ARe you a super frugal grocery shopper? Please give me tips!!!

[allmydisneydreams]

I was reading the "cheap meal" thread and I am really inspired by a couple of the posters over there - like the mom who is feeding herself and DD10 on $40 a week. I have thought for awhile now that I am wasting money on groceries - I don't spend a TON - usually under $150 a week for a family of five. I do Aldi and the regular supermarket and usually a pizza meal out each week ( I know, that should go first ). But I don't feel like we are eating very well - too much pre-packaged & processed stuff. It seems to me that the "cheaper" foods are the crappier foods. I would LOVE to change - cook more (I'm awful at it!) - make healthy stuff - and SAVE money !!!!! But I don't even know where to start. Can you experst give me some tips ?

 

[LisaNJ25]

what state do you live on or what are some of the major grocery stores you have access to? This may help some of us give you the sites to match up coupons with sales.

 

[Jill in Chicago]

I think the first thing you need to decide is what exactly you want to accomplish. For instance:

1. "I only want to pay x amount on all food each month." That would include meals out and foods made by you. OR

2. "I want to make one meal from scratch each week." OR

3. "I want to make 3 healthy, low fat, low sodium meals per week." OR

4. "I want to learn how to make chili."

Once you've broken it down into a list then you can begin making it happen. Coming here for specific advice will then be super easy. All you'll have to do is say, "I need a chili recipe," or "give me your easiest homemade dinner recipe," and then you can jump right in.

 

[Marionnette]

It's really hard to be a frugal grocery shopper if you can't cook. Those prepackaged side dishes and frozen meals in a bag are pricey even when they are on sale and you've got a coupon. Not to mention that they are so high in sodium and preservatives!

So the first thing that I think you should do is learn to cook a few meals from scratch. They can be crockpot meals or skillet dishes. It doesn't matter. But once you have a couple of "from scratch" meals mastered, then you can move on to more homemade dinners.

Watch a few cooking shows to learn techniques for how the "professionals" do it. You would be amazed how much easier it is to cook when you know the ins and outs.

 

[pintamino]

Just wanted to share this too, a friend of mine did a month where her and her boyfriend ate on only $30 a week. They're vegans, but there are some good healthy meals in this series

http://www.altdaily.com/blogs/food-blogs/week-1-living-in-food-poverty.html

 

[pat fan]

Do you have a good cook book? If not, get one, or two! Any Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens will start you off well. Look at tag sales, used book shops etc...so you don't have to spend money (frugal, remember?!).

Beans & rice are always a good thing. Scratch rice is cheapest, just add seasonings and rice. Brown rice is better for you than white, too, as I'm sure you know.

Get a small roaster chicken and have roast chicken with potatoes and carrots one night. Pour any juice/grease into a clear jar/bowl and refrigerate when cool. When done eating, take meat off carcass, simmer carcass in a pot of water to make chicken stock. Drain and save stock in fridge when cool.

Next night use most of the left over chicken for a meal. Stir fry, casserole, whatever.

Next night, use the remaining small amount of chicken to make chicken soup or stew. Use the stock for a base, skim off any fat from the juice/grease bowl and add the remaining jelled stock to the soup/stew. FLAVOR!

These do not need to be all in a row. If you are not going to use the chicken within 3 days, just freeze the meat and thaw it when you are going to use it. Same with the stock, it will freeze fine. You may even have enough meat on your bird for chicken salad for sandwiches for lunch, or a light supper. Make your own bread and you're really in business!

 

[allmydisneydreams]

Wow - thanks for the great ideas. I live in NJ, food is pricey here, but I do have several chains really close by - Acme, Superfresh, Pathmark. ShopRite is further away but I could go there if there was a good sale/coupons. Do you guys get coupons from the paper? I've looked, but they never seemed that great to me - maybe if you do it long term ?

Cooking ... yes, I will work on getting a couple of scratch meals going. I do have crockpots, just haven't used them for much more than parties I don't eat meat, but my family does - so I do like some meatless beans & rice type stuff, and my family will eat it if it is tasty I've actually picked up bags of dried beans at the store and thought that if you knew what to do with them they would be some seriously economical protein I guess I need to do some research on seasonings and stuff..

 

[Taja]

You're going to need to devote time to learning to cook! It's both a science and an art. I'm a much better baker than cook (more science, less art), but I can be a decent cook when I concentrate. I just don't season things the way others like them--I'm a plain food person! *LOL*

As others suggested, purchase (used) or borrow from the library a good basic cookbook. One that explains what the different methods of cooking mean. My mother bought me a Reader's Digest cookbook when I graduated from high school and left for university (shared an off-campus apartment with a someone I had met at orientation--and it worked!) and I use it to this day! One of the best gifts ever!

Learn about seasonal foods in your area--it will help save some money. I live in the Sonoran desert, which tends to be quite different from most of the rest of the country. We have fresh local produce at good prices while much of the country is digging out from snow, but have to rely on transported produce during the hot summer months when the sun scorches everything.

Then decide how much time you can devote to cooking. The more you prepare from scratch, the longer it will take to prepare--although not always that much longer than packaged foods. Work on one category at a time--meat (particularly if your family enjoys meat), seasonal produce, baked goods, etc. Practice just one or two days a week, unless you have a lot of free time. What is free time, you ask? It's that valuable stuff we tend to hoard and rarely get to enjoy!

As you master various dishes, begin having your children help with age-appropriate tasks. They'll enjoy the food more for having helped prepare it--and learn how to cook at the same time!

Once you're comfortable with cooking, you can decide what works best for you. Many people like cooking everything fresh for each meal (check out Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals and adapt them to you family's preferences). I tend to bulk cook three weekends, then take off two or three weekends. I have sufficient basics cooked ahead to make most meals for four to six weeks or longer. Since I get home around 7:00 p.m., cooking completely from scratch is not particularly enjoyable for me.

You'll learn what works best for you and your family. And enjoy the savings and healthier eating habits!

 

[Taja]

Wow - thanks for the great ideas. I live in NJ, food is pricey here, but I do have several chains really close by - Acme, Superfresh, Pathmark. ShopRite is further away but I could go there if there was a good sale/coupons. Do you guys get coupons from the paper? I've looked, but they never seemed that great to me - maybe if you do it long term ?

Cooking ... yes, I will work on getting a couple of scratch meals going. I do have crockpots, just haven't used them for much more than parties I don't eat meat, but my family does - so I do like some meatless beans & rice type stuff, and my family will eat it if it is tasty I've actually picked up bags of dried beans at the store and thought that if you knew what to do with them they would be some seriously economical protein I guess I need to do some research on seasonings and stuff..

Coupons... Quite honestly, I don't find most of them very useful beyond paper goods, cleaning and personal care items. Most tend to be for processed foods, which I use sparingly. Don't get me wrong--I love junk food as much as anyone. It's my body that doesn't! *LOL*

There are a lot of good recipes for beans, but first you need to learn how to prepare them for cooking. It's a bit time consuming, but once you figure out how to fit food preparation into your schedule, you'll be on your way to saving money and enjoying healthier foods.

Ahhhh...did't I say that last bit in the previous post? Sorry! My long work day is catching up with me! *sigh*

 

[usnuzuloose]

Wow - thanks for the great ideas. I live in NJ, food is pricey here, but I do have several chains really close by - Acme, Superfresh, Pathmark. ShopRite is further away but I could go there if there was a good sale/coupons. Do you guys get coupons from the paper? I've looked, but they never seemed that great to me - maybe if you do it long term ?

Cooking ... yes, I will work on getting a couple of scratch meals going. I do have crockpots, just haven't used them for much more than parties I don't eat meat, but my family does - so I do like some meatless beans & rice type stuff, and my family will eat it if it is tasty I've actually picked up bags of dried beans at the store and thought that if you knew what to do with them they would be some seriously economical protein I guess I need to do some research on seasonings and stuff..

There are a couple of coupon trains here in budget. I like it I get alot of coupons by trading. You can look one up and pm the person to find out more.

 

[tonilea]

I really like the Fanny Farmer Cook book, it doesn't assume you know how to do anything. It has directions and pictures for such mundane things as dicing, mincing and such. If it hadn't been for the FFC, I would have never, ever learned how to make gravy.

Planning is key! I base our meals based on what is on sale for the week. I don't plan a specific meal for each day, but rather six meals per week (one day we eat with my parents). Although, I have been planning crock pot meals for Mondays and Fridays. I have classes and DS has Karate on those days.

 

[2Monkeys]

Use your crockpot! This is a great site http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2007/12/alphabetical-listing-of-recipes.html. She has a section on how to choose the right size crockpot, and how to know whether to use high or low settings, etc.

There are tons of websites out there that are devoted to Once a Month cooking. You basically make and freeze your meals for a month then pull them out as needed and add a salad or whatever.

Good luck!

 

[Marionnette]

Acme will take as many internet coupons as you print for a product as long as they are not photocopies. Each one has to be individually obtained. I use coupons.com and redplum.com for most but also visit allyou.com, couponmom.com and hotcouponworld.com for printables. Others stores have different policies regarding internet coupons. My nearest Safeway will only take one printable per type of item, so I can't print two Mighty Dog coupons and use both of them on the same trip. Which is pretty much the reason that I only shop at Safeway for their loss-leaders only. I can't get as much mileage from my coupons with them.

Join couponmom.com . She matches the coupons and the sales at different stores in the area. You can find what's on sale at Shoprite, Pathmark and Acme along with where to find the coupon for it (printable with links or inserts with the date they're from). You can click off what you want to buy and print out a shopping list from it.

Don't forget that Target has been expanding their stores to include more and more grocery items. I've found that they have pretty good sales on cereal and produce. Bananas were only 24 cents a pound this week and their eggs are alway cheaper than the grocery stores.

Just don't try to tackle the whole learning to cook and couponing thing at once. Ease yourself into it. It takes time to do both and you don't want to get overwhelmed and give up.

 

[eliza61]

Wow - thanks for the great ideas. I live in NJ, food is pricey here, but I do have several chains really close by - Acme, Superfresh, Pathmark. ShopRite is further away but I could go there if there was a good sale/coupons. Do you guys get coupons from the paper? I've looked, but they never seemed that great to me - maybe if you do it long term ?

Cooking ... yes, I will work on getting a couple of scratch meals going. I do have crockpots, just haven't used them for much more than parties I don't eat meat, but my family does - so I do like some meatless beans & rice type stuff, and my family will eat it if it is tasty I've actually picked up bags of dried beans at the store and thought that if you knew what to do with them they would be some seriously economical protein I guess I need to do some research on seasonings and stuff..

Hi neighbor, we can't be too far apart for those are my supermarkets also.

Shoprite and acme are my favorites.

A couple of things. Jersey is the best in the summer time. fruit and vegetable stands and markets are all over the place. Local grown, jersey fresh vegetables are very abundant.

So if it's nice outside, corn on the cob and fresh hamburgers (for the kids) is an inexpensive easy meal. If you've got a sams near you or costco, you can get some really lean beef (90% lean) for really great prices. Do you eat fish?

Couponing is pretty easy. don't think you have to go hog wild right off the bat. Like Marrionette said, pick up a local sunday paper and see what coupons are on sale.

Also shoprite and acme both have the next weeks circulars out on the previous thursday. makes it easy to plan your shopping trip.

Now IMO you may have to make some decisions. You are right processed sugary foods tend to be cheap. healthy foods tend to be more expensive.
As I'm getting older I've been leaning toward more healthy choices so my shopping bill would not be what I think is deemed cheap by budgeters standards.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Wow - thanks for the great ideas. I live in NJ, food is pricey here, but I do have several chains really close by - Acme, Superfresh, Pathmark. ShopRite is further away but I could go there if there was a good sale/coupons. Do you guys get coupons from the paper? I've looked, but they never seemed that great to me - maybe if you do it long term ?
.

Ok cool.. Jersey here also.

I love this site http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com . The site owner also lives in Jersey.

I do most of my shoprite. As an example I went earlier this week and spend $27. Saved $77 and got back $15 worth of catalinas for my next orders.

I get by newspapers form the dollar store. I usually get 3-4 copies of each. I also do a lot of internet printed coupons. You can usually print each coupon 2 times per coupon. Sometimes I order coupons from ebay also. For this week I order 20 coupons for under $2.00 for free bagged vegetables. Also for bbq sauce. Summer is right around the corner.

Also hang on to those coupon inserts and use the coupons along with a good sale.

 

[williamson_ja]

Now IMO you may have to make some decisions. You are right processed sugary foods tend to be cheap. healthy foods tend to be more expensive.
As I'm getting older I've been leaning toward more healthy choices so my shopping bill would not be what I think is deemed cheap by budgeters standards.

I used to think this until I started eating healthy. Now that I really know how to eat healthy, I spend about 1/2 of what I used to on groceries. Think about eating more simply. Today, we had baked potatoes with homemade vegan chili on top. Soups are great inexpensive, easy to make, and healthy meals.

Use rice, beans, lentils, etc. instead of meat in lots of dishes. We buy all our fruits/veggies from a local food co-op called bountiful baskets. The produce available there is so much higher quality than what is available at the grocery store and costs about 1/4 as much. So, look into your local food co-ops. If you do an online search, you should be able to find out what's available.

Learn to make your own bread type products. We make all our own bread, buns, tortillas, etc. It's all 100% whole wheat and healthy. It costs me far less to do that than buy at the grocery store. (about $0.50 for bread or 12 tortillas)

Eat some hot cereals (such as oatmeal or cracked wheat) for breakfast. Cold cereal is really expensive and not very good for you. If you buy a huge bag of regular oats and cook it up for breakfast, it will fill you up and be a great healthy meal for hardly anything. I also know what I am adding to it. Those little packets of instant oatmeal at the store are full of all kinds of stuff that's just not good for you. Add a little honey or agave and some frozen fruit to the oatmeal and even your kids will think it's great!

Brown bag lunches. Try chopping up chickpeas with mayo instead of chicken or tuna salad on bread for a great sandwich. It's better for you, tastes great, and costs MUCH less. I can buy a large can of chickpeas at Walmart for $0.65. It makes about 3 times as much as a can of chicken or tuna, costs less, tastes great, etc.

Hope this gives you a few ideas. Focus on learning one new thing at a time. Make a few substitutions with your regular meals. It took me years to get where I am now, but am very pleased with the results.

 

[njmom47]

Fellow NJ shopper here. I pretty much faithfully shop at Shoprite (ok, I work for them so I should ) but by the time I buy sale items, use coupons, link my Price Plus card to allll kinds of savings programs that are available, buy baby stuff (Baby Bucks programs $10 off $50 purchase), the brands on the Shoprite family savings (you get points for buying certain brands - they are pretty popular brands, so that's not an issue, for every 100 points you accumulate, you can take $2 off your next order), free turkey/ham/holidday meal item, etc, I usually save at least $70 or more each time I shop. If the other stores are fairly close by, you could peruse the fliers and shop each store for their "loss leaders" (grocery slang for major sale items) and be a "cherry picker" (grocery slang for one who buys only sale items) by making one trip. Buy in bulk when things you use are on sale. There are cycles to sales, usually by the time you run out of something it is on sale again. We bring our coupon papers in to work and share so we can get multiples of things we use frequently. This is all a game to me so I really don't mind!
And with time, you will get better. PS-We also have a bread outlet nearby...I freeze bread so I can buy a lot when I go there.

 

[princessmom29]

I used to think this until I started eating healthy. Now that I really know how to eat healthy, I spend about 1/2 of what I used to on groceries. Think about eating more simply. Today, we had baked potatoes with homemade vegan chili on top. Soups are great inexpensive, easy to make, and healthy meals.

Use rice, beans, lentils, etc. instead of meat in lots of dishes. We buy all our fruits/veggies from a local food co-op called bountiful baskets. The produce available there is so much higher quality than what is available at the grocery store and costs about 1/4 as much. So, look into your local food co-ops. If you do an online search, you should be able to find out what's available.

Learn to make your own bread type products. We make all our own bread, buns, tortillas, etc. It's all 100% whole wheat and healthy. It costs me far less to do that than buy at the grocery store. (about $0.50 for bread or 12 tortillas)

Eat some hot cereals (such as oatmeal or cracked wheat) for breakfast. Cold cereal is really expensive and not very good for you. If you buy a huge bag of regular oats and cook it up for breakfast, it will fill you up and be a great healthy meal for hardly anything. I also know what I am adding to it. Those little packets of instant oatmeal at the store are full of all kinds of stuff that's just not good for you. Add a little honey or agave and some frozen fruit to the oatmeal and even your kids will think it's great!

Brown bag lunches. Try chopping up chickpeas with mayo instead of chicken or tuna salad on bread for a great sandwich. It's better for you, tastes great, and costs MUCH less. I can buy a large can of chickpeas at Walmart for $0.65. It makes about 3 times as much as a can of chicken or tuna, costs less, tastes great, etc.

Hope this gives you a few ideas. Focus on learning one new thing at a time. Make a few substitutions with your regular meals. It took me years to get where I am now, but am very pleased with the results.

I am curious. How much time do you spend cooking and cleaning up every day, and do you work full time while doing this?? I am looking at what you are doing and thinking there is no way I could do it and sleep at night.

 

[angierae]

I am curious. How much time do you spend cooking and cleaning up every day, and do you work full time while doing this?? I am looking at what you are doing and thinking there is no way I could do it and sleep at night.

I'm not the person who posted, but to give you an idea:

I get home from work at 5:30. I usually go straight into the kitchen to start dinner. If I need to prep something for tomorrow's lunch, I do that while I'm cooking - I often need to wait for water to boil or something is in the oven or whatever. So I'll chop veggies for tomorrow's lunch or mix up some tuna or whatever. So the next days' lunch is pretty much done when dinner is done.

I usually cook meals that take about 30-45 minutes. My "homemade chicken" takes closer to an hour, but that puts us at the table at 6:30 at the latest. We eat, taking about 20-30 minutes (we tend to talk a lot over dinner) and then while my family clears the table, I start rinsing dishes to put in the dishwasher. (I also throw things in the dishwasher as I'm cooking, so the only things that need to go in are the dishes we ate/served with.)

DD puts the leftovers into containers and into the fridge, I fill the dishwasher and sweep the kitchen floor, DH usually wipes down the table, and we've usually got the kitchen cleaned up in 15 minutes. I don't run the dishwasher until right before bed in case someone has snack dishes later in the evening.

When DD gets home from school she unloads the dishwasher.

So by 7 or 7:15 the food has been cooked and eaten and cleaned up after, leaving me 3-4 hours to do whatever else I want to do in the evening.

Now, we don't really cook breakfast in our house. DD grabs toast or an english muffin with peanut butter that she can eat in the car on the way to work, and I eat at work. So breakfast isn't really an issue, but that's how we handled dinner and lunches. (DD buys lunch at school because "no high school kid is going to BRING a LUNCH!")

 

[2Tiggers]

Well, I don't think 150 a week is that bad for grocery. We are a family of 4 and that is about what I spend including cleaning/bathroom stuff and paper products.

Anyway, I can help with the food side of it. I like the previous posted LOVE a roasted chicken dinner. I will make a soup out of the leftovers or we have lunch the next day.

A good suggestion to save time and money is to have a day where you cook the entire day. Make your own frozen meals! You can make meatloaf and freeze it (either cooked or raw) just pop it in the oven. Obviously if it was prepared and frozen raw you need to cook it a lot longer. Make baked chicken fingers with boneless skinless chicken breast. Make your own mashed potatoes and freeze. Cut up boneless skinless chicken breast season and sautee then freeze for chicken enchilladas, chicken taco's or any type of chicken cassarole. Like add a can of cream of chicken soup and two cups of water, cup of milk, 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, a scoop of sour cream add some frozen broccoli, 1 cup rice and your diced chicken. Bake at 350*. Make your taco meat ahead of time and freeze. Oh, and frozen veggie are always great to have in the freezer.

This might help with the anxiety of what's for dinner.

I used to do this. I am kind of talking myself into doing it again....we will see1

Hope some of my ideas help you! Good luck!