[Suprise]

Okay so in order to pick up speed to save money for my Baby Emergency fund I am going to try spending only 50$ on groceries per week in october.

Things I have in my pantry and freezer:

Pantry
6 cups red lentil
4 cups brown rice
20 cups white rice
4 bags spaghetti pasta
1 box whole wheat pasta
2 cups barley
Cornmeal
Flour sugar
5 cans beans
25 cans tomatoes
... but those are the things I will concentrate on.

Freezer
2 large pyrex bowls of marinated chicken
1 pack of family size chicken
1 large bowl frozen banana (banana loaf yum)
2 large freezer bags of apples
2 pie crust
5 bags of pita bread
2 bags of tortilla bread
3 bags of bread

Lunch today:
Pita pizza

Dinner
Chicken Baked potaoes and peas

Anyone wanna join is welcome.

 

[Rosebudget1]

Having company starting next week for 14 days or I would join you!

 

[Suprise]

Rosebudget maybe next time or you could always join for the rest of the month.

Just finished peeling 10 pounds of carrots I got for 2$. I blanched enough to make 3 md size freezer bags and now I'm cooking the rest to make meals with this week.

Also cooking almost 10 pounds of beets I also got for 2$. Freezing some and keeping some to make a beet salad for tomorow.

I wanna get some more beets on Tuesday to pickle and add them to christmas baskets.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I really should, now that DH has given up the juicing thing. I already have my October menu plan made and I have all the major ingredients in the freezer or pantry.

So, let's see if I can keep it under $30 a week for the next 3 weeks. That's for lactose milk (which costs me $5), fresh vegs, bread and fruit and a few special ingredients.

 

[TheRootedNomad]

I'll be following this thread although there is no way my family of 4 could do this for $50 a week.....they'd mutiny and I'd be hung out to dry.

$2 for 10 lbs. of carrots and another $2 for 10 lbs. of beets are awesome deals. I don't have a clue what I'd do with the beets though. I've only ever eaten pickled beets and they are something I wouldn't choose to buy. My mother on the other hand thinks there great and carrots are a staple in our house.

 

[Sophiasmama]

Go you!!! Awesome deals on carrots and beets for sure. I will be cheering you on.

 

[alaska_tiger_36]

I will join you! I will shoot for $30/week. I buy Bountiful baskets most weeks for $16.50 and for 2 of us that is almost more fruits and vegetables than we can eat in a week. Plus I am still getting tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, cabbage, cauliflower, red beets and wax beans from my garden. So the other $13.50 will be spent on milk, meat, eggs and such. I just bought a bread maker yesterday at a garages sale for $16. If it works I will be making my own bread again since I won't need to worry about heating the house up - yea!

If I buy food specifically for stocking up should I count it? Like tomorrow I'm going to buy a bunch of roma tomatoes at walmart at $0.40/lb. I will be making homemade tomato soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili....or just can them as tomatoes or tomato juice....not sure yet. THey might just end up in the freezer until I get a free weekend to deal with them.

Dinner tonight:
Discount steaks I bought yesterday, baked potatoes, green beans, (garden) and watermelon (bountiful basket). Thinking about making a salad too...romaine lettuce and collard greens from the bountiful basket, red beet greens (garden), carrots (garden), green pepper (garden), cherry tomatoes (garden), turnips (garden), cilantro...and anything else I can find in the fridge.

 

[Suprise]

I'll be following this thread although there is no way my family of 4 could do this for $50 a week.....they'd mutiny and I'd be hung out to dry.

$2 for 10 lbs. of carrots and another $2 for 10 lbs. of beets are awesome deals. I don't have a clue what I'd do with the beets though. I've only ever eaten pickled beets and they are something I wouldn't choose to buy. My mother on the other hand thinks there great and carrots are a staple in our house.

I've been roasting my beets with other veggies to top my rice. I love the way they taste roasted.

 

[Suprise]

Contrary housewife happy to have some company in this challenge.

Alask_tigre it's really your choice if you want to count the stockpilling in your 30$ although that would probably be very tight. I am planning on stocking up on baking supplies during the thanksgiving sales and will include that in my 50$.


Today for lunch is Pita pizza and for dinner Lentil Barley soup with hot buttery biscuits. Yum!

 

[alaska_tiger_36]

Today I ordered:
Bountiful Basket - $16.50
$13.50 remaining.

Lunch was leftovers & dinner was a can of chili with a little cheese and crackers.

 

[pcaltman]

Hi all,

I might try this. Don't think I can do the $50 we have 6 people to feed, but might try $80 and see what I come up with.

Today I will need to buy yeast for pizzas and breads. trying to think of some really cheap snacks for the kids when they get home from school. Today maybe homemade bread of some sort.

 

[MakeADollarHollar]

I'm in but $50 is not doable for us. For the past several weeks I've been trying to stick to $65. It hasn't been easy and last week I went over by $10 because we needed a few big ticket items so this week I'm cutting it back to $55 to make up the difference. Our menu this week is lean and mean, mostly freezer/pantry items. I'll shop either tomorrow or Friday and the list is:

Big Box Store
Coffee - $8.00
Milk - $3.00
Swiss Cheese - $7.00
English Cukes - $3.00
2 cases water - $9.00

Aldi
Sour Cream - $1.20
Frozen Burrito's (DH's lunch request) - I don't have them on my price sheet but am thinking in the $4.00 range
Frozen Pizza - $6.00
Lettuce - $1.00
Misc. Fruits/Veggies - $7.00 +/-

That's right at $49.00 so I have $6 to play with. I have an ongoing pantry stockpile list and will see what I can find that fits the budget and report back.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I also love to roast beets. I slice them and serve them cold with blue cheese, walnuts and a simple oil/vinegar/mustard dressing.

So far I am at $18, and I haven't even done the shopping for next week. I've had to buy milk, tea, yogurt for DH's lunches, and bread and cheese for sandwiches one night because my menu plan got messed up.

Fortunately there are no good sales on this week and I won't be tempted to go over.

 

[TheRootedNomad]

I think you all are doing great. I'm continuing to follow along for ideas and inspiration. While reading though I had a thought about what my most frugal grocery purchase has been lately, not freebie type deal but regular purchase and thought I'd offer it up.

Pumpkin: pumpkin is a "right now" frugal food to consider in a lot of areas. I'm not talking the little pie pumpkins, or the canned, or the over priced pick your own. Many of the groceries (or people out of there yard) are selling LARGE pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns. Twice in the last couple of weeks I've picked one up for $3.99 and cooked it down, freezing a big portion of it after it was cooked down. For that price when I cut it in half to cook it down it was way to big for the half to fit on a cookie sheet and I had to simply line my oven rack and cook a half at a time. Yes it takes a while in the oven but it doesn't take much work at all and then can be used in multiple ways.

The easiest use is once it's baked down to use it like mashed sweet potatoes. My oldest son LOVES it like that and it is a nice filling veggie side.

 

[Suprise]

Forgot to add my expense on Tuesday so here they are:

Beets 1 bag 1.00
Sugar 2 bags 5.00
Red Onions 1 bag 3.00

Total of 9.00$

 

[janal14]

Everyone here is doing great! I'm not limiting myself to a particular dollar amount right now, but am trying to spend as little as possible on food this month to save extra cash for CC payments and savings. I'm not actually sure what a normal grocery month is for us right now - I was out of state from June-mid August and then at my Mom's house for two months in September, so we haven't had a normal month in a while. I'm trying to mostly cook from the pantry and freezer right now. I am buying produce and dairy (though I have a good stock of most dairy) at the store for now. Also doing some limited stocking up on things like meat when there is a good sale - last week I bought a couple of chickens and a couple of roasts.

So I'll follow along and post my progress - but rather than setting a dollar amount, I'm going with just trying to spend as little as possible. Right now I'm at $31.88 for the week, which includes a HUGE turkey breast that went in the freezer, two tubs of sour cream, four tubs cottage cheese, some tomato sauce and a few other things. Will be stocking up on frozen veggies either this week or early next week - I've been waiting for a sale on these.

 

[MakeADollarHollar]

I'm in but $50 is not doable for us. For the past several weeks I've been trying to stick to $65. It hasn't been easy and last week I went over by $10 because we needed a few big ticket items so this week I'm cutting it back to $55 to make up the difference. Our menu this week is lean and mean, mostly freezer/pantry items. I'll shop either tomorrow or Friday and the list is:

Big Box Store
Coffee - $8.00 - 7.99
Milk - $3.00 - 2.99
Swiss Mozzarella Cheese - $7.00 - 8.39
English Cukes - $3.00 - 1.99
2 cases water - $9.00 - 8.98
2 Pack French's Mustard - 4.99

Aldi
Sour Cream - $1.20 - 1.29
Frozen Burrito's (DH's lunch request) - I don't have them on my price sheet but am thinking in the $4.00 range - 2.69
Frozen Pizza - $6.00 - 5.99
Lettuce - $1.00 - 1.29
Misc. Fruits/Veggies - $7.00 +/- -- 8.46 <-----which includes a perfect pumpkin...I took Rooted Nomad's advice and grabbed one. I'm not sure if DH likes cooked pumpkin or not. If he's never had it, we'll give it a try. If he knows for sure he doesn't then we'll have an awesome Jack-O-Lantern on Halloween!:thumb:

That's right at $49.00 so I have $6 to play with. I have an ongoing pantry stockpile list and will see what I can find that fits the budget and report back.

I DID IT!! Grand total today was $55.06!!

 

[Suprise]

Ok so just got back from grocry shopping and here are my numbers. I did go a lil over this week, probably because it's thanksgivings weekend here in Canada.

Food Basic 22.86$
Kinder suprise (just can't say no everytime the kiddo asks for something)
Broccoli x3
Eggs
Milk
juice x5
coffee cream x2

Walmart 28.84$
Cauliflower x 2
Broccoli x2
celery
Green onions x2
Maple extract
Cream cheese x2
Kitkat
Coffee
carrots
Bacon

Total of the week: 60.70$ still pretty good!

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Major fail this week, $52 total.

On top of the $18 earlier, I spent $34 today and got

2 spaghetti
cereal
distilled water (iron)
burger buns
lettuce
4 apples
2 tomatoes
broccoli
zuchinni
yogurt
crackers
dish soap
scrubbies
napkins

 

[janal14]

I wouldn't call $52 a major fail, even if you were aiming for $30 - imagine what people who don't actually think about what they are doing and buying spend at the grocery - even if you went over budget, you're still being mindful.

Plus, this week is almost over - I imagine some of the things that you got today will be used next week, so maybe you can even be a bit under budget then.