Saving money on produce
So much of the time when I post about saving money on groceries, people automatically assume that the only way to shop on a tight budget is to buy primarily junk food.
Not so. In fact, I've found that junk food is typically much more expensive to buy than eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies and made-from-scratch foods.
Yes, it does take a little creativity and yes, it takes more time and thought to make something other than Hamburger Helper every night, but it really and truly is not as hard or as expensive as some people make it out to be.
When buying fresh fruits and veggies - which we consume a lot of around here - I normally go for what is in season and on sale. We also try to buy local and/or organic whenever possible. We're all about supporting our local agriculture and economy whenever we can and we're also all about avoiding as many pesticides as we can.
Here's where the fun begins! Instead of having a "Well, that could never be done on a $35/week grocery budget" attitude, I've instead adopted the much more exciting slogan of, "Let's try and see how good we can do on $35/week." Just this shift in perspective makes a world of difference!
There are so many options for finding fresh produce at good prices, if you're willing to take a little time to look for them. Some things we've done in the past: grown our own (this works especially well when you have older children who can do a lot of the gardening work with you!), accepted offers from friends to take some of their extra homegrown produce, purchased homegrown produce from friends, or found great buys on produce from local farmer's markets.
When those avenues haven't been available, I look for what is on season and on sale at our local grocery stores. I also scour the produce section for mark-downs or things which should be marked-down. If it's not marked down and it's looking quite ripe or overripe, I often will ask for a discount. To this day, I've never been turned down and sometimes they give it to me for free. If it's something that they are going to just have to throw out the next day anyway, I figure I might as well ask if I can take it off their hands for a very minimal price.
My rule of thumb for buying reduced produce is: If you can't use it, don't buy it. I don't care how good of a price it might be or that I might have plenty of money leftover in my grocery budget to buy it, if I'm not going to be able to use it before it goes bad, there's no point in me buying it.
So, I buy what I can reasonably use and then have fun being creative! This week, before we went to Kroger, I prayed - like I try to always do - that the Lord would bless our shopping, give us wisdom in our purchases, and help us to stretch our grocery budget as far as possible. Like usual, God was so faithful to hear and answer those prayers. We ended up leaving the store with a cart full of groceries that retailed at around $120. After reductions, sales, and coupons, we paid $29!
Here were some of our produce finds:
4 cartons of cherry tomatoes reduced to $0.29 each.
1 bag of lemons reduced to $0.49
1 bag of key limes reduced to $0.99
2 bags of organic oranges reduced to $0.99 each.
We paid a total of $4.62 plus tax for all of that produce. That's a little more than what one of the bags of organic oranges normally costs!
I could have purchased more than I did of most of these items since they had more of them, but I didn't want to buy more than I thought I could reasonably use before they go bad.
We've been eating the tomatoes for snacks and lunches and I made homemade lemonade/limeade with the lemons and limes. (As a side note: I'd never purchased key limes before and doubt I will again. They were too tiny to work with. Oh well, I'll know better next time!)
Kathrynne and I made juice for breakfast two mornings with the oranges and we still have enough left for another two days!
Do you see how fun creativity, frugality, the blessing of God, and a can-do attitude can be?
Have you had any great frugal finds or has God blessed you with any super deals this week? We'd love to hear about it!
Related: No need of spoil
Not so. In fact, I've found that junk food is typically much more expensive to buy than eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies and made-from-scratch foods.
Yes, it does take a little creativity and yes, it takes more time and thought to make something other than Hamburger Helper every night, but it really and truly is not as hard or as expensive as some people make it out to be.
When buying fresh fruits and veggies - which we consume a lot of around here - I normally go for what is in season and on sale. We also try to buy local and/or organic whenever possible. We're all about supporting our local agriculture and economy whenever we can and we're also all about avoiding as many pesticides as we can.
Here's where the fun begins! Instead of having a "Well, that could never be done on a $35/week grocery budget" attitude, I've instead adopted the much more exciting slogan of, "Let's try and see how good we can do on $35/week." Just this shift in perspective makes a world of difference!
There are so many options for finding fresh produce at good prices, if you're willing to take a little time to look for them. Some things we've done in the past: grown our own (this works especially well when you have older children who can do a lot of the gardening work with you!), accepted offers from friends to take some of their extra homegrown produce, purchased homegrown produce from friends, or found great buys on produce from local farmer's markets.
When those avenues haven't been available, I look for what is on season and on sale at our local grocery stores. I also scour the produce section for mark-downs or things which should be marked-down. If it's not marked down and it's looking quite ripe or overripe, I often will ask for a discount. To this day, I've never been turned down and sometimes they give it to me for free. If it's something that they are going to just have to throw out the next day anyway, I figure I might as well ask if I can take it off their hands for a very minimal price.
My rule of thumb for buying reduced produce is: If you can't use it, don't buy it. I don't care how good of a price it might be or that I might have plenty of money leftover in my grocery budget to buy it, if I'm not going to be able to use it before it goes bad, there's no point in me buying it.
So, I buy what I can reasonably use and then have fun being creative! This week, before we went to Kroger, I prayed - like I try to always do - that the Lord would bless our shopping, give us wisdom in our purchases, and help us to stretch our grocery budget as far as possible. Like usual, God was so faithful to hear and answer those prayers. We ended up leaving the store with a cart full of groceries that retailed at around $120. After reductions, sales, and coupons, we paid $29!
Here were some of our produce finds:
4 cartons of cherry tomatoes reduced to $0.29 each.1 bag of lemons reduced to $0.49
1 bag of key limes reduced to $0.99
2 bags of organic oranges reduced to $0.99 each.
We paid a total of $4.62 plus tax for all of that produce. That's a little more than what one of the bags of organic oranges normally costs!
I could have purchased more than I did of most of these items since they had more of them, but I didn't want to buy more than I thought I could reasonably use before they go bad.
We've been eating the tomatoes for snacks and lunches and I made homemade lemonade/limeade with the lemons and limes. (As a side note: I'd never purchased key limes before and doubt I will again. They were too tiny to work with. Oh well, I'll know better next time!)
Kathrynne and I made juice for breakfast two mornings with the oranges and we still have enough left for another two days!Do you see how fun creativity, frugality, the blessing of God, and a can-do attitude can be?
Have you had any great frugal finds or has God blessed you with any super deals this week? We'd love to hear about it!
Related: No need of spoil
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:18 AM
25 Comments:
Thank you so much for the link to "No need for spoil." There is some very rich wisdom in there! :) I wrote down several quotes for myself. :) I really liked how Eddy spoke of spending/frugality as a way to either tear down or build up our house/home and how our attitude is so important.
I too am learning how to find good buys. The Lord is good. This week we were able to get a free cordless phone (after MIR, Walgreens), 4 free packs of Excedrin, 5 free tubes of toothpaste, 1 theraflu immunity booster, free, 1 Airwick mini freshmatic .99 cents, and a few items at a 90% discount! It was fun, now I am just trying to figure out how I can do things faster, as right now it is taking me much more time than I wish.
Your produce deals really "wow" me all the time. That is so wonderful you got all of that for such low prices!
Are not people reading your blog to see what you and your family are eating? Your meals look homemade and nutritious to me.
Crystal,
Your comment about key limes made me smile. Those little gems were made for garnishing Gin and Tonics! :)
I've been buying slightly over-ripe veggies and making them immediately into vegetable soups with homemade chicken stock, which freezes beautifully. Overly ripe fruits blended into smoothies make great popsicles, and fading citrus and grapes can be joiced and frozen in ice trays for fun "ice" cubes.
MM: That's what Jesse told me *after* I bought them! He thought it was amusing, too! Oh well, you can tell I know nothing about that kind of stuff. You live and learn! I did get some good juice out of them, but it wasn't worth the effort for the results it produced. :)
We can and do eat very well on a much smaller grocery budget than many expect. The junkfood myth is just that-- a myth. A diet consisting of primarily junkfoods tends to not only be more expensive in terms of the grocery bill, but also very expensive in terms of health.
Shopping for nutritious inexpensive foods and preparing them definately takes a little time and effort but is so worth the work!
Take Care,
Trixie
Crystal, now you made me crave some fresh orange juice. ;)
I just read 'no need of spoil'. Great stuff!
Here is what comes off the top of my head:
Lemons/limes: Juice and freeze the juice in ice trays and pop the amount you need out (usually they equal 1 tbs. each).
I can use lemon juice in the following: Lemon blueberry bread, sauces for chicken and turkey, lemon & vanilla sauce for lemon cake or on ice cream. Use the lemon peels to grate (if organic)and dry out for recipes with lemon peel in them. You can also blend up chickpeas with a little garlic, tahini (ground seasame seed), salt, lemon juice and red peppers for a wonderful healthy snack of Hummas.
Lime juice can be used for limeaide, salsa, other mexican dishes, lime pie, same as above, you can save and grate the peels and dry.
Use the orange peels to dry out and use in popourri (OK, I KNOW I spelled that wrong!!! :) with cinnamon sticks and cranberries for gifts._
Wow - I love this post. With five children in the home, I am ALWAYS looking for ways to save money and keep the shelves stocked with fresh produce.
How often do you use your juicer? That's not something we have in our pantry but the juice looks wonderful.
Duckabush Blog
Oh, yummy, that juice looks gooood!
I got a great buy at Sears last night. I went in search of a pair of desperately needed jeans and came home with 5 shirts, the jeans, a bra, a pretty skirt, and a fleece-lined rain jacket for...drumroll please...$68!!! Everything was on sale, and the shirts and skirt were in the clearance area at an additional 75% off! 4 of the tops will go in the attic for next year, but one top and the skirt can be worn right up to the winter. The skirt is one of those tiered ones, in a burgundy color. I felt pretty good when I left Sears last night, LOL!
Adding to what Trixie said, I think part of the willingness to have healthy foods on a lower budget is to exchange spending more money to spending more time (which not everyone is always willing to do).
It often takes more time to make homemade foods, but not always. For example, homemade brownies take maybe 5 minutes to mix up and yet they taste so much better than a prepared mix would.
Crystal, I was going to suggest to you to make key lime pie with your limes. :) We don't have those up north here, but I hear they are very tart, but delicious.
I do well with many homemade items - a few items I struggle with a bit are homemade pie crust (making it flaky) and also making a good rich chicken stock? Does anyone have a tried-and-true recipe for either? Thank you.
I forgot to add about deals...today I went to get a few items to make chicken and rice soup for my dh who has is sick. I was able to get a 2 lb. bag of baby carrots for .99, a 3-pack of corn for .99, a small head of cabbage for .89 and celery for $1.49 (often it's over $2 here).
Previously this week I was able to get on the discount rack a package each of nectarines and peaches (about 7-8 in each) for .69 each. Like MM, I go for the discounted produce that is ripe, but not quite done yet. This helps the budget a lot if I use the produce quickly.
If one needs to cut their budget, veggies/fruits that are usually reasonably priced are: bananas, oranges, apples - and onions, carrots, celery, cabbage. Those are all staples in my home. I love September because you can still get tomatoes, corn and other summer veggies while getting good prices on fall items too like sweet potatoes, squashes, apples, pumpkins.
We eat alot of vegetables also! We do the same thing, stick to in season and on sale. I also in the summer have had lots of tomatoes to eat from a couple plants I planted. I have only a small yard, yet have had some fresh produce from it. Also, canning or freezing some of the cheap vegetables and fruits in the summer can help! I got apricots, peaches, cherries, and plums so far! It helps to have some when it is expensive.
Lettuce even when it is expensive is still fairly cheap, cabbage is cheap and carrots. Those are great vegetables that when others are expensive we eat!
I really liked the No Need of Spoil article and highly recommend you take a moment to read it over the weekend - especially if you are a wife and feeling your budget is cramped.
Kathy: We probably use our juicer on average of 1-2 times per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm usually not one for having kitchen gadgets and gizmos, but I splurged on this some months back when we had some extra spending money in the budget. Our whole family has enjoyed it. I got mine brand-new off of eBay and got a good deal on it.
Lyn: Thanks for your great advice and ideas - you always have such wise advice! I, too, am still on the lookout for a really exceptional pie crust. Anyone have a recipe they'd like to divulge?
And wow, ladies, great deals! Thanks for sharing!
I always check the grocery store ads for sale produce. Luckily we live by 4 major grocery stores, not to mention stores like CVS, that I drive by on my way to and from my daughters' school. Last week I got cantaloupe for .98 at Wal-mart and a gigantic seedless watermelon for $3.99 at Winn Dixie. This week I got a large bag of McIntosh apples for less than $2 and a 5lb bag of red potatoes for $1.99 at the military commisary. For me it is the junk food that is expensive, not to mention unfilling!
I found a huge bag of ripe bananas at Kroger a couple of weeks ago for only 99 cents. From that bag I made 2 loaves of peanut butter banana bread, one loaf of your quick and easy banana bread, and 5 dozen mini muffins from your recipe. I froze the loaves and brought the muffins to Sunday school to share with our youth. They loved them so much that the muffins wound up being pitched across the room to raised and eager hands because the basket just wasn't being passed fast enough! It was pretty funny, actually, and really a blessing to see them enjoying the muffins so much.
This week I bought about 9 lbs. of pork for only $1/lb. I pulled it out today to freeze some and grind the rest up to cook with some cumin and onions and chili powder. Unfortunately, it smelled awful, so I returned it. I do intend to go back later, though, to buy more (hopefully fresh this time!). It was such a lot of pork for such a wonderfully low price.
I prefer to cook/bake from scratch, but I really dislike making pie crusts. Albertson's recently had their store-brand pie crust dough on sale for $1/box, so I bought some of those. I used one today to make FIL's annual birthday diabetic apple pie. The other will go in the freezer until I have a use for it.
I was also going to suggest that you make key lime pie if you ever buy key limes again. They have a distinctive flavor, and regular limes just won't do for that pie.
Way to go, Ewokgirl.
I still have around 10 limes left. Is that enough to make a Key Lime Pie and anyone want to point me in the direction of a good recipe?
I was just going to say that those key limes would be great for a cheesecake!! :) Joshua made one a while back, and just put a bit of key lime juice in the cheesecake batter (I can't remember how much, but I do know it has to be key limes and not ordinary limes; key limes are much stronger and have a great flavor!). :)
About pie crust, sadly, it seems that the very flakiest pie crusts need shortening. I've never gotten the same results with butter. :( I have a "foolproof pie crust" recipe that I linked to in my blog just the other day. It's very good, and if you use shortening, it should be perfect.
But other pie crust tips: Mix the butter or shortening together intil pea-sized crumbles. The little balls of shortening in the dough melt when you bake the crust and that's what makes the flakey pockets in the crust. So don't over-mix the dough!
My pie crust says to mix the shortening and flour, then I add the egg and vinegar and water and stir with a spoon just until mixed. I wrap the sticky dough in plastic wrap and chill for a while in the fridge. If you add more flour and mix it with your hands, it ends up tougher and not flakey. :)
I always make the good'ol crisco pie crust recipe and it turns out wonderful everytime. It is a little trickier to deal with but well worth it. Once I have my pie crusts done I take the scrap pieces and re-roll them and make tart shells. I put the tart shells in a muffin pan in the freezer until they are frozen through and the pu them in a bag for later.
Crystal,
Try here - I found a few at allrecipes.com and since they are rated, you usually can't go wrong. Just link it all together though (I had to cut to fit here). I'm sure you'll have enough limes to make a pie.
http://allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes.
aspx?WithTerm=key+lime+pie
What kind of juicer do you use and how much did it cost?
i had to laugh when i saw your tomatos for 29 cents- i didn't buy any this week cuz they were over $4 for the same thing you got! here in florida i spend $130-$150 a week for 8 of us and everyone is amazed that i spend so little!!! milk can be over $6 a gallon!! i wish i could find prices like yours :)
Hiya,
It's funny you wrote this blog while I was wondering how you would combine your cheap groceries with good stewardship over the earth.
I'm trying to buy more and more ecological things (provided that I also like how it tastes... yoghurt for example has a consistency that is too weird for me).
Switches that have already been made: ecological cleaning, biological pasta etc. and next on my list is to go ecological on personal care like shampoo, soap etc. and to get a few solar panels.
Another thing that may help is going to the market or your local grocer so that you do not have to buy prepackaged (plastic!) groceries.
I agree with the other who say that it is often the junk food that rises the food budget.
How many people do you feed with 35.00 a week?
Anonymous: My husband and I, our two little girls (well, Kaitlynn's still nursing exclusively, but I think that still counts for *something* since I eat more when I'm nursing!), and whoever else we have over in a week's time - and that depends upon the week!
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