Saving Money on Groceries

[mtm8878]

So- how do you all do it? How much should I be spending on grocerries with a family of five.

What is your tips for saving money on grocerries?

[rags57078]

look for whats on sale and if its a real good buy try to buy extra , check with area farmers and buy a whole hog and 1/2 a beef . I use to get great buys on 2nd litter sows that had a hurt front shoulder and they made great eats . raise a garden and put those kids to work weeding and ect

[hmsteader71]

Here's what I did when there were 5 of us living here, now there are 4 & I still do things the same. about 2 times a year I stocked up on staple items & canned goods. This was before I started canning. Aldi's has the best prices compared with anywhere around where we are. I would also stock up on meat when it was on sale & come home & divide it up & freeze. Usually what I spent a month was $150-$200 and that included all household items & milk, bread, cheese, eggs & things like that. I would recommend learning to make your mixes from scratch as they have gone up greatly in price, this is something I am going to learn to do.

[Melissa]

Check out the tightwad tips post at the top of the board and the archives. There are literally hundreds of ways to save money on food listed in those posts.

Some of my ideas include: Set a budget and stick with it. Buy mostly ingredients, buy food in its most simple form. You really do have to cook a lot of things yourself to save money. Grow as much as you possibly can and do it as cheaply as possible. Of course look for sales, coupons, clearance items, etc... anything that saves a penny is worthwhile in my book. Check non-traditional stores for groceries- places like Dollar General or other dollar stores, Aldi's, Save-a-Lot, Walmart, thrift stores, flea markets, farmer's markets, and of course from the farmer down the road. You can often find great deals if you keep your eyes open.

Hunt, forage, raise a few chickens for meat and eggs. Plant trees that produce food- both nuts and fruit. Plant berries, shrubs, and other perrenial type food producing plants like rhubarb, herbs, asparagus. Get a good basic cookbook. Learn to cook in-season. Train yourself to not want certain foods, but to eat whatever is currently cheap and available. Don't fool yourself into thinking that eating hot dogs, bologna and ramen noodles is thrifty- it isn't in the long run. Watch portion sizes. Don't drink expensive drinks. Eat soup. Don't waste anything. Every food item should be used to the fullest extent.

[ladycat]

How much you spend depends on what your family eats.

Could you be more specific?

[Melissa]

Sorry I forgot that part of the question. My personal goal is $10 per person per week. It may take a little while before you can get to that point if you have nothing stored or don't grow a garden.

Here is the USDA's chart for expected food expenses in June:

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publication...oodJun2011.pdf

[MO_cows]

"How much should I be spending?"

Is it your goal to spend as little as possible, period, no other considerations? Or, do you want to reduce what you are spending now? Or, do you just want confirmation you are not over-spending? And, do you produce any of your own food or is everything purchased?

Please bring forth a little more information for better answers. Also, please do read the frugal sticky for this month and especially the archives, there are some really good ideas in there.

[Kris in MI]

My #1 saving money on groceries tip: know how much of an item you go through on a regular basis, buy that item only when it's on sale and buy enough of it that you won't run out before the next sale.

Most of my other money saving tips have all ready been covered by previous posters.

[Gena]

Originally Posted by mtm8878

So- how do you all do it? How much should I be spending on grocerries with a family of five.

What is your tips for saving money on grocerries?

What you "should" be spending will vary greatly based on where you live and what stores you have access to. It also depends on your dietary needs/restrictions and the ages of people you are feeding.

Groceries can be one of the easiest places to cut spending, but will most likely require you to rethink how you eat and cook. If you are currently eating Hamburger Helper and Stouffer's frozen dinners, it will be easy to cut the costs. If you grow a huge garden, bake your own bread and make meals from ingredients rather than boxes, you've probably already cut a good chunk from your budget.

Buying meat in bulk *may save you money. We recently bought a whole hog. Our finished per pound cost was about $2.25/lb. Full price pork here is upwards of $3.50/lb. On sale I can sometimes get pork chops/loin for $1.99/lb. Sale bacon? Forget it! $4/12oz is a "sale." The other plus is I'm not paying for 8-15% enhancing solution (i.e. salt water).

Look into alternative stores. I only go to IGA or Kroger to cherry pick their loss leaders. The rest is done at Walmart, Aldis and my local butcher shop. Aldis is great for staples like flour, sugar, spices and canned soups/tomatoes.

Learning to can might save you money. My green beans crapped out on me this year and only gave enough for a few meals. I hit the farmer's market towards the end of the day and got a 10lb sack (more like 15lbs it felt like) for $10. If I count the cost of my (purchased used) jars and lids my 28 pints come out to under 80¢ each. Since I'll likely get many uses out of the jars, the true cost will be much less over the years. If I can get my beans to produce next year, I'll just have to buy lids and maybe another bag of salt. Can't even buy canned green beans at Aldis much cheaper than that AND I know exactly what went into my jars (no pesticides, fungicides, or weirdness). I figure the fuel to can them was a wash with the fuel I'd use to get to the store.

[oregon woodsmok]

The best way to save money is to cook from scratch. All the prepared heat and eat meals are expensive and not all that tasty.

I buy in volume and buy things when they are on sale. I know what I will use and how much of it. It's not bargain to get a great price on something you won't use.

Here's a huge savings: don't over-eat. Know how much you should be eating and only serve that much. (I cook a lot more, but it gets packaged into home made heat and eat meals)

[How Do I]

We try to buy basics as much as possible and go from there. Make what tastes good to your particular family and freeze or can. Having a garden, if you can, really saves a lot on your grocery bill and helps create healthier meals.

[AR Transplant]

I buy all my rice at the asian market.

I also cook a big batch of rice and keep it in the frig. I then serve it at just about every meal. Sometimes I fry an egg and make dirty rice for lunch.
I just learned that my microwave makes great steamed rice with the touch of a few buttons. Because of that I switched to brown rice.

I second the aldi idea. I can buy a case of tomatoes and green beans for less than I can can it myself. Their produce is great, and their chicken is good as well.

Google blender waffles and make those for breakfast. You can use about any type of grain, I like oatmeal. You can also make up a batch and put them in the freezer.

The thing that saves me the most money is to be prepared. If I have food just about ready to eat in the refrigerator there is less temptation to eat out.
And if I am not going to be home, if I remember to throw something in the cooler that I keep in my car all the time, I won't go through the drive through.

Hope this helps.

[SpaceCadet12364]

AR, another way I like to fix up leftover rice, is throw some shredded cheddar or some other cheese over the top of it, sprinkle on some crushed chili pepper (depends on how spicy you like stuff) and microwave it on maybe 1/2 to 3/4 power for a minute or so. Stir, then heat a little more if it needs it. Nice easy meal for one person....well, I like it anyways.

[mtm8878]

Well, I spend 200 every two weeks. Way too much, I know! But I also don't buy food in the most simplist form, which is something I will start doing!!

What are "staple" recipes you always have ingredients for, and eat often? I am in Montgomery County, MD...if that helps you price things out. What kind of stuff should I buy two times a year? What things should be bi-weekly?

[Joshie]

We go to Sam's and Walmart. There are only the three of us but we spend about $200 per month. That includes food, paper products, and expensive stuff like CoQ10. We buy large bags of flour and rice. We put them in the freezer. We buy in bulk.

We plan to get half a beef and a hog with my mom. It will be more expensive to do that than buying cheap cuts of meat at places like WalMart and Sam's. This doesn't save money. Our neighbor raises beef and he keep reminding us of that. He says that if you buy cheap meats like hamburger and chuck roasts it's cheaper to get meat at WalMart.

We save money by stretching food. We can eat a roast for a week. We eat it as roast, then stew, then add hamburger and eat barbecue.

[TJN66]

I bake most of our bread, cakes, rolls and such from scratch. Any leftover bread is dried out in the oven to make bread crumbs, cubed and made into croutons, used up in a breakfast casserole. I go to u pick places all summer starting in the spring (strawberries) thru fall (potatoes, tomatoes, onion, peppers etc) and can that up for winter storage and use. If I find a good deal on something we use a lot I'll buy it by the case and store it. Dont forget to rotate or your food will expire.
Also I go to several websites to help with the grocery coupons. A full cup and We use coupons are my favorites. They have links to printable coupons and a coupon data base for stuff I can buy. I also look for my local drug store sales and what I can get for cheap/free for health and toiletries. It has saved me a bunch.
I also keep a grocery store binder with the prices in it for items I buy most often, when they went on sale and how much I paid. That really helps me keep track of prices. I always compare unit prices in the same volume to see what is the best deal. (comparing ounces to ounces, square feet to square feet. etc).
I hope this helps you...good luck and let me know if you have any questions.
I hope this helps. I live in NY and prices are climbing rapidly.

Lady Cat is the coupon queen! I have watched her posts on how she gets stuff for free/cheap!

[pattycake]

I think the amount you should be spending is whatever is left over after you allow monies for housing, utilities, gas, insurance, etc. All of those are as important as groceries. I was raised on pinto beans and cornbread and whatever my parents canned for the year. Times have changed and I understand that you might not put up 500 jars of fruit and vegs. but you need to work with what you have. Main line is that you should never spend more than your budget allows. You also need to allow some money to go into your emergency fund. Being self sufficient means you need an emergency fund! I think you can cut your grocery bill way, way down. Search out frugal threads to glean ideas on feeding your family on less. I always tell people that somewhere down the line you will have to pay the piper so you need to cut expenses and live way beneath your means!

[Grandmotherbear]

Hi mtm8878, I spent my children's infancy thru the eldest's 3rd grade in Northern Virginia and I was a welfare mom going to nursing school at Marymount. Bf my infants- DD till 2, ds till almost 3. I was on food stamps that worked out to $1.10 a day (1977-78) Here's how I did it.
Bought powder milk in bulk. Cut full fat milk with reconstituted powdered milk -didn't dilute it quite as much as called for. (I can't STAND the taste of powder milk)
Scratch breads, pancakes, noodles. I used the Cornell Triple rich formula. When I started to mix up a dough, I would start by putting in the bottom of every cup flour called for- I T wheat germ, 1 t soy flour, 1 T dried milk solids. Then I would fill the measuring cup the rest of the way with flour. On Saturday I would bake 2 loaves bread and a pizza crust. I also would make a dough as described above with just an egg and a few drops water, roll the dough very thin and cut it into noodles with a butter knife.
All left overs were frozen. Once a week I would use the frozen leftovers and a little bit of chicken to make free soup.
Once a week, we had refried beans and tortillas, and once a week kidney beans with cornbread.
Once a week we ate breakfast for dinner.
There were wild blackberries on several vacant lots near my apartment I would pick, and I didn't mind pulling the wild onions out of the apartment green spaces to use.
I really don't think powder milk is such a great cost saving over "real" milk anymore, and I would want to know if the groundskeepers were using chemicals before I pulled wild onions out of greensward anymore.And I'm not too sure you can find vacant lots around the DC area, or if you can, they probably are fenced off.
One last thing- we almost never had cold cereal. Don't know why. For years DD's breakfast was fruit cocktail and a slice of toast, or wheatena(wholegrain wheat cereal) or oatmeal.
Staples vary from family to family. Rarely if ever did my ex eat rice. Grandfatherbear and I keep jasmine rice, yellow rice, brown pearl rice, longgrain brown rice, red rice and black rice as staples. Plus precooked packets. I've begun to wonder about the "cooking everything from scratch" and if it really saves you money- I mean-beans have to be cooked a long time. You buy dried beans cheap, but then you pay for fuel to cook and water to clean up. Whether it's cheaper to buy canned or dried is not the only question. Your time costs something, as well as fuel etc.
And I discovered it doesn't save money if you cook something no one wants to eat.
If you can't bake, a bread outlet is your friend. And peanut butter is cheap. I'll be interested in other's responses.

[Gena]

Originally Posted by Grandmotherbear

(snipped for space) I've begun to wonder about the "cooking everything from scratch" and if it really saves you money- I mean-beans have to be cooked a long time. You buy dried beans cheap, but then you pay for fuel to cook and water to clean up. Whether it's cheaper to buy canned or dried is not the only question. Your time costs something, as well as fuel etc.
And I discovered it doesn't save money if you cook something no one wants to eat.
If you can't bake, a bread outlet is your friend. And peanut butter is cheap. I'll be interested in other's responses.

I know for us, cooking from scratch doesn't always mean starting with the rawest form of a food. Canned beans are cheap and probably work out a bit cheaper than dried after you factor in the long cook time, as you said. Canned tomatoes are another that are cheaper to buy than buying fresh tomatoes and cooking them down. Even growing your own and processing them at home is probably more money than buying store canned. Quality, of course, isn't the same.

But, there is significant savings in combining noodles, meat and veggies with a white or cheese sauce over buying Hamburger Helper. Plus, you aren't eating chemicals and 4lbs of salt in every bite (Even though a box of cheeseburger macaroni is one of those "comfort" foods for us now and then...just like Mom used to make LOL!) Home made pizza is another thing that is so much cheaper to make. I can throw together a very good pizza for less than a cheap, cardboard crust frozen pizza.

[Classof66]

I like to cook ground beef (I use ground round) in the oven. I stir it every so often, breaking it up. It smells like roast. Then I drain the fat and package it plain in freezer bags or containers. Sometimes I do add dry onion soup mix. It basically cooks itself. There are many ways this can be used, Mexican, Oriental, American, Italan. It can be heated quickly in the microwave. When I had family home, I would do 10 lbs. of meat sometimes. A packet of meat and chili ingredients dumped in the crock pot in the morning makes an effortless supper. Just pass the crackers.