I feel like I write this post about once a month. The original post is here and the most recent one is here. But our budget is constantly evolving, and we are always finding new/different ways to save money. So here's how we're currently saving on with our grocery bill:
1. Amazon Subscribe & Save - I've mentioned this before. We're officially hooked. We get at least 5 items every month, so we get the 15% discount instead of just 5%. I get as many of our food items this way as possible, since the discount enables us to get organic things we wouldn't otherwise be able to find or afford. I also get some cleaning supplies (I know, I should just make my own, and I do some of them; but with me working so much right now, it's just easier this way) and household items like toilet paper. We get as much as absolutely possible (some things you have to buy in such bulk that we can't afford to do it, and some things they don't have, etc.), even things that would be about the same price in the store, because it gets delivered to our door. On the 5th of the month. And I don't have to go get it or carry it in and out of the car. It makes my life easier.
2. No. Processed. Foods. I can't reiterate this enough. The healthiest and cheapest way to shop in the grocery store is around the perimeter. My grocery list now consists of: frozen chicken, frozen tilapia, frozen shrimp, milk, soy milk, eggs, cheese, Italian ice (we all have our vices), sandwich thins or flatbread, deli meat cut at the counter, spinach, berries, bananas, another fruit (whatever's in season), and fresh flowers. Every single one of those things (except the bread) is located on the perimeter of the store. We do buy frozen pizzas, enough for one pizza night per week, but really that's only because I work some nights and have from 2:30-4 pm at home those days. I actually feel fancier shopping this way. By avoiding processed foods, we have more money to spend on fresh fruit and other healthy options. We buy the frozen chicken because it's cheaper, and if I had any option other than Food Lion, I could probably find hormone-free frozen chicken, and we would get that. Of course there are times we buy different things, like the other night when we wanted to do s'mores. But our regular, typical grocery list is exactly what I listed above. (Baking supplies, etc. I've been getting from Amazon.)
3. Shop less often. If you've been reading my blog you'll remember that I grocery shop once a month. Shopped once a month. I now go every two weeks. The idea is still the same: the less you shop, the fewer temptations you encounter while shopping. Since I really work hard to only shop the perimeter of the store, however, I don't see as many of the temptations that are down the aisles. And the reason I go more frequently now is to get the fresh things. So my first shopping trip of the month, I'll get all the frozen foods and things that will last the whole month. Halfway through the month, I'll just restock the fresh things that go bad more quickly. Spinach and deli meat last two weeks. As far as fruit, we'll eat berries first, then bananas, then things we have to peel (this last time it was the kiwi, then a pear, then pineapple). So far I have not completely run out of fruit by the end of the two weeks.
I hope this helps you when meal planning and grocery shopping. This latest method has enabled us to stay under $200 for a month's worth of food and household items, even with Jake doing powerlifting and eating about as much as two average men. Oh, and it's way healthier, too. Happy shopping!
Showing posts with label food savings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food savings. Show all posts
Friday, May 30, 2014
Monday, February 24, 2014
more ways to save on groceries
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm working a lot more now so posts may be few and far between! Last night, I sat down and made out a monthly meal plan for the first time since beginning working so much, and I have to say, it feels so great. I don't know if I can go back to not meal planning. Along with the meal plan I made out a grocery list. I want to share with you some new ways I've started using to save on groceries.
1. conscious box Sorry, the link is not wanting to work for me. But anyway. A friend told me about this subscription service and she really loves it. My first box is currently on its way to my house. She said her last box had some teas, sunscreen, and several other things. This is a way she exposes herself to things we might never learn about, living in the boondocks and all. I thought it would be a good way to encorporate some more healthful products. Since my grocery budget includes household items, this is perfect for us. I chose to subscribe on a month-by-month basis, so it will be $19.95 every month.
2. amazon subscribe & save I am so excited to try this! So basically, certain items on Amazon are eligible to be in the subscribe & save program. You can choose to receive the item anywhere from every month to every 6 months. You get a 5% discount on these items. And if you choose 5 subscription items in any one month, you get a 15% discount. Yay!
3. I took my grocery budget, which is $200, and subtracted $20 for conscious box and the price of the items I subscribed to on Amazon. I ended up with $157 left for the month. I already had my completed grocery list so I ended up dividing the remainder of my budget among the categories of groceries. $55 for meat, $40 for dairy (2 gallons of milk a week - it's actually an improvement from a year ago), etc. Within the general categories like the ones I just mentioned, I broke down the money even more. $10 for butter. Obviously that will be a lot of butter, so it will enable me to stock up.
Nothing super fancy here, but I felt really good about my plan for March groceries, and I wanted to share with you how I did it. Hope it helps :)
1. conscious box Sorry, the link is not wanting to work for me. But anyway. A friend told me about this subscription service and she really loves it. My first box is currently on its way to my house. She said her last box had some teas, sunscreen, and several other things. This is a way she exposes herself to things we might never learn about, living in the boondocks and all. I thought it would be a good way to encorporate some more healthful products. Since my grocery budget includes household items, this is perfect for us. I chose to subscribe on a month-by-month basis, so it will be $19.95 every month.
2. amazon subscribe & save I am so excited to try this! So basically, certain items on Amazon are eligible to be in the subscribe & save program. You can choose to receive the item anywhere from every month to every 6 months. You get a 5% discount on these items. And if you choose 5 subscription items in any one month, you get a 15% discount. Yay!
3. I took my grocery budget, which is $200, and subtracted $20 for conscious box and the price of the items I subscribed to on Amazon. I ended up with $157 left for the month. I already had my completed grocery list so I ended up dividing the remainder of my budget among the categories of groceries. $55 for meat, $40 for dairy (2 gallons of milk a week - it's actually an improvement from a year ago), etc. Within the general categories like the ones I just mentioned, I broke down the money even more. $10 for butter. Obviously that will be a lot of butter, so it will enable me to stock up.
Nothing super fancy here, but I felt really good about my plan for March groceries, and I wanted to share with you how I did it. Hope it helps :)
Monday, September 30, 2013
how we save on necessities: food
first, let's define "necessities": food, shelter, clothing. there are varying degrees of all of those, but keep in mind that the most basic forms are the necessary ones. that being said, i will address how we plan for all of those, and some ways we save.
"food" encompasses groceries and eating out. eating out is not a necessity, but i will include it in this post anyway.
we spend about $190/month on groceries, which for us includes household products such as toilet paper, etc., and personal products, such as toothpaste, etc. jake eats the same as two adults. so this really is a pretty low number (i am not trying to be prideful here; it began out of necessity, but now it's fun to see what we can get on that amount!). how do we do it? i only grocery shop every other week. that is the only time i enter a grocery store. we recently got a chest freezer so this next month will be my first attempt at once-a-month shopping. the less times you enter the store, the less you are exposed to temptations at the check out, or even walking the aisles. so the whole going to the store every day to get stuff for supper? definitely not the way to save money (yes, this does take planning. but trust me--you end up saving tons of time in the long run, too). i go in with a list, and only get what's on the list. i keep a tally of what i'm spending along the way (i know some can do it mentally, but i literally make a tally mark on my list -- this is vital, in my opinion!), so if i find i'm way under budget, i may pick up a few extras for fun. i try to not spend the entire amount every time, in case something comes up and we do have to run to the store between shopping trips -- but those times are few and far between. whenever i have it on my list to pick up dry goods, i get more than i need. that way i have a mini-stockpile in case something were to prevent me from keeping to my shopping schedule. we store the extras in our basement (regardless of where you live, you likely have room for a stockpile of your own...although it may require some decluttering, and that is a subject for a whole other post!). this way, we never fully run out of food. we pull from the stockpile to fill our pantry. so when we are out of something in the stockpile, that's when we put it on the list; not when we are completely out of it altogether. i coupon a little bit for some of our household and personal supplies. you can see some of my previous posts (sorry, i don't know how to link them :/) for more info on that. we use un-paper towels that i bought on etsy instead of regular paper towels. these can be washed and reused 40 bazillion times, rather than having to buy paper towels constantly. we do end up purchasing paper towels, too, but we rarely use them. i meet my mom at costco every now and then for things we can buy in bulk, like toilet paper and coffee and other random things. we do buy freezer bags, because i buy meat in the larger quantities, then split it up and freeze it. but as for regular ziploc bags, we don't use them. we also bought reusable sandwich bags on etsy, and wash them as needed. as for cleaning supplies: i plan to begin making my own as i run out of those in my couponing stockpile. that goes for laundry detergent too. we do not use dryer sheets. we only use our dryer for sheets and towels anyway - and that's only until sweetheart puts me up a clothesline - but we have wool dryer balls (guess where they're from - etsy) that cut down on dryer time (also saving on energy costs!). so i think that addresses everything grocery-wise.
right now our budget for eating out is $20/month. that is so super duper low. and no, it's not always fun. but cooking at home is so much cheaper and healthier! that basically allows for a meal out every month, or maybe two fast food meals every month. eating out technically falls into our "everything else" section of budget categories (see "our freaking budget", a finance blog i previously suggested), so we do allow ourselves a little extra some months. but for the most part we rarely eat meals out. there is a little bit of genius that goes into our plan: whenever any parent or grandparent offers to eat a meal out together, take it! they feel bad because they think we're way poor (when really we are only slightly poor, but way cheap). don't tell them our plan ;)
and that's it for food. you now know how much we budget for it, and how we save. as always, any questions are welcome!
"food" encompasses groceries and eating out. eating out is not a necessity, but i will include it in this post anyway.
we spend about $190/month on groceries, which for us includes household products such as toilet paper, etc., and personal products, such as toothpaste, etc. jake eats the same as two adults. so this really is a pretty low number (i am not trying to be prideful here; it began out of necessity, but now it's fun to see what we can get on that amount!). how do we do it? i only grocery shop every other week. that is the only time i enter a grocery store. we recently got a chest freezer so this next month will be my first attempt at once-a-month shopping. the less times you enter the store, the less you are exposed to temptations at the check out, or even walking the aisles. so the whole going to the store every day to get stuff for supper? definitely not the way to save money (yes, this does take planning. but trust me--you end up saving tons of time in the long run, too). i go in with a list, and only get what's on the list. i keep a tally of what i'm spending along the way (i know some can do it mentally, but i literally make a tally mark on my list -- this is vital, in my opinion!), so if i find i'm way under budget, i may pick up a few extras for fun. i try to not spend the entire amount every time, in case something comes up and we do have to run to the store between shopping trips -- but those times are few and far between. whenever i have it on my list to pick up dry goods, i get more than i need. that way i have a mini-stockpile in case something were to prevent me from keeping to my shopping schedule. we store the extras in our basement (regardless of where you live, you likely have room for a stockpile of your own...although it may require some decluttering, and that is a subject for a whole other post!). this way, we never fully run out of food. we pull from the stockpile to fill our pantry. so when we are out of something in the stockpile, that's when we put it on the list; not when we are completely out of it altogether. i coupon a little bit for some of our household and personal supplies. you can see some of my previous posts (sorry, i don't know how to link them :/) for more info on that. we use un-paper towels that i bought on etsy instead of regular paper towels. these can be washed and reused 40 bazillion times, rather than having to buy paper towels constantly. we do end up purchasing paper towels, too, but we rarely use them. i meet my mom at costco every now and then for things we can buy in bulk, like toilet paper and coffee and other random things. we do buy freezer bags, because i buy meat in the larger quantities, then split it up and freeze it. but as for regular ziploc bags, we don't use them. we also bought reusable sandwich bags on etsy, and wash them as needed. as for cleaning supplies: i plan to begin making my own as i run out of those in my couponing stockpile. that goes for laundry detergent too. we do not use dryer sheets. we only use our dryer for sheets and towels anyway - and that's only until sweetheart puts me up a clothesline - but we have wool dryer balls (guess where they're from - etsy) that cut down on dryer time (also saving on energy costs!). so i think that addresses everything grocery-wise.
right now our budget for eating out is $20/month. that is so super duper low. and no, it's not always fun. but cooking at home is so much cheaper and healthier! that basically allows for a meal out every month, or maybe two fast food meals every month. eating out technically falls into our "everything else" section of budget categories (see "our freaking budget", a finance blog i previously suggested), so we do allow ourselves a little extra some months. but for the most part we rarely eat meals out. there is a little bit of genius that goes into our plan: whenever any parent or grandparent offers to eat a meal out together, take it! they feel bad because they think we're way poor (when really we are only slightly poor, but way cheap). don't tell them our plan ;)
and that's it for food. you now know how much we budget for it, and how we save. as always, any questions are welcome!
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