I spend about $120/week on four (two kids, hubbie and I). I have a favorite website I print dinners off of and each week pick out the six I will use -- I also have a starting list on the computer, with a base of about $90 -- these are things we get every week -- if we happen to not need one of them, I use that money to stock up on something else. I also buy just a few fresh veg's/fruits per week because of cost, but rotate from week to week which ones we get. Stir fry has also saved me a number of times, pretty cheap to buy meat, rice and a bag of frozen vegs and it's a good dinner everyone likes.
I only spend about $20 to max $25/week on food for myself. I haven't worked in a few months, so I have been trying to seriously limit the money that goes out. Of course, more variety would cost more, but it IS possible to eat a fairly balanced diet with all your food groups on very little cash if necessary. I don't have $75 to spend a week, so I don't, if you've got more, you can spend more. If you don't have more, see what you can cut back on without jeopardizing your health. I also almost never eat out. My grocery list usually includes:
Calcium fortified skim milk
Cream of wheat (every few weeks)
Natural peanut butter (every couple weeks)
100% fruit spread (every couple weeks)
Whole grain/whole wheat bread
Frozen mixed vegetables
Chicken drumsticks (MUCH cheaper than chicken breasts, and once you skin them almost as lean and low in calories)
Trader Joe's curry simmer sauce
Jerk chicken marinade (an all natural blend with no "weird" ingredients)
Rice (every few weeks)
Sometimes oranges and bananas
Vitamins as needed
The scary thing is, now that I've realized I can survive well on $20 a week on groceries, when I start working in a couple weeks, I might not want to spend more because of all the money I could save!!!
One thing I do know, though, is when I mealplan I always and consistently spend less money.
BG
Yes, mealplanning has definitely helped me too! My husband can't believe how much I spend on groceries since eating healthier but it's worth it to me. I spend about $100-$125 a week for me and my husband and my 3 year old daughter. I buy about 70% organic products so that means I'm getting much less actual food for my money but we've made it work. Definitely things like bulk bins, shopping the best prices (by the time I'm done, I've probably shopped 3-4 different stores in that month!), and meal planning have helped.
I've also learned that I spend more if I make a meal that has a separate meat portion with sides. Like, if I just have chicken breasts or steak with a side of beans and a salad then we will eat more chicken then if I decide to do chicken tacos. Does that make sense? For example, when I make tacos we can easily go through 1-1.5 pounds of ground beef (hubby is a big meat eater) for our tacos. Well, the ground beef I buy is nearly $6 a pound (free range, no hormones, no antibiotics, etc.) so you can imagine how expensive just tacos can get. Now what I do is use about a half a pound of ground beef and a can of black beans. I use the same taco seasonings and just make a taco filling mixture. This idea stretches to a lot of things. If you make a soup or stew then you can cut back on the meat as well and meats are a big expense no matter what kind you buy. Use frozen veggies, canned tomatoes, etc. and it's fairly inexpensive. In general, soups are cheap so try that too. They are filling and stretch for several meals, usually.
All I know is that while this may be a challenge, it's one I'm willing to rise to the occassion on! Your health is important enough to get creative with the budget and shopping!
Oh, and something else I forgot to mention...make your own salad dressing! It's SO much cheaper overall then buying bottles of it. I usually make my own from scratch with ingredients on hand or buy one of those packets where you need to mix oil and vinegar or milk or whatever. I buy the organic ones that don't have MSG in them and they are pretty good. Buy a big bottle of cold pressed olive oil (much healthier then regular as long as you aren't going to heat it, which you wouldn't for a salad dressing) to have on hand for dressings and some balsamic and white wine vinegar. The olive oil might appear to be expensive but it will last a while and will make a ton of dressing! I have found this to be much better tasting and cheaper then spending $3 on a bottle of dressing! Shoot, just oil and vinegar with some squeezed lemon or salt and pepper will do the trick too.
You all have such great ideas and I really appreciate it! I'm going to test some ideas out and see what I come up with... we're going grocery shopping tonight.
I realize that I actually am doing a lot of the things everyone else is going... but I think I'm paying a lot for convenience because honestly I get home from work and the last thing I want to do is cook... I think I need to figure out a way to make cheaper fast and easy meals... that's why I love this place, everyone has a great idea or five...
Avsfan I am going to start making my own dressing this month. And perhaps my own mayo for dh. Where are you getting your free range organic beef from? We are looking around into that as well.
Jasmine, I have found it nearly impossible to find organic beef in the grocery stores. In fact, the only organic meat I can seem to find is chicken. Everything else I can usually find is at least hormone/antibiotc free and I sometimes buy that. However, I get free range, grass fed beef from a local farm. By local I mean it's about an hour away but I'm willing to drive for what is important to me and the treatment of animals as well as the diet of them is very important to me. The farm is not "certified" organic but uses organic practices and since I can see with my own two eyes where the beef is coming from, I'm ok with buying it without the certification (which has some loop holes anyway). If you do a search for 'Local Harvest' you should find a web site that shows all the farmer's markets, farms, co-ops, CSA programs, etc. in your state. That's a good place to start. There are also farms that will ship frozen meat but it's VERY expensive to freeze ship heavy meat like that so that would be a last resort.
Additionally, I participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program every summer at another farm that's about an hour away. In a CSA program you buy a "share" of the farm (kind of like stock in the farm) and then in return you get fresh picked, in season produce from the farm every week. It's an awesome program because it supports small, local farms and is more eco-friendly (items aren't shipped from Mexico or half way across the country), plus you can see where your produce is coming from. That farm also uses organic practices for *most* of their crops. While it's not 100% organic, it is the best deal I can get on all that produce for as close to organic as I can find. I recommend a CSA program to anyone who can find a reasonable one in their area.
And if you'd like to get into the whole Organic vs organic argument, let me recommend the book Omnivore's Dilemma. It also talks about how beef are raised....
I do a CSA in the summer, too. Love, love, love it! I buy eggs in Amish country, and berries and jams, too, all reasonably priced and just lovely and fresh.
I'm the first to say I spend a ridiculous amount on groceries, and I'm single. I just spent 75 at the fancy specialty store and 75 at the regular grocery, but except for milk and bananas that will probably keep me 2 1/2 or 3 weeks, and the fourth week of the month will probably be minimal as well, as I've got plenty of protien in the freezer now, too. I tell myself it's worth it, so long as I don't buy lunch at work--which even with the minimal set lunch price plus a pop could be 75 or 80 dollars a month if every day.
If I had to cut back on anything, it would be the pricey Greek yogurt--I'd also probably skip the chicken sausage I dearly love and some of the specialty crackers. I also have a thing for really good cheese....
I guess it's good to remind yourself that you are worth it! If we can talk ourselves into a burger and fries or into some piece of clothing we don't really need.. I see no reason not to talk ourselves into spending more on better more nutritious foods.
Well, I don't think I do much different than the rest of you, but just some examples of where I save money. Chicken is by far my most expensive food for me. Instead of buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts for about $5-6 a pound here, I wait until the split breasts are on sale for $.99 a pound. I buy about 20 pounds at a time and do the work myself. It ends up about $1.50 a pound.
I usually buy quite a bit of frozen fruit at Trader Joes, but look for fresh fruit when it goes under their prices and freeze it myself. Ex. Frozen peaches $2.50 a pound, right now peaches are on sale for $.99 I think I bought 20 pounds, sliced and froze them.
Prepared salt free broth is about $1.50, I make it myself when I cook chicken or beef for free.
Good hamburger can run $4 a pound. I buy lean steak or roast when on sale, and grind myself for $1.39 pound.
For ease I bake chicken off in bulk and freeze to pull any time I need. I make Kashi in bulk and freeze in portioned packages, again just pull from freezer. I also mix whole grains and dried fruit in advance for my own home made cereal. I HATE to cook!
I also use reconstituted dry milk instead of fresh in recipes. I drink 1% milk and use the same in my coffee (eliminating the need for a second dairy product, like nondairy creamer or half 'n' half).
I buy a lot of the past-its-prime produce from my grocery store. I either eat them right away or I prep and freeze them.
If I buy fresh herbs for anything, I dry the unused portion and use them as a dried herb later.
When I buy broccoli, I use the flowerets but I also peel and chop the stems, blanch them, and freeze them. I throw them in soups or casseroles later.
I make my own bread crumbs and croutons from stale bread and existing seasonings/herbs I have.
I do a lot of substitutions so I can avoid going to the store to buy an item just for the dish. Sometimes the substitutions can get pretty creative, and that can be bad or good. LOL
Last edited by phantastica; 02-11-2007 at 07:46 PM.
My husband and I love liquidator stores (like Big Lots). There's a privately owned liquidator warehouse in our area who often gets in gourmet and health food store stock (this isn't "expired" stuff, this is stuff from stores that close or are getting rid of stuff that isn't selling as well as they'd like it too, or just stuff they need to get rid of to make room for new stock).
