I just can't get our food bill down...

[DivaJen]

Originally Posted by Thrifty Ray

A good book I use is Not Just Beans...which has alot of simple, homemade meals that use basic and frugal ingredients.

Here are some sample recipes from the author, Tawra Kellam.

[Fern]

Originally Posted by contrary1

One tip of mine.............I don't ever go back to a store for something I forgot. I just pretend I'm my grandmother, stuck in the middle of North Dakota..........she would just make do. That's my best advice, make do with what you have. No going back, put the forgotten things on your next list.....and make do.

Ha! That's what i often do, either substituting or doing without some ingredient, and i've been told more than once that stuff i cook doesn't come out "quite right" because of it!

[stngymama]

this might be fun for comparing cost per serving of various cuts of meat:
http://www.cheapcooking.com/costperserving.htm

I just used it to compare two sale items at the local Safeway Quite a surprise!

[funnyvalentine]

Yes, the ethnic markets around me(middle eastern, Korean, Italian) are great for all kinds of interesting things and staples too. Rice, which comes in huge bags, is really cheap.

I also buy any veggies that are marked down (ready to be thrown out,lol) judiciously clean and trim them and freeze them for soup and stir fries.

Originally Posted by contrary1

another thought on reducing the bills ......... Check out any ethnic markets in your area. We're lucky to have huge asian and mexican markets nearby. Both of these offer great prices on things I normally use anyway, but are much cheaper than my grocery stores.
Rice and tortillas are 2 items I can think of off the top of my head.

[stngymama]

Originally Posted by contrary1

One tip of mine.............I don't ever go back to a store for something I forgot.........

Me too. The clincher was making stir fry Oyster Beef without the Oyster Sauce. No one noticed

What's that old saying "..Use it up, ?????,.....do without"?

[Duchesse]

I'm glad I saw this post. I thought I was doing something wrong.

I live in NYC and spend $175.00 per month to feed myself and my 14yo son who by the way drinks 1/2 gal of milk a day. My goal is to feed myself and my son for $150.00 month. How do I do it (lol)?

I shop sales at 4 local supermarkets. I receive the circulars every week. I pore over them with a fine tooth comb. Most times I shop at all of them depending what loss leaders are available. Also I know one is good for bread and turkey bacon .89 cents per loaf and .99 cent for a 12oz package respectively.I always go shopping alone. I have a freezer so I shop bulk. Always make a list and try to stick to it (sometimes I go over board),and make sure you're not hungry, tired, or irritable when you shop.

Use manufacturers coupons, store coupons, and consider store brands. Go shopping on double coupon days. Get rain checks for unavailable items. Cut back or cut out convenience prepackaged foods. Carry items in your hands or take a basket, not a cart if you have plans for a small amount.

One other thing, I don't know if you have less fortunate members of your family but I do ( they buy $500.00 name brand coats and designer handbags!). They are eligible for some of the free food given out by the USDA. I've been lucky enough to know a few who don't use the powdered milk so they give it to me, along with pasta, mashed potato flakes, and sometimes peanut butter.

Incidentally, this saves me money so that if I wanted to I could invest in their coat or designer handbag company.

[AmberW]

OK, I have to say again, Don't forget the beans!!!!!! They are soooooo cheap. Just eat them a few times a week and it makes SUCH a difference. We have bean tacos for lunch most days. The recipe is on www.helpmybudget.com under "Eat on 35 cents per person" I know the book "not just beans" was mentioned, which is great b/c you need to eat something cheap besides beans, but I don't think you can get cheaper than beans. Plus, they are so so so so healthy. I think they are super tastey also, but that's me. Of course, I use the recipe mentioned above. If someone had just told me in the past "eat dried beans" I would not have ANY idea what to do to a dried bean to make it edible.
Meatless meals really help the budget. I also make tofu tacos (and i don't normally like tofu). I saute onions and mushrooms with garlic salt and then add hard tofu chunks towards the end. I fry corn tortillas in just a little oil to soften them and there you go ! Just add a side of beans!

[boefixepa]

Okay, I do it differently, but here's what my mom did trying to feed five kids.....cooking from the basics! Don't fall into the trap of the processed food game. If you are a sahm it's easy enough to bake your own bread, cakes, biscuts meals etc. It's much cheeper to buy the things to cook with than it is to buy the easy stuff. I'm not sure what you are buying, but if you are buying soda...why? Water's free and healthier and if the kids complain, koolaid is pretty cheep. I can find great deals for meat at the local buther that processes game meat. It's fresher than anything I can get at the store and generally cheeper. My mom mixed powdered milk and store milk with a drop of vinalla extract. Not the best tasting, but if you grow up on it, you don't know the difference and when you are trying to but milk into five growing kids it wasn't uncommon to go through two gallons of milk a day. That's expensive.

Are your children picky? Are you making different meals for different kids? Have you tried letting them fast if they don't like what you are fixing for dinner? I became much less picky after that. Are portions what they should be? With todays society it's easy to overfeed. It's hard, but adult meals, (those over 30) should only be eating a fist size meal of about 1500 calories a day if you do not do a physical job. If you have growing kids this may be harder, but find inexpensive things to fill them up.

I'm not a snacker, never have been, so I don't even go down the chip, cookie, cracker isle. Snacks to me are a waste, since I don't even think about them it's not a hardship to me. It depends on how you were raised I guess.

A monthly fast (skipping two meals) and donating the saved money to a homeless shelter is a great way to teach kids that physical hunger does not mean I have to find food. People all over the world live with hunger and teaching a kid that there are other ways to deal with hunger will serve them well over their life. Be grateful for what you have...there is always the risk it can be taken from you.

I guess as a parent you just have to weigh the pros and cons of every thing you buy. Could you make it for less, is it a need or a want? Would cooking lessons help? Just keep experimenting and finding ways to change.

For years we lived in Wyoming and my father hunted for game meet. For a few hundred dollars and alot of fun we would get some antelope and deer and if we were lucky an elk. Butchering them was a yearly family even and we had all the meet a family of seven could eat for a year. When mom had to buy 'cow meat' as we called it....we all thought it tasted funny.

Good luck and keep trying.

boefixepa

[PRICEPLUS]

Go big time on the rice and beans or lentils. Cut out soda and drink only water. This can be jazzed up with a little lemon.

Buy generic items. Meat or chicken should be chopped up and spread in with what you are serving. You'd be surprised how a little ingenuity can make the meat/chicken go further. Look for day old bread and freeze it.

Buy what is in season and stock up on sales of canned or frozen goods when on sale.

Try the wonders of crock pot cooking.

Read up on what constitutes a portion/serving of something. You'd be surprised how much more Americans eat than we need to. Eat less and you'll be healthier in the long run.

Switch to white vinegar and baking soda for your household cleaning needs.
You can save money there.

Read through the various tips on this site and use the links provided fopr other info to cut the grocery bill!

Good luck you can do it!

[funnyvalentine]

The portion thing is a no brainer, really. Most of us eat too much, and the related health problems cost us even more.......

Originally Posted by PRICEPLUS

Read up on what constitutes a portion/serving of something. You'd be surprised how much more Americans eat than we need to. Eat less and you'll be healthier in the long run.

)

[mom-from-missouri]

I have 3 children and myself, and we spend around $200 a month on groceries--and that includes me making their lunches for school everyday.
Are you buying convience foods or making from scratch? For example, a box of mashed potoes costs around $2.49. I can get a 20 lb bag of potatoes for $1.99, less if it is on sale. Equally true for rice. Beans also are a cheap protien food. Every meal doesn't need meat-some foods are meats-beans, peanut butters, cheese, eggs--high protien foods.
What kind of cereal are you buying??? The sugery stuff that is high dollar?? We eat a lot of oatmeal. I buy it in the large bags and only keep out what we use-they rest I store in the deepfreeze to keep out bugs and such. I grow what we can. This year, I spent around $7 on pepper plants for the garden (thats 42 plants). Green peppers, yellow and red, and a few hot ones. When they rippen, I will wash, blanche, dice and quick freeze on a waxpaper covered cookie sheet-then move to freezer bags or jars. That will be a years worth of peppers for pizzas, stews, soups, chilis..... I do this with as many foods as possible. I also dry foods-mainly fruits. If you don't have room for a garden, plant what you can in pots. Grow your own herbs inside your kitchen window. Every little bit helps. You can also find great savings during the summer at the farmer markets. Call your local extension office to locate one near you. We love watermelon and corn on the cob during the summer. Due to the demand, both of those can be high dollar foods-I grow them, and can sell the excess. Know a farmer?? Ask him about buyind meat directly from him-many times a farmer may be butchering, but have an extra 1/2 or 1/4 of a hog or cow that they will sell. Some farmers may even "lease" you space on their land for a garden. I did that 2 years before I had a place of my own--basically, he charged me $25 for the ENTIRE summer--I just had the end 12 feet of their garden--he even plowed, disced and tilled it. We just knew that the last 12 feet, 'from the blue marker on down" were mine. I probably spent around $50 that summer to pay him and buy my seeds and plants, but got back several hundred dollars of food--not to mention the free eggs his wife kept giving me when their chickens were over laying.
Buy in bulk when items are on sale and you can combine with coupons. But, when you do this, look at the expiration dates-if you can't use it, you are throwing out money. For example, last week I got 10 bottles of salad dressing. They were on sale for .99. normally they are $1.59. I had 10 coupons saved up for .75 off. So, for around $2.50 I got a years worth of Kraft salad dressings. I won't buy it again for a year.
If you don't garden/can, you can buy some foods cheaper in the large institutional size cans. Corn for example. In my store, 1 gallon cans of corn are cheaper than buying 4 little ones. I use what I want when I open it, then freeze the rest. Works great for soups too.
Also, plan your meals so that you use up your leftovers. If you have chicken one night, th next night you may want to stir fry and add your diced up leftover chicken to it. If you change the leftover, people aren't burned out on it and are more inclined to eat it. Buy generic when you can-normally its cheaper, and remember that for most foods, they are produced and packaged by the same companies that make the brand name stuff. It still passes the same FDA inspections--although sometimes it may be a grade 2 instead of grade 1, but then again, you are not paying grade 1 prices.
are you using paper products that are included in your grocery budget?? If so, quit using paperplates and cups. Is it necessary to use brand name TP?? I mean, considering what it is used for.....
Shop the dollar stores. I can get Little Debbie products at our Dollar General for $1 a package--the same package at our grocery store is $3.49. Bake when you can. I bake once a month--muffins and cupcakes, and freeze them in a large bag. Every night when I make the girls lunch the next day, I get out and rebag them individually for their lunch. (In my baggies that I wash and reuse--I can make 2 boxes of baggies last a year). Look at what you are buying. Are you getting a bunch of snack foods?? If so, you are spending money on sugar to help you gain weight and damage your teeth....
Good luck!

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

. Look at what you are buying. Are you getting a bunch of snack foods?? If so, you are spending money on sugar to help you gain weight and damage your teeth....
Good luck!

I like that line best.....

[PRICEPLUS]

Amen!

[LittleGopher]

My family has been working hard on this very budget item! I can't say we're perfect or have it all down pat, but we've made a sizeable reduction in our grocery bill. Here's what we did that might work for you.

First I started shopping every two weeks instead of weekly. And I don't go backto the store in between those trips. I plan out meals and keep my pantry and freezer stocked, so can usually work out most missing ingredient dilemmas.

I've gotten better at getting what we will use plus a little extra until the next shopping trip to the grocery store and the bakery outlet for bread. I am improving at using the leftovers that I've frozen, and rotating everything in my freezers, so it is all used in a timely fashion.

I try to buy ingredients, rather than anything pre-processed or -packaged. I do admit to buying the 25cent mac & cheese - a cheap convenience that my girls will eat! I buy up ground beef in family packs, and brown it and repackage 1 lb. bags into the freezer, for easy inclusion into many meals.
And I do stock up buying frozen chicken breasts bags on sale. So I'm not perfect, and appreciate some conveniences. I bake treats for my girls' lunches, rather than travel down the snack aisle.

We eat at least two non-meat dinners a week, tend toward cheaper meals - spaghetti, eggs, etc., watch for deals or free (even better!) and keep an eye on reducing waste (freezing or eating leftovers soon, using up the fresh vegies and fruits.)

Good luck!

[getforfree]

I have stockpile. It helps a lot. I buy things not when I am out and need them this week, I buy most of nonperishables when they are at a good price and I have a coupon on them. When you are out and you need it today, you are in trouble, you might overpay for it because at that specific time you might not have any coupon for it and its not on sale at your favorite store (if you shop only at one).
I look what I have and then plan menu. I might buy a couple items I need for the receipe. I usually check my stock(pile) and see what I am low on and put it on a special list where I put items that I will be out of in a month or less. Then if I get a good deal on it (the really good one only) I stock up again. I usually write dates when I bought it on food stuff, so that way I use up the oldest ones first.
We use lots of milk (about 5 gal a week) Thats bad for the budget but good for the health.
Some weeks I get by with only $20, some weeks I spend 130. On average its like $250 including diapers, clothes and toys, dishes,towels and all that. I buy clothes like a year ahead of time when they are clearance. So my kids have more clothes than they need. Because sometimes they don't use some clothes and its still new with a price tag on it and they outgrew it already, I put it in the speciall baby shower bag. I know some of my friends who have more than one kid and they would rather get clothes for the oldest one than for the baby for the baby shower.
We have 2 kids and 3 adults in the house. My dd is still in diapers, my son uses only for overnight just in case. We also get wic. Without it I would spend another $40 / month if I buy the stuff the way I buy it and substitute some(but I would still buy juice, the apple juice is usually the cheapest from all other kinds).
We almost never eat out. Once we went to mcdonalds (for my ds birthday). Ordered a kids meal, 2 cheeseburgers and some chicken nuggets. That was for 5 people. Everybody had enough. We had to refill that small cup from the kids meal like 10 times or so. We spend like $8 something and thats more than we would spend if we would eat at home, and we would eat more each, but maybe not drink soda at all, some juice, milk, tea, water instead.
Whenever I get mail, I look at every ad that I get. Sometimes they have coupons for something free just for stopping by. I shop at 7 different grossery stores and pick only the good deals. Cairo.com helps a lot to see what they have on special. When I am in the store I collect the coupons smartsorce blikies or whatever they have I might buy maybe at some other store some other time. I always carry my fat everlope of coupons with me.

[thriftymom]

For our family of 3, (dd is 1yr), we usually spend about $80 per week. One thing that helped a bit was buying milk at the gas station. We are constantly filling up the tank, so once a week we buy 2 gallons of 1% for $1.99 each instead of paying $3.89 each at the grocery store- that's practically half-price! Soon, dd will be drinking whole milk- not sure how much that costs, but it's probably cheaper at the gas station too.

[funnyvalentine]

Milk wise? I don't touch the stuff,but my S/o does, and I mix a lo-fat powdered milk, reconstituted, with whole milk. The taste (apparantly) is fine, and it costs less.

[debtdude]

Get your fruits and veggie's at a farmer's market. You will save a lot of money with this tip alone.

[markio26]

all of the previous posts are just wonderful... everyone is so smart here......... i just wanted to add... i have been on a budget of $25 a week for groceries.... i am stockpiled right now.... i have a surplus of $45 right now.... last week, i did not need anything and this week only milk and ketchup..... anyway, i have been trying something new.... i attach with a staple my old grocery receipt to my new shopping list.... and each week a new receipt is added for a month... this way i can compare prices quick and see what i may want to buy to accomodate what i already have.... do you know what i mean????? the price book is used for alot of major shopping items.. mostly..... this is working well for me. try it.

[katwoman]

I still can't believe how good the deals can be on food!

Yesterday I went to Big Lots and found a ton of 12 oz packages of low carb/ high fiber pasta for 25 cents each! It seems nobody wants this stuff yet Dreamfields pasta at the grocery store is almost $2 a package.

Big Lots also carries Brownberry bread for cheaper prices than the grocery, but not as cheap as the bakery thrift stores. Since gas is higher and I haven't made it over the the bakery thrift store, I buy a few loaves at Big Lots (since I'm there anyway) to tide me over.

And I'm glad some people have noticed that milk is cheaper at the gas station of all places!