Ugg the cost of EGGS!

With the cost of eggs going up I have really been feeling the pinch in my grocery budget. Just as my husband and I start talking about maybe getting 2 sets of 5 dozen eggs so that we can enjoy eggs more often for breakfast. It then becomes even more not realistic in the cost. The cost last year around this time for 5 dozen eggs was about $10, often $9.99 with on sale deals of $7.99. Right now at the same store 5 doz are now $15.99. Yes I know the reasons why, but lets get realistic here- are the cost of eggs actually going to go back down- I doubt it.

We slowly been eating less breakfasts that are giving each person their own egg or two. When we first started this path 3 times a week we had eggs with toast for breakfast. Each time my family has eggs and toast we went through 9 eggs sometimes 11 if the twins decided they wanted two eggs that morning. Almost a whole dozen eggs just for one meal. Considering that is a meal that is about $3.20 for the eggs and about a half of loaf of bread that I bought at .50, yes it isn't terrible, but for $3.20 I can do a box of cold cereal and some milk for my kids and they will be just as happy. But it isn't saving us any money. Nor is having to plan on once a week going through a whole dozen eggs just for breakfast fitting that many eggs into my fridge when I do once a month shopping.

So I have increased my search in finding less egg non cold cereal breakfasts:
as a review here are some we have been doing for a while now-

• Skillet Breakfast
• Fried Rice (using rice cooked from dinner earlier in the week)
• Waffles
• pancakes
• rice pudding (overnight in the crock pot)
• Oatmeal 

This was our rotation with cold cereal once a week and eggs and toast once a week.

New recipes I have found for breakfast-

• bread pudding (been saving all the heals and make it in the crockpot overnight), here is a suggested recipe, I don't make it exactly but until I figure the perfect one out and make a post out of it this one will do
• Muffins- how did I miss this one. You  go get coffee/cocoa at a shop and you pick up a muffin, easy to make, the thing that takes the longest is heating the oven, but can also be done the night before and stored.
  I recommend this recipe by Better Homes and Garden. The only cookbook my husband owned when we got married was their big "Cook Book", tons of basic recipes that is where you need to start. I use their muffin mix recipe and then experiment with my own add ins and such. The recipe even comes with a few variations suggestions. For my family of six I often double the recipe but only use one egg (recipe says one but would be two after doubling and either add extra milk for the missing egg or I use the flax seed substitute. )
• cream of wheat or crack wheat

It makes me sad that enjoying a fried egg for my breakfast has become such a luxury. Especially since when I was in college and first married it was a super cheap breakfast compared to cold cereal. 

Laws and Principles of Substitution

Something I haven't though a whole lot about before but I find myself thinking about it everyday is the principles of substitution.

In economics- as a product's cost increases some people start substituting or replacing the high cost product for a lower cost, or more available product. As more people make the switch to a substitute the demand (and often the value/cost) of the substitute item increases.

Well as I have streamlined our grocery bill down to more of the bare necessities I have seen this working in my house. For some of the items I have not purchases, or have not purchased it in the amounts that I use to, I tried to anticipate what items my family would choose as their substitute items. In some instances I anticipated correctly, and other things I did not satisfy my family.

For example-
1- Instead of buying individual servings yogurt. I decided to save by buying it in a tub. No one wants to eat it. My husband is the biggest yogurt consumer in our home. I learned through this experience that he values individual serving size- so he knows exactly how much he has eaten and the calories and is not tempted to eat over the serving size. He will just choose not to eat the item. He is also not a fan of the suggestion I could pre-measure out servings and put them in the fridge. He wants the calories right there to remind him of the exact serving size.

2- We don't have as many "pre-made snacks" anymore. I have tried to make some, but no one wants to eat them as much. In addition, everyone wants something they can just grab. We use to have lots of fruits that was good for grab and go. We use to have bagged fruit snacks or other treats that you can eat right away. Normally I have had a variety of crackers for snacking on too. I bought more animal crackers to replace most of it and more carrots. Instead my family hasn't wanted to eat the animal crackers as much as I thought they would, and the carrots haven't gone over as well as I hoped.

3- What has everyone been reaching for? Tortilla chips and salsa. Which has caused us to run out of chips and salsa before the end of the month- and since I didn't count on this, it has messed up my meals because I relay on both of those items for meals on our calendar. So for dinner on Sunday instead of having Pulled Pork Taco salad stacks - we had Pulled Pork sandwiches. So then I used up more BBQ sauce and bread then I had planned on. Also almonds have been a favorite. I know neither of these things are horrid for you not bad choices for substitutes, but I didn't anticipate those choices. Last month, I made ginger snaps to be a substitute for snacks- but my family gobbled them up in one day.

So you won't be able to anticipate all the substitute choices your family will make. But giving yourself some wiggle room to make your won substitutions when the need arises is good to have a back-up.

Cheap Meals: Breakfast Skillet

This use to be one of those meals that I did only on Saturday mornings to make my husband happy. But as we reevaluated our budget and did some math, potatoes are a cheap carbohydrate for breakfast than toast- even with our 50 cent loaves. We use to eat eggs and toast every other morning for breakfast and we have started replacing some of those mornings with breakfast skillet.

Need:

• oil
• 3-4 small/med potatoes
• 1 small onion
• 3-5 eggs
• options: chopped peppers, 1/2 c shredded cheese, salt and pepper to taste

suggestions- use a cast iron grill and it make a great dinner skillet- just add some veggies.

Instructions:

Heat the oil in the pan. Chop up all the veggies. When the oil is hot add the potatoes to the pan. Don't let the stick to the pan too much. Add the onions, and if you're doing peppers. Once the onions are mostly cooked (lightened up to the "translucent" stage). Make space in the middle, crack the eggs in that space. Scramble them.  Mix it all together. Add cheese if you so desire and salt & pepper. Serve as is or with salsa or ketchup.

download the recipe card- right click and "save as"

Pork- Its what's for Dinner

Long time ago, back when my husband and I were doing Weight Watchers. We started cutting back our portions of meat. We started to look at the amount of meat in our meals and decided that we didn't need to eat that much meat. I started looking into ways to cut back our meat. Adding lentils  - great way when you're using a ground meat, but less helpful when using shredded meats. The price of ground beef went up and we started looking at alternative cheaper somewhat healthy meats. Using more beans in Mexican-inspired dishes help with shredded meats.

Over time we have moved to eating more pork. The cost of chicken has gone up too. It took me a while to figure out things to make with pork.

When I buy pork I try to grind some of it. We have a Kitchen Aid grinder attachment. Then we have ground meat to use in any recipe that I would normally use ground meat for (Shepherds Pie, pasta, meat balls, sloppy joes).

The rest of it I freeze and then cook in the crock pot. I put about 3 lbs in the crock pot, first cutting off big sections of fat. I'll add some water to the pot so it won't burn. Also remember that the cut of pork -shoulder, roast, butt, are all less important. But not chops or ribs. I look for packages that are cheaper but are boneless when possible.

3 lbs will make 6-8 meals for my family of 6 (granted one baby and twin girls).
Meals:
pulled pork sandwiches (takes the most meat)
pulled pork on rice
pulled pork tacos
pulled pork taco salad
Fancy Burritos (like Chipote)
Nachos
Quesadillas
Tamales
Enchilladas
Baked Tamale Pie
Shredded Pork over Zucchini
Taquitos *never made these myself, but have had lots of friends suggest it

Vegetables for Less (and some fruits we use like vegetables)

When doing once a month grocery shopping you have to recognize that your fresh vegetables that you buy at the store are not going to last the whole month before going bad. I advocate a mixture of mostly fresh and frozen veggies with a few cans in there. I am sure some of you have noticed how few veggies it seems like I have on our shopping lists and there are reasons for that (I buy bulk so it is a one item on the list, free veggies from friends gardens, frozen veggies, and a pantry full of food storage canned veggies).

But this is a great time to talk about some ways to get lots of fresh affordable veggies. And when I say veggies I am not using the scientific definition. Instead I'm referring to non-sweet mostly green and yellow foods that we use like vegetables and like sweet snack worthy fruits.

1. Buy the ones on sale. Don't get hung up on that your family loves to eat asparagus or some other not on sale vegetable. Buy the ones on sale, learn to eat them and learn to like them. I have found that I like (or can easily eat) almost any vegetable when made up in a good way. Don't be picky or snob.
2. Grow a Garden- Yes this take time and money to get started. But it can be done cheaply. I have tried many times, to grow nothing. But this year we did have a tomato plant, it has supplied all the tomatoes we have needed this summer. I bought it from a nursery that was closing back in April. We figure it has saved us a little on buying tomatoes, with the added benefit of the super fresh tasty tomato. Also everyone keeps telling me to put it in my garage for the winter and it should survive the winter just fine. So even little garden things can help eat fresh cheaper.
3. Garden Extras- Lots of people where we live have gardens. We have lots of friends who have choose to follow the commandments for our church leaders to "grow a garden". Funny thing most of them plant things that they don't eat much of themselves. Keep your ears open for when people are giving away their garden extras. Sometimes it is because they don't like to eat what they grew but sometimes it is because their gardens were so plentiful that they can't eat it all in time. Also, when people talk about how plentiful their gardens are, don't be afraid to say "if you find you can't use it all, send some our way". We have ended up with many bags of random veggies on our porch from friends wanting to share before things go bad. You'll have to be open to which veggies you get. Again try new foods
4. Bountiful baskets, Market on the Move, Coops... there are many groups all over that take 2nd grade veggies (ones that are good to eat but not pretty enough to go to the grocery stores), they often have a "cover" price and then you get bags full of veggies. Ask around groups are out there. Many are sponsored by church groups. If there isn't any in your area, maybe look into starting one. Ask around and find out what interest there would be. Start a facebook group. Contact organization groups like Bountiful baskets and find out what you'd need to go to start a local group. Talk to a local Farmer's coop and see if they would be interested and able to participate.

Now that you have fresh veggies (which most of the time turns out to be some sort of squash- if you got it for free) What do you do with it?

here is a list of generic ideas:

• search pinterest - lots of ideas for unique veggies
• baked/fried with a breaded crust
• chop up small and put into pasta. I have found my family will eat ANY veggie (and I actually enjoy it too) chopped up with other mixed veggies and put into pasta sauce. This is my go to stand by for when I don't know what to a given veggie. Make pastas different by adding different things every time.
• On top of Pizza- when we went to Italy there were all sorts of veggies (mostly squashes) topped on the pizza- and they were so good. Go out of your comfort zone. My kids don't notice- its pizza.
• Stir Fry- again chop it small, when you chop large you get big tastes of it and kids are more likely to pick around large veggies in their food
• Bolgolgi- Korean bbq stir fry, same idea, add what you have.
• Skillet- sometimes known as hash. Get your potatoes going and add whatever veggies you have with a little bit of whatever meat you have. 
• Stew it- or soup it. Simmer it all together add a little tomato sauce to the stewing broth. 
• Lasagna- or a baked pasta. layer it with the meat layers, for a healthier and cheaper versions, use 1/2 the meat you'd normally use and fill the space with veggies. I lightly steam the veggie first and you will need to be careful not to add anymore extra water on the steamed veggies, you'll end up with a soup at the bottom of the lasagna pan. Or take a note from the Greeks and make Moussaka- a veggie and meat layered lasagna-like dish.
• Orzo, Rizzoto, pilaf  - I find it best if you chop the veggies about the size of the orzo or rice. make how you would normally and add in the veggies. Sauteing the veggies first can add more flavor.
• experiment

Cheap Meals: Thai-Style Fried Rice

A huge portion of the world eats rice for every meal. Part of that is because rice is cheap.

My favorite way to eat rice is Thai-Style Fried Rice
I make this for dinner and every once in a once in a while I make it for breakfast
Need:
3-4 cups cooked rice (Jasmine is best but any rice works)
4 eggs
1 TBS minced garlic
1 small onion
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 TBS brown Sugar
Chicken or ham- 1-3 chicken thighs (you can use breast but it is a good      opportunity to use that cheaper chickens) or 1 cup chopped ham
optional items
   -green onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, carrots
   -breakfast: pineapple or mangoes

Heat the pan with the oil. To the hot oil add the eggs (whisked) and your meat. Once your eggs are scrambled and chicken cooking add onions and garlic. When mostly cooked add rice. Let cook for a couple minutes before adding the soy sauce and brown sugar (tip-mix/dissolve them together and pour over the rice). Cook until the rice is starting to stick and fry to the pan. Serve.

Downloadable and printable recipe card (right click and save as)

Making Holiday Meal special but Affordable

We all have our favorite holiday meals.
Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving are universal musts.
But what about other holidays? Birthdays? Special days?
Some meals we aren't willing to compromise cost over not having our special meals. Most of that has to do with our memories. Creating memories can be just as important and it doesn't have to be expensive memories.
What made me start thinking about this is the 4th of July. Today in fact. It has been my tradition to make homemade ice cream. This year when we started being serious about keeping to a budget and I realized I had agreed to keep to $80 grocery budget for the month and that had to include my homemade ice cream supplies and grilling for the 4th. It was hard to accept. We already had some hot dogs and Turkey patties in the freezer. I reserved those for grilling on the 4th. (With the cost of low-fat beef burger patties, turkey patties are a great alternative for saving money). I made sure I bought buns and cheese for the burgers. But there was the matter of the ice cream. How was I going to make homemade ice cream on a budget.
Then I saw this video from Buzzfeed. Around the time the video came out I had 2 friends say they tried it that night and their ice cream turned out awesome. So I thought this 2 ingredient ice cream was the answer to still keeping tradition. Not my normal recipes but sometimes you have to change it up to still keep what is important to you.
1 pint of Heavy Cream and 1 can of Sweet Condensed Milk
So I added about $1.50 for a pint of Heavy Cream to keep a tradition.*
What about other special days?
ideas- consider breakfast as a special meal.
Breakfasts are a cheap, nutritious, and there are so many options that are probably not apart of your regular breakfast rotation.

suggested breakfasts:
Omelets
Eggs Benedict (if you have difficulty with the sauce, I recommend the Korrs brand sauce mix)
homemade muffins
waffles (to make them extra special use fruit as toppers)
Rice Pudding (can be made in the crock pot and makes a great Christmas morning breakfast)
Bread Pudding
Quiche
Scones/fry bread/donuts
Hot cocoa with toast
Crapes
German Pancakes
cinnamon rolls
biscuits and gravy
Breakfast Pizza
Apple cobbler

What are some of your families' favorite special breakfasts?

For Father's Day we made my husband a massive omelet. Twice a year (first weekend) in Oct and April are the General Conference of the LDS church. I made Eggs Benedict those mornings. Our ward (local church congregation) has a huge pancake breakfast on the 4th of July. We have Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast most Sunday mornings. Create some of your own traditions. It doesn't have to be one of the big holidays, and it doesn't have to hurt your wallet.

Don't forget that breakfast food can be used to make special meals for non-breakfast meals too. Breakfast food isn't just for breakfast.

What are some of your families' favorite tradition foods and how do you keep them affordable?

*Follow up story for the 4th of July: when my in-laws learned that the amount of ice cream this year was going to be decreased, they offered to buy the cream if I would make full batches. We took them up on the offer, after all who doesn't love lots of ice cream. That can be another tip. If the budget isn't going to allow for your favorite dishes, if others participate in the joy ask if they wouldn't mind adding to the pot. I did still make the Buzzfeed video recipe and it turned out really good.

Cheap Meals: Po'Man's Meal (skillet)

I got this recipe from "Great Depression Cooking with Clara" it is a series a family made so that would have it before their Mother/Grandmother was no longer with them, of her memories and recipes from growing up during the depression. She is so sweet and has great memories to listen to.  I have tried most of her recipes now. This is one that has become a family favorite, I have also adjusted to to fit our tastes more. She calls it "Poorman's Meal"

Need:
6-8 potatoes diced (I always leave my skins on)
3 hot dogs sliced/diced (can be substituted with ham, pork, chicken chunks, or bacon if that was cheaper for you at the time)
1 small-medium onion diced
2 TBS- 1/2 c. Pasta Sauce
1 cup water
*optional various veggies (suggestions- bell peppers, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, carrots, celery)
Salt to taste (it always takes more than I think it should, pepper to taste


How:
Skillet the potatoes in an oiled pan. Add the onions let them start to become translucent, add any veggies that aren't previous cooked at this point. Add your hot dogs (idea is use the cheapest meat available to you).  Add your pasta sauce. Clara's recipe is 2 TBS. I find we like it better around 1/2 c of sauce. At this point add the cup of water and let sit for a while (3-5 minutes). If you want the "sauce" to thicken a little you can add a tablespoon of flour/cornstarch. If you are adding left over veggies add them now and let sit over heat for a couple more minutes. Serve.

*Clara's recipe doesn't have any veggies but the onion and potatoes. I like to add lots of veggies. I add whatever we have on hand. If I have leftover veggies from another night- they all go into the pan. If we have zucchinis or peppers then at least a small portion we have into the pan.

downloadable and printable recipe card- just "save as" the image

Meal Cost Breakdown:
.69 potatoes+ .75 of hot dogs+ .43 of onions+ *.75 of various other veggies+ .62 of pasta sauce= 3.24 for the meal +whatever sides you choose

Why Once a Month shopping?

I get a lot of shocked looks and questions when my local friends find out about my once a month shopping or even our twice a month limit.

How we allot our funds is the last paycheck of the previous month is for all bills that occur before the 15th of that month's budget. The first paycheck of the month is for everything else- so gas and groceries come out of that paycheck. About the 15th of the month I go grocery shopping.  We allow for a second trip that normally happens around the 5th, where one of us (most of the time my husband on his way home from work) goes in and gets milk and a couple fresh items to hold us over til I do our large trip. The second trip is normally about $10 (rarely over) depending on if there is anything else I need.

Why I do it-
1- Less times to the store means we spend less.
2- The planing it takes to make sure we have what we are going to need for a month means we spend less.
3- We live 20 minutes south of town HWY driving. Gas costs a lot. The fewer trips to town I am making means we spend less.
4- It forces me to be a planner. Planing ahead means that we already know what is for dinner, it is probably already partially made. That means dinner is most of the time ready when my husband gets home from work and we are less likely to be temped to eat out. Most of our bad choices when it comes to eating out is because dinner wasn't ready to go. Eating out less means we waste less food I bought at the store and we spend less.

What I do before I go?
-Take inventory of what I have. Make a list of what needs to be replenished and what items I need to use up in my planning.
-Go through the calendar from now until my next shopping trip. Consider plans for each day and assign a mean(s) to each day appropriate for that days needs.
-While planning the means look at the Ads. I normally plan to do on a Monday or Tuesday so that I can use that week's ad to plan what we are buying. If there are no good sales for that week I could go I will then move my shopping to Thursday so I can use Wed's ads to make changes to my plan.
*tip the meat I buy this month is often used for next month's meals, that way I am not at the mercy of what I find to reconfigure meals.
-Go though my calendar meals and add to my shopping list any items that would need to be purchased to make those happen.
-Add to the shopping list items for snacks or making homemade snack food
-Using the ads and previous shopping trips to assign an expected cost to each of item on my shopping list
-Add up all the expected costs, if the expected amount exceeds this month's budget I go through and highlight items I can do without for another month. Also take into consideration if less of an expected item could be purchased to still meet your needs ie- getting 2 lbs of apples instead of 3.
Since these items are still on my list I won't forget that I still needed them, but this way if enough items cost less then I expected to pay for them I can add an item or two from my highlighted list.
-Sit down with or have my husband take a look at my lists, see if he noticed anything I had overlooked or forgotten.
*have a second pair of eyes or do it yourself- look through everything again with a calendar of that month's events in front of them. That way they might notice overlooked things like a party in a child's classroom or that you're assigned snacks for the Tball team.
-after everything is double checked I should be ready to grab my envelope and go

While at the store:
-no item goes into the cart without writing it on the paper. I use a paper that I put three columns on- One for the item name, Two for the expected cost, Three for what the items actual cost was. As I go through the store I put what the actual cost of each item and how many I put into my cart onto the paper.
-I use to enjoy talking my kids with me, now I only go do my once a month shopping when I have no kids only one kid. In addition I only go when I have 2+ hours open to go. If I feel rushed in the store by kids or time restrictions then I make bad choices, forget, or spend more than I wanted. I make sure I can take my time.

this is the way I use to try to once a month shop

When I get home- I rotate, prep some items, and put away. I have a running list of what needs to be bought on a chalkboard inside my cupboard. The top is my Costco list the bottom is the grocery store.

use the inside of a cupboard to create a running grocery list

Last thing I do is delete off the list things I did pick up and write anything on the list I decided I could wait until next month.

Cheap Meals: Ham and Potatoes

Easy recipe that used affordable ingredients. As is the recipe feeds 4 full adult portions.

It uses:
oil (of your choice just enough to cover the pan for use)
6-8 potatoes (scrubbed and diced) approximately 30 ounces of potato.
1 cup chopped loose chunks/cubes ham/pork meat (thick sandwich ham, leftover Easter ham, pork roast, bacon, hot dogs- use what you have or what is cheapest, I have even used diced chicken).
1 can cream of whatever (I prefer cream of mushroom) *
1/2 can milk
1 TBS flour or gravy thickener mix
salt and pepper to taste
optional- 2 TBS sour cream (if you are feeling extravagant more makes a nice creamy sauce. My mom always used a whole 16 oz container in one meal)

*to save money, if you double this recipe, don't double the soup, add an extra 1/2 can milk (for a total of a 1 1/2 cans of milk)

directions:
dice potatoes, put into hot oiled pan, on a medium heat cook the potatoes till they are just starting to soften, add your meat (the more raw your meat is the soon you'll want to add it)- add it by creating a space on your pan for the meat to go. Let it sizzle for a bit and them start mixing the two together. Cook together until the meat is cooked and the potatoes are softy and getting crispy outers. Add the cream of soup, milk, and thickener. Stir well and let sit only stirring to keep it from sticking to pan bottom. Let everything thicken and attach to the potatoes. Remove from heat. Add sour cream just prior to serving after removing from heat. Suggest serving with cooked peas. My mom often mixed cooked peas in, I serve them on the side.

Enjoy. My kids all love this dish. It is one my mom always made for us. She used SPAM (because she liked it), I hated and swore I would never make it for my family. Then one day I was craving the version she'd make after Easter with the leftover ham and I made it. Still can't eat it with SPAM- but if that is what you have it totally does work. (My disgust for SPAM lead me to make this crazy fake cooking show video for a contest back in my single days).

downloadable and printable recipe card (right click and "save as")

Meal Cost Breakdown: based on my last shopping trip (6/16/2015)
potatoes +.69,  bacon(in the picture used 1/4 of package I bought for 2.50) +.62, can of soup +.98, milk +.12, flour +.02, sour cream +.05=2.48 for the main dish + sides

Setting up our Budget- $60 grocery budget

Setting up a budget the first time (especially when you had one that was actually so broken and ignored) is not a fun experience. On the same level as pulling teeth. Not actually that bad. I would rather make a budget then ever have a tooth pulled again.

To get started I recommend checking out the budget tool on Dave Ramsey's site - good place to start out.

So... when we were doing my first budget my husband asked "What are you going to spend on groceries for this month?" Now before I gave the outrageous number I am about to tell you I did give it some thought...

1- we have lots of food storage, I keep telling myself I want to rotate it more

2- I want this number to be as low as possible to we can get a snowball rolling

3- We *JUST* went to Costco last weekend. I should have enough of the big stuff

Then I said with every confidence "$60" "Are you sure $60?" came from my husband. "Yes $60 but that can't be every month just this month." "okay 60"

Now in all honesty as we reviewed our numbers a week later I added 20 to that number to make 80. But that was after I took an actual inventory of what we had and after my children destroyed my deodorant and I realized I was going to have to spend money on deodorant. Now that 60 now 80 was not including what was just spent at Costco, and it was not including the cat's food or liter since that was a separate budget.

Now looking at $80 isn't a whole lot. But I figured taking into account the other stuff it should be enough. After all prior to starting our money make over I was spending between $250-300 a month depending on if it was a Costco month or not (we do not live near a Costco, we only go every other month). I don't know if we have a "Year Supply" or not, but we do have an impressive amount of food storage that is mostly rotatable. So this should totally be possible. **in full disclosure that budget number did not reflect what we spent eating out. I am so ashamed of that number I am not going to tell you what we WERE spending eating out and letting food go bad, Not any more**

How I shop (tips for thrifty shopping):

1-Now I already have tried to follow the "Once a Month Grocery shopping" except I have made it a twice a month shopping (comes out to once a paycheck)- one BIG everything trip, and one other time trip for milk and some fresh veggies and fruits (whatever is on sale) with the occasionally totally forgot item. I normally send my husband and he is awesome at buying only exactly what I put on his list. I find it is easier to spend less money the less times I walk into a store. I learned about it from this blogger at Blissful and Domestic. Although I can't find her original post that got me thinking about it and changing my attitudes on how I shopped. 

2- I do not coupon. I know it could save me money but it is hardly worth it for me. Here are some of my reasons- it takes a lot of time, I have a hard time obtaining coupons (I refuse to buy newspapers), the coupons friends save for me are normally expired or not what I need by the time I get them, when I have used them I don't feel like I saved money because I end up spending money on things I wouldn't have normally bought, I have got viruses on my computer from downloading coupons and coupon apps -no more. I am not anti-coupons. I do use the on a blue moon. But most of the time they are the ones I get from the store to use on my next visit, or the rare one I found online or was given that is perfect.

3- If I don't have it I find a way to make do! Leave it out, find a substitute, make from scratch, mend it, put it on the list for next month.

4- I make shopping lists. One running list of when I use something up, and I make a list- based off of that week's Ads and what I need of exactly what I am going to purchase. My shopping list has 3 columns One for the item to be purchased, Two for the expected purchase price with the number next to it of how many I plan on buying, Three to fill in at the store of how much the item actually costs. If my list of what to buy is over my budget then I have to decide what comes off the list- what I don't actually NEED.

5-Save a little in your budget for stocking up (planned from sales or unplanned for that special discount you find when you get there.)

6- Part of knowing what you need is knowing what you are going to make. Plan your meals. Make the list. Use a calendar (I put it into my google calendar so both my husband and I can see it) Now I know this all sounds like I'm an organized "J" personality (Myers-Briggs for "judging" personality type of organized person who loves lists). But I am not. I am as "P" as it gets and so is my husband (and that is where we have made lots of bad choices, because we don't make choices). WE have learned that we have to start making choices, we have to be proactive, and we HAVE to make some lists otherwise we all forget the easiest things. If I can do it- you can do it. 

7- I personally don't are about "organic" or "gluten-free" those are not my family needs. We do look for items that are "Whole Wheat" "no sugar added" and "reduced-fat". These things are things you can personally value. You can value what you want to, but remember that to stick to a budget there are trade offs you have to sometimes make. Fun a new way, make do, or do without.

8- Buy in bulk (it is lasting you a month or two, if you won't use it up in that time then don't buy it in bulk, but there is no need to buy 4 off the small item if you are going to use the large one)

9- Use less meat, I use about half or less of whatever a recipe calls for. I then often add beans or veggies as fillers in the recipe. We try to do one meal a week completely meatless- we started this one not to save money but as a way to feel we were better keeping the Word of Wisdom to "eat meat sparingly". We also have a meat grinder attachment for our Kitchen Aid. I rarely buy ground meats. Instead we buy bulk meat and grind it ourselves. I use ground pork or chicken in any recipe that calls for a ground meat.

10- Confession, I don't make bread. I'm trying, but my loafs of bread of super sad. But we have found fantastic bread for .50 a loaf (I can't make it quite that cheap or good). How? Bread factories day old bread or irregular bread. In Mesa (Southern & Country Club) is a bread factory. If you go in the morning (Monday- Friday) rejected loafs or day old loafs are .50 each. On Wed and Friday after one all their loafs are $1 each limit 5. There is no limit on the .50 loafs until they are out of stock. When we go up to Mesa to visit my family we stop in and buy 20-30 loafs and freeze them. When we can't be up in the mornings on a week day we try to find someone to stop by for us and pick up our loaves. If we run out of bread before we go up again, that is when I make our bread.

(we ended up with some funny math because I had to go back and fix the cost of some items)

So onto how I spend the $80 this month:

Milk x4 @1.99

Eggs   @11.99 (5 doz pack. Local price 6/16/2015)

Flour    @3.57 (10 lb all-purpose enriched flour, I grind my own wheat flour and most things I use a 3 wheat cups to 1 all-purpose ratio)

animal crackers @1.99 (Huge bag of Mexican animal crackers. My kids like them better than the "organic" Kirtland signature ones at Costco. I use the Costco tub and refill it with the cheapies and my kids are happier- one bag almost fills the cost tub)

Peanut Butter @4.69 (store brand, largest I could buy)

Pineapples x2 @.87each
Molassas  @3.59

Cottage cheese @1.69

Sour Cream @1.69 (larger tub, hurt me but I bought full fat because the reduce fat wasn't on sale- like I said make trade offs for budget)

Yogurt  @1.99 (large tub-vanilla)

Lettuces x2 @.99 

Onion bag  @2.49

5lb bag potatoes @3.69

apples 2lbs @.99

Crazins @2.00

Tomato Soup @1.67 (family size store brand)

small white Corn Tortillas @2.69 (70 tortillas)

Hamburger buns @.89 (small store brand 8 buns)

Block of Medium Cheddar Cheese @1.67

Sliced Cheese @1.99

Chips @1.00 (store brand baked tortilla chips)

Heavy cream @1.49 (this was a frivolous purchase to make ice cream on the July 4th because it is tradition)

Jello  2x .39

gelatin @1.49

Hot Dogs @.89 (store brand, chicken and pork and I don't care what you say)

Frozen Peas @2.39 (largest bag I could find)

syrup @1.99 (I had been making it from scratch for the past few weeks but the cost of the butter and brown syrup actually came out more then the $2 for the jug)

deodorant @3.79 (husband bought the brand I wanted, died a little when I learned what he paid- oh well live and learn)

=with tax= $78.17

Now there was one item I still need to buy and I'm not sure how I am going to buy it. I need to go to the local farmer's market and buy and new large jar of local honey and that is $8. I am going to see if I can make the bit of honey we have last till next month's budget and add my change to next month. Either that or I will be raiding all my coin jars for the 6 something to go buy our honey.

So yes I did it under $80. Yes I bought a few items I could have cut out. But with the gelatin and Jello I am going to make homemade fruit snacks for my kids, I didn't need the can of soup, I found the one I thought I had already in the pantry when I got home, and I could have totally passed on the expensive never on sale Molasses for another day (my husband uses it to make BBQ sauce and I make ginger snaps for my kids). 

And yes if I didn't have a good amount of food storage and spices in my cupboard already (including meat in my freezer). This wouldn't have been possible, but then I would have been buying more of those items and less of the special items like the jello and cream.

What our meals look like:

Breakfast-
Oatmeal with brown sugar/pb/fruit, eggs with toast, cream of wheat (made with my wheat grinder), crockpot soaked wheat, pancakes/waffles, homemade cinnamon rolls (Sunday Morning), cold cereal (never more than once a week and only when it was on sale sale), fried rice, egg and potatoes skillet

Lunch-
My husband takes leftovers, or a meat and cheese sandwich with a snack every day for work. We do have Healthy Choice Steamers that I buy on sale when $1 each in the deep freezer as back ups for bad mornings when I don't make him a lunch.
Me and the kids: pb&Js, dino chickens from Costco, noodles with canned veggies, quesadillas (cheese and tortilla), bean burritos/tostadas, ritz crackers/ham/pepperonies/sliced cheese , mac N cheese, cheese sandwich (hot or cold),

Dinner-
I try to have a good variety. But using similar ingredients. Every Friday I make homemade pizza (and extra dough & make the cinnamon rolls for Sunday, they then sit covered in the fridge till Sunday morning when I cook them), Saturday is my husband's night to grill, we tend to grill a lot of pork chops, chicken thighs, and turkey burgers because that is the cheapest meats.
listing off meals: pasta with veggies, lasagna, stir fry, Korean Bolgolgi, Thai Fried Rice, Chicken Alfredo, creamy pasta, Enchiladas (bean and chicken, sometimes pulled pork), pulled pork tamales (baked Tamale Pie), pulled pork sandwiches, pulled pork tacos, pulled pork over zucchini, Pulled pork Taco Salad Stacks, chicken and rice, hay stacks, Curry, Various Chilies, Shepherds Pie (most of the time made with ground pork), Crock pot pork chops, Strogonoff, Ham and Potatoes, PoMan's, Pigs in a cloud (mashed potatoes with hot dogs), Baked potatoes, Omelets, Tuna Noodle Casserole. 

last week dinners:

Mon- Thai fried Rice, Tues- Shepherds' Pie, Wed-Chicken Salad Lettuces Wraps, Thurs- Baked Potatoes, Friday- Pasta Salad (husband and son at Church activity so I skipped making Pizza), Sat- Homemade Pizza

This week's plan:

Sun-Lasagna (mixture of veggies and meat), Mon- Ham and Potatoes, Tues- Left overs, Wed- Enchiladas, Thurs-Crock Pot Pork Chops Fri- Pizza, Fri- Hot dogs (grilled)

Sorry there are no links yet. Eventually I hope to get them all up either to other sites or on this blog.

Snacks-
apples, fruits of the month (pineapple slices this month- I cut and freeze), animal crackers,popcorn, fruit snacks (I make), mini quesadillas, carrots, otter pops, yogurt, crackers (sometimes I make them), slice of cheese, chips and salsa, PICKLES spears

Good luck with your shopping. Next time I won't be explaining all my tips.