Piggybacking on the recent budgeting ideas and questions - here is an article I found on MSN earlier today. Most of it is common sense, but it definitely can be done without going through any extra work (multiple stores, clipping coupons, etc.)

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...ek.aspx?page=1

That was an interesting article, I bookmarked it since I have to stick to a stringent budget; but I wonder, where the **** is that lady finding .99 cent a pound produce?? Even our sales here are more like 2.99 a pound and up. And the local Piggly Wiggly buys their produce local! I wish I lived where she did.

I've found some .99 produce...some even less. Peaches this week were $.88 a lb. and tomatoes were $.99....I guess it depends on what is in season and what kind of deals the grocer gets...

The Piggly Wiggly by our house is more expensive - and nasty (dirty dirty dirty) than most of the other supermarkets in the area.

I think you're going to do great with your budget, Mel.

I feed my family on that, and we eat very well. No, not steak every day, but we do have them fairly often. i buy the sales and I use coupons. I buy the fresh things that are in season. If not, I buy frozen, which have very good nutritional value. I am lucky, I do have several stores close to home and can shop around. I look at it as a challenge.

moneysavingmom.com has some great tips always--she feeds her family of 4 on $40 a week. That is a little strident for some but she had good couponing tips!

there is no way i could feed 3 of us on 100 dollars.. even with local produce stands and wharehouse markets.

She might live in California, produce is very cheap there.

I've read quite a few stories of people spending $50/week on groceries. They don't eat any animal products, which is a huge savings.

For me, I can go to an asian grocery market and spend $20 and walk out with 4 large bags of groceries. Asian markets are great for produce and many bulk type items. I do buy in bulk when I can, especially for staples.

Oh and also something I missed before is that she was feeding 2 small children. I may be naive about how much little kids eat, but $100 a week hardly seems like a challenge for 2 adults and 2 small kids. I try to be somewhat budget conscious but I do buy a few splurge items. We eat A LOT of produce and our weekly grocery bill is somewhere around $75.

Feeding 4 on $100 is totally do-able, if you are willing to give up some things and work at it. I try to keep costs down, but I spend about $125/week mostly because there are some "treats" I don't want to do without and some things I pay more for in the name of convenience. People that do it for less than $100 usually have to invest a fair amount of time in the effort. You have to do alot of research to find the absolute cheapest sources of things and to keep your information current. You have to weigh the value of your time and gas if you are going different places for different things. You have to make everything you can from scratch. If you want your family to be healthy you also have to make sure that you are getting optimum nutrition for minimum cost.

We make it on that much for groceries, most times even less. A lot less. But I do extreme couponing and shop the sales. Plus, I stockpile and/or freeze items. And this year we grew greens, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, and bell peppers.

With the exception of bread, eggs, and a couple other staples, we could probably live at least 3 months on what's in the cupboard, fridge, freezer, and deep freezer.

Wow, I wish I could cut down my food budget but it's already bare bones. We eat cheaper cuts of meat, and beans and eggs, but we eat mostly organic products. They're a budget killer, but it's something we decided to do a while ago. Today the organic peaches were $3.99 a pound, yikes! Needless to say, I passed.

Belle Mer, It might interest you to know that being certified organic tends to be more of a marketing ploy that favors large scale producers over small farms. However many small scale growers use natural or "organic" methods, but for them it's not worth the expense and requirements of getting certified, so they can't legally call their products organic. Here is a link that might help you find small scale growers in your area that apply natural methods: http://www.naturallygrown.org/farm-list.html
Another way can be to just talk to the farmers at your local farmer's market and ask what methods they use. It can be much cheaper to buy healthier, local-grown, and naturally-grown produce at the farmer's market than commercial certified organic produce at the grocery. That is assuming of course that your main concern is getting the most natural and healthy product. And of course there's an element of trust in what the farmer is telling you, as there's no oversight.

I go to farmer's markets and always buy locally as much as possible first, then organic. I buy raw unpasteurized milk and free range eggs from a local farmer, and I will be doing CSA next season. I don't eat processed food at all, but still, the costs add up.

Yes, that's true. I get milk from a local dairy and pay $3 for a half gallon. That's really ouchy when I see milk for $1.99/gallon at Aldi's, but that's one area where I judge it's worth it. The quality is so much higher and my kids aren't getting any hormones. I'm also lucky to get farm eggs from a friend. I may do a CSA next year, haven't decided yet.

I belong to a CSA (which I accounted $25 as part of the weekly budget). We have been getting tons of peaches along with other fruits. A CSA should cut down on organic veg costs.

Here's an ongoing thread on this topic from the Wholefoods Lifestyle area of the forum: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...30#post2289430