Last week I shared a goal for reducing our grocery budget by 1/4. I am back to report success. I started a few days into the 2 week period, but I tightened things up enough to actually end the week with money in my pocket. Granted, no one needed clothes and we didn’t need cleaning products or (unfortunately) a babysitter, but still I consider week one a success.
Before I jump into the food portion of our program, I’d like to tell you about another cool money thing that happened this week. I read Ask and Save on Your Cable Bill on Free From Broke. We called and our cable company reduced our bill by $15 for the next 6 months. Just for asking. Try it and let me know if it works.
Ok, so here are a couple of things I learned about planning our meals:
1. Meal planning is important, everyone says so. But look beyond your cooking cycle when shopping. If I plan on using 2 lbs of ground beef or turkey this cycle, and it’s on sale, I’ll buy more than that so that when chicken goes on sale I can buy that without having to eat it 3 times that week. It’s hard to get started and stay within budget, but it can be done slowly.
Here’s why: I started 4 days into my budget “cycle,” so I planned 10 dinners. The meals didn’t have the variety I eventually hope to achieve. In a 10 day period we had chili twice and turkey three times (roasted, divan, and tacos). That wasn’t too much for my family because it’s been awhile since we’ve had those particular meals. But week after week? Booooring.
2. On a related note, this portion sized freezing technique saves time (quick defrost), money (fewer bags used), and space in your freezer.
3. Baking different kinds of breads offers a healthy and inexpensive lunchtime and after-school snack. However, if your family really likes banana bread be sure to freeze some right away… because if you turn your back it will be gone.
This week’s goals:
1. Plan meals for every night.
2. Step into bulk cooking. I am not sure if bulk cooking will help with my budgeting, but having frozen meals will help me stick to the menu plan because there will be easy alternatives for when you day spins out of control. I plan on starting slowly and cooking super sized portions of 2 meals this week to freeze for the weeks ahead.
3. I’m also going to separate my food and household budget from my gas, clothing, and entertainment budget. This will let me micro-analyze it all to see if there are additional ways to save.
This all sounds terribly boring, but it’s become like a game to me.
I got some great suggestions through comments last week. They were really motivational, will you keep sharing?
by Megin Hatch
Photo graciously provided by mr brown, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
10 responses so far ↓
Erica // Jan 22, 2009 at 6:51 am
I love this article, not boring at all. We all have a duty to ourselves, our wallets and the earth to cut back and buy only what we need. Look forward to hearing more
Chris // Jan 22, 2009 at 8:25 am
Megin, I think you may have heard that I’m teaching cooking classes now…and a big part of my focus is on helping people learn to eat well on a budget. I’m averaging about $530/month on groceries now, which puts our family of four in the USDA’s “thrifty” plan for food spending. Within that budget we manage to eat mostly local, organic, sustainably produced food. Here are what I consider the biggest money savers:
* Buy whole animals or go in on a share of one with some other families. We paid $5.50/pound for about 100 pounds of beef this way…and now we’re set for beef for a year. Same with pork and lamb. And I only buy whole chickens. If you can find pasture-raised animals, so much the better for your health and the environment (and the animals). Check eatwild.com for sources. A used freezer costs $300 or less and costs about $30/year to operate. You’ll recoup the purchase costs in the first year.
* Eat less meat and cook it just once a week. I roast a whole chicken or cook up a bunch of ground beef and pork (for Bolognese sauce, to go with biscuits and gravy, and/or for meatloaf) or whatever 5-8 pounds of meat we’re going to eat for the week. I make stock with the chicken carcass, chicken soup, Asian chicken salad, etc., with the leftovers. We currently eat about half the meat that the average American does. We’ve become as Mark Bittman sugggests, “less-meatarians.” This better for our health, better for our planet. By cooking once a week, you save time and energy, too.
* Buy whole, real staple foods in bulk. That is, rice, beans, lentils, canned goods like diced tomatoes. Don’t go out and buy 50 pounds of lentils if you’ve never cooked with them, but lentils are a good place to start if you’re new to bean cuisine. They don’t require soaking and are quite versatile. White rice can be stored longer than brown rice (which should be used within 3-6 months).
* Learn to store fresh foods, like apples, potatoes, carrots, oranges, onions, and more, than keep for a month or more, and buy them in bulk, too. Different foods require different storage conditions. I buy 20 pound boxes of apples and store them on my front stoop, where I can keep an eye on them. If it gets below freezing, I bring them in and store them in my basement.
* Bake bread: I save so much money on bread. For $5 in flour and another $2-3 in other ingredients, I can make 3 loaves of bread and 10 bagels, all 100% organic. I bake once a week and freeze what we’re not going to eat within a day or so. I cut the bagels in half before freezing so I can just pop them in the toaster.
Speaking of which, I’m going to go have a bagel right now.
FFB // Jan 22, 2009 at 5:08 pm
My wife always looks at what she wants to prepare for the week before we go shopping. It helps so much in keeping our buying to just what we need!
Megin Hatch // Jan 22, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Erica- Thanks for the encouragement!
Chris- where do I start? a post in comments! Thank you. I have been thinking about bread but here’s what I know: my entire family will eat so much more bread if it is freshly baked. If I make 4 loaves in a day, they would be gone the next day. Seriously, we love us some bread- and the fresher it is the quicker it’s gone. So I expect we won’t save much money and we will blow up like balloons.
I am shocked that you eat less meat than average. It’s hard for me to conceptualize 100 lbs of beef. We eat a lot more turkey and chicken than we do red meat or pork. But we did the whole turkey thing last week and my family of 5 got 4 meals out of it, with enough left over for a couple of sandwiches.
I think we’ll do ok with our regular freezer for awhile- we have to really as we have no place to put another.
We eat bean centered meals a couple times a week, and I’ve been thinking about stepping into the world of lentils.
I am on track to spend significantly less than $500 a month, but it’s early yet. I can’t wait until the farm stands open up again!
Great tips, thank you.
FFB: it’s a basic, but when I don’t my budget is blown.
Thank you for the input!
Chris // Jan 22, 2009 at 6:04 pm
The eating all the bread the moment it comes out of the oven slows down after a few months! I just baked today and no one’s been all that interested in it besides our three-year-old.
To give you a visual, 25 pounds of meat will fill a paper grocery bag.
Sorry for the lengthy comment. If you get me started on food–especially eating well on a budget–I just can’t shut up.
Megin Hatch // Jan 22, 2009 at 6:13 pm
CHRIS! I loved your comment!! Don’t apologize for leaving it!
Ok, I’ll reconsider the bread thing- but I see what happens around here with banana bread!!
Do you have a beginner lentil recipe to share?
Chris // Jan 22, 2009 at 8:22 pm
My daughter (not quite six and picky about a lot of food) likes this basic lentil soup recipe. I use in it my “So Long Supermarket, Hello Pantry” class as a demonstration of cooking from pantry basics. A little lacto-fermented sauerkraut or some yogurt really brightens up the flavors.
Lentil Soup (adapted from Alton Brown)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed
1 quart diced tomatoes, with juice
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
Place the olive oil into a large 6-quart Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot and set over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrot, celery and salt and sweat until the onions are translucent, approximately 6 to 7 minutes. Add coriander and cumin and toast for 2 minutes. Add the lentils, tomatoes, and broth, and stir to combine. Increase the heat to high and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook at a low simmer until the lentils are tender, approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Add water if necessary.
Emily Pitman // Jan 23, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Megin, so glad that you blogged about this. It was well-timed for us (me) as we begin to really consider our 2009 budget and financial goals.
I have done the menu planning in the past and know it makes a difference. I’d just moved away from it.
You kick-started my motivation to get on track and to re-start shopping conservatively. I did very well, both in spending ($50 less than what we’ve averaged in a trip the last few months for a two week shopping trip) AND I was able to look at things like corn-chips and decide that they weren’t essential this time around because I had been keeping track of the money as I shopped.
Thank You!
ps to Chris… yummy looking soup! can’t wait to try it.
STL Mom // Jan 25, 2009 at 6:16 am
I have ridiculously overscheduled our family for the next eight weeks (it’s so cold and I want to keep everyone active and OUT of the house) so I really need to get serious about meal planning. I don’t want to start getting take-out, and my old standby of “breakfast for dinner” will not be appealing if we are doing it twice a week.
Chris, thanks for reminding me about homemade bagels. They taste so good, and they are not ridiculously huge like the ones in most stores.
The Mom Crowd » Meal Planning, Part Two: How Much Should You Spend On Groceries? // Jan 25, 2009 at 9:19 pm
[...] Reducing the Grocery Budget: How I’m Doing It by GNMParents [...]
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