I got a little discouraged today when I came out of the grocery store, having once again spent over $70 for groceries. This doesn't include the things I bought at Walmart on Monday night, either! I routinely spend between $70-$100 a week on groceries, which includes diapers for the kids, paper products, and health/hygiene items (shampoo, deodorant, etc.). Ideally, I would like to be spending under $50/week on our grocery bill. I look at some of these blogs and coupon sites where the ladies get $50 worth of groceries for $10 or something like that, and I wonder how in the world they do it? I have read their stories of frugal shopping, saving, and couponing, and I sure wish I could do as well as they do. As far as coupons, I don't do too well with those because I rarely find coupons on things that we actually use. Most are for name-brand items, and I use a lot of store brands, which end up to be cheaper than the name brands would be even with the coupons. Today I was able to use three coupons--one was a diaper coupon, one was for mayonnaise, and one was a store coupon for $3 off a package of ground beef. I saved $6 total, which I was happy about, but I still wish I could do better. Here are some of my difficulties:
1. Cost of living is more expensive here on the East Coast. But I believe wages are also higher, so that should help even things out, though it doesn't seem to work in our case.
2. We have only 2 grocery stores in our town. One is a super Walmart and the other is a New England chain grocery store with high prices. Neither store doubles coupons. Driving to another town to shop isn't practical for us, as it uses gas (more money!) and would make my day very crazy, trying to do so with the kids. (The closest town to us with competitive grocery stores where we could possibly save some money is half an hour away.)
3. We don't have a strict grocery budget. Bad, bad, I know! But even if we did, I fear I would be going over it a lot.
I don't buy a lot of convenience foods and I try to cook most everything from scratch. However, we aren't crazy about the "cheap" meals such as rice and beans or Ramen noodles . . . and I'm married to a meat-and-potatoes man who doesn't get very excited when I try cooking meatless meals. Plus, meatless meals (in my opinion) tend to not be very filling anyway, so we end up snacking more.
I hope I don't sound like I'm whining here! I'm trying to get to my main point. :) Which is, I'm going to challenge myself for the next 2 weeks, to use what I already have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry to make our meals. When I shop next week, I hope to only buy "staples," such as milk, bread (unless I decide to make some instead), eggs, etc. If my challenge goes well, I'll take stock of what I have left and maybe see if I can go another week without buying much. Of course, if the grocery store has a good special on meat or chicken, I may stock up on some of that. Right now, we have a ton of chicken in the freezer, because I've stocked up over the summer. So I foresee a lot of chicken meals in the next few weeks. :) I hope to get creative and have fun seeing what I can come up with.
Jim would also like me to invest in some more cloth diapers so I can put those on Julia most of the time and cut down on buying disposables. I have my eye on a brand of one-size pocket dipes that I want to try, but haven't ordered any yet. I hope to soon, though. I have dabbled in cloth diapering with Sam, but never stuck with it. I hope to do better with Julia; I would definitely feel better to not be throwing so many diapers away. :) I think we would still use disposables for trips and probably for church, though.
I would love to hear others' frugal ideas (or tales of woe, like mine--we can commisserate on our lack of frugal shopping skills together! :)), and if anyone wants to join me on my pantry challenge, please feel free! I'll try to update as I go along and let you know how it's going.
And now . . . I'd better go make supper! Tonight's menu: Steak & Cheese subs (OK, I do use convenience foods sometimes!--in this case it's frozen sandwich steaks--store brand), and salad (spring mix from a bag--another convenience food--but it's healthier than iceberg and a lot easier for me than trying to find all the gourmet kinds of lettuce that are in it and tear them up myself :)). I'm making a rhubarb coffeecake for dessert. What's for supper at your house?
6 comments:
The meal I cooked tonight was a frugal one... chicken thighs roasted with lots of veggies -- potatoes, mushrooms, onions, carrots, zucchini, summer squash. The bone-in chicken thighs were only 69¢ a pound, I think.
I'll share more frugal ideas later when I have more time. I like your use-it-up challenge idea!
I too think you are doing very well, Carrie. I think it is really not the grocery items, but the non-food items that add up. Some of those, like diapers, will not be with you forever, so you can take heart from that thought!
As far as the cost of groceries, I think they are expensive wherever you live. When visiting family in Nevada we were appalled at the price of ice cream. It was pretty high in SC, too, compared to here.
Just a few more quick thoughts... I have always tried to plan a week's worth of menus around what's on sale in that week's grocery store flyer. For the most part it works quite well. Of course there are always those weeks when you just don't feel like making something you had planned to serve, but that's when a quick meal from the pantry comes into play. I think you do an excellent job with your meal planning, so don't beat yourself up. Of course we all have room for improvement in any area of life!
One thought in menu planning is to sort of mix it up: a chicken meal, a beef meal, a fish meal, a crockpot meal, a grilled meal, a main-dish salad or a soup (depending on season), a meatless meal (like mac'n'cheese or veggie lasagna), an egg-y meal (like quiche, or fried-egg sandwiches or an egg bake), etc. We eat different soups a LOT during winter (several times a week) and do the same with main-dish salads in summer.
Mr. T and I shop together now, but when I did the grocery shopping alone (or with kids) I just took the budgeted amount of cash and that was it. If I had to put things back at the end, I did so. I became quite adept at adding it up in my head (rounding up) but a calculator is really a safer idea. Maybe you could try this even if you don't use cash -- just pretend you do and will have to put items back if you go over your amount! I know, sometimes you just can't.
Anyway, just a few ideas -- hope they help.
Hey Carrie,
Thought I'd go ahead and post this on your blog, so it be easier to get to. Yes, I do remember you and your sister from Northland days. I also keep up with your blog and enjoy seeing your kids, although I'm truly awful about leaving comments most the time. =)
I do use BumGenius with Calvin and have been happy with them. I have had some issues with the laundry tabs coming loose, but I bought them right when they first came out so they've done some modifications. If you buy them at Cottonbabies.com (the place that makes them), they have been absolutely wonderful. Matter of fact, they had me send back all of the diapers so that they could replace them with the the "new and improved" version.
I've never tried Fuzzi Bunz so I can't really compare. I understand about reading mixed reviews..it seems that way about every diaper I researched. Some people loved it, others thought it was terrible, etc.
Anyway, overall I have really liked the BumGenius. They seem to adjust sizes real well and that is a major plus, if you consider the extra expense of buying diapers in every size. Since we would like to have quite a few more kids, it's definitely a worthy investment.
If you have any more questions let me know.
Tricia
One of the things I've done to cut my grocery bill is to feed the girls peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast (instead of cereal) and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Then the only meal I have to really plan for is supper, and then every week we have one night of tacos, cornbread & beans, and spagetti or meatloaf. This helps with my shopping because I only have to plan four meals a week (of which we usually have company for one).
Let me know what the cost difference is with using the cloth diapers. I've considered using them, but I've not been able to determine if the work is the money.
Hi Carrie. I really liked this entry a lot! I think its a topic nearly every mom has to work out. Even some of my very wealthy friends lament about the cost of certain grocery items...Anyway- try working on a monthly budget. Here in South Africa everyone gets paid once a month, which is very different from what I was used to in the US (once a week or every 2wks). I go the day SHeldon gets paid, or the day after, and fill up a grocery cart to overflowing. I'm telling you- I seriously had a panic attack about 4months ago. The grocery store got these new fancy machines that show you the price of each item and keeps a subtotal the whole time (this is prob normal in the US)- so I saw it go up and up and up... oi vey. It was R1,400, which is HUGE for us. I thought I was going to die! The next month was about the same, around R1,300, and then I hadn't bought diapers or some other toiletries. Again, panic attack right there at the register! But, the next two months have been better. I had ended up stocking up on some non-parishbale stuff that has ended up lasting me a couple of months. Olive oil, mayo, salad dressing. I dunno- stuff like that. It's really hard working on a monthly budget. I liked the other suggestions about making up a menu, mixing that up w/ different foods (beef, chix, soup, mac&cheese) and also trying to buy what's on sale. We do that here. I have 4 grocery stores from which to choose, but only 1 is geared toward how shall I say- the 'white' population. That sounds racist, but if anyone would like a further explanation please feel free to e-mail me. I don't feel like explaining the politics of SA right now- anyhoo-so we have 1 grocery store that has a sale that lasts 2wks. Then new items are on sale, also for2wks. When certain things are on sale, esp a great sale, i stock up. With the R1,400 grocery bill I had bought a lot of washing powder. It was like 33% off (usually things are like .10 off, which here is like .01 off for you)!!! It has lasted me 3months!!! So I try to keep my pantry full in that way- buy 10 cans of tuna if its on a gr8 special, then not buy it again for however long (the expiration date on those things is scary- at least here anyway! like 2009 or something! ick!!!). We have used cloth diapers off and on w/ both kids- it works out gr8 when pay day is approaching, the bank account is empty, and the Pampers are almost at an end- i save the Pampers for night time and use the cloth ones during the day. This is long enough. Keep at it- you'll find a plan that works out best for you and your family. Allow yourself to splurge now and then. Life is short and as far as I know- there may be no chocolate chips in heaven.... :)
Carol, thanks for your comment! I enjoyed checking out your blog. I hope you can reach your goal of being debt free by the end of next year!
Mrs. T, thanks for sharing your encouragement and frugal meal ideas!
Mindee, it definitely helps to have the extra storage space so I can stock up when there are good sales. I can see how shopping in general must be so much more challenging when you have to work around health issues. I'm so thankful that so far we seem to be food-allergy free. :) Thanks for your encouragement, as well!
Tricia, thanks for sharing your experiences with the BumGenius diapers!
Tracy, thanks for the sandwich ideas for breakfast and lunch. Sam occasionally eats cereal, but lately his favorite meal has been toast with applesauce on it (weird, I know!--we substituted it once when we ran out of jelly, and now he keeps requesting it!). I will definitely let you know how cloth diapers work out for us if we start using them full time.
Christen, wow--can't imagine working off of a monthly budget!! Although, with Jim being self-employed, our financial situation is always changing, anyway, so that makes it a little different. I guess it's the main reason (excuse!) I have for not having an actual budget for all our expenses. I enjoyed your comment; it was so interesting to hear how things work in another country, and good to know that I'm not the only one who faces challenges in the frugality area. :) And you were the first one to get me interested in cloth diapers, which I will always be thankful for! Even though we don't use them all the time yet, I have had a blast learning about the different kinds and seeing that it doesn't have to be as "gross" as in the old days. :) I also liked your comment about chocolate chips in Heaven. :) That's one thing I will not be cutting out of my grocery bill--as choc. chip cookies are Jim's favorite!!
Post a Comment