I'm big on stocking up. We had boneless chicken breast on sale for $1.88/lb this past week, so I bought a good bit of it. Next week I'm going apple picking, and will be making and freezing apple sauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, and apples for frying up. I'll probably spend close to $60 on apples, but they'll last me all winter. And a neighbor has a pear tree with LOTS of pears! He called me, telling me to take as much as I want, so I am now making pear sauce. I may mix the pears and apples together for that.
Jackie that is why I started the thread. One way I found to cut back on groceries is not have convenience stuff available, stuff that my family eats out of boredom rather than hunger, like chips! Dh needed to lose about 5 pounds because he had developed a little pooch, after we could not longer afford to buy chips and cookies (due to everything else being so expensive) he stopped knocking down a bag of chips in one sitting. Wa-la now he is back to his fighting weight. I've never been a chip-cookie person. And, we have a saved a lot of money. Chips are very expensive and I can make a nice meal that is healthy, that everyone will enjoy and get full on, for about what a bag of chips cost.
Two people gave us a bunch of apples and I make apple crisp. The apples are annoying to peel because they are smaller than store bought apples but they are free!
I know what you mean! We used to be able to go into Wal-Mart, put what ever we wanted into the cart and not even think about cost and now you spend a couple hundred dollars and wonder what you got for your $$. It costs about $27.00 in gas for us to go to town. We only go once a month, if that!
Pam, we eat a lot like you. Meat is not a dish of it's own in our house. If you get meat it is inside of something else... unless we find it on a "buy it before it spoils" sale. My hubby also likes to look for mismarked packages. We have already gotten a 10 pound pack of hamburger for 63 cents and on the same day got a package with 3 large steaks for just over a buck! He could spend an hour going through the meat department looking for screwups. We also do not drink milk, it goes into something.. if you have cereal you can drink the milk We are lucky enough to get WIC, but soon won't qualify (dh got a 15 cent raise and it puts us over ) That is a huge help for us, but I'm training the kids now to treat milk like it is gold! I buy most of my groceries at Wal-mart, but they are not cheaper for bread, so that comes from the grocery store. Here is a cheap recipe that we love: (I double it for us, so hubby has some for work the next day) 1lb ground beef 1 med onion chopped (I use one when I double) 1/4 cup bbq sauce or ketchup 1 can baked beans 4oz grated cheddar cheese (I buy blocks and shred it myself) I also add some brown sugar.. maybe 1/2 a cup to a double recipe??? (I don't measure anything when I cook) Brown burger with onions, drain add sauce, beans and brown sugar. Cook till heated through, remove from heat, top with cheese let melt and serve. We call this cowboy stew It is a huge hit and for under 5 bucks it is affordable!
I call meat in our house a "gesture" not a meal! It is in there just for flavor, the other stuff is there for filler and to get you full. I remember the day when we could put a pound of hamburger in a pot of chile, now it is 1/4 cup to a pot of chile.
We spend around $400/mo. on food, cleaning supplies, and pet food for 2 dogs and 2 cats. Sometimes it's closer to $500. We have one "good" payday when I try to get most of the staples for the month. The other payday the mortgage is due, and I'm lucky if I have $100 to spend. We make our own bread in the bread machine, and use it to make dough for cinnamon rolls and pizza. The kids actually like the homemade pizza better than carryout, and it's healthier. (Last night we had it: whole wheat crust, turkey pepperoni, lowfat cheese.) I try to bake any treats from scratch, like cookies, etc. and just cook a lot in general. I look for sales, esp. when I can double-up sales and coupons and get stuff practically free. I also get certain staples at Aldi because they're cheaper, ditto BJ's wholesale club. I also hit Target clearance racks. My last deal was a double pack of Life cereal they'd marked down to $2.79. It had a coupon on the side to save $3 on two boxes of Life. So I bought a couple then used the coupons to buy a few more. Suffice it to say that my family is SICK of Life cereal now! :lol:
I agree! I always spend more if we all go. If it's just me, I get exactly what I need & nothing else. If dh & the kids are with, something I wouldn't normally buy, always ends up in the cart (courtesy of dh).
I think we spend around 400 each month...sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less..it really depends on if our necessary items are on sale. One way I do save is to shop at the store where my dad works...he'll tell me when I get there if he's got any meats on special (that weren't advertised) or meats that have been reduced to sell quickly (which works for me because I can freeze them). Also he'll usually take my cart and pay for it so he can use his associate discount card and then I'll give him the money after.
Ain't that the truth? :lol: And the kids, too! Whenever possible, I shop by myself. I will say this for DH, though. If I only need milk, it's best to send him. He'll get that one thing and walk back out of the store. Me, I'll cruise around trying to find bargains and walk out of there with ten items. :lol:
We spend a lot. Its probably around 600 per month not including things like cleaning supplies and dog food. We do have a large family of 6, and 3 of them are teenage boys. I can bring it down a little if I work really hard at it but for the most part it runs about that much, even if I shop at ALDI it still runs about that much give or take 50 or so dollars.
I totally agree! I gave my dh a list with money and it should not have cost more than $40.00! He and ds got home from the store and ds informed me I owed him $80.00. They had packages of Oreos and junk, not real food!
The only way that I can cut corners on the food bill is to not allow my dh to go into the grocery store or we can just stop eating! LOL
I love your "gesture" comment! We cook a lot of asian dishes here, mostly stir-fries. Most true asian cooking uses meat just as a flavoring, with veggies, spices, and rice/noodles being the bulk of the meal. Carol
Im more like you- we spend on average anywhere from $650 - $900 US dollars a month on food. That includes washing powders,toiletries,nappies etc. This also includes meals out. Some times we eat out a few times a week, sometimes we eat in all week. I make some foods from scratch, but not all. This feeds a family of 5, and whatever stray animal wanders into the yard.
We dont chow down on cats either - yuck. There are copious amounts of strays here. At our last villa, we had 11 regular strays. So far, at the new house, only 3 strays have wandered in...given time, Im sure our place, will be THE place for strays to come for a meal !!
