Grocery Budget
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Grocery Budget
Has anyone found that eating only 3 meals has reduced your grocery spending? By how much?
Start date: August 31, 2011
Pregnant
Pregnant
Yes!
I have noticed this!
Apart from drinks and household things like cleaning stuff, I now just buy the ingredients for the meals and packed lunches for the week. Plus I buy something like a single packet of biscuits, or some hot cross buns, so that the kids can have them sometimes for snacks. (the kids obviously still have s's, but I have noticed that I now give them more scheduled snacks, sitting down, and there is less hanging around the kitchen all day looking for things to eat).
I used to buy packets of nuts and seeds (healthy snacks you know), and snack-friendly vegetables and cheeses and crackers and dark chocolate. Perhaps also mini quiches, or little pastry things or picnic eggs, etc. Now I think to myself 'exactly which meal are cashew nuts going to be part of?', and unless I'm making something with cashew nuts, there is no need to buy them.
Actually what I have noticed is that I am buying less stuff - and particularly less expensive stuff. Here in the UK food prices are going up A LOT, so I think that's why the bill is not that different.
Apart from drinks and household things like cleaning stuff, I now just buy the ingredients for the meals and packed lunches for the week. Plus I buy something like a single packet of biscuits, or some hot cross buns, so that the kids can have them sometimes for snacks. (the kids obviously still have s's, but I have noticed that I now give them more scheduled snacks, sitting down, and there is less hanging around the kitchen all day looking for things to eat).
I used to buy packets of nuts and seeds (healthy snacks you know), and snack-friendly vegetables and cheeses and crackers and dark chocolate. Perhaps also mini quiches, or little pastry things or picnic eggs, etc. Now I think to myself 'exactly which meal are cashew nuts going to be part of?', and unless I'm making something with cashew nuts, there is no need to buy them.
Actually what I have noticed is that I am buying less stuff - and particularly less expensive stuff. Here in the UK food prices are going up A LOT, so I think that's why the bill is not that different.
I think my food bills are definately going down, although not by as much as I thought because some of the savings are being cancelled out by the amount I'm now spending on fresh fruit.
I am noticing that it's also cheaper when we eat out though. Except for special occasions we only have a main course - no starters, no side dishes, no desserts. Much cheaper!
I am noticing that it's also cheaper when we eat out though. Except for special occasions we only have a main course - no starters, no side dishes, no desserts. Much cheaper!
When nothing goes right...go left.
- Blithe Morning
- Posts: 1222
- Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:56 pm
- Location: South Dakota
Oh I hear ya! I have 3 teens and a tween. 2 in football. How can one kid actually eat 3 sandwiches plus fruit, chips, desert, and stay thin?Blithe Morning wrote:My food bills won't go down till the last of my teenage sons is launched. It's football season so food bills go UP.
I guess this doesn't work unless you actually do it.
Please pray for me
Please pray for me
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- Posts: 232
- Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 3:10 pm
- Location: San Antonio
my grocery budget is smaller when I'm doing no s as opposed to other diets. The first big thing is that I'm not buying "diet" snacks which are quite expensive. Diet frozen meals are also pricey. I'm not having to buy my families food and my own low fat versions of everything. So, really I save a lot on no s.
I find I'm spending more. Guess I'm following Pollan's directive to "Pay more; eat less." I am buying better quality food. Of course, it doesn't help that groceries are going up, up , up.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
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- Posts: 620
- Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:34 pm
- Location: New York
LOL...I have three boys too - 20, 18, & 16, plus a 6-year old girl. It's a mountain of food for boys, isn't it?~reneew wrote:Oh I hear ya! I have 3 teens and a tween. 2 in football. How can one kid actually eat 3 sandwiches plus fruit, chips, desert, and stay thin?Blithe Morning wrote:My food bills won't go down till the last of my teenage sons is launched. It's football season so food bills go UP.
janie
"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day."
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh
Does anyone have any budgeting tips?
We mostly eat meats, veggies, fruit, dairy products. My husband eats rice and pasta, I do not. We purchase very little processed foods. My husband uses chips, juice, and cookies but they last him a few weeks (he doesn't overeat). I try to use coupons when I can but it seems very hard to get that bill down. I cook both our meals everyday. Right now we budget 130 per week but I think it could be much cheaper! I get home sometimes and wonder what on earth did I buy for $130!!
We mostly eat meats, veggies, fruit, dairy products. My husband eats rice and pasta, I do not. We purchase very little processed foods. My husband uses chips, juice, and cookies but they last him a few weeks (he doesn't overeat). I try to use coupons when I can but it seems very hard to get that bill down. I cook both our meals everyday. Right now we budget 130 per week but I think it could be much cheaper! I get home sometimes and wonder what on earth did I buy for $130!!
Start date: August 31, 2011
Pregnant
Pregnant
- NoelFigart
- Posts: 1639
- Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:23 pm
- Location: Lebanon, NH
- Contact:
Budgeting tips:
Cook from scratch as much as possible.
Buy pasta rice and some grains in bulk. They keep awhile and they're cheaper that way.
Learn to cut up a chicken. While meat prices are on the rise, I can often get a whole chicken for less than a dollar a pound.
Learn to make Chicken Carcass Soup. It's healthy, delicious and frugal.
Learn to cut meat. Sometimes you can get a huge pork loin that you can cut into chops for dollars fewer a pound at warehouse stores.
Use the crock pot for cheap cuts of meat.
Learn to make bean dishes. Beans and rice, bean burritos, bean soups are all high in protein, low in fat (if that's your kink) and cheap.
Make your weekly menu from grocery circulars.
Buy produce in season.
Cook from scratch.
Cook from scratch as much as possible.
Buy pasta rice and some grains in bulk. They keep awhile and they're cheaper that way.
Learn to cut up a chicken. While meat prices are on the rise, I can often get a whole chicken for less than a dollar a pound.
Learn to make Chicken Carcass Soup. It's healthy, delicious and frugal.
Learn to cut meat. Sometimes you can get a huge pork loin that you can cut into chops for dollars fewer a pound at warehouse stores.
Use the crock pot for cheap cuts of meat.
Learn to make bean dishes. Beans and rice, bean burritos, bean soups are all high in protein, low in fat (if that's your kink) and cheap.
Make your weekly menu from grocery circulars.
Buy produce in season.
Cook from scratch.
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My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.
My blog https://noelfigart.com/wordpress/ I talk about being a freelance writer, working out and cooking mostly. The language is not always drawing room fashion. Just sayin'.
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- Posts: 58
- Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:36 pm
- Location: Saginaw MI
I think I'm prob spending the same, but I feel there's more food i'n the house. Diet food is expensive! I can't tell you how many times I'd go shopping for the week, get all the stuff I'll need for my diet, and my family's whining that there's no food i'n the house, cause they won't touch that stuff.
I feel like they're happier not having to deal with Mom's diet obsession.
I feel like they're happier not having to deal with Mom's diet obsession.