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Post by leslie132 on Oct 12, 2016 20:14:29 GMT
I have more than a few things happening in my life and they all point to needing my grocery budget adjusted. Today I was reading blogs about how to feed a family of 5 on $300 a month. 4 tips really stood out for me.
1. Plan out your meals (at least a weeks worth). 2. Organize your pantry. 3. Have at least 1 meatless meal a week 4. Shop at multiple stores for better prices (if close and convenient).
Do you have any addition tips? I will include coupons if and when I can, but I'm leery on doing heavy coupons and stockpiling. I think I would over spend or grab things I don't need.
I've been doing Ibotta (LOVE IT) and Checkout 51 more than coupons!
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,888
Location: PNW
Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 12, 2016 20:17:38 GMT
I swear our local bag it yourself store raises the prices at the beginning of the month, for about a week. I just can't prove it... But every time I have sticker shock at my grocery receipt I think of the date and it's always "oh yeah it's the beginning of the month." That is also when the store is extra crowded.
Buy spices from the bulk area is my money saving tip. Especially if you only need a tablespoon of something.
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Post by bianca42 on Oct 12, 2016 20:19:48 GMT
How about planning your meals for the week based on what's on sale. I also plan the lunches we take to work/school for the week.
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kelly8875
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,390
Location: Lost in my supplies...
Oct 26, 2014 17:02:56 GMT
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Post by kelly8875 on Oct 12, 2016 20:23:40 GMT
Go to the stores and educate yourself on prices. Most people I know have no idea that they pay rediculous amounts on the dumbest things. Pay attention to the sales, and base your menu on those. If pork chops are on sale this week for $1 each, well, it looks like we're eating pork chops this week a couple times! If you know you drink coffee everyday, but the largest of the tubs (I'm a Folgers girl, and the big tub lasts about a month). The bigger tub costs just a smudge over the small one, so it's a better deal. Similar costs are on pretty much everything that comes in various sizes. Bagged lettuce is a ripoff...just buy the head. You get way more for cheaper! Stuff like that
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Post by mimi3566 on Oct 12, 2016 20:23:45 GMT
Not only plan your meals by what's on sale, but take inventory or your pantry/spices and plan your menu to include items you have on hand.
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Post by leslie132 on Oct 12, 2016 20:25:41 GMT
How about planning your meals for the week based on what's on sale. I also plan the lunches we take to work/school for the week. I am trying to prepare enough to have leftovers for lunches. Great idea about following the stores sales to plan out meals. A big money sucker in my house is milk, cheese and yogurt. My kids have to be part mouse!
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hanushka
Full Member
Posts: 142
Sept 27, 2016 20:54:24 GMT
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Post by hanushka on Oct 12, 2016 20:26:42 GMT
I would say shop your pantry/freezer first before you go to the store...that way you are efficiently using up what you already have. You may be surprised at how far that stretches! Especially when you only need to get a few additional ingredients to make a complete meal or two. I save a fair amount by doubling certain meals and freezing one portion for a later date. Soups (chili, vegetable, beef barley, etc) work great for this, especially since you can use less meat. I'll use 1 to 1.5 lb ground beef for chili, but add extra beans and tomatoes and make that stretch for two meals. Also, I recently started being really conscious of how much food I waste! Eat up those leftovers, freeze what you can, even google ideas of what to do with those little bits that you would normally throw away. Limiting my food waste has tremendously helped my grocery budget. Good luck! I'm interested to hear what tips others have too!!!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 2, 2024 10:01:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2016 20:27:22 GMT
I plan our meals based on what's on sale that week. I also do not stockpile because we simply do not have the storage space to do so. Just because something is 2 for $5 does not mean you have to get 2 of them.
Pasta once a week is a cheap meal. Generic is often just as good as name brand. Take advantage of any store loyalty program your grocery stores have. Many of them have digital coupons now and will include their brand in the deals. Look into the SavingsStar app. I use ibotta, Checkout51 and SavingStar. Between the three, I have almost $500 for Christmas saved for this year. If you have the freezer space, go ahead and grab an extra package of meat when it's on sale. Look into using ground turkey. Not Butterball or Jeanie brand, but rather the store brand. I can get a pound of ground turkey for $2 vs extra lean ground beef for $6. Sometimes, you have to find it in the frozen aisle.
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Post by internetmama on Oct 12, 2016 20:29:20 GMT
Shop the weekly loss leader items and plan your meals with those items Do more than one meatless meal Have your own list of cheap meals your family loves and keep them in the rotation frequently Less packages more from scratch ex one bakery cake = 10 boxes of cake mix Know which stores have the best regular prices on your frequently purchased items and only buy those items at the best price If your family won't eat leftovers make smaller meals so there is no waste Don't eat out or by prepared foods except Costco/Sam's club rotisserie chicken which is cheaper than raw usually. Don't do cookies, chips, soda or packaged cereal And Don't shop hungry and stick to your list!
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Post by mimi3566 on Oct 12, 2016 20:29:40 GMT
Also, try to buy private label store brand vs. national branded products. I work for a food manufacturing business....we package more private label than we do branded and in most cases, it's the same thing and retails for much cheaper.
I do most of my shopping at Publix...their private label is just as good, if not better than most branded items. And a heck of a lot cheaper most of the time unless they offer BOGO's that week.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,888
Location: PNW
Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Oct 12, 2016 20:32:18 GMT
I forgot my # 1 tip. Do not let the DH do the grocery shopping! I swear he somehow managed to spend $70 on the ingredients for s'mores this summer.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Oct 12, 2016 20:50:18 GMT
We buy our meat from the butcher not only less per pound, but better quality.
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Post by lisae on Oct 12, 2016 20:52:02 GMT
I echo the never let your DH do the grocery shopping. Mine comes home with all kinds of stuff that was not on the list.
Do you have an Aldi? The prices are much better. There are threads here about Aldi and what people like to get there. We bought eggs there a few weeks ago for 55 cents a dozen. They are about $2.50 a dozen in the regular store. On a similar note, we used to have a Sam's club membership but I didn't find we saved that much, certainly not enough for the cost of the membership. I don't know about the other warehouse clubs.
I think we save the most by buying meat on sale and freezing it. I have a FoodSaver food sealer and it is the single best purchase I've ever made for my kitchen. Meat takes up less freezer space, stays fresh longer and thaws a lot faster.
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Post by anniefb on Oct 12, 2016 21:19:22 GMT
I would add - grow some of your own produce if you can e.g. small vegetable garden or a couple of fruit trees.
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Post by freeatlast on Oct 12, 2016 21:25:04 GMT
My only suggestion is breakfast for dinner.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Oct 12, 2016 21:30:15 GMT
Not only plan your meals by what's on sale, but take inventory or your pantry/spices and plan your menu to include items you have on hand.^^^ how, how, how does one do this effectively?? I am not a 'throw things together and it works' type of cook; I cook using recipes, and I can't figure out how to plan a menu like this. If I want to make a specific recipe, I might (okay, I will probably) need to buy at least one or two things to make it. Especially if it calls for a certain fresh / chopped / etc. vegetable; the only fresh vegetables I keep on hand are green peppers and onions. If I look strictly at what items I have on hand in my pantry and/or freezer, I can't figure out what to make with it-- cookbooks aren't set up like that, and my cooking brain can't visualize a 'finished dish' when I look at a bunch of separate ingredients. So for me, putting together a menu for the week will involve shopping... it seems like I have to do a certain amount of stocking up in order to menu plan at all.
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Post by monklady123 on Oct 12, 2016 21:32:24 GMT
I forgot my # 1 tip. Do not let the DH do the grocery shopping! I swear he somehow managed to spend $70 on the ingredients for s'mores this summer. Yes, that! lol. My dh will come home with something and say "hey look what I found at the store!" as if it's a brand new thing. He doesn't realize I've seen that thing there at the store for all the years I've been shopping there. Mostly I don't send him to the store though, but occasionally he'll stop by on the way home from work or on the weekend for something that he forgot to write on the list when I asked sixteen times throughout the week. And the reason I don't send him for the large shopping trip is because one, I'm home more. But more important is that it's too much trouble to write out the list for him. If I write "can tom 2" I know exactly what I mean. If I have to write it for him I have to say "two cans canned diced tomatoes 14-oz can with garlic and oregano added, store brand". oy
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Post by Sam on Oct 12, 2016 21:34:05 GMT
I used to do the shop for the week stuff (only me and one other, though) and found we wasted more money that way - buy staples once a week and tinned stuff once a month, but do the fresh crap that goes with it on the day you eat it - use left overs the next day. I can't tell you the number of times I've bought salad ingredients (for example) and never used them.
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Post by monklady123 on Oct 12, 2016 21:38:45 GMT
Not only plan your meals by what's on sale, but take inventory or your pantry/spices and plan your menu to include items you have on hand.^^^ how, how, how does one do this effectively?? I am not a 'throw things together and it works' type of cook; I cook using recipes, and I can't figure out how to plan a menu like this. If I want to make a specific recipe, I might (okay, I will probably) need to buy at least one or two things to make it. Especially if it calls for a certain fresh / chopped / etc. vegetable; the only fresh vegetables I keep on hand are green peppers and onions. If I look strictly at what items I have on hand in my pantry and/or freezer, I can't figure out what to make with it-- cookbooks aren't set up like that, and my cooking brain can't visualize a 'finished dish' when I look at a bunch of separate ingredients. So for me, putting together a menu for the week will involve shopping... it seems like I have to do a certain amount of stocking up in order to menu plan at all. Up until recently I have been the type who might buy ten cans of black beans or kidney beans (or whatever) because "we'll eat it up". Then I store them down in the basement pantry area. So then one day I'll decide I want cuban black beans and rice, or chili. I'll go get a couple of those cans. Then several weeks/months go by and I want to cook chili again. I write up my list and am too lazy to go look to see if there are any kidney beans left so I buy more. Turns out there were some downstairs. lol So for me, "shopping" from my cupboard has come to mean going down there and making a list of EXACTLY what's there and how many. I just did this recently in fact because I was babysitting the washer while it washed blankets (it goes off balance on blankets). So I know that I have x cans of beans, four boxes of pasta, two jars of sauce, etc. Then I wrote down menus that included those things. I had meatballs in the freezer so one night I made pasta/sauce/meatballs in the pressure cooker. Another night we had chili and when I made my list for that I did NOT write down kidney beans. etc. It's worked well so far, so well in fact that my cupboards are looking a bit bare. lol Pretty soon I'll start restocking some things in case of bad winter weather -- soup, tuna, things like that. We won't soon be forgetting the six days we were without power a few years ago.
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Post by leslie132 on Oct 12, 2016 21:50:43 GMT
I would add - grow some of your own produce if you can e.g. small vegetable garden or a couple of fruit trees. We have a small garden. It has provided a lot of produce for us this summer, but we are at the end of its cycle. My soon to be 12 year old son sets up a farmers market at the end of our driveway.....we live in a plan (so we are by no means farmers) and I love his enthusiam. It is his garden (a long with my husband) and he decides what to plant and where to place it. This year we had amazing zucchini, green peppers, jalapeno and onions. First time to have luck with lettuce as well!!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 2, 2024 10:01:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2016 21:58:05 GMT
Not only plan your meals by what's on sale, but take inventory or your pantry/spices and plan your menu to include items you have on hand.^^^ how, how, how does one do this effectively?? I am not a 'throw things together and it works' type of cook; I cook using recipes, and I can't figure out how to plan a menu like this. If I want to make a specific recipe, I might (okay, I will probably) need to buy at least one or two things to make it. Especially if it calls for a certain fresh / chopped / etc. vegetable; the only fresh vegetables I keep on hand are green peppers and onions. If I look strictly at what items I have on hand in my pantry and/or freezer, I can't figure out what to make with it-- cookbooks aren't set up like that, and my cooking brain can't visualize a 'finished dish' when I look at a bunch of separate ingredients. So for me, putting together a menu for the week will involve shopping... it seems like I have to do a certain amount of stocking up in order to menu plan at all. I Google the ingredients I have and get recipes if I don't know how to prepare a meal from them and I've found cookbooks at the library with very cheap meals that I'd never thought about....also made me feel better that I actually had more money for groceries than some. I also use lots of beans. In many recipes, I use half ground beef or turkey and half refried beans. I would also limit the yogurt since it's more expensive than other dairy products. Let us know how it goes for you!
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Post by Nicole on Oct 12, 2016 22:06:09 GMT
My only suggestion is breakfast for dinner. I second this! We love having breakfast for dinner and there are so many variations of it! My family doesn't really eat much for breakfast, but we love breakfast food, so having it for dinner is great for us. We like making eggs, pancakes, bacon or sausage (whatever is on sale that week!) hash browns, fresh fruit (again, whatever is on sale!), etc.
I like to make a big batch of spaghetti sauce, soup, or chili about once a month. It's nice to be able to not have to cook for a couple nights since it lasts several days and all I have to do is just reheat it. And it's great for lunches.
Another meal we like that is fairly inexpensive is burrito bowls (like you get from Chipotle.). Rice and beans are cheap and just add whatever meat you like (or veggies if you don't want meat.) cheese, guacamole, etc.
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Post by peasapie on Oct 12, 2016 22:25:37 GMT
We grew up very poor, and my mom had to find many ways to stretch her food money to feed four children. We had many pasta- or rice-based meals, enriched with spinach, escarole, or other leafy greens. Leftovers were rarely thrown out. We didn't have many snacks-like chips or cookies or sofa or juice -- unless it was a holiday. My mom always bought proteins that were on sale that week, and she usually bought store brands. She bought whole chickens and cut them up into parts. Holidays and parties were the only time I remember splurges on things like snack foods.
I don't recommend powdered milk as a substitute for fresh. I hated it, but that was part of her "economizing."
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Post by myshelly on Oct 12, 2016 22:37:08 GMT
Limit milk. Kids need to drink water. Make that the main drink in your house.
Eliminate unnecessary things from your grocery budget like paper plates, paper napkins, plastic silverware, paper towels. Learn to use all reusable items.
See if your grocery store has any unexpected discounts (for example mine gives a discount if your brined your own bags instead of taking theirs).
Plan not only meals, but snacks.
Make sure you use all of everything you buy. This means planning your meals so that several nights in the week use the same ingredients so none goes to waste.
Have go to cheap meals that you can stick in a week when money is extra tight.
Know what is cheap. Dry beans, dry rice are crazy cheap and can feed a family for days.
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Post by leslie132 on Oct 12, 2016 22:38:56 GMT
Is it wrong to say I HATE beans. Never touch them and rarely include hem in a meal, but I will start to add them! I can pick around them. God knows I did as a kid (my Mom was into stretching meals)!
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Post by leannec on Oct 12, 2016 22:43:37 GMT
I hate to say it but I shop every day for fresh ingredients ... I know that isn't an option for everyone ... I used to shop once per week and ended up throwing out so much produce Now I buy exactly what I need for the nights recipe ... today I needed spinach and mushrooms ... I will not be throwing anything out I also shop at Costco for things like spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, onions, lemons, sweet peppers, potatoes, eggs, coffee, toilet paper ... and more of course
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SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,350
Location: Dallas Texas
Jun 26, 2014 12:16:22 GMT
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Post by SabrinaP on Oct 12, 2016 23:04:26 GMT
I do so much better at a true supermarket than Walmart or Target. They have too many "extras" that jump into my cart and make my total go up.
My best tip is spend time on your list and stick too it. Just avoid impulse buying.
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Post by Zee on Oct 12, 2016 23:35:16 GMT
The same tip I always give: plan your meals and shop at Aldi. Go vegetarian for much of the week. If you have a local produce market, that might be fairly inexpensive and have better produce than aldi.
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Post by hop2 on Oct 12, 2016 23:38:25 GMT
My tip: don't ignore specialty shops if they are on your way any way.
When I used to work down the street from a polish shop their kielbasa was 1/2 the price and 10x better than a grocery.
My butcher has chop meat for 2/3 the price of grocery stores. And when he has a sale steaks & chops are cheaper too.
If I'm driving past anyway then it's worth my time. Going out of my way then it's probably not a big enough savings.
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Post by bigbundt on Oct 12, 2016 23:40:09 GMT
I've been doing my main shopping at Aldis since summer and I am amazed at how cheap it is. I easily save $20-$40 a week shopping there over Wal-Mart. I do fill in certain items from other stores but that might be once or twice a month, rather than weekly. I utilize Southern Savers to search for items and price match at Wal-Mart if necessary.
And while it isn't groceries, I buy most of my H&B items from CVS. Using coupons and their ECBs mean very low prices on things like shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. This week I bought three packs of diapers for $7 total!
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