cans
Mayo 1.89 small jar

Total 107.85

Some things may be left out like salad dressing but these are more than 1 time use items. To even it out I also included several items like the Parmesan, pesto, and jelly that are multiple use.
This is actually very close to how we eat but there are 6 of us so.... but still we usually only spend around $400 a month to feed everyone. I added eggs which we provide ourselves. We also provide our own canned beans, corn, beats, jellies, and apple sauces. When I have time I also save money and make my own biscuits. We buy a ton of yogurt - you can make your own, and it's cheaper! (I used a thermos until I got a yogurt maker, add a bit of sugar/substitute and vanilla, or fresh fruit for the kids) and kefir as you can see. I have toddlers and these just make life easier. More expensive also but easier. The blocks of cheese are used in omelets and cubed for snacks.

I love love love the steel cut oatmeal. Its cheap at Aldi too and a half cup makes a HUGE amount of oatmeal. A bit of Cinnamon and my homemade vanilla YUM

Not bad - perhaps some of the things I noted, you do for convenience, because you could actually trim more. Good job!

 

[zzGypsy]

one other thing I was thinking about... I like kits, so we bulk-and-batch a lot of things to use later.
there was a good sale on mushrooms a couple of weeks ago, so I bought up most of what they had, and went looking for a good deal on onions - enough to match the quantity of mushrooms when chopped. spent part of the evening slicing mushrooms and chopping onions and packed them in equal parts in baggies, in the right amount to make breakfast omlettes. flatten the filled baggies out with the air squished out so they stack nicely, and put them in the freezer. if I'd found a good deal on ham, I'd have bought some, chopped it and put that in there too... or basically anything else that'd be nice in an omlette.
breakfast prep is faster
there's no difference I can tell between frozen this way and fresh
the baggies are reuseable
it molifies some of my resistance to cooking because it's a kit, and I like those

and it lets me take advantage of good prices when they happen.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Alot of these are for convenience. Not every week is like this but I figured I would use my worst weeks as an example. When my weeks are a bit less hectic you are more likely to see me peeling potatoes or kneeding bread. I try to use less box stuff but honestly I think I may have over extended my life lol. I use google calendar and there is so much pink writing I can't look at it on monthly because I go into panic attacks. Just a tiny bit over extended I know. Making as much as we can from scratch is an awesome way to cut our food bills though and probably our medical and gym membership bills too.

I have considered making my own Kefir because honestly we love it. So good for your tummy too. Its sorta on the never ending to do list still.
Many times I also make my own meatballs. Not just for sphagetti but also for meatball soup which is a family favorite. The more expensive things get the more uses I find for cheap meats. My nephew only eats 'normal meats' on special occasions. The rest is deer. Good possibility that we will be doing the same next year. Deer is really great for those with cholesterol issues too. My hubbies is genetic. No matter what we do he stays right on the edge of having good levels and we do a ton to keep it that way. Almost all his family has to take medications for it.

( note the quick bread is a box mix, I use these for convenience on busy weeks. I prefer home baked goods and like adding fruits to these. ) If anyone has some awesome quick bread recipes to share I am sure we would all appreciate those.

Oh and I encourage all of you to hop on Amazon and order some vanilla beans and grab a bottle of cheap vodka. We have made our own. Its not even been 6 months and the stuff smells AWESOME. Seriously cheap way to have tons of quality vanilla extract. Thank you guys so much for the directions on how to do it. We use lots of vanilla since we do cook a ton. Huge money saver.

 

[zzGypsy]

on yogurt making - I use an igloo type cooler and hot water in bottles, make it in quart jars - easy and makes over night. if you like it thicker, you can go 24 hours instead of 12.

basically you heat your milk (temperature depends on the starter you're using), mix in the starter and stir it *really* well, pour it into quart canning jars. put them in the igloo cooler, and fill up the rest of the cooler with bottles of water as hot as you can get it from your tap. throw a bath towel on top, and put the lid on the cooler. let it set overnight. if you want, refill the jars with hotest tap water in the morning, cover and close it up, and let it set another 12 hours. almost no effort beyond getting the milk the right temp, makes excellent yogurt!