Hellobee Boards

Gestational diabetes is good for my grocery budget. I'm not buying all the junk I did before, even if it's for DS or DH, lol. They need to suffer, too!

I'm also using coupons more...especially the in store ones I get at the register. It's been helping! If I stick to the flyer and coupons, I can make decent meals and still save money.

I am in. I have 2 goals for February: better spend the money, not necessarily just spend less and to really use the contents of my freezer/pantry.

For example, I think I have to just bulk shop and prep portions and freeze. I don't have a ton of freezer space, but we will eat more fish if I have it portioned off in the freezer as opposed to buying it every week.

@Chillybear: babywearing? works for us...

I think I did pretty well grocery-wise for January - $600 and change. Which is pretty good considering that we had L's birthday party this month providing a full meal, my mom was here for 5 days and the rest of the family for 3 - and we didn't eat out the whole month except once, for $28. Plus I stocked up on meat this month.

Meal planning really helps. One week I slow-cooked a pork shoulder on Monday and had it with veggies. The next day I had Chinese-cabbage wraps (like mu shu pork), the day after that enchiladas, the day after that pulled pork sandwiches

My goal for February is $80/week (not including paper products or cleaning supplies - I usually get those at CVS). Should be doable b/c we won't have to pack L's lunch for daycare any more.

I want to do a better job of using up the stuff in our freezer and cabinets.

@Chillybear: 2nd the babywearing recommendation! Bonus, it also tends to keep people's grubby hands off of your kid.

My goal for February is $500. Goal 2 is to use what we can that we already have.
Our challenges last month - Failure to meal plan, and DH grabs a ton of little randoms that really add up.

@Chillybear: would it help you to freeze individual portions while your DH works nights? whenever i make things like pasta, soups, rice & beans, etc. i freeze leftovers in lunch sized portions. then all DH has to do is heat it up! my DH works from home so if i didn't at least have something ready for him to eat he'd probably just eat cereal

I would really like to do better about using up all the food we have. We throw out way too much, IMO. Right now our fridge is pretty bare, so I'm going to wipe down all the shelves, toss anything bad, and start fresh for Feb. I would love to be at $150/week, but it will be tough because organic/local, esp. for meats is really important to me. I did better with meal planning this month and that did really help.

@grizz: I know what you mean. My spending has gone up since I had my LOs. I read food labels and am always looking for products with simple and pure ingredients. My go to meals are curry and stir fry.

@grizz: Go-to quick healthy meal is chicken or shrimp stir-fry with soba noodles instead of rice (not sure if that's "clean" but it's healthy and easy). We stock up on chicken/shrimp and freeze it so it's always on hand. Then get carrots, broccoli, bok choy, mushrooms, onions and portion them out so we just have to throw it in the wok -- super quick and easy. I also keep fresh ginger and jalapenos in the freezer so I can grate/chop some up and throw it in.

I'm aiming to eat more out of the freezer. We do a pretty good job of stocking up -- it's just hard to remember to eat it We have a lot of boar left (from a hunt last year), so I was planning on making boar bolognese and boar chili once it gets cold enough (it's been almost 70 degrees here in California lately ). My mom made us tomato soup and we froze that in 2-person portions so we could just thaw and eat with grilled cheese sandwiches on week nights. We also have a winter garden going so we are able to have fresh greens for salad. Waiting for more peas -- now I just have like 4, not enough for anything really!

@BunnyDragon: @looch: @NorCalWayfarer: @jhd: Those all sound so good! I'm not crazy picky... Its just that my husband would be satisfied eating a $1 Totinos party pizza if I'd let him. I tend to get myself in trouble with recipes that require a ton of fresh ingredients!

I'll join. Our grocery budget has been nuts since we have cut out most processed foods! I am aiming for $100 a week = $400 for the month. We were at about $475 this month- so I have to cut out the $75.00 of impulse crap I buy!

@cmomma17: put that in february.

Question:

Any Super Bowl deals I should be taking advantage of? Looking through the sales flyers, most of it is junk. But I'm thinking it would be a good time to stock up on things like salsa, maybe cream cheese, some meats?? I don't know. Any ideas? I'm trying to learn the best times of years to buy.

Also: goals

* talk to DH weekly about what we have spent
* menu plan!
* eat a legumes based meal once a week.

January:
what went well: we hardly ate out!
what didn't: unexpected diet changes. LO was severely constipated, resulting in the purchase of lots more berries, juice, bran muffin ingredients, etc. We tend to eat seasonally, but I guess it's harder with a baby!
Also, I ate more than I expected being pregnant and nursing.
We spent about $700. It feels extravagant, but really it is in the USDA's "moderate" guidelines for a family our size, and food in my area tends to be a bit expensive.

@grizz: Chana masala! Just chick peas (i use canned and stock up when they are on sale), diced tomatoes (canned again), spices/onion/garlic/ginger and a bag of spinach. Serve over rice! Quick and healthy. http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/02/chana-masala/

@looch: nope. I wish we had an Aldi or a Trader Joe's! Whenever I shop at one on the east coast I can't believe how cheap the prices are!

I'm so proud of myself. I just did a huge shopping trip at Safeway and saved 34% - $85. I even bought Kleenex which I never ever do but the big box of lotion ones were only $0.75 and my nose is so sore from a cold!

I downloaded the just for U app and "clipped" a bunch of coupons and made a list based on their sale flyer. I stocked up on salsa, marinades, jam, beans, canned tomatoes, Cheerios.

DH went to costco yesterday and spent $250 on a bunch of frozen foods - tilapia (we love their tilapia), veggies and berries, chicken, and almond milk for LO and a few other things.

So now we have spent a staggering $400 by the first. But our pantry was virtually non existent before this weekend. It's good to have some stuff you can make meals out of. I think that's a key part of keeping overall costs down!

Eta: we only go to costco every few months so I don't count it in that Monty's tally since it will last three or four months.

Feb 1st: Today we went to Ikea and returned stuff. I literally have unopened stuff just lying around that we either never got around to installing or I've changed my mind about. So today, I gathered them all (lamps and shelves) and returned them -- I couldn't find receipts since they're all bought on different occasions. It ended up being 857:- ($130)!

I bought: shelves (in a diff color), storage boxes, a kid chair, a doll bed, lightbulbs, and a little stuffed bear for LO all on store credit, with about $20 leftover I am so proud of myself! One of the lamps we've had for over 6 months and it was just sitting inside a box in the storage room the whole time. It feels good to come home with new stuff without having to enter it into Feb's tab

Spent $70 for groceries this week:

$42 Aldi's
$12 Giant
$6 at local grocery

that's with NO coupons and some splurge items from Aldi's (jalapeno poppers, popsicles, pistachios)

@grizz: wow!! That's awesome! When I get home I'm going to rummage through my freezer & see what I can use up this wk, maybe I can have an extra frugal wk!

@mrs. bird: allrecipes.com has a search by ingredients function.