What kinds of things do you cook? I have some go to recipes for those times that are tight. Spaghetti is always cheap. Beans don't cost a lot. Soups are a great budget stretcher!
Wow! You have gotten great advice and a lot of this I do, and this last week I revamped out budget with the hubby to tighten it a little bit more. Since so much has been offered in advice- the one thing that is driving us: 1. Make goals together!! This makes the tight budget easier to stick to when you want to splurge or widen the budget! 2. The goals should be something you both want and can attain- is it to pay off something by this date? We are at the point our goal is to save for vacation- a family of 5 getting out of Alaska is spendy- so we figured how much we need by a certain date to buy the tickets for next summer. So we are much more excited about our new budget since we have something to look forward to in the end. =) Good luck!
One of my best tips-know YOUR family's weakness. For us, for a long time it was eating out. Cooking double batches and freezing 1/2 for busy days helped our budget A LOT! One tip I rarely ever see on any money saving threads that is a recently discovered weakness for us-- don't pay for drinks! Water is FREE! We rarely ever drink anything but water anymore. Most juice you buy...it's not healthy at all-they healthy juice is VERY expensive! Even "100% juice" isn't healthy. General rule-if it's clear-it's crap. It's basically sugar. Our next big purchase is going to be a juicer Most of what we (americans) drink is empty calories-it's eats our grocery budget but doesn't offer health benefits and is full of sugar but doesn't fill us up. We also have a rule that we don't drink milk. We use it for cereal, homemade yogurt, in cooking-but rarely drink it. What dairy farmers who lobby for dairy to be a big part of our government produced food pyramid don't want you to know is between calcium in foods (like oatmeal, kale, broccoli, citrus fruits, etc) and other dairy products besides a glass of milk we get plenty of calcium-there is no need to chug 3-4 glasses of expensive milk each day like we've been led to believe. I've also stopped buying snack foods. No crackers, no chips, no cake, no cookies, no prepackaged anything for the last 2 months. Instead, I buy LOTS of fresh fruit and carrots. My grocery budget has actually WENT DOWN! Because when you eat good food, you don't need to eat as much food. I did some research recently on how the American diet has changed over the past 50 years. We all know how portion size has increased over the years-used to one of those big cokes we buy at the gas station for use to gulp down was what your grandmother bought for the family for a week! One thing I recently read said in the past (50's-70's I think) people ate ONE snack a day, where we now eat 3-5 a day. Since we quit buying the processed snack food-we don't snack as much at my house! 1-2 snacks a day is all we eat now, where my kids used to snack constantly, as did I. Instead of snack food and sweets we eat fresh fruit now! We get a bag of apples each week and a ton of bananas (Cause those 2 fruits everyone in the family likes and they are also very affordable.) Then, I check sales and produce markdowns for the remainder of our fruit. This week we have oranges, kiwi, grapes, mango and strawberries-and thanks to a friend cantaloupe and golden honey dew. A 3 lb bag of carrots is budget friendly and they last well if stored properly. I peel about 1/2 and make some carrot sticks for easy grabbing & snacking and carrot raisin salad. If they are in danger of going bad they can be peeled cooked and frozen for future side dishes. If you have a Sam's Club nearby I find some AWESOME deals on produce there. 3 lb bag of fresh broccoli, cauliflower & baby carrots for only $3, 3 lb bag romaine lettuce are cheap as well as cole slaw mix are under $3 as well. Cherub tomatoes are affordable there. (I had a salad for dinner 5 nights last week!LOL) And bags of pears at Sam's means my 5 year old can eat them all week instead of having 3 as a treat for the same price! LOL I've also found (since cleaners were mentioned) it saves money if you can cut down on how many different things you need. I clean my whole house with dawn, windex and murphy's oil soap. I try to buy them in bulk once a year (with tax refund) so they don't come out of the grocery budget I also found it's easier (and maybe cheaper? Can't remember-but def less trouble) to buy Allen's Naturally than to make my own laundry detergent. https://www.allensnaturally.com/product_info.php?products_id=28 Next year I think I'm going to try their fabric softener too.
I love all the great ideas! When my family is feeling like a special meal, I look up a recipe for a favorite restaurant, they're easy to find if you google them. Sometimes I'll make up a few special meals and freeze them to make it easier to not splurge.
I find one of the best things I can do is make chicken broth. Many of my recipes need it....and that's if I haven't turned it all into soup. One of the great things about it is it's essentially a by-product of another meal. Most of the time, for me, it's a whole roasted chicken. Sometimes it's leg quarters. I wash first, then dry, then rub with a mix of salt, pepper, garlic powder and lemon rind. Let sit overnight. Next day wash off the rub, rub butter on skin and roast. I butterfly my chicken, but you don't have to...I just find it cooks much more evenly. I roast in a pan over stalks of celery and some carrots. After my chicken is done, I put all the fat and vegetables still in the roasting tray in a large pot. I add a roasted onion and some bay leaf. And some salt to taste. I make sure no one throws away the bones, break the large ones in half and throw them in the pot too. Then I cover with five quarts of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for a long time.....I usually lose almost a quart of water. BOOM!! Four quarts of customized broth. After a few batches you will really get your own preferences down. Another couple of tips....sometimes I roast just the vegetables then throw the whole chicken in with five quarts of water (wash the chicken first....or parboil it). After about an hour your meat will be done. Take it out, let it cool then pull all of the meat off of it. Break larger carcass bones and throw it back in the pot for a couple more hours. I take the meat and chop it up. I make a sauce of sweet chilli sauce you can get from the Asian section of the grocery story, some lime juice and I use a little fish sauce (a VERY strong smelling sauce in the Asian section....smells like fermented fish b/c it IS fermented fish). I put the sauce on my chicken, then put that in an iceberg cup and add cilantro and bean sprouts. Super great lunch during the summer!! And anytime really. Low fat, high nutrition, cheap and delicious. One other recipe that I make is an asian chicken/mushroom soup. I start with my broth, add finely chopped ginger, a little chopped garlic, some chopped green onion and some dehydrated s h itake mushrooms. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, add chicken, let simmer for about five more minutes, add rice noodles. The noodles will take five minutes to cook (I let it go for about 10). After you pour it in a bowl, you can dress it with Sriracha sauce, lime juice (the lime will tone down the heat of the Sriracha), bean sprouts, cilantro and chopped green onion. We actually eat that for breakfast in the fall and winter. It really seems to aid in our digestion process, keeps us healthy and is super good. Anyway....make your own stock.
