For the past few months I have been spending way too much on groceries. One reason is I am hoarding food. I wouldn't call myself a "prepper", but I do believe we will soon see skyrocketing prices and inflation and feel a few extra food items sitting in the pantry can't hurt.
But another reason for my overspending is I have become a bit lazy and have been buying more pre-packaged and pre-made items. Only when they are on sale, mind you, but still it adds up and last month for our family of five I spent $450+ on food. I was shocked at the total! And I decided I needed to change how I shopped for groceries and I needed to start immediately!
For years I have been baking my own bread and making most of our meals from scratch, but I still purchased the "quick" food items such as boxed cereal, canned soup, cake mixes, etc. and I have decided to change that. My rule now is to only purchase a food item in the store if it is cheaper than homemade. For example, our family loves yogurt and I have started to make it from scratch. It is surprisingly easy to make, tastes even better than the store bought and is quite a bit cheaper. On the other hand I am not going to attempt to make cheese or butter as it would be more expensive to make it at home as, alas, I do not have a cow standing in my back yard.
On my quest to find more from scratch recipes I came across Budget101.com. This site has a ton of recipes for mixes, but they also have ideas on how to spend less at the store and I was intrigued when I saw their posts on spending only $50 a week on groceries. This is quite a challenge as it would drop our grocery bill in half, but I was willing to give it a try.
$50 doesn't give me much to work with as milk alone will eat up $12-15 per week (we use 3-4 gallons of whole milk a week). Then there is cheese, meat, and fruits & vegis which I will not go without; but if it is not doable it will at least reduce our grocery bill by quite a bit.
One last thing, I haven't quite come to a decision on my bulk food purchases from Azurestandard.com. Will I include this in my $200/month spending allowance or not? I spend on average about $50-75 per month from Azure where I purchase all my bulk spices, bread supply items (gluten, wheat, molasses), beans, oatmeal, etc. Their prices are much cheaper for these items, and I must have them on hand to be able to make my foods from scratch. It will be interesting if I can make all my food purchases, including those from Azure, for around $200 a month.
To start this challenge I had my husband take out $200 from his last paycheck as I feel using cash will keep me not only on track, but honest with myself.
And this is how I did for week #1 on my $50/week grocery challenge. I went to 2 stores this week and was able to purchase milk, pasta (yes I can make pasta from scratch, but I don't have an attachment to make the fun shapes and I like using certain types of pasta shapes for certain meals), canned pineapple, canned olives, 1 Easter candy item for each family member, frozen vegis, sweetened coconut and lime juice.
Here is the total for Week #1: $33.93. As I am sure you noticed I didn't buy any meat as there wasn't a sale, but I have a ton frozen and a little over $16 left to make a bulk purchase when meat does go on sale.
Here is a list of the meals we had this week:
Breakfast: Homemade Granola, Homemade Grape Nuts, Toast or Waffles.
Dinner: Leftovers from supper or Sandwiches from my Freshly Ground Whole Wheat Bread and Yogurt
Supper:
Sunday - Popcorn (it is our movie night) and any leftovers from the fridge (this is the one meal I don't make. The kids and husband have to fend for themselves).
Monday - Enchiladas with Sauce and Mexican Rice
Tuesday - Potato/Hamburger Casserole (just sliced potatoes sprinkled with salt/pepper/garlic, topped with seasoned hamburger and vegi of choice and a can of Cream of Something Soup - bake until potatoes are tender.
Wednesday - Pork chops with potatoes and Hawaiian Bread
Thursday - Cajun Chicken
Friday - Homemade Pizza, focaccia bread and a Pasta Salad
For a dessert this week I made an upside down pineapple cake and that is why I made the Hawaiian bread as I had the leftover juice from the canned pineapple.
Saturday - Quesadillas made with taco hamburger, re-fried beans and cheese
Have you noticed I love Allrecipes.com? What I love about this site is all the reviews. I never make the recipe as listed, but look over the reviews and then see what is in my pantry and come up with a recipe that is similar.
Well, not too bad for my first week of my $50 per week challenge. I can't wait to see how next week goes!
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