Groceries

Remember how I mentioned I have GREATLY and CONSISTENTLY reduced my grocery budget? I was grocery shopping once a month for most of the groceries, and then once a week we got milk, and stuff like that. To save money we didn't buy fresh fruits or veggies, and watched every meal we made, only using economical everything - meals, ingredients, whatever. So the big trip was only about $400-$480. Then when we went back for little stuff it was $20-$50 each week. So, add it up ~ $460 to $630 a month on groceries. probably most often $525ish.

One day on Pinterest, I stumbled across this pin: http://www.grocerybudget101.com/content.php/11-grocery-budget-101 

This family of four spends $250 a month on all groceries and toiletry-type items. WOW. $50/week plus $50 for misc. items. as good as that sounded, surely they were eating ramen, right? Or CRAZY couponing?

Nope. NO coupons, and they eat meals like Marinated Flank Steak, jasmine rice, salad, or Seared Halibut, Coleslaw, garlic green beans. For lunches they have things like Tuna Grape Salad on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Lots of fresh stuff, and fun new recipes. How do they do it? Really, I am not sure how it works, but it does. They shop weekly. So I decided to try it. $50 seemed a little skimpy, especially when we don't have an Aldi's (which apparently have AWESOME prices). They also have chickens, and therefore an unlimited supply of eggs, and they fish for good stuff like halibut, and hunt a little too. So I set my budget at $80/week, and $80 for non food grocery items. The first week I used their menus, or variations of their menus. I spent $65 on food. After that I started using my own menus, with ideas from pinterest, and those recipes that I've been meaning to try for ages. Since then I have dropped my budget to $70. So a total of $350 a month, and have only ever gone over by $20 one of the months. I am on month three, and these are the kinds of meals we are eating:

Breakfasts: Oatmeal, poached eggs on toast, cereal

Lunches: PBJ, Ham and cheese sandwiches, Chili dogs, Turkey/Avacado sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches - any of those with fresh fruit, carrots, crackers, etc...

Dinners: Ribs w/garlic mashed tatoes and zucchini, Loaded Burritos, Skillet lasagna with salad and french bread, Asian chicken salad, baked creamy chicken taquitos w/ seasoned beans and avacado/sour cream dip.

For comparison, before this new plan, I would only have something like a lot of those meals 3-4 times in a month. The rest of the time it was spaghetti with no salad or bread, burger soup, and other el cheapo meals.

I think the success comes from detailed planning, which eliminates waste, and limits unexpected eating out, too! When I decide I want something with ham, I know I can get half a ham for $5, and it will make about 5 meals, so I plan 3-4 meals with ham, and cube and freeze the rest. If I plan on eggs or oatmeal every morning, there is no reason to buy cereal. I can also use sale ads, and plan my menu around good deals, which is really hard with monthly shopping.  I also am not making $50 trips to Walmart, "just" to get milk. Last week I also found this blog with info on budget shopping, and it is good too: http://baconinmypocket.blogspot.com/search/label/groceries

I can't tell you EXACTLY what I am doing, all I know is that I switched to weekly shopping, with three meal a day menus, and added a bunch of fresh stuff, and I spend WAY less. I LIKE IT!