Give me ideas of things to cut out

[tink20]

What is something you have cut from your weekly grocery list to save money?

I would love to cut soda, but that's all DH drinks (diet, which I still don't think is any better than regular, health wise)

 

[CowboyCO]

We cut our grocery bill from $700/mo. to $400 mo.

1. Only buy meat on sale, or even clearance. Our local Safeway Store has a section for seafood, coldcuts and meat that is marked off because it is approaching or at the expiration date. Then, only buy the clearance stuff that is already on sale and freeze it. We save 30%-50% off of sale prices on all our meat. Meat is a huge % of the food budget, so this is a big saver.

2. Be prepared to stock up on staples when they hit a great sale. For example, we noticed a great sale on Classico spaghetti sauces for 99 cents and we bought a dozen. These are usually about $2.99 or more and we bought enough to last 6 months.

3. Look at joining a warehouse club, like Sam's or Costco. You have to be a smart shopper, but you can save big on some items. We buy all our bacon (if not found on clearance) here, as well as nearly all our dairy and lunch stuff.

4. See if your area has a local "Bargain Mart". This is a small store that buys overstock, closeout and damaged grocery items and then sells them at steep discounts. You'll have to look around to find them, but they do exist if your city is 300,00+ in size. Recently, we have bought Knorr pesto sauce packets for 25 cents each (regularly about $1.50-$2.00). We also found boxes of Gnochi (potato pasta) for 75 cents each. We bought a dozen of each. What do I care if the box has a dent in it?

5. Last but not least. Never buy it if it is not on sale, unless it is a must-have and you need it right now.

 

[Kellydelly]

Convince your husband to give up the diet soda, it's one of the most unhealthy habits out there. Just replace it with tea or something else and don't stock the house with it anymore. Worth a shot, anyway .

 

[MisWal]

I plan my meals ahead of time and stick to my list. I don't stock up more than a 3 month supply on an great deal. Sales cycle on average every 3 months, so any particular item will be back on sale in 3 months.

The biggest way to save money at the store? Don't take the DH or kids if you have either!

 

[beansmom]

cut out processed snacks and i would try to get dh to drink water instead--for several reasons---you can drop some sliced fruit in to give it a gentle flavor and it's much healthier.

for snacks, eat fruit or popcorn--old-fashioned popcorn not microwaved--too many chemicals in the bags for my taste.

cook instead of being deli meals (my great downfall...soo much easier but so expensive). Cook double and freeze half for next time.

 

[nsmith]

store made rotisserie chickens, at $4.99 they seem like a deal but end up costing about $2.00 per pound. Oven stuffer roasters are .69-.79 a pound when on sale. I throw one in the crockpot with some spices and I have a giant bird that I can get two meals out of and make chicken soup for lunch for a day or two. Much better deal.

I just stopped buying paper plates for snacks and lite meals, they have gone up so high in price I just use my dishes now and wash them.

I do Thegrocerygame.com and have been able to save about 40% on my weekly grocery budget by stocking up when items are on sale and using coupons.

 

[RumpleMom]

I just learned about using ecoupons.

If you use a loyalty card at your grocery store, go to the store's website and look for ecoupons or eoffers.

You load these ecoupons onto your loyalty card. When you purchase the item, it is automatically deducted.

The best part is that you can use a paper coupon and an ecoupon on one item. Double savings!

We have cut our TV cable service down to the very minimum and saving a lot of money each month and watching less TV.

 

[Deffenm]

store made rotisserie chickens, at $4.99 they seem like a deal but end up costing about $2.00 per pound. Oven stuffer roasters are .69-.79 a pound when on sale. I throw one in the crockpot with some spices and I have a giant bird that I can get two meals out of and make chicken soup for lunch for a day or two. Much better deal.

I just stopped buying paper plates for snacks and lite meals, they have gone up so high in price I just use my dishes now and wash them.

I do Thegrocerygame.com and have been able to save about 40% on my weekly grocery budget by stocking up when items are on sale and using coupons.

How long do you cook the chicken and what kind of spices do you use? I am all for anything I can cook in the crockpot. Thanks for sharing this tip this is a great one for us.

 

[blondietink]

I like to buy myself peach Snapple for a treat. Our local store has the 64 oz. ones for 2 for $4.00. They had an ecoupon on their site for $2.00 off 2. so, I ended up getting them for $1.00 each. These two jugs will last me a month or more, because I only use them as a treat to myself.

Also, the Keurig makes great iced tea. I love the Raspberry flavored. I run the cups through 2 cycles, which dilutes the flavor some, but is still strong enough for me. Yes, using tea bags for iced tea is the cheapest, but I love my Raspberry keurig and I sign up for the specials at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I agree with others ... shop specials and buy in bulk. Our local store has their generic "Cheerios" brand on sale this week for buy one, get one free. The generic ones are cheap anyway, but a great deal at buy one get one free. So, this week I am stocking up big time. They also have the other generic cereals at the same price. Cereal is so expensive now if you buy the name brand.

 

[maleficentmom]

One thing I have done is instead of giving up something(like your husbands sodas), downgrade a bit to something cheaper(a cheaper brand,stocking up,using it more as a treat,etc)...We changed to turkey from ground beef and we actually like made from scratch turkey sloppy joes better than the beef and Manwich sauce kind...and we do turkey and spinach burgers,,,yum...I found a new brand of family size tea bags at Ingles and it's cheaper than Lipton and Luzianne. Also,I stock up on staples like sugar,flour,pasta and tomato sauces,etc..our local IGA runs sugar for $1.39 and flour .99 and Duke's mayo for $1.69...I stock up on these as i know we will use it eventually.
Another thing I do is make a list of meals for the week. Even though I may spend more than I would like initially, it saves me from repeat trips to the store and eating out. Although it's sometimes hit or miss, here I find that Food City stores have a good selection of marked down meat and the last couple of weeks at Ingles I have been able to get their $3.79 a gallon milk marked down at 1.99 with a few days left.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Stop buying paper towels, use cloth napkins and rags instead.

Cut down on cleaning products by using vinegar and baking soda.

Plan at least one meatless meal a week.

Cut out frozen foods such as pizza or frozen dinners if you buy alot of those. Make your own ahead of time and freeze instead.

Buy produce in season.

Don't just plan dinner, plan breakfast and lunches as well, it will keep you from overbuying.

Plan some easy, go-to dinners for nights when you'd rather have something frozen or go out to eat, for example, I keep browned hamburger meat in the freezer so if I need a quick dinner I can just thaw it and throw it in some pasta sauce or make it into sloppy joes.

Don't buy things just because they're on sale. It's not a deal if it's not something you will use.

Choose snacks that will last more than a couple days. For example, if you would buy a bag of chips, buy a bag of apples instead. Consider how many servings is in a package and how far that bag of chips will actually go.

 

[DawnM]

How do you do this?

I buy the birds when they are on sale (.39/pound) and put them in the crock pot and end up with a bird boiling in a full pot of pure greese and fat.

It is gross.

Dawn

store made rotisserie chickens, at $4.99 they seem like a deal but end up costing about $2.00 per pound. Oven stuffer roasters are .69-.79 a pound when on sale. I throw one in the crockpot with some spices and I have a giant bird that I can get two meals out of and make chicken soup for lunch for a day or two. Much better deal.

I just stopped buying paper plates for snacks and lite meals, they have gone up so high in price I just use my dishes now and wash them.

I do Thegrocerygame.com and have been able to save about 40% on my weekly grocery budget by stocking up when items are on sale and using coupons.

 

[MaggieBailey]

I understand about soda... I budget a lot and yet that's one thing I can't cut out, lol. We did cut out name brand things, and we also stock up when something is on sale. The things that were cut are the predone things, the meals, etc. Also snacky stuff. Unless its on sale! Harris Teeter had an Evic promo a few weeks ago where you got a 2 lb pkg of Nabisco "treats" for only $1.47 - I have 16 pkgs of Oreos (with 6 in a pack) as well as 16 Fig Newton bar pkgs (with 2 per pack). Those kind of things, if not on sale, we don't buy. And I buy chickens and cook them too - makes great chicken salad, chicken pot pie, chicken and dumplings... I don't do mine in the crockpot - if its a day where I'll be home, I put it in the Dutch oven and let it go on the stove for a few hours, mmmm.... Great chicken stock and chicken!

 

[DSNY4ever]

Stop buying paper towels, use cloth napkins and rags instead.

Cut down on cleaning products by using vinegar and baking soda.

Plan at least one meatless meal a week.

Cut out frozen foods such as pizza or frozen dinners if you buy alot of those. Make your own ahead of time and freeze instead.

Buy produce in season.

Don't just plan dinner, plan breakfast and lunches as well, it will keep you from overbuying.

Plan some easy, go-to dinners for nights when you'd rather have something frozen or go out to eat, for example, I keep browned hamburger meat in the freezer so if I need a quick dinner I can just thaw it and throw it in some pasta sauce or make it into sloppy joes.

Don't buy things just because they're on sale. It's not a deal if it's not something you will use.

Choose snacks that will last more than a couple days. For example, if you would buy a bag of chips, buy a bag of apples instead. Consider how many servings is in a package and how far that bag of chips will actually go.

Ditto! We do all of this too.

We drink water and occasionally milk with dinner. Juice and other drinks are far too expensive.

We make a lot of our own snacks because pre packed little snacks were killing our budget. I now make granola bars, hummus, muffins, large batches of trail mix, homemade chex mix etc.

I also make applesauce (I make a ton in the fall and freeze it, it's really easy), I make our own jam in the summer (enough to last us all year since we use a lot).

Buy from the bulk bins! We buy oats and keep them in a giant container in our house and eat oatmeal every other day. Cereal (the healthy kind) was just getting too expensive and we were going through it too quickly.

Treats are few and far between- if we don't NEED it, we don't buy it.

 

[swilshire]

A true soda addict probably won't give them up. I compromise by buying either Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, depending on which is on sale the cheapest, but I much prefer Diet Coke. The rest of the family insists on Coca Cola only.

We have "bean Monday" every week. Pinto or mixed beans with fried cornbread. Sometimes we add some sort of potato. Then the beans get turned into chili (with or without ground beef) for more inexpensive meals. Beans are very cheap.

Our daughter is vegetarian, so when she visits, we have other meatless meals. It's not too hard to leave out the expensive meat.

Sheila

 

[tink20]

Thank you everyone, keep the great ideas coming. I don't know why, but for some reason I am stressing out today about finances. (i almost feel like crying) I don't even want to start thinking about Christmas.

I just talked to DH, ask him if we could try no soda and do decaf tea. (his sodas were decaf) He said, yes. So well see.

I wish the economy would hurry up and get better. DH's landscaping business is so slow right now. (we may have to cancel our Feb trip)

 

[mrsklamc]

I guess to know what to cut, I'd have to know what you are buying. Also, I'd have to know how tight the budget is. For example, I stockpile things that are on sale. If my budget were really really tight, I would make a menu plan for the week and only buy what it was absolutely necessary for me to make the meals on the plan.

 

[tink20]

I guess to know what to cut, I'd have to know what you are buying. Also, I'd have to know how tight the budget is. For example, I stockpile things that are on sale. If my budget were really really tight, I would make a menu plan for the week and only buy what it was absolutely necessary for me to make the meals on the plan.

Well, I just looked at my last receipt (form Walmart) the other closest grocery store is WinnDixie, but they are more expensive than WM.

Anyway, we go through about 3- 4 gallons of milk a week, cereal (which I am about to cut out some) cheezit, nillla wafers and goldfish crackers, cost a lot, but that's what I put in the kids lunch, so don't know how to cut that cost. Those are anywhere form 2.60 - 3. bucks a box. Of course detergent is expensive. Last week I spent ( I just looked in my check book) I spent close to $275. (this is for everything, food, toilet paper, shampoo. etc.) I would like to trim off at least $100 if possible. I need to become a better shopper.

 

[tink20]

Okay, I just played around with some numbers.

We buy about 3 -12pack sodas a week (DD drinks spirite) $48 month
I also buy a gallon of premade tea a week(this is DD's) $12 month
DS and I just drink milk and water.

If I figured correctly, I could make about 12 gallons of tea for about $6.

(DD is going to complain, oh well)

 

[MEM]

How do you do this?

I buy the birds when they are on sale (.39/pound) and put them in the crock pot and end up with a bird boiling in a full pot of pure greese and fat.

It is gross.

Dawn

Here's how to do it - it seems a little labor-intensive but just takes a little practice. I skin the bird by hand and then rub on whatever spices sound good at the time - Cajun, BBQ rub, etc. Then crumble some foil into balls and line the bottom of the crockpot with those (you can also use a small rack). Place the chicken on the foil balls or rack - that keeps the chicken from stewing in its own fat, assuming there was any left after skinning it. Some folks use potatoes to keep the chicken elevated. The chicken is very moist and tastes like a rotisserie chicken - check out Stephanie O'Dea's crockpot cookbook/blog for more details. Here's the link:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/crockpot-rotisserie-style-chicken.html