Grocery Budget

[EKKloppers]

Watching and loving this board. As one of six (now much-older) children of a stay-at-home Mom and teacher/Summer Construction Dad, I've only begun to understand how they managed to meet the innumerous needs of our family - "sacrificing" much of what might be deemed necessities these days by way gardening, canning, recycling well-worn hand-me-downs; hosting - or letting us children create on our own - all entertainment at home, or in the neighborhood...we kids earning our own money for school clothes by babysitting, paper routes, farm work...And eating my mother's God-forsaken tuna casserole every Friday night. But my! How times have changed! Our family's only grown larger with marriages and births, much more crowded family potlucks (with NO tuna casserole!), and ever more interesting discussions about how young, much smaller families manage to survive these days with TWO working parents; with all suggestions seeming to fall on not deaf ears, but ears attuned to an entirely different frequency/set of circumstance that I'm trying to understand in order to help our family's younger generation. I, myself, find it difficult to stay within budget when cooking for the extended brood, at large. All great insight here on this thread! Keep up the good work! My specific go-tos for meal extensions are 1.) Whole chickens for roasting when on sale at 99-cents/lb...dinner one night; chicken salad for lunch the next day; chicken carcass to make soup or stock; and then with leftover soup/stock - add a bag of frozen mixed veggies and simple, homemade dumpling/refrigerator dough, for Chicken and dumplings..and 2.) instead of dumping wads of cash on brand-name breakfast/snack bars, use up over-ripe bananas and regular oats (2 to 1 cups each), and add additional elements like nuts, chips, dried fruit, coconut, etc. bake in a prepared pan of appropriate size for approx. 30 -35 minutes. Cut into squares. Store leftovers in fridge or freezer. Inexpensive, delicious, portable, AND healthy...Best of luck, all!

 

[LinderInWonderland]

There is just me and DH to cook for, but I was getting unhappy with how much we were wasting of food we were spending so much on. I've got us down to $300/mo and have been pretty happy with our current plan.

1. We rarely buy beef as steak bothers DH's acid reflux. Burgers are a once a month meal, if that.
2. We eat loads of chicken, some pork. I stopped buying the pre-frozen meat as the quality seemed to be slipping. We buy giant packs of chicken thighs when they're on sale and I break them down into dinner portions for us. Some favorite meals: Pork chops roasted with apples and potatoes, roasted chicken thighs with Brussels sprouts, chicken with frozen veg and orzo.
3. I DIY a lot. 2 ingredient ice cream (whipping cream and condensed milk) is cheaper than buying ice cream in the store, takes 5 minutes to make and doesn't require an ice cream maker. It's also so rich I eat less than i would of Ben & Jerry's. I make my own liqueurs, chocolate and caramel sauces, overnight yeast waffles that freeze beautifully and become toaster waffles. Anything I can do that involves a lot of passive time with delicious results saves me money!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

Following along...It's me DH and DD (1) and our budget is $300-$400 monthly including food, household items (detergent paper towels) diapers and dog food. Gotten a little loosy Goosey lately with it and I need to get back on the wagon....

 

[Minnesota!]

Family of 4 and we spend about $400 a month. It has gone up a bit over the year since the kids have grown, but, still..


We do a ton of rollover meals. We buy in bulk, etc. A rotisserie chicken will get us 3 meals, minimum. I make chicken salad, soup, casseroles, etc. out of it.

For tacos, we to .75 - 1# of meat, plus a can of beans mixed in (whole or refried). Stretches a lot further. Beef it up (ha ha!) with whatever veggies you have on hand, sautéed, mixed with some lime juice and cooked rice.

I buy Italian sausage and hamburger in bulk, then mix the two. Add in some parm cheese, some seasonings, and make into a million meat balls. Throw on a baking sheet and freeze. Then when frozen, put them in a freezer bag....take out as needed. They cook super quick, are tasty, and homemade. I also keep homemade sauce in the freezer. I can have dinner on the table in 20 minutes...as long as it takes to boil noodles and make a salad. And I spent pennies on it..

Roast - eat roast with sides first night, next night is hot roast beef sandwiches with leftover gravy, next night is hash, and then after that, anything left gets turned into soup or lunches.

I buy very, very few convenience foods. I could cut them out completely if I pre-made breakfast sandwiches for my kids (buy them the Jimmy Dean kind), and if we could kick our boxed mac-n-cheese addiction

Shop the sales. Make a list and stick to it. Stock up on meat when on sale...freezers are your friend! The fresh turkeys at the store this week were .89/lb. Super cheap. Either cook and rollover right away, or throw in freezer. You can get a good 4 - 5 meals out of turkey!

Another thing that really stretches are dry beans and soup. This time of year, we do a lot of bean soups in the crockpot. Can cook all day, are filling, tastes great, and are easy. Make some rolls to go along and you are golden.

This is one area of my life I have figured out, ha ha! I enjoy playing the "save money, eat healthy" game... Our grocery store had ground beef for 1.99/lb this weekend. I usually buy it at our meat market for $6/lb or Costco for a lot cheaper. But, I couldn't pass it up. Stocked up...will get quite a few meals for $8...

 

[eliza61]

Thank you all for your help! I'm encouraged that our budget can work at $700! We don't ever eat out, so that helps. I like the idea of buying meat in advance and freezing. We are on week #1 of our meal planning, and we will see how we do.

remember that this may jack your initial food budget up a bit.

For example because of the holidays Hams were on sale all month. 0.89c/lb for shank portions 0.99c/lb for butt (or it may have been the other way around) anyway. I brought 5 shank portions which definitely made my monthly bill jump but I've got hams for well into 2016. same thing with rib roast, we love roast beef but normally they are cost prohibitive. this month I was able to find them 7.99/ lbs great quality cuts. so I brought 3 rib roast but I'm good for quite a while. chicken breast were 1.10c /lb this week at shoprite. lol I'll buy a bunch.

 

[neatokimmo]

Can you please elaborate on how to cook the ground beef in the crock pot? I'm intrigued!

Hi sorry I just saw this post. I just put it in there and chop it with my stainless spatula every so often to break it up. I use 90/10 so it isn't soaking in a ton of grease. I drain it, cool it, then freeze it in meal sized portions.

 

[tarheel618]

One of my favorite blogs is http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com I found it a few years ago when asking the same question. Her blog has evolved from coupon craze years to growing your own food and not wasting food. Her goal was to cut her grocery budget down.

The one thing I do is try to keep a few quick meals in the freezer. Even if it is frozen pizza, potpies etc for the nights that I just don't feel like cooking. This cuts down on the cost of eating out for us. I may spend a few more dollars for convenience meals at the grocery store but its still better than shelling out 30-50 dollars eating out.

 

[Dakota731]

[QUOTEmongolian pork,][/QUOTE]

Can I have the recipe for this? Pork is inexpensive here right now!

 

[KKB]

I noticed our budget has gone up this year. BUT with a freshman in high school who lifts everyday AND plays sports, I think I know why...
We used to run $600/month for a family of 5 teens (tho one is at college now). I think we are closer to $800 now--due to the hearty eater, price increases & more convenience foods than in the past.

I shop sales heavily & stock up on non-perishables/freezables when they are on sale. I know prices pretty well. Store brands are almost always as good & cheaper than name brands (but not ALWAYS). I never ever buy precut veggies/fruit--but I do like the bagged lettuce. DD takes her lunch which theoretically is cheaper than buying it at school, but she gets bored quickly so I have to be creative. Our latest is these bags of interesting salads (kale, cabbage, brussel sprout shavings, etc). They are $4, which I balked at. BUT it gets a salad each for DD, DH & I. It comes with addins (fruit, nuts, dressing) & we toss in some Aldi precooked refrigerate chicken breast (the only brand we like)--$2.49 covers about 6 salads. SO for $10.50 I get 6 lunch salads for us--less than school lunch (of course by the time you add a fruit & cheese maybe a bit closer...)

I do not buy much organic except produce (although Aldi is THE place to buy organic; not a huge selection, but their organic prices are comparable to REGULAR produce at other stores)--I try to buy the "dirty dozen" organic (tho I HATE organic apples...) From all my research, processed food is a waste of $ to buy organic.

We almost entirely eat whole chickens (under $1/lb), chicken breasts (under $2/lb), pork chops/loin (under $2.99/lb) & beef.

Last year we split half a cow with my parents--BEST MEAT EVER. $3lb total to buy & process everything & we have burger, roasts, Tbones, ribeyes, sirloins. And this meat is SO SO SO flavorful. I don't think I can buy burger at the store again.

We take leftovers for lunch or if there are a lot I incorporate them into a meal within a couple days.

Aldi is my new favorite store. (we just got one last year). I cant buy everything there, but I can get most of my basics for 20-50% off. Very very pleased with their brands. Only thing I don't buy are apples & bananas (they go bad WAY too quickly); berries you better eat THAT day. (Pineapples $1.29-1.99 everyday!) Milk $1.99 everyday (but no 1%;-(; If you have one in your area, be sure to check it out! And their meat is "clean"--no hormones, etc.

Target is where I buy the rest of my basics plus household items. Cartwheel drives me a bit nuts, but I figure by watching sales, using a few coupons, using cartwheel & using my RED card, the stackable discounts make it worth it. Don't buy much produce or meat there (unless I catch the meat with the $ off coupons as it is expiring soon--toss it in the freezer!)

Hyvee is our regular grocery & I do like them but their daily prices are no longer terribly competative. But I love their produce & I will buy things on sale there.

Sams--I go maybe 2x/yr. Only get it when I get a Groupon for membership, or we need to buy tires (DH swears by it). If you know your prices, they typically aren't that much cheaper on most items. (I did some comparisons to Aldi recently & Sams couldn't touch them). We do like their dried mango & DS takes a shelf-stable Nesquick chocolate milk to drink after lifting; ridiculously expensive at about $1/bottle at Target (but desperate to get some protein in that boy); about .75/bottle at Sams. I do like to buy dishwashing & laundry pods there. Chicken breasts run under $2 everyday.

Just yesterday I inventoried the freezer then planned meals for the next few weeks. I rarely use "recipes" but more tried & true meals that I can toss together quickly. I consider our schedule, so crock on certain days, etc. I don't live & die by the plan BUT I find that I stick to it about 75% off the time, so saves us TONS.

SO last night...3.5 lb. whole chicken in crock pot (seasonings & bird, THATS IT) $3.50. Bag of frozen carrots $1. Corn muffins $1. Pasta alfredo $2. Fresh pineapple $1.29. Milk to drink. Fed 5 of us a well rounded meal for under $10 with at least 2 servings more of leftovers.