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Please Talk about Food Budgets with Me


TheAutumnOak
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Not to take the focus from the OP, but I think about doing this every year.  But I am worried about (1) power outages; and (2) that we would wind up eating more meat simply because it's already in the freezer.   Just like I am convinced that we use more paper towels because my husband insists on buying the big packages at Costco.  

 

Do you worry about power outages, or do you have a generator or something like that?

 

Power outages are very unusual at my house and a chest freezer will stay cold for many hours. If the power were out at my house for more than 12 hours, we are almost certainly experiencing weather well below freezing. Still, I would like the peace of mind a generator would provide. I have lived here almost 10 years and I believe our longest power outage was about 6 hours.

 

We already eat meat at most meals so I am not really worried that we eat a lot more because we have it on hand. If anything I am less likely to succumb to impulse purchases at the grocery store because I can stay home and eat from the freezer.

 

There is a chance that even if you use more paper towels because you have them on hand, you are still saving money because the Costco cost savings are greater than that extra use.

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It can be hard to judge because food costs vary from place to place. We spend about $650-$700/mo door five people, but none of them are teenage boys (3 are adults). When we add in girlfriend's teenage boys, it's closer to $800/mo. We do very little eating out.

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We shop Costco for meats among other things. A whole, uncooked organic chicken at Kroger's is about $10. At Costco, that buys you 2 organic chickens. They'll let you in to browse without a membership but you won't be able to buy anything until you join.

 

How do you feel about baking bread? If your family eats enough of it, you could cut costs that way. I know someone who bakes 5 loaves at a time and freezes some.

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Google and ask around to see if there is a salvage grocery store in your area.  That is how we are able to eat gluten free bread and organic yogurt.  A large carton of Stonyfield farms organic yogurt that my teenage son likes was 99 cents last time I went.  I bought 6-8 and froze most of them.  I was at Kroger yesterday and glanced at the same yogurt there for about $6.  They had one on clearance for $3.49.

 

I have shopped at the salvage store for YEARS and have not ever had issues.  It is not clean and pretty like Whole Foods, but there is a reason folks call it "Whole Paycheck". 

 

Sprouts also has much better pricing on produce and the produce is great.

 

Buying organic only for the dirty dozen is how I feel my family cheaply and healthily.  We eat regular grocery store meat, though we eat mostly chicken breasts from Sams or Costco.

 

Is there a Costco near you?

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I'd stop buying juice. It's just empty calories, and they're expensive calories.

 

I try to keep the budget in check by cutting waste and finding the best price/quality. Example: we eat frozen organic veggies more often than fresh in the winter. When I needed to slash the budget, organic went away. Eating out went away. Making bread is a good money saver. If you're serious about having a set amount, use cash. When it's gone, it's gone. Time for creative pantry meals! I found this most helpful with DH and eating out when we needed to have a very strict budget.

 

Re: paper towels, I bought a bunch (as in we have at least 50 of various ages) of these IKEA towels: http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/10100909/and they are our paper towel and paper napkin replacements. I keep paper towels on hand for dog messes and similar because there are limits! ;) A pack of 12 rolls of paper towels lasts forever now.

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Would you please share your recipe?

 

May I share Mark Bittman's video tutorial on granola? He has so much personality he even makes granola interesting. :)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/video/dining/1194817105861/making-granola.html

 

The Prudent Homemaker's "Eat for 40 Cents a Day" series is terrific, and I especially like her "compare apples to oranges" article:

 

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog/entry/eat-for-40-cents-a-day-part-nine-the-price-per-pound-or-in-other-words-comparing-apples-to-oranges

 

My Zero-Waste Home guru Bea Johnson was on CNN the other day and stated that packaging is generally 15 percent of the cost of a item, so simply buying bulk can provide a savings on that scale. (Obviously maybe not on every item, but something to consider?)

 

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/01/28/ms-im-garbage-ron-1.cnn

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If you keep your freezer full, it would take a long (days) power outage in hot temps before your stuff would be in danger.  A full freezer is essentially a block of ice (and you should always keep your freezer full, even if you have to add jugs of water when you take stuff out), so it doesn't thaw readily.  Think of the piles of snow that you see in parking lots still there for a looooong time after all of the other snow has melted away.  Same principle.

 

 

It's just that I felt a lot more comfortable with this principle when I lived up north.  Where I live now, the summers are long and very hot.  

 

I am definitely going to look into both the homeowner's insurance and the car battery thing, though.  

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It's just that I felt a lot more comfortable with this principle when I lived up north.  Where I live now, the summers are long and very hot.  

 

I am definitely going to look into both the homeowner's insurance and the car battery thing, though.  

 

 

Well, if that were to happen (say a hurricane, in July), where you lost power for a week in hot weather...I'd hook up a thermometer to watch the temp from outside the freezer (so that you aren't opening it to check) and be prepared to go buy bags of ice until the power comes back on.  Just shove them in the freezer with the food.  Yeah, it's a pain and it will cost, but nothing compared to the cost of all that food.  Really, though, even in hot weather it would take days before you'd be in danger.

 

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My homemade granola recipe:

 

1 box rolled oats

4c total of whatever add-ins you like (seeds, nuts, choco chips, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc)

1/2 stick of butter

1/2c honey (use the cheap honey for this, you'd just cook the enzymes out of the good stuff anyway)

 

Place into electric roaster at 250deg with the lid just slightly cocked.  Toast for a couple of hours until golden brown and dry.  Stir about every 1/2hr.

 

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I have three boys and a daughter.  DS2 is on a gluten-free diet.   I've found out that I'm saving a lot of money since I changed my normal grocery store shopping (Publix) to Trader Joe's.  I'm also buying higher quality meat (grass fed beef frozen $5.99/pound, organic whole milk $5.99/gallon), and yet my bill is probably 70-75% what it was before, and the quality is as good or better.  I buy some organic fruit and veg usually at Costco or Sam's Club, but a lot of regular as well.    I buy nut butters, Nutella, jam, etc. at Costco.  TJS has good gluten-free products and we buy a giant loaf of Udi's at Costco.  For quick/easy meals, we also usually buy a giant package of Nathan's hotdogs, and a giant package of cheesesticks.  

 

We do water or milk for drinks, but I limit milk to one glass/meal/person.  We have a water cooler, and we refill the bottle in front of the grocery store for $1.25 for 5 gallons.  Having it cold makes it far more appealing.

 

One night a week at least is a bean/legume meal.  If your kids aren't too keen on beans, you can do "beanie weenie" and cut up a few hot dogs, make "cowboy beans" with ground beef, etc. 

 

One night is often a pasta meal.  I can buy a one pound package of GF spaghetti at Trader Joe's for $1.99.  If I buy sauce, it's about $3.00, if I make it, it's a little cheaper unless I make a bolognese.   Serve with salad.   

 

We also do breakfast for dinner probably every other week.  Pancakes and turkey sausages, omelettes, etc.  Even a dozen cage free eggs is less than $3.00 at Trader Joe's.  

 

For snacks, if money is tight, I'll make two dozen muffins...often we do an oatmeal, banana, chocolate chip, and freeze some.  

 

I think if I were you, I'd start by hoping to drop off $25/week.  Can you do that?  Then after a month or so, try and drop another $25.   Another idea is to give your boys the chance to plan/cook a meal once/week or once every other week.  Give them a budget.  Let them figure it out.

 

Oh, we were wasting a lot of paper towels as napkins.  At Walmart, I found 18 white wash cloths for $4.00 or so.  I bought two packages.   We use those as napkins.  We have two  little plastic bins near the table....one to hold the clean rolled up...and one as a laundry basket.  (I chose white because I can bleach them to death if needed. :))

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Cutting out juice and drinking water saves a ton of $. If you are going to drink milk, however keep using the raw kind. It's so much better for you. Could you ration it? Say X amount per person per day? 

Also, how about baking your own bread or snacks instead of packaged stuff. I bake a couple of loaves a couple of  times a week. I started with a very simple recipe and made it often enough that it became memorized. I could do it in my sleep and we save $. 

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Would you please share your recipe?

Oh, boy. You all have put me on the spot. I am notorious for "throwing" things together without a recipe.

 

So, here is what goes into it:

 

oats

sesame seeds (they really like the flavor and texture of them)

small amount of chopped cashews

mini chocolate chips

melted butter

a little honey

a little melted coconut oil

 

Some people would probably want sugar because they prefer it sweeter than I make it so you'll want to adjust accordingly.

 

I mix the dry ingredients and then add melted butter and honey until it I have a not gooey mess, but definitely one that is thoroughly wetted. I think that it might be possible to also do this with applesauce but I have never tried it. Also probably one could make it cheaper by using something like sunflower or walnut oil (I tend to recommend fats that are higher in omega oils that Americans tend to run low on), but that would lonely work if no one has nut allergies in the family. I think the butter and coconut oil combo is a tasty combo, and good coconut oil if you can afford it is slightly sweet too. (Eldest boy also occasionally asks me to added a little coconut to a pan of his own. The other boys really do not like the flaked coconut in theirs so I make the two separately.)

 

I oil a cookie sheet to keep the granola from sticking, spread it out as best I can trying to prevent any thick spots which would prevent it from drying properly, and bake at 350 degrees until I get a chewy consistency that is still fairly well dried. In the summer when there is more humidity in the kitchen, it does take me longer than in the winter.

 

You'll really want to play around with the ingredients because I literally throw stuff into the bowl, the boys test it and say, "Ya, mom...that's good!", and voila. I have found that the texture and flavor is best when I can get really fresh, rolled oats. Since I have a Mennonite Bulk Food Store nearby that stocks tons of baking ingredients and grains (many organics as well at excellent prices), I call and ask them when they will get their next shipment of oats, and them to pack a 5 lb. bag for me. I run out right away and usually have really nice oats. DH brought home Quaker oats to me one time when the boys were complaining that I was out. Uhm....yuck. Having used those nice, fresh, organic oats for years, let me just say that it tasted stale. I am sure that those are fine if you are used to them. The switch was not welcome with the marauding teens that frequent my kitchen! LOL

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My homemade granola recipe:

 

1 box rolled oats

4c total of whatever add-ins you like (seeds, nuts, choco chips, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc)

1/2 stick of butter

1/2c honey (use the cheap honey for this, you'd just cook the enzymes out of the good stuff anyway)

 

Place into electric roaster at 250deg with the lid just slightly cocked.  Toast for a couple of hours until golden brown and dry.  Stir about every 1/2hr.

 

 

Can you put choc chips in before you roast it?  I would think they would melt, or is that what you want it to do?

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Dawn, my guys like the choco chips melted in, but you could easily wait until it's mostly baked, then add them so that they melt enough to stick, but not enough to permeate the oats. You'd just have too keep a watchful eye on the granola to time it right.

 

I'm just too darn lazy about baking and cooking to have to work that hard!

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The area you live in is a big factor in how much your food costs. We moved from a low cost of living area to a high cost of living area and my grocery budget went up tremendously. There's not much you can do about that :/

 

That being said, the things that help me the most are shopping less frequently and meal planning. I have a weekly menu and I shop monthly, with a quick trip mid month for eggs and fresh produce. I know that for the month, I will need 4 x whatever ingredients for each meal so that's what I get. It makes it easier to take advantage of sales too. When noodles go on sale, I get 8 2lb boxes, for example, and I know this will last 2 months if we use 1 every week.

 

Meal planning like this and sticking to my list brought my grocery bill down from about $1400/mo to $8-900/mo for 7 people.

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Oh, we were wasting a lot of paper towels as napkins.  At Walmart, I found 18 white wash cloths for $4.00 or so.  I bought two packages.   We use those as napkins.  We have two  little plastic bins near the table....one to hold the clean rolled up...and one as a laundry basket.  (I chose white because I can bleach them to death if needed. :))

 

:iagree:  A roll of paper towels vs a load of laundry is probably a wash, $$ wise, except that the kids will just burn through paper towels if they are available, so it's really a few rolls of paper towels vs a load of wash.

 

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Can you put choc chips in before you roast it?  I would think they would melt, or is that what you want it to do?

 

I should have been clearer, thank you.

 

Yes, if you've got a meltable (choc chips, carob chips) just throw it in after you've cooled the rest.

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We recently got a Whole Foods in the area.  I went to look around out of curiosity.  The prices bowled me over. 

 

There's good reason why it's known as Whole Paycheck.  :lol:

 

OP you've been given good advice, but the best I think was the poster (sorry, I forgot who and didn't quote) who said to start with one thing. Unless you're in dire financial straits and need to do it all at once, it will be easier on both you and your family to get used to the changes a little at a time. 

 

I'm only feeding three but one is a teenage boy, plus we have a grown son, so we've been there before too. I feel for you on feeding boys, especially ones of the teenage variety. :)

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