Allocating our Grocery budget... help!

[steve-in-kville]

We are a family of ten. Our food bill is getting out of control. Good news is, we have two salvage grocery stores in our area and a wal-mart.

I am trying to get our food budget under the $350/month mark. Meat seems to be the biggest expense. We raise rabbits, so this helps. I have been trading dressed rabbit meat for deer meat, pound for pound. We have a small flock of chickens that will start laying eggs soon. We also garden on a small scale because of space limitations. When we move to a permanant homestead, we hope to expand big time.

I also work for a large bulk food warehouse, so I get price breaks on goods plus half-off damaged stuff. This helps some, but I can never count on this when budgeting. We can get a generic cereal at a great price, plus chips and other snacks.

I asked my wife about different catagories of weekly consumption like milk, bread, canned goods, veggies, meat, etc. I can make it all work out to $350/month, but we will be boring ourselves with the same foods and lack of meat/protien. Since both salvage food stores are on my way home from work, I can afford to stop three times a week and stock up.

I've done a lot with a crockpot and pork-n-beans, as well as canned veggies and a little bit of meat (smoked hocks, bacon, rabbit, chicken thighs). But it takes planning.

Hoping someone has found themselves in this situation and can help and/or offer some good suggestions to slim the food bill down.

Many thanks in advance!!

[AspiringToBeFrugal]

DH and I are just expecting our first baby, but I know there are ways to stretch the food budget. Beans and rice go a long way and the bean will provide the protein you need for your diet. Would you be able to trade some of the dressed rabbit meat for fruits/veggies or eggs from a local farmer? Or could you grow a garden yourself? I know it's getting kind of late in the summer to be starting a garden but this could definitly help on food costs.

Oatmeal is also able to be stretched quite a ways. I would also suggest checking out The Tightwad Gazette books by Amy Dacyczyn. While they are several years old, these books have EXCELLENT ideas for stretching a budget.

Do you or your wife bake bread? This could be a huge cost savings to you over buying it from the grocery or bakery. And you can make several loaves at one time!

Don't throw away ANY leftovers before thinking about what they could be used for. I've read several posts on this website about people who put leftover meat, veggies, etc. in a dish in their freezer. Then, when the dish is full, they make it into a stew in the crockpot! The Tightwad Gazette also has a recipe for using up the remains of apples--you can make applesauce.

I hope these ideas helped at least a little. Good luck!

[Jamauk]

I have found the best way to cut costs on meat is to look for the sales and just stock up when you can.

For instance, a few months ago Costco had a coupon for their fryer chickens B1G1 (limit of 4). So, I got four....at .49/lb. Super cheap. They haven't run the sale since, but our Albertsons just had baby boilers for sale at .69/lb. I got three of those.

Each November we stock up on Turkey. Our local Safeway usually runs a deal that you get Turkey for around .13/lb when you spend $25. So, I buy a $25 gift certificate and get my turkey (I think they averaged out to about $4 each). I went back the next day and got a new gift certificate and a Turkey. I used yesterday's gift cert. to pay for it and just spent the $4 on the turkey. We did this four times and spent the last gift cert on some groceries that we needed.

Look for ham deals around Christmas and Easter. Look for boneless chicken breast deals around summer holiday weekends (Memorial Day/4th of July/Labor Day) ~ same goes for grilling steaks and hot dogs.

About once a month our local Albertson's will have some kind of meat as their loss leader. If its something we'll eat I stock up.

Another idea ~ if you have a lump sum that you can spare is to find a rancher and buy a 1/2 side of beef or pork. It usually comes out to way cheaper than you can find the various cuts for at the store.

Of course, all of these ideas would require a freezer. Good Luck!

[shoiji]

Also try to expand you herbs and spices. With chicken, onions, celery, and carrots I can make a stew, pot pie, soup, roasted chicken and vegetables, chicken curry, or pad thai chicken just by changing the herbs and spices. Doing this really helps to add variety with basically the same ingredients. I also eat beans and rice once or twice a week. This really cuts down on how much meat I buy. Also remember that one person only needs a small amount of meat a day. When I do buy meat I always look for manager's specials first. Good luck I hope you are able to get some more ideas. A family of 10 seems like an awful lot of people to feed on 350 a month.

[frugalfoster]

If you break that down it comes to about $12 a day, divided by 10 people equals $1.20 per person per day. WOW is that even possible? I am very frugal and I don't think I could make that budget. Good for you! I use the bent and dent stores to bring my budget down and I watch for loss leaders at the store. I love how Jamauk buys her turkeys, though, I'm going to remember that one this fall!!!

[Natalie]

Every try vegetarian sources of protein? You could check vegetarian sites for what they do.

[Jamauk]

I've done a lot with a crockpot and pork-n-beans, as well as canned veggies and a little bit of meat (smoked hocks, bacon, rabbit, chicken thighs). But it takes planning.

I also wanted to note that keeping your grocery budget this tight will always take planning. Rather than planning my meals a week in advance, at the beginning of each week I just sort of make a mental note of what I have around the house (this will only work after you have a sufficient stockpile). Then each night before I go to bed I decide what is for dinner the next night. I take anything out of the freezer that needs to thaw.

This way, if plans change and we end up going out or go to my In laws or whatever ~ I can just prepare that dinner the following night. Our plans seem to change fairly often and when I was planning a week at a time and getting a full week's worth of meat out of the freezer I always ended up with meat at the end of the week that we didnt' eat, but that HAD to get cooked. This way, I'm only thawing meat for one meal at a time.

[Natalie]

When you get your meat in pounds from the store... at home, divide them up in 1/4 pound sections, each in patties.

1. You have ready made hamburger patties
2. You can combine patties when you want larger amounts
3. They store in a smaller space in the freezer (not to mention, more convenient)

[steve-in-kville]

Thanks for the great replies. Keep 'em coming!! I will print this out and show it to wife. We both like our meat in our meals, but we can both live with substitutes. Whatever it takes to get our proper protein ration.

Keep the replies and suggestions coming!!!

[Grayce]

Definitely start eating beans. Dried beans are a great sources of protein. There are tons of recipes that use beans beyond pork and beans. Look at buying frozen veges as they are cheaper than canned and much less sodium. $350 seems like a really tight budget for a family of 10. Just make sure you are eating healthy. Filling up on cheap carbs like white rice, bread and pasta can affect your health in a negative way. What you save on groceries groceries will be spent on increased health costs.

[Terri]

The several really large families I know don't buy cold cereal at all. They eat a hot breakfast daily which saves money and is probably more nutritional than most cold cereals.

Also, not buying any chips, cookies, crackers or even bread. Everything by scratch-homemade.

No wasting anything. If a banana or an apple is about to go bad you make it into something. If the kids don't like dinner its gets re-invented for lunch.

Shop first thing in the morning or last thing at night to find the mark downs.

I would use $50 for stock up each month. If something is on great sale buy more of it.

Good Luck.

[lukesmama]

You can also do a lot with baked potatoes as an entree - have a potato bar one night a week, letting everyone choose from an assortment of whatever toppings you have on hand. I like to make cheese sauce for ours, and then the leftover sauce gets made into mac & cheese the next day. This is also a good way to use up leftover cooked veggies like broccoli.

Once your chickens start laying eggs, omelets would be a great inexpensive dinner. Toss in any limp or seen-better-days veggies and a sprinkle of sharp cheddar (it's stronger than mild, so you don't need to use as much).

[dcompton]

I second the suggestion of using more beans. They are inexpensive and very nutritious. I don't know if you have freezer space, but if you do, you can pre-soak several kinds (for variety) and freeze them once they are soaked. They will cook faster - a trick I learned from a vegetarian cookbook. That way you don't have to plan quite so far ahead to use them. Or cook them in bulk and freeze them already cooked. Don't forget a few can be tossed into a soup pot to beef up the protein there.

Use bulk popcorn for some of your snacks. Much cheaper than store bought snacks, and so good!

[Wendy99]

Use bulk popcorn for some of your snacks. Much cheaper than store bought snacks, and so good!

I was going to suggest this as well - you can put powdered cheddar cheese on it, or make caramel popcorn for a treat- so many different things you can add to flavor it aside from butter.

[JessieMom]

These are some of the things we do to keep our grocery budget in check. I'm not as vigilant about it as I used to be before I started working full time but I try.
-We like to do breakfast for dinner once a week, which can be a good inexpensive alternative. My middle son loves to make pancakes so we'll do those or if we have left over baked potatoes we'll do eggs, hashbrowns and meat. My kids also love eggs, ham & cheese on bagel. All quick & easy and since we aren't huge breakfast eaters first thing in the am they like this at dinnertime.
-We also like doing a baked potato bar, we usually do that a couple times a month. Each kid likes to do something different, it's fun & quick
-During cooler months we do soup about once a week using whatever we have left over. The kids love the potato soup I make using left over mashed potatoes & velveeta cheese. I have also made corn chowder using left over ham & left over baked potatoes, and of course the old standby of chicken/turkey soup.
-We eat alot of oatmeal for breakfasts in the cooler months, inexpensive & quick.
-During the summer months we like stirfry's with whatever vegetables are cheap & usually chicken but you could put in something else.
Feeding my family of 5 is crazy sometimes, I don't think I could do a family of 10, lol