Groceries...
Groceries and self-control...
It takes a lot of self-control not to scream at the price of groceries. Our budget has gone from $75 a week to $85 a week for 3 and it's still not enough! This week I spent a bit over $100! I do not buy junk food. Well, not really. My junk food purchases consist of tortilla chips and all natural fruit snacks. That's it. It is just so aggravating that I cannot manage this better. I feel like a useless helpmeet. Even making our own groceries (laundry soap, instant oatmeal packets, applesauce, energy bars, chocolate syrup, etc) it is still costing us a fortune to eat well...healthy. I'm sure if I bought all processed food and snacks our bill would be cheaper. That's a travesty. We wonder why our country as a whole is obese...
What is your grocery budget? Feel free to answer the poll on the right. What are some ways to keep your budget down? I need tips. I'm doing everything I feel I can, but I'm sure there's gotta be something else I can do. We are living in "depression era times" and the price of food keep going up and up...:(
It takes a lot of self-control not to scream at the price of groceries. Our budget has gone from $75 a week to $85 a week for 3 and it's still not enough! This week I spent a bit over $100! I do not buy junk food. Well, not really. My junk food purchases consist of tortilla chips and all natural fruit snacks. That's it. It is just so aggravating that I cannot manage this better. I feel like a useless helpmeet. Even making our own groceries (laundry soap, instant oatmeal packets, applesauce, energy bars, chocolate syrup, etc) it is still costing us a fortune to eat well...healthy. I'm sure if I bought all processed food and snacks our bill would be cheaper. That's a travesty. We wonder why our country as a whole is obese...
What is your grocery budget? Feel free to answer the poll on the right. What are some ways to keep your budget down? I need tips. I'm doing everything I feel I can, but I'm sure there's gotta be something else I can do. We are living in "depression era times" and the price of food keep going up and up...:(
Hello from Montana, love your blog!
ReplyDeleteBefore I blow you out of the water first let me explain. Our average weekly grocery( we don't actually shope weekly, more like monthly or semi monthly, buying in bulk) is $35 to $45.
We also raise ALL of our own meat, and 95% of what we eat( all done naturally as God intended) I cook entirely from scratch, can and dehydrate everything we don't eat fresh or store in our root cellar. :o) We eat seasonally.
Please feel free to vist our blog and see a small portion of a small( 6 acre homestead) MT
Blessings from,
The Never Done Farm
Thanks for visiting! :) I've always wanted to visit Montana. We are going next year. :) That is a good price for groceries. We don't raise our meat, but I do cook entirely from scratch except for Sunday nights (out). I also can and dehydrate some of our food. We don't have a root cellar or a basement. :( It seems I'm doing all I can with what I have. I talked to my husband tonight and he said prices are going up and he doesn't want to compromise health for savings. So our bill will just be higher. Hopefully we get some deer this year we can butcher and I can make sausage, burger, etc. Sounds like you guys are doing an awesome job at being self sufficient. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a wonderful job with what you have, and that is so important.We've been living a frugal lifestyle fo alittle over two decades( I'm 45yrs old) Before we found our homestead( almost 8 yrs ago) we were like you, trying to make the best with what we had and our meat supply was entirely venison, elk or moose and chicken I found in the free ads( we butchered oursleves at home) We also made links with area farmers/ ranchers who raised meats and grains naturally and bought direct from them for a far better price than the stores.There are internships on farms here and you can work out a barter of labor for anturally grown meats,grains, dairy, produce, etc....
ReplyDeleteDo you have any sources, farms in your area that you could to shares( like a cow share for fresh raw dairy, beefshare for so many pounds of beef per share, etc...... My theory always was that if you don't ask you'll never know and the worst thing they can say is, No.
Buying in bulk( we order from "Azure Standard") three times a year. Problem with bulk is you have to have space to store it. You can use closets, under the beds, up in the attic, etc..... if your conditions are right and they are stored in something to keep away rodents.
Kudos to you and your family! Keep striving and sharing with others*wink*
We don't have anything like that around here. We were thinking of going in together with some friends for some good beef though. Splitting the cost and the meat. We have a nice area for a garden, but every year it fails. I only have so much strength (neuromuscular disease) and keeping the critters out is difficult. We are going to try something different next year. Thanks for the tips. :)
ReplyDeleteI've just begun following your blog but I must say I'm enjoying what I see :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for groceries we buy in bulk from our local co-op through Azure Standard as the previous poster does. We're working on building up a cash reserve so we can start purchasing every three months rather than monthly as the more bulk we can buy at once, the cheaper it will come out to be.
Another tip is to follow the store ads around the holidays and be prepared to take a small stash of cash and hit those sale items. Because we're coming up on Thanksgiving I'm heading to the store to bulk up on canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, broth, bread crumbs,etc. I've already been bulking up on sweet potatoes, apples, pears, etc. I dry the apples and pears for use in baked dishes all winter, and I freeze up the sweet potatoes to add them to stews. You also have the opportunity to can these items if you wish... I will use the cranberry sauce as a side dish throughout the winter and the canned pumpkin for bread, muffins, etc.
Though we eat almost entirely organic foods, I do balance this with conventional foods that I find for "a steal of a deal". It's my way of making my thrifty side smile while still maintaining a healthy diet for the family.
I'm currently looking for a farm that I can buy "shares" of produce at next spring as I hear this will come out well for us financially. We also snap up meat deals when they arise...either through a co-op friend or a friend of theirs or through a meat sale at our local grocery store. Again, the balance between the organic and the economical.
We're feeding a family of four (and another adult for dinners 4-5 time per week) for about $100 a week average. I must say though, that it's a lot less expansive for us to shop fewer times a month (I don't know why) so we order from the co-op monthly and shop at the store on the 1st and 15th cause those are our paydays.
Best of luck to you on reigning in the food budget...we're going through the same thing right now. I just try to find another way to save--even if it's small--each time I shop. Slowly but surely the cost is coming down. It just takes time.
Glad you are enjoying the blog. :) We still haven't gotten our bill down too much lower. We came the the realization that it just costs a bit more to eat healthy. Our budget is around $85,which is a bit less than $100 I was spending. I do look for sales and stock up when I can. Thanks for the tips. :)
ReplyDelete