Trying to spend/cook wisely

[Caitlin]

Now that we're moving and will be losing my part-time income (which basically paid for groceries/Target runs), we really need to make some changes with our food budget.

Do you have any tips for budgeting or planning meals? I know I'm a good cook and pretty creative in the kitchen, but I feel like I could do more to stretch my dollar and ingredients.


How do you ladies shop? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Every 2 days like me? :hehe:

I think I might add a recipe/cooking section on my blog to hold myself accountable for cooking. Food budget is something we rarely pay attention to now, and I'm scared that we will be screwed when we move.

[Mama Sandy]

For me planning meals keeps me tied down to a menu and keeps me from spending more than I need to. I am religious about clipping coupons and shopping sales. I make my list before heading to the store, I paper clip my coupons I want to use to the list and I stick to ONLY buying things on sale/with coupons. If there is an item we need and it's not on sale I scour the internet for a coupon or sale. Our grocery stores also double coupons up to $.55 so that is very helpful. I try to keep my shopping trips as spread out as possible. There are some great sites online that help you plan meals/offer recipes by ingredient so you can search your pantry and find a recipe with things you already have on hand. My last shopping trip was $188 (for a family of 7) and that was two overflowing shopping carts and $126 worth of savings. I could probably save more if I bought more generic items but find that with coupons/sales/coupons being doubled I can get brand names that we prefer for as cheap if not cheaper. It's all about the planning though. My shopping trips probably take double what they did when I used to just walk in a buy what I wanted/needed without checking prices but it's definitely worth it!

[lilbunnygirl]

We've been recently working on cutting our grocery budget too. Here's an article that gave me some good ideas to get started with: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/990104a.cfm

[Ashley]

Meal planning is an excellent way to stay frugal. If you can meal plan, you are buying the things you need with few exceptions. I know some who try to do it once a month, but even if you do it once a week or once every two weeks, it will cut down a ton of trips to the store, and therefore extra spending.

We do a light version of meal planning but end up at the store all the time anyway. We don't tend to actually follow the meal planning :hehe:

[MylissaJane]

I try to make a meal plan for the month.... We deviate from that sometimes, but tend to do a good job sticking to it. I buy only the things I need to go with my meal plan and a few things here and there for lunches and what not... Guess I should add that my meal plan only covers dinners. I do lunch meats, mac and cheese and things like that for lunches. We shop once a month and while we might spend $300, we get more than enough to last us the month. I'm a big coupon clipper too! And I love Costco... I buy in bulk and that seems to help last the month or longer, as well! Good luck!:support:

[Meshell]

I think meal planning is a great way to start. If you want to buy with a lot of coupons check out www.couponmom.com. They have grocery lists for your local grocery store and it will tell you what sales they have and how much percentage wise you are saving. I have heard www.e-mealz.com is a good helper too. They give you a meal plan each week based on the store sales.

[Elaine]

Damn you all and your coupons! :hehe: I'm lucky if we can use one coupon a shopping trip! There are just not a big thing here at all and it pisses me off.

Anyway, start with planning a week at a time and move up from there. That's what we're doing. Kinda. :hehe: I've done the 2 week menu plan a few times but it takes quite a while to get things sorted and organized. The first time I did it it took me an entire afternoon. :blush:

[Mama Sandy]

Initially it does take time Elaine. But once you have a system that works for you (usually through trial and error) then things go much smoother. It has become an almost unhealthy obsession with me now :hehe: I print coupons online (luckily my local stores ALL take internet coupons with no problems) and have multiple people that "donate" their Sunday inserts to me :)) I also purchase my own Sunday paper or two depending on the coupons available that week. I keep them organized by categories in an accordian file and I also file the sale flyers with the coupons under certain stores for a few things (like Walgreens, CVS, Target, Kroger, etc.) so that they are easier to locate if I regularly purchase that item at that certain store. I don't think anyone would be able to locate anything by my "system" but to me it makes perfect sense.

As for the meal planning, we are pretty versatile. I have a few "go to" recipes for the days I don't really feel like cooking. We always keep ingredients in the house for things like chili, hashbrown casserole, tater tot casserole, fajitas (usually steak because we by whole loins wholesale and cut them ourselves), beef stew, etc. That way we always have the option of having the ingredients to make something we all enjoy and is easy to prepare...two birds with one stone.