Frugal Friday: Revisiting the $35/week grocery budget
Since we were out of town until a few days ago and Kaitlynn has been miserably teething and wanting me to hold her almost every minute of the day and night, I've been running in slow motion here. So, instead of coming up with a new post, I'm re-posting something I wrote earlier this year. Hopefully the rest of you will have more original ideas!---------------------
I just read the post about Frugal Shopping. How in the world do you spend just $35/week? Does that include toiletries and household stuff? Thanks so much, RachelFor those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know just about everything I have to say on this subject. However, since it's been awhile since I've tackled the topic much, I'll give a quick run-down of some of the things which have helped us to eat well on $35/week consistently for the last four years. And yes, the $35 includes toiletries, laundry soap, cleaners, diapers, medicine, etc. It covers breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all three of us for a week, other than the one meal a week we eat out. I can actually do it for less than $35, but that allotment gives us enough room to be able to purchase more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, some organic food, and farm-fresh hormone-free milk and eggs.
1. Plan a menu around what you have on hand and the store sales and stick to it.
The most important step in lowering your grocery budget is having a plan and keeping it. Second of all, don't just plan a menu, go through your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and use those as the basis for your menu. Start with what you have and creatively use that before you buy anything extra. Thirdly, check your store fliers (you can usually do this online) and see what is on a good sale and plan your menu around that, as well.
2. Shop at more than one store.
Unless you live somewhere where you only have one store to shop at, don't do all your shopping in one location. I try to hit two-three stores each week buying just the best deals from each. I almost always hit Kroger - as I have found them to consistently have the best loss-leaders and I love their double-coupon policy. Plus, they often have Catalina deals (where when you buy 2 or 4 of a certain item, you get $x off your next shopping order). I usually always go to CVS, as well (more on that in a minute), and then, if I have a few staple ingredients I need to get or the deals are rather weak or my cupboard is rather bare, I'll hit Aldi. It varies from week-to-week depending upon what the sales are.
3. When something is on a good sale (for me, that means combining the sale with coupons it is free, close to free, or something we use often and the price is considerably cheaper than the Aldi price), stock up.
To give you an example of how this works, this past week, combining coupons with store sales, I got the Cottonelle for Kids toilet paper for $0.50 per 4-pack. This is half the Aldi price, and the rolls are twice the size. Obviously, since toilet paper is something we use around here on a regular basis, I stocked up and bought eight 4-packs. The deal will still be good this next week and each package has a coupon inside, so I'll probably get at least eight more on my next shopping trip. I'm guessing this will last us for the next 6-8 months, at least - probably longer.
Instead of buying the cheap Aldi toilet paper when we were almost out and spending $1 each time, I bought higher quality toilet paper with twice as much on the roll, for half the price. So, in essence, I got it for 75% off the Aldi price. This is it works. By stocking up ahead of time, you stretch your grocery dollars much farther.
4. If you have a CVS nearby, become a regular customer.
By regularly shopping the ECB deals there and using their store coupons, $4 off $20 or similar coupons which often print, and stacking these with manufacturer's coupons, I rarely ever pay for toiletries or household items. This is how we paid for all disposable diapers we bought - using the overage earned from the ECB deals. Read more about CVS shopping strategies here.
5. Use a calculator and pay with cash.
I bring $35 a week in cash to the store with me and no extra. No checkbook, no debit card, nothing else. This is one of the most helpful ways I guarantee that I stay within budget. As I add items off my list to to my cart, I add them to my running total on my calculator. By adding it up as I shop, I'm able to know exactly how much I've spent so far and whether or not I have extra to buy some items which are reduced for quick sale.
Those are some very practical ways to save while shopping. Some other things we do:
-Cut back on meat. We rarely have meat by itself as the main dish (steak, roast, fried chicken, etc.)
-Drink water (We use a Brita pitcher to filter our water - I got this free with ECBs from CVS.) We do not drink milk or soda (pop, coke, or whatever you call it where you live). We drink fresh juice made in our juicer a few mornings a week and iced tea or herbal tea on occasion.
-Find out when your local stores reduce their meat and produce and shop at those times. This is how I buy the majority of our meat and vegetables. The prices are usually reduced at least 50% - sometimes even more like 75-90%!
-Cook from scratch. Eliminating processed foods and boxed mixes from your diet is not only more healthful for you, it will also save you a lot of money. Make your own baked oatmeal or granola instead of buying boxed cereal. Keep homemade cookies and muffins made up and in the freezer for snacks instead of store bought cookies or chips. Bake your own bread. Make cakes, pancakes, and so on from scratch.
-Grow your own veggies and herbs in the Summer. Or, shop at your local Farmer's Market. Be careful that you know your prices going in, though, as I've found some of the prices at certain booths to be much more than I would pay at the grocery store. Scout out the whole place before you decide what to buy and make sure you are getting a good price. Sometimes there is a huge variance of price between booths.
-Don't be brand-dependent. If you really want to cut your grocery budget, you have to learn to branch out and try new things.
-Keep it simple. Stick to recipes with fewer, inexpensive ingredients.
-Most of all, enjoy the journey! I have so much fun saving money on groceries and seeing God bless and multiply our little budget to feed, not only our family, but to have extras to give away!
There is so much more I could say on this, but that's just a quick overview on some things which have helped us. For much more detailed information and help, I highly recommend you check out my ecourse, Supermarket Savings 101.
Originally posted in March 2007
Just a note of clarification: I am not saying that you should try to stick with a $35 budget also. It's no magic number; it's just what works for our little family at this season of our life. In the comments, I flesh out some ideas for what a larger family could use as a gauge for spending. These are some things I used when I was doing all the grocery shopping and menu-planning for our family of nine back when I was still living at home. Hope it helps!
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posted by Crystal Paine at 11:31 PM
26 Comments:
My post will go hand in hand with your today! I agree with all of your shopping tips, the pantry is also just as important. i cleaned mine out today and I was shocked to find how much we had wasted!!
Thanks for hosting Frugal Friday!
I just posted a frugal "fancy" dish. I am sorry you are having such a hard with your baby teething. My daughter is also getting up a lot right now, with teething. It's no fun at all. I know that there is some different ideas about this, but some of my friends have had good success with homeopathic teething tablets. If you feel comfortable using them, it's worth a try. :-)
Crystal, I feel you with Kaitlynn's teething. Caden just got his first tooth last week, and today the second started really cutting through. I don't blame you for not having time to write a new post! :)
And it's so good to hear all the same stuff again (seeing as I've been around this blog for a while). I always love to re-read and be reminded of things that I have learned and want to keep putting into practice, because it's so easy to forget a helpful tip or nuance that I haven't been putting into practice.
My post marks the end of my Savvy Spending Challenge, which is both sad and exciting. Come visit to find out how it went and get your name in for a draw!
As always, thanks for hosting! :)
Stephanie
http://www.keeperofthehome.org
Thanks as always for sharing wonderful advice!!
Wow! I haven't been reading long enough to have read this post so I'm glad you reposted it. $35 a week is AMAZING! Bit hard for me to convert exactly as I'm in Australia but it still sounds great.
I love your post about the $35.00 grocery budget. Hope the baby's teething get better!
Ok these are pretty helpful tips thanks! I'm curious though about not drinking milk. Milk is expensive and in our house we usually drink milk or water and save juice more for special occasions.. but i thought milk was kinda essential. If I cut out milk what other foods are important to eat to get what i was getting out of milk?
I love frugal friday.. i was never taught home management(or maybe my mother tried but i was not interested). So I'm just learning now. Thanks again!
Oops! I linked to my blog instead of the specific post. I'm sorry! I'm a newbie blogger and am still trying to figure this all out.
I love your blog Crystal! I have a lot of you e-books and have found them very helpful. Keep up the good work!
I am new to this and I have a quick question. How much time does it take you in a given week to do all of this?
I understand the danger of loving money to the extreme of wanting more so I can spend more, but recently I have been convicted with loving money to the degree that I protect it at all costs and spend other valuable assets trying to save it (such as time and energy).
By the time I peruse sale flyers, organize the best deals, clip all the coupons, and drive all over town, I have saved a few dollars but feel I have lost valuable time for other kingdom oriented projects. I decided that at the end of my life I would rather be known as someone who had time for people rather than the woman who shopped wisely.
I know you have thought a lot about it and in light of your previous post about not doing a lot of ministry oriented projects because of your lack of time and desire to be with your family, how do you reconcile this?
TP
When I had just 2 young children, I was able to shop as you do. I would hit the sales at several markets on Fridays and plan our menus around the sales. In the '80s (I'm dating myself here), when most I knew were spending $300/month on household & grocery items, I was spending less than $100/month. It took work, time and planning to be able to accomplish this even back then.
Now with a family of 11, many of whom are adults (or growing into adults, which is more $ than adults!), even $300 a month is a faraway dream! Just buying apples for a week can easily cost $15 or more, and that's buying only the ones on sale. A typical purchase (not stocking up) of toilet paper in our household means buying a huge bag of 24+ rolls.
In my days of 2 children, I NEVER dreamed my household & food budget would be as much as it is now, and still so hard to manage to keep it so "low."
I used to buy a turkey, cook it, have turkey sandwiches for a few days, freeze 2-3 bags of turkey for 5-6 future meals and make soup with the carcass. Now, we buy a huge turkey, roast it and make soup. There are not even enough leftovers for sandwiches for everyone. If I want turkey to freeze for future meals, I must purchase and cook 2 turkeys! And even that won't make the 5-6 future meals I used to get from the 1 turkey. Everything that I used to buy for "stocking up" is now my normal weekly purchases.
We make everything possible from scratch, buy in bulk, shop the sales, milk the goat, butcher the chickens, gather the eggs, etc. Not only have many of the children grown into adults, but we now live in a remote area where there is not much choice of grocery stores. Aldis sounds wonderful! But, they don't exist in our area (or State, that I'm aware of).
I also have become more health conscience and do not buy anything with corn syrup, aluminum, parabens, msg, fluoride, etc., which rules out many of the sale items that can be purchased at CVS or Walgreens (although the closest one is 50 miles from us so that isn't often an option either.)
All of your ideas are great and practices we all need to learn. I just want to encourage those that live in areas where there is not much of a shopping choice, much less a discount shopping choice, as well as those who have many children growing or grown into adults, that $35/week (or multiple thereof) may not be feasible for your family in your setting.
But, you CAN still be a good steward of the resources that God provides and make your household money stretch as far as possible in your circumstance. Be creative, have fun with it, learn new shopping & cooking skills if you have to, eat healthy, and ask God to provide for your needs.
Thank you Crystal, for encouraging women to make the most of the money that God is providing for them.
In Him,
Laralee aka The Tent Family
http://www.PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations.
I have always been very frugal. I shopped buy 1 get 1 free sales and stocked up on good deals. Now I'm doing The Grocery Game and saving even more money. Last week I spent $40 and this week I spent $28. I'm so pleased!!!!
http://www.thriftymommy.com/im-back-in-the-game/
TP: Shopping takes around 2 hours maximum. Planning takes 30 minutes to an hour maximum. Savings is usually around $50-$100 or more per week *and* we have a menu to go by - which is a huge timesaver for me in not having to figure out at the last minute what to fix or having to run and get fast food or something. Also, with the extra things I'm able to pick up for free or almost free we have extra to share with others who are needy.
In addition, many of the deals that I find I am sharing with thousands of other women on MoneySavingMom.com so I'm multiplying that savings ten times over and helping hundreds of other families save money and live on one income. I see that as Kingdom-minded work as I'm helping moms to be able to stay home and raise their children, families have extra to be able to be hospitable and give to the poor and needy, etc.
So yes, for the little bit of extra time I put in as compared the usual shopper, it pays off big dividends. :)
I'm very much into thinking about a return on an investment and consider the time and energy costs and the other things I say "no" to in the equation of all that and for me, being a wise shopper and using coupons has been every bit worth that time and energy.
Concerning not drinking milk: We do use milk on cereal and in cooking, but that's pretty much it. We eat some yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese. We also try to include lots of beans and leafy greens and other food high in calcium in our diet. If you study which foods are high in calcium, you'll find there are quite a number.
Anonymous: I understand what you're saying. Actually, once you get the hang of this, it doesn't take that long. I subscribe to The Grocery Game, that way all my information is on one list. I don't clip my coupons until I need them. I file them in an expandable file folder by the week. Then when TGG tells me which week my coupon came from, I look in my file and pull it. I shop only for the best deals, while supplementing with a few things we need. Stockpiling on great deals really cuts down on my spending. When my husband lost his job, I hardly spent any money on groceries for 5 weeks and our cabinets were still stocked.
Laralee, Thanks for bringing that up. As I often have said $35/week is the "magic" number. It's just what works for our small family at this season!
I wrote my thoughts on budgeting for a family of eight over on MoneySavingMom.com a few weeks back and I'll post it below. I'm not totally experienced in this, but I did do the grocery shopping and menu planning for our family of nine for quite some time before I got married. Here's what I wrote:
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My goal price range is $0.25-0.50/person for breakfasts and lunches and $1.00-$1.50/person for dinners. Basically, I shoot for it to cost around $2/person per day for food and household items. However, we don't actually spend that much since we have two adults and two little children and only spend approximately $30 a week on food and household items. Our budget is $35/week, but we usually come in at least a few dollars shy of that.
As our children grow older and we have more children, I'm curious to see how much we'll need to adjust our budget. Since we have not raised our budget in spite of our expanding family yet, I'm hoping we can continue to keep it low. My goal is that I would like to never go above $50/week, but I have to test that out with a brood of children before I can say for sure! One thing I do know is that the longer I bargain shop, the better I become at stretching our dollars.
When you are first starting out with creating a budget and a menu and sticking with it, I suggest you start out with something very doable. If you've never had a grocery budget before, just sticking with the same budget every week is a new challenge. Start somewhere but don't make it too hard at first. Keep it simple.
For a family of eight, maybe you could try to stick with $150/week. That would be about $21/day or about $2.60/person per day or $0.87/person per meal. Your eventual goal might be to cull that down to around $100 or less, if possible, but start out with something manageable. This is supposed to be a fun process not a stressful process! If $150 sounds way too low, try starting out with a $200/week budget. As always, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all!
Whatever you do, choose a budget amount which you think is possible, but might be a little bit of a challenge. Keep in mind your family's eating preferences, where you live and what the prices are in that locale, what your husband likes to eat (don't scrimp there!), how often you have others into your home for meals, and how much time you have available to spend cooking and planning.
I also think it is good to not have the budget so low that you can't splurge on certain things sometimes. We splurge every week on organic hormone-free milk and eggs from a local dairy. We also often use our overage from CVS to splurge on "fun things" like dark chocolate and ice cream. Always remember that the purpose of saving money is not to deprive yourself, but to make the most of what you have!
Once you feel comfortable with your current grocery budget and feel like you could do better, try shaving off a little more and a little more until you get your budget down to where you'd like for it to be. Remember, if at any time in the process you stop looking at it as a fun challenge and start seeing it as a stressful frustration, back off a bit and allow yourself a little more wiggle room.
As you gradually improve at your bargain-hunting skills, are able to stock up on good deals, and start planning your menu more based upon what is on sale at the store and what you already have on hand, you'll find it becoming easier and easier to lower your weekly budget.
Crystal,
Thanks for your response to my question. I do realize somewhat now that you are more of a pro at this than I am and the time thing will get better the more skilled I become.
I also see that we have different aspects of ministry. As you share how much you give away and how you choose to encourage women, that is fantastic. My ministry right now is my time. I spent 6 hours of my week ministering to two separate women dealing with excruciating trials and needing direction, encouragement and perspective. On top of that I was able to give a mom and her husband a night away without their kids. That isn't necessarily the norm, but in the end I choose to sacrifice a bit more money so I can have more time. (I still budget and plan and cut out a lot of extras, but I do it in a three hour / two stop shopping trip once a month.)
Biblical womanhood will be applied a bit differently for every woman. At the basis of what matters is living out the gospel.
Thank you for sharing.
TP
I'm constantly shocked at how much I spend on groceries. I'm not trying to be "professionally" thrifty, but just not be wasteful and overspend. I think there have got to be some regional differences -- I live in the Chicago area. We don't have Kroger. I don't live near a CVS. We don't have double coupons.
So just wondering:
how much would you expect to pay for
milk
eggs
ground beef
ground turkey
chicken breast
veggies
etc.
As a price check.
Do you have a good baby carrier? If you don't please let me know and I'll send you one. I make wrap carriers and they are sure a life saver with little ones who are grouchy. I'll still put my two year old in mine when he's tugging at my shirt and I'm trying to make dinner. It looks a little funny with my big pregnant belly but it works!
HI! Thanks for all the tips. Our family of 5 hasn't been able to bring our grocery bill down to $35 (it really depends where you live since the price of some foods are much pricier in other states). As for produce, even at our Walmart, it is very expensive (oranges here in Florida believe it or not are pricey!) The other day peaches were $1.89 per pound! We pretty much stick to just apples and bananas. OUr budget is down to about $60 per week. This is including meatless dishes. We do not go out to eat at all except for a special occassion. This includes breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days. I do grow some herbs since fresh herbs are costly. The only store we shop in is at the Walmart Supercenter (our publix and wynn dixie are expensive). The state of Florida has a program called Share which you basically buy a package of food for a minimum of $18 (I yet have to research the cost savings on this). Everyone qualifies because it is based on volunteering 2 hours per month. There are many valuable resources to saving money but just remember that, depending where you live, the grocery budget might be a bit more. When I lived in NY my grocery bill was much higher than here so in that sense I am happy with how I am managing my grocery bill.
The key is not to spend too much time going over circulars and wasting too much time that it takes away from your home. I only have one day out of the week that I do my grocery shopping. One day I spend 20 or 30 minutes going over on-line store coupons or circulars. Also I don't believe in wasting too much gas money either from store to store (unless the stores are in close proximity).
We also drink milk in our household and that is something that I cannot take out of our grocery bill. Each gallon here is $3.89 and if it is on sale (rarely) maybe $3.49 per gallon. We also shop no-name brands. Personally, I have found no difference in the taste or quality.
I believe every family can use the $35 as a base but realize that it really goes according to where you live.
Hi - I hoped I liked the right way - I tried to find out how to show your Frugal Friday icon on my website to link back to you - but couldn't find anything.
I've been living a frugal life ever since we married and living on a small one-income. Our lives have changed but now for reasons other than necessity we try to live frugally and responsibly before God.
I agree with S.O.-"It depends where you live".
My dc and I looked at your recent post on your other blog about feeding a family of 8. The children were impressed and keep talking about how much food people buy for so little.
There are 8 of us and we live in the UK. We try to live economically but I can't get our food bills below £80-100 per week (multiply by 2 for dollars). Presumably salaries are higher so it is difficult to compare like for like.
I guess that there are more economies we could make if we had to but generally we live frugally-food is just more expensive here.
We find Lidl (like Aldi) good esp for cleaning stuff and some fruit and veg. Shopping late at night is good for reductions. We have been blessed with some prolific fruit trees which have kept us in cooking apples for months.
However, your principles apply wherever esp cooking from scratch.
I would be interested to know what other readers outside the US manage to spend on food.
Annaelisabeth
Our milk prices in Alaska for a gallon of whole organic milk is $5.49. We don't have any of the cheaper grocery stores, nor do we have stores that do double coupons, so it makes it hard to lower our costs that way. When you have 10/$10 sales, we have 8/$10 sales, and they really aren't for things we usually use, so that doesn't help much either. Also, a lot of the online places that offer free shipping won't do so to Alaska (like Buy.com!) so I couldn't get in on their good deals either. Frustrating....
I really appreciate you posting the ideas for bigger families, Crystal. That helped me get a handle on what to aim for. I think I was being too hard on myself, like I wasn't doing enough, even though my dh certainly thinks I do well, especially when he sees how much my boys eat, even the little ones!
I appreciated Laralee's comment as well.
Thank you for a thought provoking post!
Grace in Alaska
www.homeschoolblogger.com/gmisch
A friend sent me to your website and it has been a lifesaver!
I am new at being a homemaker - i have always worked outside the home and made good money, often more than my husband who is a minister of music. But since our decision for me to stay - we have struggled to live off one income! we thought we weren't using mine, but I guess we always knew it was there as a backup plan!
Your ideas and those of so many others that post here have helped me find a whole new way to do things! You truly are a Godsend! My post is a Frugal Christmas idea for adult family members - enjoy!
We live in Australia and I try to keep our grocery budget low, but it's pretty tough. I'm currently a student, so I don't have as much time to prepare meals from scratch, but even without that, fruits, veggies, and meat are particularly expensive.
I think we pay $2-3US per pound of apples and it can be even more for bananas. Just a few weeks ago, grapes were nearly $4 per pound. A gallon of milk is about $4 for the cheapest kind.
When things that we regularly use go on sale, we always stock up depending on how good the sale is. For example, there is a brand of crackers that my girls particularly like and they are usually $2.37 per box. If they are on sale for $1.99, we'll buy enough boxes for a couple of weeks. If they are on sale for $1.49 we'll buy enough boxes for a month. Once they went on sale for 99 cents so we bought over 10 boxes. They also don't do coupons in Australia, so frugal shopping is even more of a challenge.
Jane, I used to live in the Chicago area, and sometimes wish I could be there now to take advantage of the numerous grocery chains. There's nothing magic about Kroger--Dominick's, Jewel, Cub Food, Frank's (and other chains I'm forgetting) probably all have amazing sales--sometimes. Work with the options you do have (which may actually be more than those of us living in rural areas). A practical tip: Shop at Aldi. There are a ton of them in that area. Find your closest one at www.aldi.us.
Enjoyed KROGERS in Marietta and
Roswell, Georgia in the N. Atlanta
area.
We do not have Krogers in Florida.
Trust you are being blessed in blogging.
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