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@mrsrain: haha we went this year and it was all gone within the week. My girls are berry-aholics! Last year I bought and froze during the season thinking it'll last me a few months into the winter. Didn't last a month.
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@winniebee: OMG Trader Joe's is the cheapest here!!
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@regberadaisy: I'm not great at food budgeting, but I'd like to do better. One trick I read on a blog is to replace half of the ground beef or turkey in a meal with mushrooms. So for a recipe that calls for a pound of ground meat, I'll buy an 8 oz container of white mushrooms, process them in the food processor until they're the consistency of the ground meat, and then cook with 1/2 lb of the meat and freeze the other 1/2 lb. I am not generally a mushroom fan but I really cannot tell the difference. This works particularly well for meals like spaghetti and tacos.
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Turkey is usually pretty cheap. Do you know how to roast a turkey? That will cover several meals, and it's simple to make healthy sides (e.g., mashed sweet potatoes and string beans).
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@JoJoGirl: Really!?!? Another thing I find when shopping somewhere like TJs is I am more inclined to buy prepared foods or specialty items that are more expensive than the normal grocery store.
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One surprising way we save money is only shopping every two weeks. It takes more planning but you buy less excess. I am super frugal and plan meals meticulously and didn't think it could possibly make a difference, but it does!
We also make our own yogurt. It is really easy. -
I'm not good at meal planning, but I feel like we waste a lot less food when I go to the grocery store a few times per week and just buy enough for a few meals at a time. If I get overzealous and try to stock up and plan ahead, stuff goes bad and we throw it out. I'm lucky though since I have 6 grocery stores within a 10 minute walk from me. But I know that frequency of shopping doesn't work for a lot of people.
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My biggest thing is trying to plan my meals so that I reuse ingredients. And roaster chickens are my biggest "secret" for a cheap food week. For example I can get a whole chicken for like $8 and usually get 3 meals out of it. I put it in the crock pot in the am and the first night we might eat something like chicken tacos (so just need shells, cheese, seasoning, tomato, and rice or beans or whatever side you want). Then I pull off all the other good meat and leave all the bones/skin/etc in the crockpot and make broth overnight. The next day we could bbq chicken sandwiches or chicken pizza or chicken stir fry with veggies over rice or add it cold to a salad. Then the next night I could either make a chicken noodle soup with the broth and remaining chicken + a few veggies and noodles or pick another of the regular chicken meal options and freeze the broth in 1 cup portions to use in recipes that call for broth.
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One thing I recently started is to not shop at all one week of the month, I usually spend a little extra on fruit the week before (it's what we run out of the quickest) but otherwise stick to the weekly budget. It's a great way to use up what you already have and save quite a bit!
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We do shop at Aldi's, but I tried all the ones in my area and tried going on different days. Some are regularly well stocked on certain days. That plus cooking from scratch and a meal plan has our budget down to about 120/week for me, DH, and DS (who eats as much as I do). Including lunches, which I pack.
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I love this! This is a great idea.@Veggiemama:
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re: rice ... cooked (flavoured or plain) rice actually freezes really well! you could cook up a bunch of white rice in chicken stock instead of water for extra flavor, add some herbs, oil, and whatever, and freeze in ziplock bags or Tupperware. just microwave to reheat. maybe try a bit with leftovers first to experiment? or I bet there are a bunch of tips online :).
also, rice that's been frozen breaks down way faster for quick congee...
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I don't think it's all that unusual or interesting but I was able to make the biggest dent in my grocery bill by relying on a few staple recipes every week instead of trying new things as much as I was before. There are certain staple dinners that I know are cheap and easy while still pretty healthy that I make every week. Then I can stick up on those staples when I find a good price and vary a few things based on sales or what's left in the fridge. We have taco Tuesdays, an egg dish weekly, a pasta weekly, etc
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We buy a lot of basics in bulk and then eat variations of the same foods. For rice, I'd say get a rice cooker! It is so quick and easy (I think easier than boxed rice)! We also cut back on amount of meat by filling in with beans. We do it with pastas, enchiladas, tacos, salads, soups - beans are tasty in everything!!
We also meal plan before shopping, being careful to use what's in the house already instead of buying new ingredients (so, if we have pork we always make pork instead of buying chicken instead). We mostly just buy fruit, veggies, BOGO meat deals, & dairy/eggs at the grocery store each week so our total is $60-80. We do Costco for everything else 1-2x a month for about $100-150 total. -
We also only shop every other week, we save the produce that holds up longer until the second week, it works out great. So it averages out to $160 every 2 weeks, give or take.
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@gilmoregirl: this is a great point!
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