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Getting Groceries Under Control

January 26th, 2014 at 04:53 pm

I feed a family of four. Two adults and two teens. My grocery budget has been out of control. I have been getting a lot of advice and I have tried to take advantage of it all and see what works for me. I went grocery snooping yesterday and spent $90. I know that seems like a lot but it is a savings for me and I will get better. I am just so excited it is under $100. Next month I am budgeting $100 a week on groceries. This is a good start and a practice run for me. For example pork chops were on sale and I got a family pack for a little under $5. It had 8 pork chops in it. I broke that pack up and froze it so it would be a meal for this week and one for next week. My thought process is that if I can stay with my budget and maybe by an extra meal each week that maybe the last week in February I can purchase very little and pay it on debt. I have been reading a lot about stockpiling. Do any of you do this?

3 Responses to “Getting Groceries Under Control”

  1. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    1390772024

    I guess you'd say we stockpile a little, but not as if we do not live within a day's buggy ride of civilization.

    We tend to buy a lot of what is on sale if it keeps well. For example, in the summer we got celery really cheap. So I dehydrated several bunches, jarred them and put them in the fridge. Later, I did the same with mushrooms. Two weeks ago, we bought four pounds of carrots even though we already had most of a 2 pound bag. We just remember to add carrots to most every salad, soup, stew, and roast dinner. In addition, I am happy having a raw carrot at breakfast and or lunch most days. Nutritious, keeps well, and only $0.25 / lb.

    We buy flour, sugar, pasta, rice, and beans on sale and keep large jars. Our lentils jar, for example, holds 7 pounds, yet most often we cook only 1 cup to 1 pound. We have bought as much as twenty pounds of chicken and divvied it into small containers for the freezer. There are only two of us, so that it a lot of chicken! Um, right now chicken is in the pressure cooker for soup.

    We have in the last 2 years been finding good deals on chicken, beef, and turkey broth. Those are so numerous that they are sharing a shelf in the basement with emergency water.

    Last summer we started pressure canning from the garden, and I'm really liking the results, so I hope to be able to continue with that, growing enough of several vegetables to go for a year without store buying. Then, we have fresh stored veggies, too, like winter squash and sweet potatoes.

    I have not tracked food expenses in years, but I did it when I first came to savingadvice.com. At that time it was $129/mo, so I think we do pretty good for two people.

  2. baselle Says:
    1390806091

    I stockpile some, especially cat food. The big thing that I have to remember is to make sure to rotate your stash.

    If you have 2 teens, they'll eat as fast as you can buy!

  3. Looking Forward Says:
    1390807705

    Food is a big spending area for us too. We love food! Big Grin I do stock up on good sales, but only items that I know we like and will use. (No reason to buy a bunch of stuff we *might* use only because it's super cheap.)

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