Are people like me able to do grocery budgets?

[manateesmom]

One thing I try to do, somewhat ala Sandra Dee, is to think about how to use leftovers for another meal when I prepare the first one. I aim to avoid leftovers as much as possible, but if there's leftover chicken, we always have tortillas in the freezer, cheese, and onions/peppers that can be used to make up quesadillas (tip: mozzarella works great in quesadillas). There's usually salsa on hand (sometimes we'll still have some left in the freezer from making fresh over the summer - freeze in single-meal portions).

Or, always have either fresh or frozen veggies that could be turned into stir fry with some chicken, pork, or beef and sauce that we have on hand. Or soup with some pasta and frozen veggie mix.

One thing about turning leftovers into a meal, since we try to avoid waste, is that there's usually not a ton, so I'll have "substantial sides" to go with. Since we'll do stir fry, I'll also usually have frozen potstickers on hand (often homemade), and that ups the serving size. Or if I'm going to make soup, serve with grilled cheese or deli meat sandwiches. Quesadillas (or nachos!) with chips and salsa, or Mexican rice, and always have corn in the freezer.

Our action plan for fresh fruit is smoothies. When they seem to be getting close to "end of life," it's smoothie time (we'll also have frozen fruit on hand most of the time, usually yogurt around, etc.).

IMO, fresh veggies are hardest to deal with. Even if you shop weekly (and sometimes we'll shop every pay day every two weeks), it's hard to keep veggies around that long, and if you don't carefully plan the sequence of your meals and eat in that order, you can find that veggies go bad. I'm a big convert to frozen veggies as a result. Unless it's growing in my own garden, there's a high risk that any fresh veggies are going to expire in the drawer that we call "the rotter" (instead of crisper, lol). One exception is fresh spinach - DS4 will eat it fresh by the handful while I'm prepping meals, and spinach is easily added to fruit smoothies (really!), so this rarely goes south on me.

 

[manateesmom]

Oh, one other thing on food waste - if it looks like you're not going to be able to eat something before it goes bad, try to cook it and freeze it. It won't have exactly the same flavor/texture sometimes when defrosted, but better than letting it go to waste, and you can put in a pot pie, stir fry, that sort of thing. So, pork chops are terrible for me - I know if I don't have them for dinner within a day or two after buying/defrosting, they'll end up going bad, so if we have something else for dinner, I'll just bake up some pork chops in the evening before bed, and toss them in the freezer.

I forgot that pizza toppings are a good use for small amounts of leftover meats and veggies, and you may want to freeze these as well for later use as pizza toppings.

 

[barkley]

Oh, one other thing on food waste - if it looks like you're not going to be able to eat something before it goes bad, try to cook it and freeze it. It won't have exactly the same flavor/texture sometimes when defrosted, but better than letting it go to waste, and you can put in a pot pie, stir fry, that sort of thing. So, pork chops are terrible for me - I know if I don't have them for dinner within a day or two after buying/defrosting, they'll end up going bad, so if we have something else for dinner, I'll just bake up some pork chops in the evening before bed, and toss them in the freezer.

I forgot that pizza toppings are a good use for small amounts of leftover meats and veggies, and you may want to freeze these as well for later use as pizza toppings.

I remember years ago watching a talk show and someone was talking about how they hated wasting food, especially the little dibs and dabs of produce after the rest was used in a recipe. they started a 'stir fry bowl' in their fridge, each day the dibs and dabs of veggies they had cook but hadn't all gotten eaten got tossed in, if they had half a zucchini after prepping for dinner it got chopped and tossed in (same with onions, celery-whatever there wasn't enough left over of to do another full serving). things like pork chops, steak and chicken breasts that maybe their was only 1 or 2 or even a half-chopped up and put in a ziplock in the freezer. every week they had a stir fry night when they threw all the accumulation of the veggies as well as the variety of chopped meats.

I remember the host asking 'so does your family like stir fry?', and the person replying 'well no so much as they used to BUT it's sure taught me how much less produce and meat to purchase and prepare for a single meal'.


until I was an adult I thought 'minestrone' meant 'leftover' in Italian-good family friends always had a pot simmering when we visited on the weekend and it was never exactly the same twice. 'auntie' would be cooking the planned dinner meal but every usable end piece of whatever veggie she was cooking got tossed in along with the week's leftover dibs and dabs she found in the fridge while grabbing other ingredients

 

[pigletto]

Another tip I have… When you start budgeting groceries and paying attention you obviously have to start with a number. For me, $200 a week sounded like a reasonable amount. It turned out to be too much really. Once you really get going make sure you aren't just spending to meet the budget. I noticed one week I got what was on the list, still had about $45 and I stopped there. When it happened consistently enough I adjusted the budget. So like I said we are around $600 or $650 a month. And there is still room for improvement.

 

[NotUrsula]

On the waste-avoidance front ...

Learn how to freeze veggies properly. There is a right and wrong way to do it, and some varieties are more freezer-friendly than others. (For instance, I make my own mirepoix and keep it in the freezer; much quicker and has no effect on the flavor.) Invest in some little silicone cutting pads and a couple of cookie sheets: spread out the cut veggies on the pad on top of the sheet and put them in the freezer laid flat like that. 20 minutes later you can come back and dump them in a ziploc and put them back in, and they won't stick together that way (freezing them initially on the silicone means they won't freeze to the tray, either.) Also, always freeze soups or mushy things like ground beef in a thin flat ziploc; they take up a lot less room in the freezer that way, and they defrost quickly as well.

Leftover meat or bones make great stock; just boil it up with some seasoning, let it cool so you can skim of the fat, and then freeze it in plastic ice cube trays and later transfer to ziplocs -- instant 1/4 cp portions for cooking. If there are bits of meat in it and you zap it with an immersion blender, it will even be thickened.

Warehouse stores are tricky when it comes to comparative pricing. Some things are really much cheaper there than at your best-priced local supermarket, and others really are not, so pay attention to the price per oz that is posted on the signage. What we find is that paper products, plastic wrap and such are MUCH cheaper there, as is millk and orange juice, ground beef or turkey, and breakfast meats such as sausage and bacon. We buy those in bulk and freeze them in portions -- NO large package of anything goes into the freezer un-portioned, becasue that is a sure path to wasting it.

Try container-gardening for some of your easier-to-grow veggies and herbs for pesto; that will free up your produce budget for the things you can't grow yourself.

Other than on ground meat, we find that buying from a butcher give us the best price. We can buy a butcher's assortment for at least about $.50 per lb. less than we would pay at a warehouse store and WAY less than a supermarket unless they have a great sale. Our family is smaller and prefers poultry to beef, so buying an actual side of beef usually isn't the best deal for us. Of course, buying meat in bulk really requires a deep-freeze to do properly, so if you don't have one, start scouring Craigslist.

As for fish, try catching it. You're in Montana, for crying out loud -- lots of rivers run through it. Here are your current fishing regulations: http://fwp.mt.gov/fishing/regulations/

 

[Eureka]

Maybe your daughters can help with the granola bars etc. I portion out all the nuts and snacks in the house. It makes for an easy grab heading out the door and they go further.

I have a box of school snacks - I split bigger packages of cookies, crackers, etc. into snack size bags and fill the box. Lately everybody but me has been raiding the box on the weekends (we do have snacks just in the cupboard; not sure why they are doing this) so I am going to have to start filling the box on Sunday nights I guess.

Just this week I made brownies and wrapped them up individually for school snacks. DS11 wasn't happy that I didn't save any out and asked could he eat one after dinner. I said sure he can but then don't complain to me when he's eating only pretzels (plus his sandwich and fruit) all week.

 

[pigletto]

I have a box of school snacks - I split bigger packages of cookies, crackers, etc. into snack size bags and fill the box. Lately everybody but me has been raiding the box on the weekends (we do have snacks just in the cupboard; not sure why they are doing this) so I am going to have to start filling the box on Sunday nights I guess.

Just this week I made brownies and wrapped them up individually for school snacks. DS11 wasn't happy that I didn't save any out and asked could he eat one after dinner. I said sure he can but then don't complain to me when he's eating only pretzels (plus his sandwich and fruit) all week.

I grew up in a family of six. My poor mother used to have to keep the school snacks in a tackle box with a padlock. My brothers STILL figured out how to pry it open just enough to get the littlest one to stick his hand in and fish out the snacks for them!! It's not like they were starving.. they were just bad.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

This is re: the pizza crust recipe - I use the one on the Fleishman's Pizza Dough Yeast! It's at my grocery store in 3-packs (yellow color on the packaging) near the regular yeast. I think it's fast acting yeast. Add warm water, a bit of sugar and salt, flour and oil, mix, then knead for about 4 minutes and it's good to go. Secret is to get it pretty thin if you like a crispier crust, otherwise it does a more breadlike crust which is also nice. It's good and elastic. I've experimented with a lot of pizza dough recipes and this has been the most user-friendly.

I'll check at home re: exact amounts, but it's the recipe from the packaging.

ETA: One thing we'll do with kneading dough is take turns as a family to keep it going, even DS4 takes a turn at it, keeps it fun.

THank you! I used to buy Rosauers pizza dough that they already would put on a pan, and it was a steal at $1.50, but it is now $3 so I quit buying it. We also sometimes buy the pitas from (gulp, Costco) to make mini pizzas.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Great ideas! I know it's going to be hard to set a budget amount initially, but I'm okay with tweaking it as I go. I did get YNAB awhile ago but gave up on it so maybe I'll try it again. Liked the idea of it.
Cutting up veggies and then freezing them on mats (which I have) is a great idea. I do this with berries already (in the summer) to use for smoothies. I am guilty of buying beautiful orange or yellow peppers and then letting them sit on the counter and throwing them away. Awful!
I have only been to a butcher I think twice in my life, but we do have a meat shop here. Think I may check them out - like the idea of supporting a local family too since it's a small business. To the fishing comment, I wish I had time to go fishing lol! It's pretty much catch-and-release where we fish (when we have time), but we do go to Hebgen Lake in the summer and try very hard to catch fish to eat.

I took my DD11 with me to the store after school today to grab milk, bananas, eggs and apples (which were $.99/lb yay). She asks for a nectarine, which was $2.99/lb, and I felt bad, but I said not unless you want to pay for it, and she did! I told her it wasn't on my list, and I'm not buying fruit for $2.99/lb. HA!

 

[Burnedout]

I have a box of school snacks - I split bigger packages of cookies, crackers, etc. into snack size bags and fill the box. Lately everybody but me has been raiding the box on the weekends (we do have snacks just in the cupboard; not sure why they are doing this) so I am going to have to start filling the box on Sunday nights I guess.

Just this week I made brownies and wrapped them up individually for school snacks. DS11 wasn't happy that I didn't save any out and asked could he eat one after dinner. I said sure he can but then don't complain to me when he's eating only pretzels (plus his sandwich and fruit) all week.

lol Pinterest says to hide the snacks in a tampax box

 

[JenVi]

I always used coupons and shopped the sales. When the sales were good on things we regularly used I stocked up as much as possible.

Now that we live in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, AK there really is no such thing as a sale. We pay $7.99 for a 12 pack of soda, $5 for a dozen eggs and so on. It kills me to pay these prices but when they happen to have things for a decent price I do try to stock up and freeze what I can. There are no coupons or a Sunday papers here.

I am going to try and plan more meals to get our costs down. I buy all my paper products and non perishable stuff through Amazon.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Just curious - do you all make a budget for the month or for each week? Just writing things down and what I've spent already for the week.

 

[lakelandgal70]

Honestly we don't have a budget. I have found out I have Celiacs disease so I can't just eat regular boxed food like everyone else. So we eat whole and fresh foods, organic veggies, bison or grass fed beef, organic chicken, organic pork and eggs. So it is hard to budget for that. We limit ourselves to going out once a week.

 

[pigletto]

Just curious - do you all make a budget for the month or for each week? Just writing things down and what I've spent already for the week.

I make one for the month now. We're using budgeting software and I plan month by month. Some weeks might be a great sale when I want to stock up a bit, or some weeks might be lower. It's all fine as long as I am on track to stay under that monthly number.

 

[Burnedout]

Honestly we don't have a budget. I have found out I have Celiacs disease so I can't just eat regular boxed food like everyone else. So we eat whole and fresh foods, organic veggies, bison or grass fed beef, organic chicken, organic pork and eggs. So it is hard to budget for that. We limit ourselves to going out once a week.

Lol we don't eat boxed food, eat whole usually local food and manage to still have a budget. I find it easier. Bulk grains, sides of beef, farmers market eggs, seasonal produce are all less expensive than "boxed food"

 

[Marionnette]

Honestly we don't have a budget. I have found out I have Celiacs disease so I can't just eat regular boxed food like everyone else. So we eat whole and fresh foods, organic veggies, bison or grass fed beef, organic chicken, organic pork and eggs. So it is hard to budget for that. We limit ourselves to going out once a week.

Having a budget and eating healthy are not mutually exclusive. Just because one established a grocery budget, that does not mean that they consume "regular boxed foods", whatever that means. You are confusing the concept of having a budget with the idea of "eating cheaply on a budget". If I decide to allot $200/week to feed 2 adults, that's not eating cheaply but is it still living within a budget.

 

[hsmamato2]

Honestly we don't have a budget. I have found out I have Celiacs disease so I can't just eat regular boxed food like everyone else. So we eat whole and fresh foods, organic veggies, bison or grass fed beef, organic chicken, organic pork and eggs. So it is hard to budget for that. We limit ourselves to going out once a week.

I have raised a child with severe wheat allergies since well...since before all these GF foods became popular and easy to buy And as another pp noted, budgets work for EVERYONE. It's a set number that you stick to,that simple. I have always set and kept a food budget, no excuses. I know what we can eat in our house, and I find it as discounted as possible. Aldi now carries an incredible line of GF items (I can't get over it,so cheap!)- I purchased a cookbook (long ago) and learned how to bake and cook what I needed. I usually spend around 100.00 for a family of 4 per week-(Huge eaters lol) I kept it at 50-75.00 for years, but times have changed....

 

[barkley]

Just curious - do you all make a budget for the month or for each week? Just writing things down and what I've spent already for the week.

I do it monthly, quarterly and yearly. since I try to take advantage of good sales to stock up, and some only occur once or twice a year (case sales) I may spend a whole lot more one month vs. another but it will balance out within the quarter/year.

I may be the odd man out on this thread though-I don't have a specific 'grocery budget'. our overall budget (for everything) has an amount each month that's just designated as 'household budget'. that amount is intended to cover food, toiletries, laundry detergent/soap, meds (both otc/scrips), and paper goods/food prep stuff (aluminum foil and such). some months I have higher expenses in one area but it balances out over the next few-like in april I went to Costco and bought all the otc meds I need for the entire summer ($$$) but now I won't be re-stocking again until late august so that shifts more money to usually something like groceries. I'm headed to Fred Meyers today to take advantage of a sale on Hansen's soda-8 cans for $2.50, I'm planning on buying 10-12 packs to last the summer which means I won't be buying as much in the way of beverages so that savings will likely roll over in my monthly budgets until September when the case sales hit and I stock up on paper towels, canned beans and veggies.

I decided to give this budgeting concept a try after I used it with some of our other expenses. we have some items we only pay quarterly (pest and weed service), bi-annually (car insurance), and annually (homeowner's insurance and propane)-I figured out the yearly cost of everything, divided it by 12 and started a separate savings account at the credit union (named 'reserve account')-each month 1/12th of the total annual cost get's auto transferred from checking into it, and when one of those expenses hit (like this month's $1100 propane bill) I don't have to stress b/c the money is already sitting there ready to transfer back into checking.


try different types of budgets to see what works for you-but just for the heck of it keep track of the totals spent over 6 months to a year. it's really surprising how much our grocery expenses change based on the season-in the winter ours traditionally goes down b/c I'm making more soups, stews and dishes that don't use allot of higher cost items vs. summer when grilling pushes our meat/fresh produce/condiment purchases much higher.

 

[SM101]

I operate on a monthly budget for groceries rather than a weekly. Some weeks I spend more because of good sales or I need things; other weeks, it's just fresh produce and a gallon of milk.

I try to keep a good stock in the house so I don't really run out of anything (items go ON the shopping list when I open the one I had in stock, not when I run out of something), which means that if it's the end of the month and I'm at the end of the budget, I can get away with just a few dollars spent on fresh items.

And no, there's not much packaged goods in my house either; I still have a budget and stick to it for the most part.

 

[barkley]

I operate on a monthly budget for groceries rather than a weekly. Some weeks I spend more because of good sales or I need things; other weeks, it's just fresh produce and a gallon of milk.

I try to keep a good stock in the house so I don't really run out of anything (items go ON the shopping list when I open the one I had in stock, not when I run out of something), which means that if it's the end of the month and I'm at the end of the budget, I can get away with just a few dollars spent on fresh items.

And no, there's not much packaged goods in my house either; I still have a budget and stick to it for the most part.

same with us on the grocery list-everyone knows to tell me if they've opened the last of something so I can put it on the list and start keeping an eye out for a good sale on it. I have 4 on-going lists-one for Costco, one for Walmart, one for Trader Joes, and one for whatever grocery store has the best deals/is cost effective to go to.