A while ago there was a thread on here about how much we spent on food each month. Some of you ladies had ridiculously low food budgets and managed to feed large families on that. Since that time, I've been paying more attention to what I'm buying and how much I spend on food. I figure I pay between $500 and $600 each month on food for a family of four. There are some items that I could cut out easily and I think I could get that amount slightly below $500 quite easily. Lower than that, I don't see how. So - you ladies that spend those ridiculously low amounts, please spill the beans. How do you do it? What do you buy?
I'm not one of the ladies who spends a ridiculously low amount. Due to my family's special dietary requirements (diabetes, hypoglycemia, husband on a diet) our bill is actually pretty high. But I do try to conserve, and here's how I do it... Pork! It's the cheapest meat in our grocery store. I can usually get enough to feed five people for about six dollars. I take advantage of buy one, get one free meat promotions and stock my freezer (usually with pork roasts and steaks, but occasionally they'll include stewing beef in the sale). I make sure to try and use everything. I can use odds and ends of veggies and cheeses and sauces in omelets. I can throw leftover cooked veggies on a salad. Every now and again I clear out my fridge and throw everything into a slow cooker stew. I try not to throw anything edible out. NEVER buy organic. :lol: Try to plan meals using items you already have in stock (that's part of using everything). Frozen veggies are just as good as fresh, and usually cheaper. Keep an eye out for GOOD coupons, but only use them for stuff you'd have bought otherwise. Otherwise you end up getting junk, or stuff you wouldn't normally eat, and food ends up going to waste. It's not saving you anything if it goes in the garbage.
Lately I have been saving 25-30% on my grocery bill by just using coupons. I got a binder and put all the coupons in there so I can see them better and then go through it before I go to the store and just bring the coupons I need (I match them up with the store sales). It takes me a little longer each week (about an hour or two) but I have been spending only about $60 a week where I was spending $100. This normally does not inculde meat since we tend to buy that at Sam's and freeze it but even when I have gotten meat I still have been at around $75. If I get better at shopping around to the various stores I bet I can bring it down even more. I will never be one of those extreme folks but every bit I can save I will.
If you can find some sort of mom-pop or ethnic grocery store, they're usually much cheaper. The Iranian grocery store I go to sells bellpepper 3 for 1$, tomatoes are always 0.79/lb.. They're waaaaayyyy cheaper than the usual stores. Also, if u have a big family, costco is a money saver too. Buy their store brand, wait for their coupons, u save a lot. And as others said, cooking at hme, planning your meals, all of that helps.
Mine is ridiculously low because of the amount of work we do ourselves. We hunt, fish, garden, can, freeze, raise chickens, make almost everything from scratch, etc. For dairy, which is the only thing I haven't done myself--but a dairy ewe is potentially in my future--I have a friend who worked out a deal with a local chain grocer to buy all the items that would have been on a manager's special because of the expiration date. We then split the items, whatever they may be, and there is enough left over to give away to others. We get milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. and most of it can be frozen. I have another friend (same group of ladies) who has worked out with the same store to purchase the produce they would be throwing out. We are talking bananas with spots but are still perfect on the inside, brussel sprouts that only need the outer layers taken off and so on. Again, we divide it up. All these things were born of necessity. I don't think I would have thought to ask about working out deals like that. We used to just go deal hunting for things on the shelf. You can get even better deals if you ask for them before they get tagged for everyone.
Sadly, our store doesn't allow this. They actually repackage all these things for quick sale. I often pick up cheap veggies this way, if I'm looking for something to use right away in a stew. Fifty cents for a bag of sweet potatoes, and all I need to do is cut off the fuzzy bits! I also buy what we call "cheap meat" - that's the stuff that's hit its "sell before" date and they've got to clear it before midnight. As long as you cook it that night, it's fine! Kudos to you for providing for yourselves! All I have is a little garden with a lot of squash. I wish I could do more, but our soil is about two inches deep, followed by a half foot of gravel and rocks, and then below that is bedrock. Even grass doesn't grow well, so if I want to plant I need to build raised beds and buy all the soil myself. Which is a surprisingly expensive endeavour in an urban environment. I do like my containers, though...
I don't buy brand names, only the store brand. For one bag of sugar, it saves me about $1.10 per bag. When you do that for all your groceries, it adds up to quite a bit of savings. I also make a menu before I go, with a list for everything I need for that menu, and only buy what's on the list. No chips, fruit roll ups, candy, kool aid...etc. I notice my sister's pantry is completely full but there is no real food in it. Just junk. Then she complains about the cost of groceries!LOL I take only cash to the store, and keep a running tally on my list of what I am spending. When I get to $150, I head to the check out. We eat alot of rice, beans, potatoes,raw veggies-fruit, chicken, cereal, peanut butter, sandwiches and soup. I don't buy cleaning supplies, I use vinegar for cleaning and baking soda for scrubbing. I don't buy paper towels, paper plates, etc. I buy just what I need to feed my family and don't splurge. My kids know better than to even ask for ice cream or cookies. I'm not saying it's easy, there are days I get so frustrated with having to be so diligent. Sometimes I just want to walk into the store and just start throwing in whatever I feel like. But this is a sacrifice I agreed to make when we made the decision to be a one income family.
If you are serious about wanting a garden, try the lasagna method. There is a book out about it that my friend is using. She built some boxes (BIG boxes!!) with wood, then started layering everything she could get her hands on to fill them. We worked at a school, so she brought home the shredded paper every day to layer. She picked up the leaves from our lawn and layered them. All her compost went in there. Everything organic she spread out in her boxes. The following summer she planted directly into the "lasagna bed" and it worked out great! She's been doing it for like 5 years now and the older layers have broken down into very rich, fertile soil. She continues to add more layers on top all the time. As far as I know, she hasn't paid a dime for the layers and has a wonderful garden!
We spend about $200- $300 a month for a family of 4. We shop at Costco aout every other month for non perishables and meat that we freeze. Another good tip that others have posted, is that we only buy "real" food. we only buy food items that are not processed or overly packaged. This cuts down alot on how much we spend, plus it is a much healthier way to eat.
We're good about preparing natural foods at mealtimes. I don't use mixes for anything but my family likes to snack. Yes, I know that's expensive both on the waistline and pocketbook, so what we've been doing is cutting down on portion size. If you want a soda with your meal, you have to find another person to share it with. No one is allowed a whole can of soda. You can choose soda or juice 1x a day. Other than that, it's water. Water down the juice to stretch it. I buy $10 worth of snack-y type food a week. When its gone, its gone. So far that's been working out for us. My oldest daughter and I have been losing weight this year since instituing the rule. Meat is the most expensive thing in our food budget. We eat in mostly and DH & DS have to have meat at evening meal. My meat costs are about $40 a week, which I hate. I don't know how to cut that cost.
For me it's not what I buy but what I DON'T buy. We rarely buy pop or chips. I try to avoid processed stuff as much as possible. I buy meat when it's on sale, like roasts this week are Buy One Get One Free. I'll buy four. I might even cook all four of them at once in my electric roaster, eat one for dinner, slice one and freeze it for sandwiches, and pull the other two, freezing them for sandwiches or to eat over mashed potatoes. Also, many people include eating at fast foods with thier grocery budget. All I can say is DON'T!!! As in, DON'T include it, and DON'T eat fast food! (OK, sometimes it's convenient! Ask G'ma to give gift cards to Wendy's and McD's in the kids' stockings!!!)
Know when something is a good deal. If you know that .50 is a good deal for soup or something in a can. wait for it to be on sale and buy what you can store. I don't have lots of space to stock up but my husband bought 10 cans of chicken broth the other day because it was on sale. Some people even write things in a booklet...... I don't. Don't spend more than $2 a box on cereal. EVER!... its on sale way too often. USE COUPONS AND SALES TOGETHER. there are lots of blog that help match coupons to sales. Know what store brands are good or even better than name brands and which ones don't same enough money to save....... for example if your family just doesn't eat a store brand....... don't waste the money spend the few extra cents and buy the name brand with a coupon. I know a lot of people here make thier own laundry soap, shampoo and dishwasher stuff..... Kudos to that, I just can't do that. check out bread outlets! we havn't been in a while I sure do miss the strudel we used to get!
This is what I have been doing. I used to just go to the store with my list and check the coupons as I went, missing tons of really good deals because I missed/forgot about a coupon. I also buy alot of my store's own brand products because they are pretty good (sometimes better than name brand stuff). I tend to stock up on some of those things when they go on sale, not a lot since we have limited space, but I will get more than I need for a week. I plan on stocking up on spagehtti sauce before the end of Dec. since their sauce is only .99 and great for a quick meal.
For those of you who use coupons - do you have coupons for real food? It seems like the only coupons I ever find are for hamburger helper and canned this or that. I don't buy that stuff at all - I buy fresh fruits/veggies, meat, milk, etc... I haven't really looked into coupons all that much, but I don't think I've ever seen any for real food.
That's why I don't use coupons very often. They're hardly ever for food we eat, except for the Airmiles and Metro coupons (we usually shop at a Metro grocery store). In both cases, the companies track our purchases, and tailor the coupons to us based on what we buy. Metro coupons are especially good, as they often include things like 2 dollars off any Deli product, such as sliced meat or even whole hams. I've never seen coupons for fruits and veggies. But hey, Metro gave us a free turkey last year.
I've never gotten in to using coupons at all. I keep hearing about people saving so much money with them, but I don't think they would help me at all. Well, I do buy premade spaghetti sauce to have on hand so maybe I could find some for that. But otherwise? I don't think they would work for me.
Do you mind if I add something - even though I don't really do the shopping? 1) About twice a week, I have grits for breakfast. One small bag of grits, costing under $3, has lasted me over six months so far. Yes, I add grated cheese and jalapeno peppers, but that's still a very inexpensive breakfast. 2) I'm quite conscious about how much I spend for lunch. Instant microwave meals, for example, cost about $2.50. Soup, on the other hand, can be less than a dollar. In general, we keep cans of soup around for a quick and cheap meal. 3) When living in England, we were, by British standards, very poor. It meant that we counted every penny when buying food. For meat, we bought a lot of liver (which is high in iron). We also found that fruit and vegetables were less expensive than packaged food (although that doesn't appear to be the case in the US). Ironically, on a very low budget, we tended to eat very healthily. 4) Drink water. While I'm not personally a soda drinker, I see so many people drink many cans a day. While each can is reasonably priced, the costs can really mount up. Plus, when you drink the correct amount of water each day, it tends to reduce your appetite. 5) Almost a trivial point, but spend more time chewing food. It gets the most out of it, and you find yourself eating less. 6) Carefully label and date everything you keep in the refrigerator. That way, you'll find yourself throwing less food away - which means spending less each month on food.
Wegmans does occassionally send out coupons off fresh fruit and vegtables. I have been getting alot of my cheese, rice, butter, juice, toiletries and cleaning supplies with my coupons. I agree if you buy just fresh items it is hard to find coupons on them. I only cut coupons for things that we actually use. I will not bother with things like hamburger helper since I do not normally buy it (there is one type dh likes but he only makes that when I am not home).
There are a lot of produce coupons that County Market (a Cub Food affiliate, I think) puts out monthly. These are store coupons, but they are typically an extreme savings.
Meg as a Canadian it can be hard to save money because our stores don't allow us to use more then one coupon per item. And as you say stale items are repacked for quick sale. But..that being said a cheap bag of potatoes, beans, and rice go a long way for a large family. Mine are totally into brown rice with soya sauce- the low sodium kind. And pasta is another cheap dish because you can usually get it and sauce on sale cheap. I personally find Metro pricey. Do you have a No Frills or Food Basics where you are they are considerably cheaper. I find Food Basics is great for canned goods and No Frills is awesome for veggies and fruit and if you buy whats in season for fruit you can save money that way too. Also I didn't know this until recently but our Walmart grocery stores have price match. So if you bring a flyer in with a cheaper price somewhere else in town they are required to match it. And it's generally unlimited so I have gotten tonnes of milk this way and frozen it. Although you have to remember to shake it before use.
