I haven't done a question of the week for a long time, and this is one that I thought would be a good one. I've been seeing the need to crack down on our weekly grocery spending even more--this is an area that doesn't come easy for me, and I really need to work on it. I get a bit discouraged when I read about others' amazingly low grocery bills, because it just doesn't seem possible to me to get those kind of good deals around here. We have only 2 stores in our town--a grocery store and a super-Walmart, so there is not much competition. I buy quite a bit of our stuff at Walmart now, because I can save a few cents over the grocery store prices, although I pretty much always buy meat and produce at the grocery store, because I'm not overly impressed with the quality of the same stuff at Walmart. I do use coupons when I can, but frankly, I have a hard time finding coupons for products that I actually use. Anyway, here are my question(s):
1) What do you all think that a reasonable grocery budget for a family of four should look like? I read somewhere that a starting point could be to aim for $3 per person, per day. So that would mean that our budget would be around $84 per week. Although Julia doesn't really "count" yet, since she doesn't eat that much real food at this point--so maybe $63 would be a more accurate number. According to these numbers, I guess we are doing OK, because I spend probably anywhere from $60-100 per week. I would just like to be as frugal with Jim's hard-earned money as possible, and I feel like there must be a way to do better. Also, do you include only food items in your budget for groceries, or does it include paper items, diapers, etc. as well? I would like any tips you can give me, and particularly any suggestions for . . .
2) Cheap recipes! Feel free to share your frugal favorites. I am married to a meat and potatoes man, so although I would like to try to incorporate more meatless dishes, this is not always an option. :) We do eat some meatless things such as homemade mac 'n cheese, or breakfast foods for supper, such as scrambled eggs or pancakes. Jim is not a huge fan of veggies or beans, so again, I have to take that into account and cook to please him.
I'm looking forward to any input you all have to share. :) Hopefully I'll get time to write more tomorrow and update on our lives, as well as answer all the comments that are piling up again!
10 comments:
Well, this is a great question! I hope lots of people comment so I can learn lots of good tips! My big (woo hoo! it's not that big) money saving idea is to buy a whole boneless ham and have the meat dept. shave it or slice it for you to save $$ on lunch meat. My hubby likes sandwich wraps for his lunches, which I make with meat, cheese, and veggies wrapped up in a tortilla, and since I've started buying ham this way, it has really saved in the lunch meat category, especially since I can separate it out and freeze it for later!
I'm not exactly sure how to figure a grocery budget either. Recently we have been able to take part in a food pantry which has dropped our budget to $100 a month, but before that we were spending $170-190 a month. The only thing that I can think of that has helped us is to cut out most convenience and snack foods. I started using a book called Saving Dinner and faithfully following it each week helped me to plan and cut out the last minute runs to the grocery where I would end up picking up stuff we didn't really need.
Well i don't think you are too bad on your budget I am suppose to spend about 60 a week on groceries but Mike has graciously realized 70 would be better. I do pretty good until you add in the extras (diapers, medicine, toilitries, but I stil try to get them on lower grocery weeks.) My husband is not big on the veggies either except brocolli. Some of our favorites are Pizza, Hamburger - tacos, meatloaf and homemade mac and cheese, spagetti, lasagna, cheeseburgers, meatball sandwichs Chicken - chicken tatertot casserole, chicken and noodles, Chicken breasts on the grill. Mostly I try to use these two meats b/c they are the cheapest but I throw in pork chops, pork ribs, steak, sausage and gravy, and other things. I use smaller portions of meat when I make casseroles, and other sides. Other money saving meals are wraps of all sorts, salads, soup in bread bowls, Gravy and buiscut meals. I do shop at Walmart, starting just about 3 months ago. i think their prices are around 30 cents cheaper for most items and I buy meat in bulk. I try to only shop at one place to save time and for me money (I would spend way to much going to two different places to be tempted by all the "deals") Hope this is helpful. My family is 2 adults and 2 children that eat with us.
I also only shop once a week b/c going in the store makes me want to buy extras that aren't on my list :)
Excellent question, Carrie! We spend about $60 a week on groceries but I always go over budget when we have company coming over. I shop at 3 or 4 different stores but only do my grocery shopping on one outing a week. In our town, there's quite a selection of stores and it helps our budget to get go to different ones for different items. I buy our staples at Save-A-Lot which is cheaper than Aldi (has anyone else noticed they've been raising their prices lately?). I also think planning your week completely and sticking to your list is important - unless there's an amazing deal on meat that you can freeze for later use.
My hubby must be the only one who doesn't mind meat-less dinners! We have soup at least once a week and I usually make a big pot so it lasts us for lunches too. (This week was a disaster though as I tried to use whole wheat pasta - YUCK!) Other than that I buy whatever meat I can on sale. I also buy ground turkey regularly and mix it with ground beef or use it as a beef substitute. That's saved us money and it's much less fatty. I have an awesome ground turkey burger recipe and a ground turkey burrito recipe that's good. I also do a bean-as-meat supper once every two weeks or so. Black bean nachos or burritos are our favorites! I try to copy what chipotle does with those. Too bad you guys don't like beans! They're really good for you.
I'm sure I've exceeded the limit here for post-length. Great question! I think you should extend this post or post about it again because I'd love to find out what other ladies do to save money!
I'm not much help in this area, but could use lots of help.
Loved all your recent posts with all the pictures.
Just thought I would say Hi. I always check in every day or so to see if you have posted.
Jenny--great tip about the ham! I have bought a ham for lunch meat before, but never thought of having the meat dept. cut it for me--that would be a lot easier!
Tricia--the food pantry sounds awesome! Wow, you are doing really well with your grocery spending! We don't use a lot of convenience and snack foods, either, which definitely helps. I have the Saving Dinner book--haven't ever followed it faithfully, though, because there are too many meals that my hubby wouldn't appreciate. :) He's really not THAT picky, but he just likes things that are familiar to him. :)
Carrie--thanks so much for sharing about your budgeting and also the meals you enjoy. We eat a lot of similar things! I too buy mostly chicken and hamburger for meat, as it is cheaper, although sometimes we can get pork really reasonable, too. I TRY to only shop once a week, too, but it seems there are ALWAYS things that I forget, or we run out of something important before it's time to shop again!
Alicia--I didn't mind the long post at all! :) It was fun to read your tips and meal ideas. I actually like beans a lot more than my hubby does--and he does like baked beans, but not kidney beans, black beans, etc. Otherwise I would do a lot more with chili! I think I may start doing a New England traditional baked beans/brown bread night once a week or every couple weeks--we will see. I think I may try the ground turkey idea, too--I never liked it as a kid, and I didn't think Jim liked it, although I recently found out that he's OK with it. Please share your burger and burrito recipes! You can email me if you don't want to go to the trouble of posting in a comment . . .
Joey--it was so nice to hear from you. :) I'll try to email you very soon!
One thing I have found helps to make main dishes cheaper and also lower in fat is to cut down on the amounts of meat and cheese. For example, I have a spaghetti pie recipe which calls for a pound of ground pork. You don't really need it for protein in a dish which already contains milk, an egg, and cheese. It's really more for flavor. So in this recipe I always use only 1/2 lb. of meat, and I don't think anyone would ever know the difference. I cut down the amounts of meat and cheese routinely in recipes and they always come out fine. I don't believe that a recipe ever needs more than 2 cups of shredded cheese, even if it calls for four cups. I generally cut the cheese about in half, sometimes even more.
Another thing I do is to make my own onion soup mix, ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning mix, etc. This saves a lot of money.
I have more of my thoughts concerning frugal and meatless cooking over at my blog. I will try and come back later today and post a link to the specific posts on these subjects.
Some cookbooks I highly recommend are Jane Brody's Good Food Book, Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet, and The More With Less Cookbook.
Hope this helps a bit!
I just checked and many of my "frugal cooking" posts are in the August 2006 archives. Hope this helps someone!
I also did a bunch on meatless cooking -- think if you do a search of my blog you should be able to find them.
Mom, thanks for the great tips! I really need to work at cutting back on the meat and cheese, as you suggested. I know that would help a lot! I also need to get some of those cookbooks you mentioned. I had forgotten that you had blogged a lot on frugal and meatless cooking . . . I will have to go back and check out the archives!! :)
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