OK- I'm so frustrated by my grocery budget. I try super hard to stay within my budget and keep failing. So, one thought is my expectations are too high, aka my budget is too low. I thought maybe you could share your budget with me, how many people you feed on that budget, and how well it's working. PLUS any tips you have for saving money on food. I'll start:
The Budget:
$400/month
This money buys anything you would buy at a grocery store, not just food. For example, I just bought deodorant. Trust me, you don't want me going without it!
It includes an expenditure of $140/month for formula, diapers, and wipes. I can't change this because picky pants won't take anything but Enfamil Lipil- it could be worse.
It feeds 3 of us, but seriously Amelia eats like a bird so she only counts like 1/3 of a person!
It used to be $600/month before unemployment. We were fat and happy :)
Cost Saving Tips of my own:
I have completely cut salmon out of the budget due to expense which disappoints me. Anyone have a Salmon farm with free giveaways?
Also- I have 1/8 of a cow in my freezer so I do not have to buy beef (major cost savings)
Do 80% of my shopping at Super Wal-mart and price match as much as I can, plus use Sunday paper coupons.
Have used the Food Value Club at West Side Food Bank, lots of food, but not always what we would eat following a good fats/good carbs plan.
Menu plan a week at a time and try to use up "extra" ingredients. For example- if I use 4 oz of cream cheese for a recipe I try to use the other 4 oz for another recipe or with bagels for breakfast, etc.
In Closing:
Yes, things like Bean Week have helped. I thought I actually made it this week and was so excited, then went home and opened up Emery's can of formula. Almost gone- YIKES. So, now I'm short $30. Any wisdom you can offer is great. Thanks to my brother-in-law for his tips on my Bean Week post. It's what made me think of this post! Happy Eating.
7 comments:
Tyler is the Budget King (I am not) but I do enjoy trying to save as much as I can on food. For two of us, we spend $250 per month. That is just for food. I also coupon. Some sites/tips I would recommend are:
www.grocerygame.com --this is a great website! I think you can get a membership for 10 bucks for 4 months. I never got a membership, I just read all the message boards and it was SOOOO helpful, especially when it came time for Christmas shopping! I got many items from the store for free or close to free using this site.
Angel Food Ministries (I think they have a website) this is run through churches. Basically, you get %50 worth of food for $25. There are also seperate meat packages you can buy. The catch is you don't pick what goes in it, it is different each month. I know a lot of people that have utilizes this ministry! The website should be able to let you know which churches are sites for it. I'm sure there are plenty of close options in your area!
Hopefully some of this is helpful! Once we have kids, who knows what the budget will become!!!
I've been an avid Walmart price-matching, coupon clipping shopper for the last few years and have loved not store-hopping for their sale items. BUT I have to say that I've found some great things at Fry's lately. Sad to say that there have been days I've just gone in the afternoon to waste time and put Ryan in the Kids Club to give myself a break, then I just wander the aisles. But I only shop what's on sale there (and from my short list) and pay close attention to their "manager's special" stickers. I've found luxery items like salmon, shredded parmeasan cheese and organic milk super cheap, all perfectly fine, just marked down for whatever reason. The date on the salmon is coming due (who cares- stick it in the freezer) or the package of parm. cheese is crushed (again - who cares - transfer the container when you get home) or they have an oversupply of milk. Last weekend, I looked on their day-old bakery rack and found loaves of wheat french bread for $.79 - cheaper than the bread I buy and I used it for french toast.
So I've made it a point to go to Fry's at least every other week just with the purpose of buying unadvertised mark downs. And I pay attention to their triple coupon weeks because those little bits ad up too. I've walked away with several free items that were on sale and triple coupons.
Erin-
You may have met me. I used to live with Robin Bosse and I still work at the group home that she worked at with me. All of our girls that have young kids would do the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program. My friend had to switch her new born to a really expensive formula and her ped recommended that she check out this program. Her husband works full time and she works part time. I do know our girls receive WIC vouchers once a month to get free milk, cheese, juice, cereal, formula, and peanut butter. It might be something worth checking out. If you need more info, you can get my number for Robin.
-joanne
Oh, and my friend gets most of her expensive formula for free each month, depending on how much her son eats!
-joanne
We're about at $600/month for five (two adults, one teenage boy, one 5 yr old and a 2 yr old, two animals)
I've heard Angel Food Ministries is wonderful....you can't pick what is in it, but you DO see the menus for each month!!
www.naomidoesfrugal.blogspot.com
www.donutsandgrahamcrackers.blogspot.com
Erin,
What's helped me is that I actually plan out our menu for an entire month, and even pre-type out the grocery lists. That way, if I see roast on sale the beginning of the month, and know that I am going to use it at the end of the month, I go ahead and by it then.
Also, for Salmon, I buy the huge individual-wrapped packs at costco in the freezer section. It's way cheaper than the store, plus you can portion control.
Well, I am not sure where you live, but the co-op "Bountiful Baskets" is helpful. You get about $50 worth of produce for $15.00. Also, if you follow any of the CVS/Walgreens blogs you can get quite a bit through rebate or money given when purchases are made there. I recently got 34 lbs of peaches throught the co-op and sure... no one needs 34 lbs of peaches all at once but I froze most of them and made a pie for a dinner party and a pie for my bible study group for $22. We have peaches for weekly meals for the next couple months. If you go to my blog, you will also see that I got over $75 worth of merchandise at Walgreens basically for free and they owed me money at the end. I know KMart is having a super double coupon event now until 10/5. They will double all your coupons up to $2 each up to 75 coupons total.
I feel your frustration though and often have trouble with my grocery budget as well (which is much higher than yours with three large boys to feed). It has come down to taking out cash for groceries each week and once its gone, we will have to make due with what we have. Good luck!
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