Take a BITE Out Of The Grocery Budget! This post was so popular it was featured on several blog hops and pinned on Pinterest by many followers.
Since I’m going to be away for a few days I’m taking this opportunity to share it now for those of you that have come along since the original posting. ENJOY!
Feel free to add your comments on YOUR favorite way to take a bite out of your grocery budget!
Dani, I was doing a search one day & noticed my pantry picture in a Flickr account (I don’t own an account) and clicked just to see what it was. Of course I recognized the name on the flickr account as a hop I had participated in, but I’m just a big enough nerd that I got excited that a picture of my pantry was out there! (yep, it doesn’t take much for me sometimes. LOL) I figured I’d post a quick note to perhaps point folks to the original post if they wanted to read about it. No need to remove the feature or change anything, I don’t feel you were claiming credit for a photo. 🙂 ~TxH~
I am in love with my crock pot, too!
Thanks for the great tips. My husband and I juice so we go through a lot of fresh produce, but we keep our grocery bill almost reasonable by only eating meat on the weekends and our kids love to eat rice and beans and homemade snack foods. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen prepping foods, but I try to do it in chunks of time like Friday afternoon when I get the groceries home I start prepping our fresh veggies for snacks and making granola or granola bars. Over the weekend I crank up the crock pot for homemade yogurt, stock, and soups to enjoy the rest of the week. Love your posts, I found you through Small Footprint Fridays.
It does take time to feed your family healthy food – good for you! I love my crockpot too. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. ~TxH~
You have some great tips! We love harvesting our own veggies from our garden, too. I just recently learned how to can, and it is a really great thing to know! It sounds like you’ve got it mastered though – I would be ecstatic if my grocery bill was ever $111 a month 🙂
Andrea, I certainly don’t have canning mastered but I am pretty adamant about preserving what comes out of the garden. After all the hard work that begins with preparing the beds and planting the seed itself before even getting a vegetable, I can’t stand the thought of homegrown veggies going to waste! Thanks for your comment. ~TxH~
Wow $111 for the whole year? Amazing. This is a great post. I love in the city but have fruits and veggies growing in most planters. We are a mild temp locale so I can grown year round.
Elaine, I wish! $111 was our average monthly grocery cost last year, but that’s well below the Texas Health & Human Resource estimate of what our household should be spending. Good for you for having container gardens – the fresh produce it rewards you with is priceless, yes? I’m pretty excited to see the blackberries are blooming here in NE Texas, I enjoy harvesting some of God’s bounty in wild blackberries, wild plums, persimmons and pecans. I ran out of pecans last year and was utterly shocked at the prices for them in the store! LOL Thanks for stopping by. ~TxH~
Great post! I’m on that learning curve with you. I’m in my second year growing my own food with 15 large raised beds. (Planning to add 5 more in the fall.) Last year, I made raspberry preserves for the first time, and I plan to learn how to can my tomatoes this year. I also froze string beans and turnip greens and escarole. I have a small dehydrator, and I dehydrated my carrots and celery last year. This year, I want to go to some local farmers markets to buy food I don’t grow, then dehydrate or freeze that. I also make my own bread in a bread machine. Next year, I want to build a chicken coop for 5 chickens, so I can have fresh eggs, too. I have to work full time outside the home, so it makes for long days! But the goal of being self-sufficient is so rewarding!
Rosemarie – how exciting! I’m increasing our raised beds as well. Last year I was hit by the dehydrating bug and I plan on dehydrating more this year. Like you said the days are long but I love your phrase “the goal of being self-suficient is so rewarding!” Love it! ~TxH~
I love using glass jars. Didn’t think of putting leftovers in them though. Depressing thought – my grocery budget is $360 per month for FIVE of us, including 2 growing boys! My trick is to go to a discount grocery for our snack items since I currently don’t have time to make all my own. We also have the advantage of several discount produce stores so I can still buy TONS of produce for a fraction of grocery store prices. Thanks for linking up with Fabulously Frugal Thursday.
Y’know Heather, we’re all in a different place in our lives, with different needs for our groceries. Some are still buying diapers and baby food, some have dog food and occasional paper goods. Some are all organic and grass fed. Other than always avoiding waste, I think the key is are you satisfied with your grocery budget? If the answer ever comes back “NO!” then there are steps each of us can take to reduce that expenditure. I think balance is the key. ~TxH~
Your glass jars are so pretty. I have some secondhand tupperware (it might be third hand it looks like it is from the 1970s), but I might start saving my glass jars soon. I like that you can save the ones that are the most convinint size for you. Do you have any tips for getting the labels off?
We save money by packing our lunch everyday, reusing leftovers, and cutting coupons. I work hard for my money and I don’t want to squander it away.
Thanks and TALU,
Mrs.PJ
Hi Mrs.PJ, I get the labels off by washing the jar thoroughly, then filling it with the hottest tap water possible. After screwing on the lid I place a rag soaked with hot water on top of the label. The heat from the hot water on both sides of the label softens the glue and the label often peels right off. I use a bread-tab (used to hold closed bread bags) to scrape off any residual that may remain. Easy Peasy! Thanks for your comment. ~TxH~
Baking soda or vinegar (not together) also can help remove labels, depending on the type of adhesive. For really stubborn ones that leave behind lumps of glue, I use Goo Gone, which is not totally natural but is safer than most solvents. But usually, soaking in hot soapy water will get the label off.
Great tips, thanks! We have a family of 3 and I always try to be wise with our money when it comes to groceries. I never buy any junk food and try to use up what we have.
Selene
Selene, being conscious of using up what you already have is key – good for you! ~TxH~
Funny how you save jars. I’ve been doing the same. I save the coconut oil jars because they are all the same size and have a wide mouth. They are much safer than plastic containers which leach chemicals. In fact, I’ve been thinking I need to weed through my jars and get rid of some (recycle).
Our pantry is filled with rice, beans, oats, grain, pasta, and sugar. I rarely buy canned foods because of the lining. However, I haven’t been here long enough to can my own tomato sauces, so I have to buy that as much as I hate to. We buy some organic frozen veggies, but I also buy a lot of fresh. It’s amazing how much fresh produce can bring up a bill. Yet, it isn’t as expensive as milk. We are trying to cut back on milk because of the research we have done regarding milk. The calcium in it isn’t even absorbed. We would love to have access to raw milk, but in VA you need shares which cost a fortune. We have switched to organic, but it isn’t like it is much better. I plan to use milk for making yogurt and kefir, switching drinks to something else. Problem is when the younger ones want milk. Sometimes milk just tastes good with certain meals.
Cutting costs is something I desperately want to do. We are a family of 7, almost 8. I don’t buy convenience foods and we rarely eat out because of our stand on genetically engineered foods. I still spend far more than I would like to each week. Our weekly amount fluctuates, but I order a lot of goods via Amazon for a cheaper deal, but in larger amounts. It costs more up front.
I know it will be years before our land produces food in amounts we would like because of the cost of preparing soil. Our fruit trees will take years to mature, but we will hang on until then.
Thanks for your comment Ranchel. The wide mouth glass jars are handy! I purposely over-plant our tomatoes in the garden each year but I haven’t canned them yet. The easiest thing for me to do is wash the tomatoes & cut in half, then place in the freezer. When we’re in the mood for homemade salsa (and living in Texas that happens ALOT) I pull out a bunch of tomatoes and let them thaw. I’ll pour off some of the juice & stick the tomatoes, skins and all in the blender with a handful of onions, a couple of garlic cloves, a few jalapenos and anything else appropriate I have fresh. I’ve made a blended spice mixture that I add to it as I whirl the whole thing into some pretty delicious salsa. I like to chop fresh tomatoes & onions if I have them to add into the finished salsa to add some texture but it’s not necessary. We used to go through lots of salsa and I hated the containers it kept bringing into our home. Problem solved! I love reading about your path as well, thanks so much for sharing! ~TxH~
Rachel, if you can buy local, grass-fed milk at a reasonable price, although it isn’t raw it is healthier and tastes better and has lower environmental impact. Here’s my article on what milk we buy and why. It includes a link about non-dairy sources of calcium because I agree, the research shows the calcium in dairy products is not very readily absorbed, so it’s important to eat those other foods rather than increase dairy.
I started to just buy enough for a few days at a time ( in regards to fresh veggies and fruit )
Freezing portions of meat and roasts etc just as you do…
Buying just what you need for fresh veggies & fruit is one way to make sure it all gets consumed before going bad – good for you! ~TxH~
I love this article and find your information so true. I have been saving glass jars for a few months now and am beginning to use them in our pantry. Do I spy some smarties in one of the jars?
I am so glad you shared this
Cynthia – LOL, you do indeed spy smarties in one of the jars – it’s the perfect sumpin’ for even our younger grandchild. Smarties don’t melt and their small size makes it easy for our grandbabies to enjoy. Hey, being a grandmother is one of the greatest blessings in life, I’m gonna fill ’em with candy when they come visit! Thanks for the pin. ~TxH~
I LOVE THIS!!! My husband said that I was crazy when I said we were spending over $300 a week for our family of 7 when we used to eat out a lot and grocery sop without coupons….Now we are down to half of that just by making our own things we previously bout prepackaged and by couponing and eating fresh!! LOVE IT!
That number is about right for us. There are a few things that make it that way though.
Hubby packs a lunch each day (which is good, because it’s way cheaper and healthier to pack), we buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, and we live in town.
But, we have a small garden, and I preserve as much as I can. I make tortillas and plan to start making bread again. Buying in bulk is a good idea, but we don’t eat it fast enough to justify.
Another thing that helps with the leftover problem is I will make more than we need and freeze half of it. Then there really are no leftovers and I have another meal ready for a pinch. 🙂
Having dehydrated foods is great too, I’m trying to find a dehydrator at a garage sale, but until I do, my mom uses hers for me. 🙂
Stopping by from A Life in Balance.
Kendra, I’ve always wanted to make my own tortillas (we go through LOTS of them) So far I’ve not been able to make them soft & pliable, although I keep reading it’s easy to do. Still trying though! Thanks for your comments. ~TxH~
Whew…that seems high for food. Great tips here. And saving money isn’t the only benefit when you think of how much healthier we eat, too.
Thanks Pamela for your compliment. And you’re absolutely correct, the health aspect of eating healthy food at home really can’t be underestimated. Thanks for stopping by! ~TxH~
This is great advice! I do all of these things except dehydrating vegetables. My family spends less than average on groceries although we have hardly any garden and buy a lot of organic food and some convenience foods–we save by eating very little meat, stocking up on things on sale, and using leftovers wisely. \
Carrots can be frozen raw if they’re grated and the air squeezed out. Then they’re ready for carrot cake, soups, etc. and can even be used without defrosting in some recipes
I love glass jars for storing leftovers, too! I think they actually keep food fresher longer than plastic tubs, and they are easier to get completely clean from greasy or tomatoey foods.
‘Becca, I never would have thought about grating carrots for cooking later – <3 it! I'm trying to focus hard on food that's been frozen so I can use it all in a timely manner. Cooking from the freezer and pantry has been very beneficial for that. I'm hoping to dehydrate more this year since it saves so much storage space and stores so long. We'll see how that solar oven does for that purpose! ~TxH~
I plan my monthly meals based on what I have already in the house with very limited list of fresh foods that I need to get that I use around the same time. Like, I get lettuce from the store and plan two or three meals to use up the lettuce before it goes bad and we don’t have lettuce in the house for some of the other times because I know that I am not going to use it. I do the same with potatoes. It is always best to plan based on what you have and use what you have! Great advice 🙂 I love the glass jars and I have just started using them for a lot of things in the cupboards.
Excellent Alison – we try to go through our fresh veggies first as well. Getting through them before they go bad is a good budget choice. 🙂 ~TxH~
We’re eating more rice and beans.
Laura, we enjoy rice and beans. I often make WAY more than we will eat and we enjoy it with jalapeno cornbread on a cold winter’s night. Then I’ll take the leftovers, mash the beans, combine with rice, add a little salsa and roll into tortillas with a little shredded cheese & we enjoy them as burritos. I’ll freeze all the leftover burritos and we can pull them out one at a time for a quick & healthy lunch. ~TxH~
So glad I came across your post. It’s always nice to have reminders and new ideas on how to make the most of our food budget. The biggest thing for me it to always buy meat on sale. I base our menu off of what is in the freezer, then when I’m at the store I pick up meat, chicken and fish that is on sale to freeze for the following week. ~TALU~
Everyone is looking for ways to cut back on the grocery budget these days Rhonda. Sounds like you’ve got a system that’s working well for you – thanks for your comment! ~TxH~