Saturday, July 20, 2013
Breaking in down...
So when Ray suggested I try this $300 budget this month for groceries I thought he was crazy. I thought there was no way I could make that work. But so far I have, and here is some idea of how it has been possible.
For starters I don't use coupons at all. At all. I have tried several time and I have a very patient friend who has shown me how to do it several times, but it is a lot of work, and I tend to be lazy sometimes. The big key to this has been planning. And I not a planner by nature. I have said before that I usually don't have a meal plan and I never have a grocery list. That has changed. I have both. And I stick to it. Regardless of how I am feeling about it!
At the beginning of July I went to Sams and bought several things in bulk that I knew we would use for the entire month. Peanut butter is cheaper at Sams. I bought the huge Peter Pan one and I think it was around $9.00. So during the month we will use this for sandwiches, and snacks. I also bought 10 pounds of flour. I did this because I knew I would be making pizza Friday night in July and when I make pizza dough I double the recipe so thats a lot of flour. I use it for breakfast things too and also if we want bread with dinner I make my own french bread. I also bought huge things of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to make a big batch of pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce which I froze. I still have 10 cups of that left and I think I made 30 or 35 cups.
We all know that we have had a lot of beans so far this month. I bought a 2 pound bag of dried pinto beans and a 2 pound bag of dried black beans. I make each of the beans the same way every time. Here is a link to how I do the pinto beans, http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/08/29/recipe-easy-slow-cooker-refried-beans/. I use this recipe for just regular pinto beans and we also use it for refried beans which I use for burritos. This will feed our family several times and everyone usually eats without complaint. Then for the black beans I use this recipe. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brazilian-Black-Beans-20146. I also double both of these recipes. But with the leftovers from the black beans you can make black bean enchiladas, black bean burgers, black bean soup. There are lots of different things. So both of these bags of beans together is maybe $5.00-$6.00. Thats not a lot of money!
For breakfast stuff, I make a lot of my own things. We have muffins a lot, or biscuits sausage sandwiches. But thats why I buy the big flour, so I can make these things instead of just counting on cereal. But when it comes to cereal, I buy non sugar cereal....generic cheerios usually. Or we have oatmeal. But not flavored oatmeal. I buy the big thing of plan quick cook oats and they can add stuff to it after it is cooked. But like everything else that I fix, my kids have learned they either eat it, or they miss that meal. It didn't take them that long to figure it out and now for the most part they eat whatever they are given. I only have one kid that will miss meals from time to time and its not gonna kill him!
That brings me to snack stuff. You better believe that my kids eat snacks. But I only buy certain things. This month in order to stay in my budget I bought a couple of boxes of saltine crackers. So with this they either have crackers and peanut butter, crackers and cheese. They can also have popcorn, not the microwave kind, or fruit.
I do most of my shopping at Aldi, but there are a few things I have to get at Walmart. I try to steer clear of Walmart because I will buy more things then I actually need if I shop there. I buy some stuff at Sams, but not to much. The biggest thing I do is try to plan for leftovers and make the leftovers into something else. It is more work to do things this way, lots of from scratch baking but I don't mind doing that. I enjoy cooking. We also have veggies and fruit at every meal and I think Aldi has the best price for those things. Their milk and eggs are also cheaper, oh and so is their frozen chicken. But we don't eat tons of meat. There are weeks that we may only have meat twice.
Also, this doesn't include cleaning stuff and toiletry stuff. But that budget shrunk too. This month I was given $50 for the entire month for those things...all of those things! But so far that has been doable.
Don't get me wrong. There are things I miss buying. I don't have a lot of junk food on hand and I am junk food eater. I love dip, any dip and I am not buying it this month. I also love candy. Love it. I have not bought very much of that either. So with that being said, we are eating healthier because I'm not buying junk.
And just so I don't leave Molly out, her baby formula is not included in this budget. But its not included because before we had her, I bought lots and lots of formula so it would always be here and I didn't want to have to take it out of my regular budget.
Oh and one last tip. I buy bread at Dollar Tree! Because it is only a dollar! Or sometimes Aldi has their bread on sale for like .69 cents and I buy several loafs and keep it in my freezer! Hope this gives you an idea of what I am doing. If you want recipes for things or if you want my complete meal plan for the month let me know and I will share it with whoever wants it!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment