2 days left until my $20 a week grocery

**Shellshome** · 09-29-2006, 09:39 AM

spend. Ok I might need some support here because it will be hard to pass up a deal. Now dh and I agreed that if it is almost free (under $1) we will get it if it is something we don't have in stock (we have a hugh stock pile and we need to eat some of it before we buy anymore my cabinets and pantry are over stuffed).

We came to this agreement when we went to the store and had no room in the freezer for anything house in the house or in the big one on the back porch.

There are our goals that we want to do with the money that we have since we won't use it for groceries
~~Pay off some bills
~~Pay $200 on Homedepot credit card (dryer)
~~Get paint for hallway and trim paint
~~Work a little on christmas shopping (almost done with the niece and nephew) YEAH!!

We plan to only buy
~~need items
~~Milk
~~Oj
~~Eggs
~~Cat liter (I plan to get a few more jugs today but just in case we run out nad have to get more)
~~Pepsi (if they have 24 pks for a really really really good deal)
~~Chips (I don't stock pile these I am afraid we won't eat them fast enough before they go bad)
~~Shredded cheese (if krogers has it 10/$10 because we use a lot of this and we are running low on it)

I can't really think of anything else that we don't already have in stock. I think we can do this I really want to use up some of the items we have thou I do think we could go for more then 1 month with out going to the store but I don't want my stock to get to to low.

So I may need your support in this and I hope we can do it.

Have any of you gone a whole month with out shopping except for your need items? How hard was it to pass up a deal? Dh and I did agree that it had to be free or nearly free (under $1) to be able to get it but I want to try to stay away from that also.

So wish me luck and I hope we can do it. It would be great because we could pay down a lot of debt with this extra money. We spend on a average a month (4 months now so I could get a stock pile up and running) $400 so I mean that would be $300 extra this month alone to pay something off or down so that is great!!

Wish us luck!!

**i.m.cheap** · 09-29-2006, 11:01 AM

I need to do this too! Count me in, we can support each other. The deals were so good this month, I can't squeeze another thing into my pantry, and the freezer is nearly full. I will try to buy just milk, bread, produce and "need" items in October. Like you, I have a hard time passing up the "free" deals. I sure don't need any more cereal, toothpaste, or waffles.

**peanut** · 09-29-2006, 11:32 AM

No way can I do a week on $20cdn. for groceries! But I'm going to definitely grocery exile this month. We're heading on vacation and I want to use extra grocery money for eating out. I think I could do a week of groceries for $40. We'll see...I need to buy milk powder to make yogurt and that's $24 right there!

If possible, it would be nice to have grocery money leftover to pay back the clothing envelope. I've been borrowing from there the entire harvest season to stockpile food here. Getting decent produce is expensive here.

**PAVallygrl** · 09-29-2006, 11:55 AM

Shells,

I've found a wonderful cat litter called "Feline Pine" Wal-Mart sells it. It's about $2.48 or so but this small bag lasts me approx 5 or 6 weeks! (we have 1

) And there is none of that NASTY cat litter smell....It is basically pine/cedar pellets and they break down to form sawdust....just an inch or two in the pan is all that is needed. Our Kitty LOVES it.....and my nose adores it.

**littlemotherhaywood** · 09-29-2006, 11:57 AM

I'm probably not going to go that low, but we want to limit the food budget as much as possible next month to conserve. We have a pretty good stockpile of stuff that can be made fairly easily. I also don't want to deplete the stockpile though either. I need to sit down and really look at the things to see what we have and what we could make with it. If I can plan a monthly menu, I'll have a better idea of how much we could save. Our biggest expense is probably milk and yogurt. Dh and dd take yogurt in their lunch every day and we go through about four gallons of milk a week. Between those two, that's $20 right there. I'm going to hit Aldi's though for the yogurt so that should cut it down by about three dollars or so. Good luck

**Shellshome** · 09-29-2006, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by littlemotherhaywood

I'm probably not going to go that low, but we want to limit the food budget as much as possible next month to conserve. We have a pretty good stockpile of stuff that can be made fairly easily. I also don't want to deplete the stockpile though either. I need to sit down and really look at the things to see what we have and what we could make with it. If I can plan a monthly menu, I'll have a better idea of how much we could save. Our biggest expense is probably milk and yogurt. Dh and dd take yogurt in their lunch every day and we go through about four gallons of milk a week. Between those two, that's $20 right there. I'm going to hit Aldi's though for the yogurt so that should cut it down by about three dollars or so. Good luck

We won't deplete ours or even close to that for the month but I want to eat some of it because my poor pantry and cabinets can't take anymore food in them.

Good luck everyone in making your goals I know I can do it we just have to put our minds to it and keep with it. I usually get 2 or 3 papers on Sunday to get all the coupons but this coming month I will only get the one deliveried to our door. That is it that way I don't have tons of coupons abot to expire when I start back up in mid novemeber. Plan to work slow in the first 2 weeks of the month of November also. But we have tons of stuff and so do the cats and dog so we are doing great there just need the basics and that is our goal.

So lets all

and cheer each other on we can DO IT!!

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 09-29-2006, 02:38 PM

Littlemotherhaywood - I just wanted to say that in tough times like you are going through right now, it is ok to limit some things. Yes yogurt and milk are very good for you, but they are also expensive. It is ok to limit the yogurt to maybe every other day and the milk to 2 gallons a week instead of 3-4. This would save you a lot of money. Unless of course you are getting WIC or something where the dairy is free. Speaking of that, BTW, if you aren't already signed up for that, you should really look into it. It is for kids 5 and under I believe. And you should be able to get things like cheese, milk, cereal, carrots, tuna, ect with it. This would free up some grocery money to pay other bills. Good luck!

Jennifer

**Lyn5** · 09-29-2006, 04:31 PM

May I join in?

I did really well this month on my grocery challenge (even though I went a little over) and I have a decent stockpile

Since hurricane season is ending in a month or so, DH and I decided to try to lower our grocery budget this month and eat some of the stockpile. Then, in November I will look through what is left and organize our stuff by their experiation dates....We live in a high cost-of-living area, so I am going to try for $50 a week or $200 for the month

This will be a challenge for me too...this month was the first time I ever spent less than $500 for our food bill....I am really looking forward to reading this thread and seeing how everyone is doing....very inspiring

**littlemotherhaywood** · 09-29-2006, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by my4littlebuffaloes

Littlemotherhaywood - I just wanted to say that in tough times like you are going through right now, it is ok to limit some things. Yes yogurt and milk are very good for you, but they are also expensive. It is ok to limit the yogurt to maybe every other day and the milk to 2 gallons a week instead of 3-4. This would save you a lot of money. Unless of course you are getting WIC or something where the dairy is free. Speaking of that, BTW, if you aren't already signed up for that, you should really look into it. It is for kids 5 and under I believe. And you should be able to get things like cheese, milk, cereal, carrots, tuna, ect with it. This would free up some grocery money to pay other bills. Good luck!

Jennifer

Thanks Jennifer,

We're just over the guidelines for WIC here. Dh accepted the ten month pay plan since we needed the money upfront (of course in hindsight, this was a bad idea for several reasons) and it put us over the guidelines for any type of assistance even though our yearly income is under for some things.

**peanut** · 09-29-2006, 05:05 PM

littlemotherhaywood:

That is a lot of milk! For how many people? Please check with your doctor that it is okay. My dd#2 used to go through a couple gallons a week easy. Plus cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, etc. The doctor said that was way too much dairy and to cut her back to no more than 3 glasses of milk a day and keep to the Canada dietary guidelines for dairy products. Apparently you can get sick from too much dairy.

Not to scare you, but maybe it would pay to check it out.

**bumplett** · 09-29-2006, 05:14 PM

I have been diluting my milk -- I buy one gallon of whole milk & dilute w/ water -- 1/2 & 1/2 -- so it tastes like 2%

2 gal for the price of 1

the boys don't seem to mind!

**littlemotherhaywood** · 09-29-2006, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by peanut

littlemotherhaywood:

That is a lot of milk! For how many people? Please check with your doctor that it is okay. My dd#2 used to go through a couple gallons a week easy. Plus cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, etc. The doctor said that was way too much dairy and to cut her back to no more than 3 glasses of milk a day and keep to the Canada dietary guidelines for dairy products. Apparently you can get sick from too much dairy.

Not to scare you, but maybe it would pay to check it out.

I've talked to my doctor several times and he said not to be too concerned. I really have no idea where the milk goes. I only use it in cereal or tea. My dh is a big milk drinker as well. Only my dh and my dd eat yogurt everyday. If we all got one serving of dairy from something outside of milk, that would leave four servings times seven so twenty eight. Each gallon is eight servings right? I'm just trying to do the math here to see exactly how much more seems to be going out here. So we have thirty two servings with four gallons. So, in a perfect world, we're only getting potentially four more servings, or one per person per week. That's if you don't factor in all of the other ways to get calcium. It's interesting to break it down like that. I know my ds and dh are the bulk drinkers. Milk is the only thing my ds will drink these days. The doctor said it's just a phase. My dh on the other hand, clearly more than a phase. I'm going to look into this a little more. I don't want my family getting sick. Thanks for the heads up.

**peanut** · 09-29-2006, 10:23 PM

Just got back from my grocery trip till the 11th. I picked up more than one week's groceries because we're heading off on the 11th and I really don't want to do another trip to the big store, which is a long ways away from us. If I need anything else, I'll pick it up at the local grocery store.

$11.13 picnic ham (for Thanksgiving)
$10.22 pork chops (enough for 4 meals)
$3.98 1 lb. Monterey Jack cheese
$1.98 5 lb. carrots
$1.68 1 lb. cranberries (to make cranberry jelly for Christmas...we don't see these often and have to pick them up when they're in)
$1.78 1 lb. shortening
$.68 just over 1 lb. bananas
FREE 2 litres 2% milk (a coupon)

That's a total of $31.45 for the next 13 days...not bad! Will have to buy some more fruit and potatoes before the 11th probably. Also milk and eggs. But those will be under $20. So I think I'm actually going to do okay here!

I had just enough milk powder to make another 3 qts. of yogurt today. That will keep us in yogurt until we leave.

I decided to make laundry detergent today and bought enough to make $30 worth of storebought detergent...for $6.50.

**i.m.cheap** · 09-30-2006, 02:00 AM

I think I might make mine a slightly more realistic $30 a week, rather than the $20 I pledged to above. My DH drinks alot of milk also. We buy three gallons of milk a week, and 4-5 gallons of bottled water (refilling our own gallon jugs for 39¢ each). We use two 12 oz. cans of orange juice concentrate a week, at $1.00 each, so for milk, water, and juice only, our weekly total is about $13. We don't buy any other drinks as a rule, except for coffee, and I still have more than a month's supply of that.

**Shellshome** · 09-30-2006, 03:13 PM

Well I have checked and rechecked so I am ready for my October small grocery budget. I figured this week coming I would need milk, oj, potatoes and hawaiin punch (we drink that instead of pop a lot of times) and I think that is really it so yeah team!! I will look over the ads on line and see if I see anything that I need to get for my stockpile if I have extra money left out of my 20-$30 (we decided to up it to between these 2 amounts it is a little more realistic).

So hope everyone else is doing good with this. I plan to really stick with it and hope to be able to do it with no problems.