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

July's Grocery Shopping

Finished my once a month shopping. This last weekend we went to Mesa. That means a trip to the bread store and to Costco.

To start my husband and I had a long talk about what needed to be purchased and we decided we needed to split the household items from the groceries. If I am going to have a budget of $200 for groceries it is $200 of food. But I wanted to have some flexibility between grocery and household. So for this month's budget was $230 for grocery and household $210 and $20 for household items (shampoo, toilet papers, paper towels, soaps, ect)

7/6/15 (husband had to pick up a prescription and I had him pick up a couple items in addition)

Prescription         $1.43*

Body Wash          $4.63*

cabbage                   $.94    

                                     =$7

7/10/15

Bread store                 $15

Costco

Cherrios  ($7.89-2.30) $5.59

Yellow Onions      $3.49

Potatoes 20lb        $7.79

Skippy Peanut Butter (9.79-2.80) $6.99 x2

Mild Cheddar  2#    $4.85

Chocolate Chips      $9.99

Feminine Hygiene pads (12.49-2.50) $9.99*

Trident Gum         $7.89

5 Doz Eggs           $10.99

Batteries 9V         $15.89*

Mixed Veggies    $6.49

3pk Lettuce          $2.79

Seaweed               $9.79

Sliced Cheese      $9.99

Tortillas  40ct      $3.89

Tortillas  80ct      $3.49

Mini Peppers       $5.49

Sliced Ham          $9.89

Yeast                   $4.39

Corn Tortilla Chips $3.19

Carrots                $4.79 x2

tax                       $11.00

                                        =$164.30

7/14/2015

Dill pickle chips    $1.50

butter tub               $1.29

Yogurt     (.50x10)   $5

Milk  (3x1.99)       $5.97

Salsa                      $4.99

Shampoo               $1.39*

Animal Crackers (.88x3) $2.64

Hot dogs      (.89x2)  $1.78

Jello                       $.39

Blueberries            $.97

Butter Sticks  (2x.99) $1.98

Pork shoulder         $10.80

Apples                    $1.67

Graham Crackers   $1.69

                                  +tax =$41.79

Total= $7+$15+$164.30+$41.79= 228.09

leaving me $1.91

(household $31.94, grocery 198.06) 

I made one impulse purchase at Costco- I bought the Seaweed for my husband's snack food. I also made one purchase that I would have been better to have bought at the grocery store- the mini peppers. 

There were so many things I wanted to purchase that I just did because the money wasn't in the envelope. It is hard. I have never had to be that disciplined with our money. It was a little rough. I had to remind myself we have plenty of food we aren't going to starve. 

I still need to go get honey at the local farmers market but I will have to put it off for one more month.

Affordable Bread

Bread - We all eat it. Unless you're gluten free and have given up trying to eat gluten type foods. 

Here are the problems with bread...

healthy verses cheap

time verses convenience

I have friends who make their own bread. Some of them have their bread day and the spend the day making bread and that is their bread for the whole next week.

When you make bread- cheap bulk yeast, flour or wheat with a wheat grinder bring the cost lower and lower. But it takes lots of time. Also if you're bad at bread making, like myself, it can be less affordable when you have loaves that aren't edible. 

In all my blog reading of those trying to save money I remember one mom said she gave up on buying the organic super healthy thick bread. Instead she just went to stocking up when on sale and never spent more than $1 per loaf.

A few years ago my sister introduced me to Alpine Valley Bread. She is a huge fan of Whole Foods and Sprouts- and like stores. She had found Alpine bread there and fell in love with it. Their bread is healthy and hearty. It has the weight to it like homemade bread. Then someone introduced her to the bread factory and the discounts of buying the bread at the factory.

They are located in Mesa Arizona on Southern east of Country Club.

On Wed. and Fri. at 1pm all fresh made that day loaves are discounted to $1 a loaf limit 5 per person until all the loaves are sold (they close at 3pm).

But in addition to those sales and that going in and buying fresh loaves is cheaper and more fresh then the specialty stores, irregular loaves and day old loaves are 50 cents a loaf. Considering we bring our loaves home and put them in the freezer, day old is the least of our cares. The 50 cent loaves aren't the most exciting. They tend to be the less popular breads (ie multi-grains breads or cracked wheat). Sometimes they have specialty breads, buns, rolls, and desserts for great deals.

When we go, I have found going in the morning is best. The store section opens at 8am. If you wait to until the $1 deals (best way to get the specialty breads) the 50 cent loafs are all gone.

We don't live in the Phoenix Valley. My sister lives in Mesa, almost down the street from the factory. They don't have a huge box freezer. Since she didn't have the freezer space for a lot, she would go once a week and get their family's bread for the week. For us I go every other month or every three months. It depends on if we can get up on a week day before they close.

This last trip I had $15 of our grocery budget. So I was looking at about 30 loaves that would need to last us about 3 months. When I got there they has some boxes filled with 15 loaves each. I asked the cashier about them. My first thought wasn't a discount for the bulk but instead I was thinking if they were already in a box and wouldn't get smashed on the ride back home. She said that if I bought the whole box (unopened) they were $5 a box (would be $7.50 when 50 cents a loaf). Done. 45 loaves for $15 that will make a huge difference when it comes to making our bread last for 3 months till the next time we come up.

Showing up at the right moment to places like this makes getting great deals a matter of luck or in this case I don't see it as luck- I see it was a huge blessing. Yes we are going to be eating 9 grain bread and nothing else for the next 3 months, the point is we have enough bread for 3 months and it only cost us 33 cents a loaf. We were blessed.

There are places like this all over. Do some searches make some calls.

What are some things ya'll do to make staples like bread cheap and affordable?

Keeping our Costco membership

In deciding that we were going to cut out all the non-necessities from our budget as a way to sacrifice.

We had a long discussion about our Costco membership. The nearest Costco is about 65 miles from our home. So going has to be a planned and calculated choice. Is a Costco membership really worth it for us when we live so far and can go so infrequently?

We travel to Phoenix about every other month to visit my family, have my siblings see their cousins, pick up our bread, attend the Temple as part of our religious commitments, and to go to Costco. So is having a membership going to be worth it to us.

Math- we started with a list of what we buy and what the cost of starting to buy those at the grocery store (or online) would be and the cost verse buying them at Costco. In Oats and peanut butter alone our Costco membership is paid for in a year.

So we determined that the membership is not worth taking off our budget as a sacrifice (and it would be a sacrifice, I love shopping at Costco). We did discus canceling the membership and having someone purchase gift cards* for us any time we needed to go, but our past experience trying to get family in friends to do errands for us before we come up to town haven't worked very well and relaying on that we'd have what we need and when would not be a smart idea considering our tight windows.

*$ saving tip- you don't needed a membership card to go shopping at Costco, a Costco gift card will do

What do I buy at Costco?
first off great resource- QueenBeenCoupon's Costco price list or Pratical-Stewardship's list
Prices at Costco change all the time, but this is a good place to check when you're debating if that item at the store is a better deal than Costco or the other way around. This list of what I buy is always being evaluated and changing. Sometimes these items are even on the Costco which makes them even more of an awesome deal

• Quaker Oats 10 lb total (2 bags) are $7.99 box = .80 per lb compare to the best price I have EVER got on the 42 oz canisters is .95 per lb- and that is Costco's everyday price- you can't beat it.
• Peanut Butter the 2 packs of the 48 oz =.10 per oz the grocery store brand in the cheapest per ounce of peanut butter is .12 per oz on sale.
• Whole Rotisserie chickens ~3lbs= 4.99 (1.66 per lb) these are huge, ready to eat, and I normally make it stretch it for at least three meals. Also great for when you are going to get home late from doing the shopping or on vacation- run into a Costco instead of fast food for your family.
• Vlasic 1 Gallon Pickle jars- 1 jar ~$4.90 that is the same price as the small jars at my local grocery store.
• Whole Almonds- $15.99 for a 3 lb bad. I love almonds and substitute them for pecans or walnuts (since I can't eat those) in every recipe, this is $5.23 per lb, at the grocery I can easily pay $7 for less than a pound of shelled almonds.
• Chocolate Chips- $9.99 for 72 oz. an 11 oz bag at the grocery store has to be $1.50 or less to beat that price. 
• Baby Carrots- we eat baby carrots almost every day at our house. As snacks with meals, yes if you don't eat carrots they will go bad and are not a good deal for you. But compared to the grocery store price about $1 per pound at its very best these 5lb bags of carrots come in at .98 per lb. If you like the pre-bags carrots, come home and split some of the bag into snack bags/containers. Without carrots we end up eating processed chips- which would you rather have your family eating. I buy at least 2 every time I'm at Costco, sometimes 3.

Now because I do once a month shopping and I'm not running into the store to grab the best deal every time it goes on sale there are things I buy at Costco because the every day price there is cheaper then the everyday grocery store price, and doing the coupons, price matching, and running around isn't worth it to me. If I happen to be at the store when they are on sale- awesome I'll pick it at there, but otherwise it is Costco:

• Ham- There pre-cut extra lean ham it comes in 1.5 lbs 2 packs for around $10
• Eggs- 5 dozen, if I can going home to my house and not traveling these bulk packs are cheaper then the local grocery store when they are not on sale. Lately eggs haven't been on sale much.
• Frozen Veggies- The quality is better than the grocery story's and if the grocery story isn't having a good deal they are about the same price.
• Cream of Mushroom Soup- yes I know, making it myself is cheaper. I'm a little intimidated that it will change the taste too much to use homemade versions. So if you're lazy like me =.89 per can, butter price then anything that isn't a lot sale at the grocery store.
• Yogurt- its on coupon at Costco a lot, and unless the local store has a super 20/$10 sale, Costco is typically cheaper
• Apple Sauce- the jars come in packs of 4 averaging $2 per jar. That is a typical sale price for the same size jar.
• Flour- 25 lb bag for 7.99 that is about .32 per lb of flour. If you bake a lot this is a great deal
• Sugar- 25 lb bag for 10.79 that is .43 per lb of sugar. If you do a lot of baking!
• Fresh Spinach bags-  - Fantastic deal but you have to have a game plan to make this happen. You'll have about 2 weeks from leaving the store. Planned meals with Spinach (my husband loves it for lunch salads) good news it you can freeze what you don't get to in time.
• Computer paper
• Printer Ink
• Tortillas
• Minced Garlic
• Otter pops- these are only available seasonally, they come 80 in a box and are a great price. I found them once at the grocery story for about the same price for 100 and thought I was getting a way better deal until I realized that the Costco otter pops are the 2 ounce pops and the grocery store are 1 ounce pops. Take your pick on what you value- if you're giving pops to 100 kids at a summer camp doing the smaller ones at 100 pops might be the better deal for you.
• Fruit Snacks- when I'm not making my own and when these are on coupon, it is a good price for fruit snacks and the ones at Costco have more nutritional value then the cheap ones at the grocery store.
• Yeast- when I am doing a lot of pizza, bread, and dough making I go through a lot of yeast. I go through those packets at the grocery store so fast and the Costco yeast is worth it. So if I'm buying yeast at Costco I am making a commitment to use it regularly and not get lazy on my dough making.

What I don't buy at Costco:

• Animal Crackers- I love to eat them,  I love to use the canisters afterwards for storing all the other bulk items I buy at Costco- but $9 for 64 oz. I have found my kids love the super cheap animal Crackers that are $1 for 1 lb from our local grocery store.
• BBQ sauce- yes there are some fun and tasty BBQ sauce at Costco, but every time I've done the numbers I am over paying even everyday prices at my local grocery store.
• Hot Dog packages- Even when on coupon it always feels there are better deals at my local grocery story
• Meats in general- I travel a way to get to the Costco- my meats have to survive the drive in freezer bags, in addition, they are never that great of prices. Yes they are around the average price at the grocery, but it is one of those items that I can regularly get cheaper at the grocery story- if I am willing to buy the meat and cuts that are on sale that week. Now if you want a specific cut or type of meat for a special occasion then this is a reasonable deal for not overspending on it. Example for me is Lamb- lamb is expensive but there are a couple times of year I like to make lamb for special occasions. If I buy it at my local grocer then I will pay about $10 per lb. I can similar cuts for around $5.50 per lb. Still more then my goal per lb cost for meat in general but it is for a special occasion. 
• Soda/pop- if you are a Soda drinker of more than a can a day, this might be a good deal for you, but even when discounted at Costco they are still more per can then I would ever spend on it at the grocery store. My purchase price for soda has be to cheaper than .20 per can, Costco comes close sometimes, but not to my purchase point.

What are your must buys or stay-away products at Costco?

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.

Grocery Budget Moving Forward

So when I choose $60 for June's grocery budget. I knew that was not going to be sustainable, and I made that clear to my husband. I just knew we could make some sacrifices in the food department in order to get more cash flow to help get our snow ball going.

But that has egged the question for me of "What should our grocery budget be?"
1- I want a sustainable budget to feed my family of 6 to be full and healthy eating.
2- Room for the occasional fun items.
3- Comfortably have money left each month for saving for food storage.
4- Wiggle room for my every-other-month trip to Costco and trips to the bread store.
5- But still reflects the sacrifice we are making to get out of debt.

What should be a reasonable amount?
After searching a ton of blogs on what other thrifty people are spending I found one of them quoting Dave Ramsey, then I found it on his web site.
"We recommend spending 5–15% of your take-home pay on food, which includes groceries and meals out."
So this was a good place to start. My husband and I did the math and decided that our previous spending (before our money make over) was reasonable for the grocery side, not reasonable when you considered what we were spending eating out. Our previous grocery bills averaged $250-300 per month.

Taking my list of what I want in a grocery budget, what we were spending before, and Mr. Ramsey's advice, I am going to aim for $210. $200 for groceries & household items, and $10 for food storage and stocking up. I know I can do this. It will mean rethinking some of our meals- I have never been a big potato using person. I will be utilizing those much more. I'm going to be cutting any store bought junk food. I will be doing better with my meal planing and making more deliberate choices on what I purchase. Yes that means no more sushi lunches (a pleasure I have always justified by buying my husband his own sushi for lunch too).
I think this is totally do able, and as we do this longer we can adjust as needed.

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.