20/20: America's Cheapest Family

[Fern]

Check out the video feature on the home page of Yahoo.com today. There's a segment on "America's cheapest family," a famiy of 7 that gets by on $35,000 a year.

Their one rule is "If you don't have the money, don't buy it."

There was one hilarious segment where the husband and wife do the grocery shopping together and are armed with walkie talkies while they get different stuff. They only do food shopping once a month and all the meals are planned out in advance.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I guess the walkie talkies are to speed up the process rather than for money saving?

I grew up in a family of eight and we sure had to shop more than once a month, even with a lot of cabinets, and a big freezer. The grocery store carts were deeper back then and held more groceries. We always had at least two carts piled quite high and filled on the bottom shelf as well. We had a very progressive for its time all-night supermarket. Sometimes my mom would shop around midnight in order to be able to leave all the kids at home with Dad. That Volkswagon van was stuffed with brown paper bags of groceries. Bringing it all in to the kitchen and putting it away was something else. There was rarely anything in those bags you could call junk food. Well, no, vanilla wafers and jello, I guess. But then back then, there just was not nearly so much junk food iand processed food in existence. Even families who bought stuff like that did not eat it everyday as it seems is done nowadays.

I have taken food stamp recipients to the grocery store sometimes. To Aldi's or a local market that has very good prices. These were once a month shopping trips. too. One woman with two children-- I was impressed at how thoughtful she was to plan out her buying to cover a month so that she would not have to find a ride back to the store again. Just those groceries for three people pretty much filled up my little Toyota. She had to put things in her freezer (she had a big freezer) that I would never have frozen--like her milk for later in the month. Some of her bread, cheese, butter, and yogurt I remember went in the freezer. Once she bought two bunches of bananas, setting one out to eat fresh, then peeled the second bunch and froze them for later. I guess she would cook with them.

I think you have to be really organized and aware of your needs in order to really make once a month shopping work. We live so close to enough stores that we don't even consider such a thing. There are 3 stores within easy walking distance, two more a little further but still walkable, and also some specialy stores like delis, bakery, salumerias in walkable distance. (Ah, city living!) My husband does most of our grocery shopping and sometimes I tease him that going to the grocery store is his hobby. He seems to use it as a wind down activity to transition from work to home. He goes almost every evening, it seems.

[Ima saver]

I think it would be great to be able to walk to the stores. I want to move to a town like that, so when I get older I can quit driving.

[herm4]

OMG! I always think I am the most frugal person, but geez, these people have thought of everything!



learning to live well without spending alot of money

[disneysteve]

They only do food shopping once a month

We could never do this. So much of our diet involves fresh fruit and vegetables we'd be quite unhappy if we had to give that all up. Frozen and canned just aren't nearly as good. We shop a couple of times a week to keep stocked with fresh produce.

[boefixepa]

Okay, I found and read the article...what amazed me where the flood of negative comments!!! Even when people who were doing it commented and pointed out it was possible. The majority of people were critizing and mean and saying it was impossible???? I really wonder what the world is coming to sometimes....I really do.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Can someone who has found the article online help me find it? Perhaps post a link?

[LuckyRobin]

I read their book last month. It had a lot of interesting points made (though I still like Tightwad Gazette much better), but the part I found the most inspiring was the part about kids and money and how they take vacations. They do go into a bit more detail in the book about their shopping expeditions.

[Saving in So Cal]

I didn't see the news piece or the article, but I read their book. A few interesting tidbits, but probably not much new for someone who has been practicing at being frugal for awhile.

[FrugalFish]

We could never do this. So much of our diet involves fresh fruit and vegetables we'd be quite unhappy if we had to give that all up. Frozen and canned just aren't nearly as good. We shop a couple of times a week to keep stocked with fresh produce.

That's what struck me about the story too. I kept wondering if they just don't buy perishables? Only have them for a week out of each month following the store trip? Or is the monthly trip just a big stock-up of non-perishables and they make quick stops throughout the month for perishables?

I have to go to the store at least once or twice a week to get produce and milk- there's just no way around this. Here where I live, we often get seasonal fruits and veggies for a much better price than canned or frozen.

I suppose I'd like to see a little more about the diet these 7 eat. In the piece it looked like they were eating salads. Perhaps they garden and can their own fruits/veggies. A few years back, I knew a woman who touted herself a "frugal guru" and even wrote a book that's available on Amazon. Her diet was terrible, IMO. Some of her frugal advice was to expect everyone in the family to fill up on cheap white bread at dinner so they wouldn't eat so much of the other, more expensive food.

I'm also curious if this family puts savings away from the $35K, or if the $35K is what is left over after savings & investments, or if they don't save money at all? Unfortunately I'm not so interested as to buy the book! Of course $35K goes different distances in different parts of the country.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Just out of curiosity, I ran this families' $35,000 income through the Food Stamp Program Eligibility Screening Tool. Assuming that they pay $585 in rent, also pay utilities, and have no assets, I get this message:

"I appears that you may be eligible for Food Stamps. Based on the information you provided, you may be eligible for between $167 to $177 in Food Stamps per month."