I've seen many posts about how to save money and that many of you turn to your grocery budget as a place for savings. We are a family of 4 and spend about $150 EVERY week. We've cut out lots of stuff but I see people saying they only spend $200 a MONTH on groceries and I need to know how that can be done. I've asked around my family and friends and they are all in the $150-$250 week or more range per week. For those that spend much less than $150 a week what are you feeding your family where you can do that? I know to cut out soda, processed snacks and buy store brands but we already do that. We live in Texas and just milk is over $3.00 a gallon. What types of dinners do you cook? What kinds of snacks do you give your kids? Breakfast? Kid lunches when they are home for summer? Thanks for all the ideas.

I don't know how the $200 per month crowd does it either for the most part. But in the summer I do cut over half off our bill by having our own garden. Plants and seeds are very inexpensive and produce tons of veggies for you to eat now or freeze/can for the winter months when they are soooo much more expensive.

Our lunches are always left over dinners. So I just plan to cook big. I cook lunch everyday for my dh.

I saved lots by giving up meat. That is extreme for most, but cutting down could help. A much healthier and less expensive protien come from beans. (hint: rinced beans are far less musical than unrinced).

I have found that store brands are far cheaper than name brands even with coupons, but I know some people are better at this than me. I have gone to couponclipper.com and stocked up on coupons when there is something that I use anyway. It's a really good site.

If you use milk with your cooking, you could substitute powdered milk. You can't tell the difference at all. I do this with pancakes especially.

I think a lot of it can depend on where you are too. Some areas are more/less expensive than others. But Texas doesn't have a tax on groceries correct?

When I was being good I did $40 a week but its just me and dh usually. Of course its like cooking for a family of 4, I know because its the same amount of food we cooked when it was my parents and my sister and myself! Dh is a big guy and eats a lot and I always tried to have 1 serving left for lunch the next day.

However now that I'm preggo my budget has gone out the window and I won't even add up the total.

I think a lot of it depends on how much of the stuff you buy are you really using. Do you have a pantry full of food? How many meals can you make that way. I think a lot of ladies of course keep a stockpile but also try to plan their menus around what they have in their pantry.

I keep an eye out for sales on meat and then stock up when I find a good deal. I won't cut out meat to save on groceries, protein is important and its my favorite way to get it. I use ground turkey alot. I can get it (in a roll) for anywhere from .80 to $1.50 and it goes anywhere ground beef would go and is better for you. I use it instead of beef in tacos, hamburgers, spaghetti, anything. And no one even notices the difference.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

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Great ideas so far!

Some other things we do. (Our grocery budget use to be over $150 a week too but since January I've been able to get it down to $85-$100 a week, family of 4, two school age kids).

We stopped buying.
Chips / Candy / Microwave popcorn ( I put 1/4 cup of popcorn seeds in a paper bag in the microwave instead for pennies.)
Any liquid except for milk and 100% pure juice. (no kool-aid. no pop. no crystal light. no bottled water)
We went down to eating meat twice a week.
We have breakfast for dinner at least once a week.
We bought our own waffle maker - much less then Eggo's and much tastier.
No cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries. If we want them, we bake them ourselves.
No prepackaged meals (We did this for environmental reasons but it saves money too.)

I try to buy our fruits and veggies at the local farmer's market.

I also bought More With Less .. a cookbook on how to eat well on less money. It paid for itself in the first month! What an inspiration!
More With Less

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For my family the cheapest I got was $125 dollars for a month. I made (trying to get back onto it after a tough first part of pregnancy) from scratch. I bought my meat in bulk at Sam's club or stock up BIG time when there is a BOGO sale at the grocery store. I buy very little processed food (mac n cheese and soup, sometimes cereal are the only ones when I'm being good). Frozen veggies instead of all fresh cut costs a lot. Plan your meals around the sales for the week at the grocery store and cut coupons. If you see something that you use a lot on clearance or really cheap with a coupon you can stock up on that. Cheaper drinks like koolaid help the drink budget and if you are worried about too much sugar buy the sugar free kind or water it down. My biggest thing is MAKE A LIST! I sat down with the sunday paper every week and looked at the sales, planned my meals for the next two weeks off the sale and checked the pantry and wrote down everything that I didn't have that I needed. If I go without a list I'm horrible and will end up buy a ton of stuff I dont need and not get stuff I do need (especially if I don't know what the meal plan for the week is). Don't buy things just because they have a coupon unless you know you are getting it for a steal. Also when I was doing really well on my grocery bill I would look at more than just one grocery stores add and sometimes would go to three different stores to get the best deal on things. I know people talk about gas prices and that but I have a 15 mile radius with 5 grocery stores, and I'm not just saving pennies I would end up saving between 50-100 dollars that's a tank or two of gas and I'm only using 1/4 tank. So in short lol after the novel
*Shop sales *Make lists *Plan meals *Coupons

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Mommy To Brody(3 years) Mason(20 months) Orin (3 Months)

"It's easy to pass judgement, it's more difficult and more meaningful to love someone" Big Love


"Cholesterol won't stick if you have the right attitude"

Another good cook book is Miserly Meals (from the same author as Miserly Moms) She has some delicious meals in there and everything costs less that $0.75 per serving.

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Mommy To Brody(3 years) Mason(20 months) Orin (3 Months)

"It's easy to pass judgement, it's more difficult and more meaningful to love someone" Big Love


"Cholesterol won't stick if you have the right attitude"

I'm going to try to go to the market this more this summer. The produce is SO much cheaper. I just have to make sure I don't get sucked into buying other stuff while I'm there.

My problem with some of the cooking cheap cook book is that a lot of the recipes don't seem healthy. What have you found? I haven't looked at a lot of those cook books.

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Blessed beyond measure

Okay back to the popcorn...Can you really just use a brown paper lunch sack and a 1/4 of popcorn in the microwave? how do you season it and what do you use to season it with?


I have all three of Jonni McCoy's books and really used them. The best thing to do is make out a menu. Try a week then build up to a month. Since my kids are home 24/7 (we homeschool)and I have a 14 yr old and an 11 yr old) I plan a months worth of breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. I get my milk at Sam's and I buy only skim milk. Its the cheapest place here in the KC area to buy milk. We or they drink a lot of water and koolaid and I use splenda in the koolaid instead of sugar. I make all of the bake stuff like cookies, pies, cakes, most of all of the snack mixes...you name it ....if it can be make from scratch then I make it.
Another thing to look at are the annual cookbooks that "taste of home" and "quick cooking" put out. You can check them out at the library and both of them have a 'frugal cooking" section in them.

Start small and work you way through the changes. Sometimes the littlest things have the biggest impact.

Blessings,
Karen

I do not buy a lot of meat. I buy a bunch of hamburger when it is cheap and divide it up into 1 lbs packs in the freezer. Spaghetti with a can of sauce (89 cents) toped with a little shredded mozerella and my family is happy as clams!!! plus dh uses the left overs for lunch!! My family does not eat alot of side dishes though, so that helps. Dh just won't eat more than one thng at a meal. (strange, I know!) A baked ziti is cheap as can be and feeds my family of 8 with left overs. We eat alot of cereal for breakfast. We buy the Target brands for $1.67 a box. I can cook one or two boneless skinless chicken breasts and feed my entire family with a chicken casserole or chicken quesadillas. Casseroles are great!!! One pound of hamburger or a couple of chicken breasts go a looong way!!!! I buy big bags of frozen veggies at Sam's Club. They are really good and economical. Homemade pizza is cheap and easy. buy the Jiffy crust mixes (3 for $1) and top with the canned spaghetti sauce. Top with your favorite toppings (we usually make one with just cheese and one with black olives, onion and mushrooms). I buy the big pks of sliced cheese and we have grilled cheese sometimes, add oven fries and frozen corn and there is a complete meal. On the grill we have brats and hot dogs and fresh sweet corn in season. Potato salad is a staple in the summer around here. Egg salad is a cheap, easy lunch. We usually eat sandwiches about once a week for supper. I cook up 1 and a half pounds of bacon and we have that. My boys don't like it so they have peanut butter. Last night we had that with potato salad and fries (because one son loves fries!) I usually buy 2 pks of cookies every 3 weeks or so when I do the shopping. They are the store brand oreos ($1.99) or sugar wafers (99cents) That is our special treat. My kids drink a lot of kool aide type lemonade (not the greatest, I know, but they are all skinny little things) I always buy the store brand. I have a bad addiction to diet pop, but found the Sam's Club brand to be really good and only $3.88 for a 24 pk!!! Rice krispie treats are really easy and cheap to make. Chocolate chip cookies are just as good if you only use half a pk of chips.

That's all I can think of at the moment

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~Happiness is a large family~

Yes. I saw it in the April edition of Canadian Living Magazine. I tried it out and it worked great. I just pressed the popcorn button on the microwave and it works just the same. You can season it however you like. I add some salt & parmesan cheese. Sometimes you can get cheese powder from the bulk food store, this is good too. Or melted butter & salt. Mmmm.

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