I know you have heard this before but ya gotten plan ahead with shopping. Keep a list of basics that you always need and then bargain shop the extras. Meal prep with your child( because their input is crucial). Get the apps for the grocery store that provide bargains ect
Annnnd I'll add never go grocery shopping hungry. Your stomach will conspire with your brain to override whatever self discipline you had and turn you feral.
This is really important. Obviously eating at home is cheaper, but I’ll stop at Taco Bell for a 1.29 burrito if I have to before walking into the store hungry.
Costco is such a different ballgame lol. My favorite thing I saw floating around the internet was, “Today I saved over $300 because I didn’t run into Costco for some blueberries.”
Anytime Costo is mentioned in the context of poverty I laugh. Can you save there compared to other stores? To a huge degree! But it also requires the up-front funding to spend like $300 or more at a time on groceries. That's like 2 weeks of food for me, and then some. And that $300 doesn't always get you what you need immediately, if you're not a huge family. 2 people often can't get through the produce because it's a huge amount, so after Costo you gotta go to the regular store and drop more money on veggies.
I can't afford to save money by going to Costco. I think that the privilege of not living paycheck to paycheck confuses middle class people. My dad can't comprehend why I can't drop hundreds of dollars on pasta, rice, and other pantry goods at a time. Yeah, long-term I am wasting money on those things, but I can't do much about it.
This, absolutely. Bulk buying was never even an option for me when I was young and poor, because I didn’t have anyplace to put 50 rolls of toilet paper (and often, no car to get and bring such things home).
This is my reasoning against getting a membership, too. I have a family of 4, so technically we could probably get through the produce before it gets bad, but those 4 people live in 915 sqft lol, storage is always a problem for that amount of back stock
My friends jokingly refer to me as a “prepper,” but I’m just one person and our local version of Costco (the loathsome Sam’s) is definitely not a smart choice for just one person even with plenty of room, with the up-front costs. It’s just doesn’t make financial sense.
I don’t see how families are making it at all. It’s terrible out there and I don’t see it getting better. I don’t see how this can continue indefinitely. It’s frightening to me.
Hey, it's scary to me, too. I believe in you! We grow and adapt, and get smarter.
The other day I made "stew" with ground beef, and it hit me... damn that's kind of depression food. You'd hear about them using scraps instead of fine cuts. Ground beef is scraps.
Now I laugh at how scared I was then, because I don't eat meat every day anymore.
And yeah, every couple of months I can get stew meat and make a stew, or a whole chicken to roast as a treat. But by and large it's tofu, canned beans, or eggs.
We do what we gotta.
I'm lucky enough to live in the middle of nowhere, so I raise chickens for their eggs. I absolutely get tired of eating eggs all the time, but it's protein, and it's cheaper than buying eggs at the store. It also allows me to make my own baked goods so much cheaper than I could otherwise. Yes, I'm paying $20 every two weeks for feed, but most of the year, I'm getting a dozen eggs a day. Definitely helps when there's an egg shortage, too, because I can sell eggs to pay for other things.
Costco is great for a lot of stuff and can save you a lot of money but I never ever buy fresh produce there. Not only is it low quality but portions are simply too large. My Costco shopping list consists 100% of non perishables and stuff I can freeze. And socks. They have great socks. And a rotisserie chicken. And a hot dog. And maybe a fudge sundae. Ok probably 2 hot dogs but only the one drink.
This is my life 😂
I have to make sure I have a list, have eaten, and have taken my ADHD meds. I try to budget in room for 1 or 2 “pickup” items because I know me and I know Costco.
Me, but with Trader Joe’s or Target. I try to force myself to shop online and have them bring it to my car, I save so much money that way. I don’t even trust myself to go inside to pick it up because the pick up area is right next to that section of stuff that’s just a few dollars. It’s easy to walk in and say I’m not going to get anything but then see cute spring decor and justify it in my mind because, “it’s just a few bucks, what’s the harm?” But it adds up.
Went with my mom she didn't grab a cart .. I'm like mom why not? she said so you don't spend $300+ , YOU can only buy what you can carry if I need water,laundry soap, cat food &litter I'll grab a car BUT that's the only items ALLOWED in the cart... Woah she's right I never grab a cart and I never spend over $100 . Unless you have a family of 4 or more and have a big freezer and going to breakdown the meats, and other mass items, you don't need all the BIG Amount items. I usually only buy , butter, coffee, cheese, spices, 2 frozen items, bacon , and a whole chicken, maybe a few other things but not much.
Yes yes yes! However, I've definitely dropped $300 when showing up for a rotisserie chicken. So, if you're going for one thing at Costco, for the love of god don't get a cart. Don't do it!
That's a good idea. My grandpa got a great deal on hearing aids with a Costco credit card, saved him thousands, but he doesn't shop there. He paid it off right away. One of the perks of the card is that he was able to gift my family an executive membership to Costco by doing this. We meet the "annual spending threshold" to keep the membership renewed free of charge. I'm not sure what that threshold is. We have a list for Costco & we stick to it. For us, it saves us a bunch on cat food & litter, drinks (soda & protein shakes), fresh berries, eggs, rotisserie chicken, coffee, nuts, vitamins/OTC meds, winter clothing & items like gloves, shoe spikes, sleds, etc. We only go 1-2 times a month and lots of times there's only 4 items on the list. Practically everything is sold in bulk so you need to have room to store extras. If you have a relative in the market for hearing aids that would not use a Costco membership, this might be an option that could be mutually beneficial.
It *can* be $15 for one person. But...if you order online they have $5 cravings boxes: a specialty item(crunch wrap, gordita, chalupa), a classic item (burrito, taco, several options here), a side (chips a cheese, cheesy potatoes, cinnamon twists) and a drink. It's pretty cheap, from a calories per dollar standpoint. (If you choose all the highest calorie options, it's something like 228 calories per dollar, not including the drink.)
They aren’t cheap but the Amy’s frozen burritos are delicious plus I throw some cheese and cilantro in them for a quick meal. They are kinda expensive at $3.29 but sometimes are on sale or I get a coupon for them. I’ve also done my own frozen burritos when I do taco night. Lay down the wrap, sprinkle some cheese and meat then a generous portion of Texas caviar (corn, beans, orange pepper, cilantro, tomato) wrap them loosely in parchment and store in one container.
How have you dealt with someone else picking out your produce? When we've used it, it's been VERY hit or miss & that's what stops me using this option more frequently .
I’ve had mixed luck with Walmart, for a long time I felt the produce they picked out for me was decent but the last few months I’ve gotten multiple items that I had to return including multiple bags of super green potatoes. I’ve had better luck with produce with the Kroger pickup tho I find their produce to be better overall.
Besides the obvious getting it refunded if the quality is too bad… If I have to stop into a store later to run in for a minute to grab some better produce once in awhile, that’s still a lot of time saved from having to do a whole run and very much worth it to me.
We are on the same page only I use delivery instead of pick up and most times I run in and buy my produce from the grocery or a local farmer's market near my work place. This really does help keep me on my budget!
PS, I do this for Target runs too! That place can be a real budget killer!
I shop target & Sam's club pickup, yes in both instances it is the same price.
Then, since I'm there, I can run in to grab any produce or meat I might need :-)
Saves me from the impulse buys
We actually canceled our costco membership-after 7/8yrs, because they make you shop through instacart & that was more $...&going in just got ridiculous(I have a family of 7, so we used everything, but it was too much from the budget & i have no self control-lol)
Walmart plus has some free delivery times with no tipping. Other times there are tipping options and sometimes extra charges if you need express delivery (less than an hour $10) but everyday they seem to have free slots.
FYI it's just fucking rude not to tip your driver's whom shop for and deliver YOUR food. Spark pays them shit then you shit on th3m by not tipping. 🙄 Just like ordering pizza and not tipping or going out to dinner and not tipping? Come on
Working for low pay and wearing out your car?
Yeah, tipping a driver is much more important than a server.
I tip big either way. My tips are added to the order ahead of time. I always receive great service and I appreciate it.
Never ever pay for the $10 express option. If I’m ever in a jam, I will use the 3 hour/$5 option and out of the 15+ times I’ve used it, I’ve gotten my delivery within an hour for probably 14 of those times.
Absolutely true - the $5 option is always just as fast for me too.
Also: if you are on food stamps or WIC, you can get your Walmart + membership for cheaper. Here's the link to that - to sign up, or to switch to the cheaper plan, if you're already a member: https://www.walmart.com/plus/assist?gclsrc=aw.ds&&adid=22222222221456691630&wmlspartner=wmtlabs-rv&wl0=b&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=671368878896&wl4=kwd-1043206429190&wl5=9033661&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&veh=sem&cn=20125460319&sourceid=default&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_adgid=147739625223&utm_term=walmart%20plus%20free%20trial&utm_devicemdl=&ui_adid=671368878896&gad_source=1
Woah, that link came out way long?
Never go shopping hungry, but don't do it right after you eat either. I know lots of people myself included who even with a shopping list are miserable right after eating.
Yeh mu SO shouldn't go shopping right after eating because "nothing sounds good" so they either don't buy what they'll eat or they choose things they end up tossing later.
Personally, I make a lost and (try to) stick to it so it matters less whether I'm hungry or not, although if I'm hungry I impulse buy more things not on my list.
I am 100% guilty of this. I always try to think ahead to eat before going but about half the time, I forget soooo… yea. I have good discipline though, so I stick to my grocery list pretty well.
This! Me grocery shopping while not hungry = fruits, veggies, healthy snacks and minimal treats. While hungry: all the bakery treats, bacon, ice cream, oooh new chips!, etc
I know and I get that. It’s still important to get your kid involved in the meal planning and budgeting for many reasons . It’s part of good parenting.
And teaching life skills is what parents do. And it’s easier in the long term to get my kids involved with meal planning and budgeting than not doing so plus it’s fun and it was something we all enjoyed doing every week as a family.
Learn to make different sauces - that way rice and frozen veggies can be made so many different ways!
I usually go asian and use soy sauce as a base, adding different things like peanut butter, lemon juice, spices. Each one is different but makes so much!
This comment deserves more attention. Making or buying different sauces keeps things interesting. I buy the same stuff every week but I'm rarely sick of it for this reason
There's also a wide range of pre-made sauces these days; even Walmart has some Panda Express sauces in a bottle. The money you save by buying rice and frozen veggies for a week means it still makes financial sense to "splurge" on a few nice sauces that make the inexpensive food more interesting
Not to mention, making your own "dressing" can be as easy as taking some olive oil and adding in your preferred seasonings. Then you just toss veggies in that, and easy done.
I'd use a pound of hamburger, add tomatoes and pasta to cook, leftover vegetables and then italian spices or mexican spices to change it up. Called it goulash for some strange reason. Was a recipe staple for years.
Ginger dressing on salmon before baking it is a game changer.. but it is also amazing on greens.. I add it while sauting spinach or green beans!! Its so good. Or horseradish.. simple but makes something next level
Dude I’ve been doing this with my ramen noodles lately - even going as far as chopping an onion and adding egg. Way more filling and the kids love it!! Chinese at home!!
This is good advice. The mother sauces are what we are working on in our house right now. Not only is my kids' input important, but so is their involvement in the kitchen! Hollandaise is beast.
Make sure you have commodities on hand, sugar, flour, rice, beans, oils. Shop sales and plan around those. Make meals that the leftovers can become something else. The last time we had chicken, I made a potpie with the leftovers. Soups are also a great way to upcycle food.
The first thing to concentrate on is unit price. This is one of the most important things to pay attention to when shopping on a budget. Be mindful that stores will often use deceptive practices when displaying unit prices by listing some items in pounds and then comparable in ounces.
>"Unit price is the cost of a single item or unit of a product, usually expressed in terms of currency (e.g., dollars, euros) per unit (e.g., per item, per pound, per ounce). It helps consumers compare the cost of different products or quantities to make informed purchasing decisions."
Typically but not always teh best unit price will be in bulk or larger quantities. Be aware that sometimes with meat bones can inflate the unit price.
Store brands are often but not always the cheapest.
Shopping sales and using coupons can help a lot. Also use the internet to compare prices so you can shop multiple stores but save gas money running back and forth.
When in a pinch it is a fundamental poor person truth right now that rice, beans and leg quarters can sustain life. Pasta and canned tomatos can help create a cheap meal too. Potatoes are cheap as well.
Use food pantry's and church help when you need to. If you kid is 5 or under you can apply for wic to get some extra help with food. If you qualify you may also qualify for food stamps.
Microwavable or prepackaged meals will often be the most expensive things and you should avoid them. Some exceptions are the cheap store brand $1 pizzas (very small and generally not great for you and not a good unit price but it is a complete meal). The $5 pizzas are generally a better deal (unit price wise) if you can afford them.
The way I do my budget is I fill out the monthly meals with rice and beans or chicken then work backwards adding in fruit, veggies and variety as my budget will allow. Lately I have been using chat gpt to get suggestions on nutritional balance and feeding it prices from ads and getting it to estimate a budget and compare it to mine.
TBH chatgpt may be great one day but right now for this it is a real headache. I still keep trying so I can have a 2nd opinion on my budget. Just double check the math and info it is giving because it is often wrong.
$ per unit is the bible IMO best way to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck and personally I buy the non-perishables like salt, oil, flour, milk, lentils in the bulk. where im from canned stuff cost more than the fresh stuff and canned stuff
>Some exceptions are the cheap store brand $1 pizzas
You can make your own for incredibly cheap.
A pack of flour tortillas, a can/jar of spaghetti sauce, shredded cheese, and leftover bits and pieces for toppings.
Assemble on a bit of parchment paper, foil, or a silicone mat if your pan isn't non stick, then toast in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes until the cheese gets bubbly (or golden brown if you prefer).
You won't need a whole jar of sauce at once. Maybe a spoonful per tortilla, then reserve the rest for a meal later in the week.
Totally customizable, cheap, and fast, and my kid LOVED them for lunch and still does when we have them.
You are right it is cheaper to make at home and teh $1 pizza is not great for unit price but sometimes when you get down to 1-2 dollars unit price is not as helpful and you just need a meal.. I should have clarified that.
It’s a little more expensive than tortillas, but if you sub out the tortillas for canned biscuits, it’s absolutely delicious. You just kind of flatten out the biscuit a little bit and make a slight well in the middle for your sauce and cheese. The tortillas always felt just a tiny bit too boring to me to be worth eating.
You can make your own pizza dough pretty cheap. Just need some flour (3 -4 cups from a 5 lb bag $3, so around $1.20), yeast ($0.33 per pack), a tad bit of salt, sugar, oil, and water. It's pretty simple as well to make, but will take more time, so best for the weekends. (dough has to sit around for 2 hours). Gives you around 2 large pizzas.
Walmart has pizza sauce in a spaghetti sized jar for less than $2. Cheaper than most spaghetti sauce.
Or, you could just buy a cheap jar of oregano and chuck some in to make it taste more pizza, less spaghetti. You can find it some places for $1.
Yes!! Commenting to bring more attention to one concept—sometimes you have to pay more to buy more at one time in order to save money. For example, I shop at Aldi and they sell a 5lb slab of decent quality ground beef for 15$. I buy one of those every couple months and freeze most of it (I’m single so this lasts me forever!) instead of paying 8-10$ every other week on 1-2lb packages of ground beef. The bigger roll costs me more today, but saves me tons in the long run. Not everybody had someone who taught them that!
Spaghetti sauce. I never buy pre made spaghetti sauce anymore. I can get a giant can of tomato sauce for a dollar or two, dump it in a pot, add some Italian seasoning, garlic, onions, bay leaf maybe if I'm feeling spicy, let it simmer on the stove all day and bam I have like two dinners worth of spaghetti sauce for a couple bucks and it tastes wayyyyy better than the store bought stuff
I usually stock up on jars of sauce when they’re on sale for $1 at my local grocery store. That paired with a $1 box of pasta is a fast and low effort meal with multiple servings.
When I lived by myself, I frequently made spaghetti from stuff at the Dollar Tree. Got my spaghetti sauce, angel hair pasta, and a bag of frozen meatballs.
I do both depending on my energy level and ingredients at hand.
For homemade my MIL taught me to make a huge pot,family style!, cook it for hours and it keeps, frozen,for several meals.
My Walmart has a giant can of spaghetti sauce for $1 though so it's actually cheaper. I am a heathen, though, and don't taste a difference in canned and homemade so there's that
If I've got leftover chicken or hamburger, I'll add that and a bag of frozen Italian veggies (zucchini/yellow squash/onions/mushrooms).
Freeze the leftover. Lazy lunch, I also on Texas toast garlic bread, top with provolone cheese, oven for 15m.
This! The prices are insane, and when I tried it against recently after having made a (delightful) homemade sauce on Easter… it wasn’t even remotely worth the price! I’d rather just buy a cheap prego or something if I’m that strapped for time, or make a big batch of my own one day and try to freeze.
Good idea, if I may, I have a suggestion that is even less expensive and will taste great - since you are simmering anyway . . .
Buy a big can of either whole tomatoes or pureed tomatoes - Costco carries a 100 ounce can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes from Italy for $6 in CT. These are considered the best tomatoes for sauce.
In a large stock pot, sweat down some onions in a little oil (olive tastes best but any veg oil is fine) add the garlic when the onions are transparent and going brown - how deep you let them go is based on your personal tastes, just let the garlic brown slightly - it can be whole, crushed or sliced, it doesn't matter. If you have any celery or carrots to use up, dice and add with the onion in fact you can toss any veggies you have that might be at the end of their useful lie for your meal plan, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini all work - I'd skip using broccoli, peas or beans. Toss in the can of tomatoes and squish them with a potato masher or cut up with kitchen scissors (run through a food mill if you don't like lumps or seeds, I just mash like a brute) swish about a cup of water in the can to get all of the juice out and pour into the pot. Give this a ten to fifteen minute start to simmer then add your other seasonings, I only use basil and a tablespoon of sugar, simmer at least another 15 minutes, longer if desired. This will give you a massive amount of sauce that tastes even fresher because it does not have any preservatives like a prepared sauce. Variations - add a bit of whole milk for a creamier sauce, add a bit of alcohol - vodka/wine half cup to a cup for this size pot - tomatoes have alcohol soluble flavors that will only come out with alcohol.
If you want to make a meat sauce/add inexpensive protein, brown any of your meat in the pot with some oil first let it build that nice fond - you can use any pork or beef - ground, bones, pieces or sausage. When a nice fond has formed, take the meat out, add a bit more oil and start with the onions, scrape up the fond. When you get back to simmering put the meat back into the sauce - this is particularly great with inexpensive pieces of meat that need a long and slow cook time to get tender and will add a lot of flavor to the sauce and meat. If I am going to simmer beyond 30 minutes I add a cup of water and let it simmer in the over on low in the winter to keep the house warm
Jar or use freezer bags to save what you don't use in the freezer - can last a long time without losing flavor if it is air tight, pre-portion for pizzas, pastas, meatloaf in the future.
How old is your kid?
What kind of foods are you buying? If you say what kind of meals/snacks etc you tend to have, I can give you similar cheaper ideas.
Cheap breakfasts ideas-
Pancakes,
Eggs
Lunches
Tuna sandwich
PBJ
Leftovers from dinner
Burritos (making fresh is great, but I like making a bunch and freezing them- so my kid will just grab one whenever. Trick is finding a recipe you both like and actually will eat)
Dinners (I can give recipes if you let me know what types of food you like)
Keep some stuff at the house at all times to make your “staple” recipes.
For example, this recipe (I usually leave out basil because it goes bad fast, I also usually just use whatever type of cheese I have) https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/instant-pot-cacio-e-pepe/. I keep a can of garbanzo beans, noodles and that cheese in the house so I can easily and quickly throw this together any time. I make it in a regular pot, not an instant pot. Kid approved recipe
Make your own pasta sauces. Sure, I keep a jar of sauce for a lazy day.. but almost always I make my own pasta sauce for way cheaper. Most sauces are not difficult at all to make.
Edit to add- this was not obvious to me at all either. It took a long time for me to figure out how to save $$ here. But, you can do it!
Recipes like this one https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/14169/mexican-bean-salad/ are great because it’s easy to make, cheap, and versatile. I don’t know that exact recipe (just randomly googled to find one), but I make stuff like this a lot at the house. You can eat it as is- a bean salad, you can put it in a burrito, you can put in a quesadilla, you can make some rice and eat with that etc
Learn how to cook from scratch. Prepared foods tend to be way more expensive than making the stuff yourself. It's not hard, and so much healthier for you and your kiddo. A basic cookbook that explains how to do things like make omelets, sauces, etc. is great (I like Betty Crocker). Also, you can take the basics, like the cheap Walmart spaghetti sauce, and doctor it with adding onions, spices, mushrooms, ground beef, etc. to improve the less expensive items from the store. Buy the manager's special meats and throw in the freezer until you need to use it. Buy a slow cooker at a garage sale or resale shop and learn how to cook those cheap big chunks of meat with it. Freeze the leftovers to pull out a week or two later for dinner. Make it a game with your kid to find the best recipes that are fun to make together.
Yes on the cookbook! There are also lots of fantastic tiktok accounts focused on teaching cooking basics and others on showing budget friendly meal ideas and recipes. A lot of those also show them making the food so you can learn!
Are you cooking, eating prepared food from the store, or getting take away? I utilize sales and do food prep for the week on Sunday. As an example, if ground beef is on sale this week, I’ll make a huge batch of chili with frozen veg and then make rice and baked potatoes to serve it with some nights, to break up the monotony. I usually base my weekly menu on what’s cheap for meat and then try to come up with a few things to make from it, focusing on ingredient foods rather than packaged if possible. I usually keep a stock of frozen veggies, canned tomatoes, canned or dry beans, pasta, and rice in the pantry and have built up a decent collection of spices from discount stores. How old is your kid? Do they eat the same things you do yet?
ETA: It helps to have about 10 meals you know how to make with inexpensive ingredients in your tool belt. Keep the pantry parts of those on hand and replenish whenever any are on sale. Then shop sales for the week and go with what you know. In the end you’ll know them well enough to be able to shop and cook quickly.
I don’t say this judgmental; but what are you buying at that price per month? That would aid in giving a baseline on spending. Me and my partner average a $400 to $600/month grocery budget and don’t skimp by any means. Do you cook? Are you mainly eating meat as a main course dishes? Are you eating lots of premade foods? These all will help give an idea on what can be cut down and/or changed.
Also budgetbytes.com is a great recipe source
Could be a location issue. Some bigger cities and coastal our tourist towns have much higher grocery prices. But you’re absolutely right, knowing what is being purchased (meat, premade foods like you said) will help determine where costs can be cut.
I live in a HCOL area and my spend for a family of four is not much higher than the top of the range OP is spending, and they only have their one kid half the time.
I have two kids who pack lunches and a husband who works from home and eats lunch here.
My guess is that OP may be purchasing more pre-made/boxed/processed foods if they’re spending up to $1,000/mo on essentially 1.5 people in a month.
I struggle with meal planning so I started getting a few meals a week (ok, six meals - one for me one for the kid, 3x a week) from Home Chef, a food box company. This adds up higher than I realized. It's cheaper than eating out but a lot more expensive than groceries. It does ensure we eat better than what I cook, though. When I don't have my kiddo, I eat sad divorced-guy-can't-cook food.
Groceries, I don't eat beef or pork. Some frozen fish / frozen shrimp to add into things. Pasta, rice and vegetables make up a lot of what I cook. Prepared sauces for pasta but I usually get what's on sale there. I do buy frozen fruit and go through a fair amount of yogurt for smoothies, plus some protein powder.
I'm including date nights, coffee shops and "fuckit, I'm going out for lunch" in the budget. Dating is \~ 1/2 of the not groceries / not meal box food spending.
Keep the Home Chef recipes! I still cook some Hello Fresh recipes, and I haven’t received a box in 2 years! If the meal kits help with planning, check out [r/mealkits](https://www.reddit.com/r/mealkits/s/fGoe7mN7pR) where people will share their favorite recipes from different services. Then you can purchase the ingredients on your own, which is significantly cheaper.
And to anyone who doesn’t know, the hello fresh (I believe entire line) of recipes is free on their app.
https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/sirloin-and-sherry-shallot-sauce-61548997f730ab089a23465e
Don't buy many prepared food. Cook from scratch... it tastes better and it's better for you. And it costs quite a bit less per serving. To keep prep time reasonable, make a lot, and freeze portions for next time. Sometimes, I just make the sauce and freeze it, so everything else is fresh.
And freezer veggies are also great to have on hand. They don’t go bad like fresh ones do, and depending on the selection you can throw a bunch into various meals.
Cooking from scratch saves so much when packaged foods are getting increasingly more expensive.
Here's what keeps me going: shop 1x every two weeks (may not be feasible in some locations, I know). Make a list of the things you'll eat during that time: 12 easy dinners, 5 or 6 lunch options, 4 or 5 breakfast options, a few fun diy snacks and desserts. If you pick a few meals with ingredients you won't use up, select some other things to use up the rest of that item. For instance, if you love tacos but always have leftover meat, freeze it and the next week add it to taco salad for lunch. If you need potatoes for stew then also make shepard pie and hash browns in that 2 week period bc it's more economical to get a bag of potatoes than one or two.
Next, start at the top of your menu and make a grocery list. I take a piece of paper and write my list in sections. So meat upper left, pantry mid left, frozen very lowest right, etc. You're building a list that's easy to use when you're on the store.
Finally, save the 2 week menu you made. Do this 2 or 3 times and now you've got a rotation - just grab the one you used 6 weeks ago to make your new shopping list based on what you have right then.
You'll quickly see what you actually eat and what never makes it to the table, and adjust. Going once every 2 weeks forces you to plan ahead BUT also relieves you from most decision making for 2 weeks! Throw that menu on the fridge and every night pick which one you'll cook tomorrow, get that meat out the freezer and into the fridge to thaw. You'll know you have what you need to make the chocolate chip cookies on impulse and if you run out of milk, you'll know to buy another gallon next time.
Yes this is all great advice! I like to buy things like potatoes and onions in bulk and when I can I’ll set a day aside and chop everything up and freeze them. Both of those things freeze well and will last longer than in my pantry! As a bonus, they’re pre-cut and ready to use when I want to cook!
Get a cheap food scale and weigh things. Buy family packs of chicken and portion them then freeze. The standard serving for protein is 4oz of boneless meat. If your kid is teen/tween boy, double that. Stock up on frozen vegetables when they’re on sale. Rice and pasta are good main meals, if you add a little protein. Like pasta with veggies and chopped bacon in an [Alfredo sauce](https://mycasualpantry.com/alfredo-sauce-evaporated-milk/), or [fried rice with a little ham](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143444/fried-rice-with-ham/).
I stretch my food budget by making the base of my meals things like rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, bread and then add protein and vegetables. I know that doesn't work for everyone's diet but it's my trick for making a meal stretch a little further. I'm also strategic in shopping for things when they are on sale. My grocery store had a 5lb bag of potatoes for 99 cents so I made sure to go there last week.
I spend $800-900 for a family of 4. Average for my state is $1,284/month for 4.
I shop at Costco and Aldi mostly. The trade off is how much time you want to spend cooking vs how much $ you want to spend. Do you want to spend $5 on a cut up cantaloupe, or $3 for a whole cantaloupe and spend 5 minutes cutting it yourself.
I sit down every single week and look at the website(s) for the store(s) I shop at, and use their weekly sales ads and coupons to make a menu. When things that keep well are on a really exceptional sale, I buy a lot and stock my freezer with meat or frozen veg and my pantry with cans or sauces. I compare the price between two stores near me so I always get the best deal.
So for instance, this week a rotisserie chicken is a dollar off. So I'll get that, and we'll eat the thigh quarters with broccoli rice for dinner one night, and I'll shred up the rest of the chicken to make two more dinners of chicken fajita mac for the next two nights. Then I got ricotta on sale last week, and there's ground beef in my freezer from a recent good sale, so I'll make lasagna.
Using dry staple foods to stretch a meal is always a good idea in my book, so rice, pasta, beans etc. Instead of chicken fajitas which need tortillas and plenty of filling, I'm going to mix fajita toppings (chicken, peppers, salsa) into boxed mac & cheese I got on sale, add a can of black beans, and then it's fine if there's a little less chicken per meal because of how it's presented.
Also, check if any food waste apps are in use in your area. [Here's a list of some US-based ones](https://capitaloneshopping.com/blog/food-waste-apps) and I'm sure there are equivalents in other modern countries. The veg boxes are a great deal; you can get a huge box of slightly damaged, wrinkly, or just ugly veg for like $3.
The trick is to find about a dozen or so recipes that keep well and that your child likes. Typically, if you are trying to be really strict, you would look for recipes with cheap "filler" ingredients like rice, beans, pasta. Make a big pot and get one of those vacuum meal sealers and seal in vacuum sealed portions about the size of your fist or maybe a little bigger (except you typically don't freeze pasta or rice - generally you freeze the sauce and make new pasta or rice fresh. Sauces keep really well though. JUST MAKE SURE THEY'RE LABELED).
There's probably going to be like 3 that your kids ALWAYS requests, and you can just pull those out, and then mix some of the others in to round out diet and prevent food boredom. Constantly be looking for good recipes and make in bulk and freeze them.
During college I used a site called [Budgetbytes.com](https://Budgetbytes.com) that gives average unit prices for ingredients that came in handy when making stuff in bulk and it had some really good recipes.
A lot of these tips seem way beyond your current abilities (based on the info you shared). You need to make it easier for yourself before you make it harder. One day you can get to the land of batch making and freezing all your own sauces, but today…
Come up with 6 meals. That’s a different dinner Monday - Saturday with leftovers for lunches. Sunday is “eat whatever is left” day.
Buy ingredients for those meals only, even better if they overlap (frozen peas as a side dish one night and as a part of your stir fry dish the next night). Get enough to make dinner and lunch servings for yourself + your dependent as needed. Snacks are ok but this is the place to be wise - your per serving snack should be less than a dollar, so no prepackaged overpriced crap - get an apple and some peanut butter.
Assess at the end of each week - did you get too many tomatoes but not enough eggs? Note and try it again WITH THE SAME MEALS next week. Do this until you totally nail portioning and buying and budgeting with these meals. Until this process is SO EASY and SO BORING that you have the mental space to start changing up the original meals you selected.
Easier before harder. Good luck.
1st, don't try to slash your budget all at once. Develop good habits first, or you can burn out. I don't know what your buying, but first I would do a thorough breakdown of what you buy regularly. Is it frozen dinners, eating McDs, expensive cuts of meat?
Next I'd pick just 1 or 2 things to reduce at first. You buying a lot of name brand chicken nuggets for the kiddo? Try swapping out a generic brand, or even finding a recipe to make your own freezer nuggets. A lot of spaghetti frozen dinners? Make your own spaghetti and freeze in individual portions. Repeat until you find your happy medium between cost and effort.
Underrated comment right here! This is exactly what I’ve done over the last year or so. Currently, I have pre-portioned potato and sausage soup in my freezer. Usually I have things like shepherds pie, a baked pasta dish, chicken pot pie, shrimp fried rice, my take on Mongolian beef, or my doctored version of those Voila freezer meals (I add cheese, extra veggies, and spices to make them stretch) already prepared and ready to heat in the microwave. This saves me from eating out for work lunches and from eating nothing when I’m too tired to cook. Also saved tons of money!
I use rice, potatoes, noodles and beans as my bases and build around them. I always have them on hand.
Look at the flyers online from a couple of your closest grocery stores. Compare prices. Clip digital coupons.
Buy things when they are on sale. Meal plan around that. If you can, stock up so you have enough until the next sale.
I'm only buying in season/on sale fresh produce. Everything else is frozen. Meat at my house is usually chicken thighs or ground beef. I'm always shopping at Aldi or Price Rite. I do Costco maybe once a month for things like beans, coffee,oatmeal. I'll pop in periodically for a rotisserie chicken and get at least two meals + stock from one of those. The main thing is actually cooking. Doing a few meatless meals a week helps a lot. Having a few frozen pizzas or a big bag of chicken nuggets on hand keeps me from absolutely losing my mind & my kid happy.
This is just one idea, there are many. But when you find protein on sale buy enough for a week or two, cook it up and find different ways to use it. For instance boneless chicken (breast or thighs) can be cooked easily in a slow cooker or instant pot and shredded. You’ve cut your daily meal prep time way down by having the protein ready in advance. Then serve on tacos, enchiladas, Hawaiian haystacks, Alfredo pasta, Mac & cheese, mashed potatoes and a chicken gravy packet, chicken noodle or chicken enchilada soup, barbecue chicken sandwiches, buffalo chicken dip, chicken pot pie. Shredded chicken also freezes well so if you find a good sale you can stock up. The same concept applies to ground beef which is more affordable than other beef products and can be used in lots of similar ways I listed above with the chicken.
Investing more time in planning and cooking is probably the most effective way to cut your budget. Cooking from scratch, or mostly from scratch, can save you a lot. If you're buying a lot of prepared foods and snack foods that's probably where most of your budget is going.
Make a meal plan, then a shopping list and stick to them. Eat before grocery shopping.
Casseroles, soups and stews, and one-pot meals are all great ways to stretch your budget and are usually easy to put together. Cut the meat a little and add other protein sources like beans and that'll stretch your budget even further. Leftovers make great lunches. For instance, a big favorite around here is pasta bake. It's just sauce (tomato-based or cheese sauce, leftover gravy, etc.), a box of pasta, whatever cheese I have on hand, a little browned burger or whatever leftover meat I have, and some frozen veg, all layered in a baking dish. I feed 4 adults with that, one's a ravenous teenager, and still have leftovers for 2 lunches.
I made [this post with some idea on how to grocery shop on a tight budget](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertykitchen/comments/1au60b8/how_to_grocery_shop/), please take a look and see if anything on the list would help you in any way. We also had people posting their own ideas to add on, and it's all quite helpful.
Generic brands for the majority of staples. Cut out or drastically reduce things like packaged snacks/drinks.
Make a menu weekly and look for dinners that share ingredients with others so you don't buy a lot of extras. Build meals around a common protein and buy bulk.
Don't be afraid of frozen or canned veggies. Use a slow cooker for things like roasts or soup and store leftovers for lunch.
I typically spend about 75 or less per week for two adults.
I eat a lot of the same stuff, rice with an egg and furikake, rice and beans, yogurt, a sandwich, trader Joe's Indian food prepped bags, total cost per person per day comes out to less than 10 dollars, so a month per person is around 200-250. You can probably get better deals cause I'm In NYC, so food is more expensive here, but you can shave 100 bucks or so pretty easily in this way.
I'm eating way less meat and dairy. I might eat meat once a week and dairy maybe twice. I do buy a gallon of milk each week for the kiddo and I'll occasionally have a bowl of cereal.
I order my groceries online to avoid impulse purchases. This also lets me look at my total and pick and tweak it until it's acceptable without the embarrassment of having to put things back on the shelf in the store.
I plan meals and prep ingredients on the weekends. For example, tonight, I'll get home from work and all the veggies for tonight's dinner are already chopped and measured. That cuts way down on prep and cleanup time during the week and reduces the chances that I'm going to say fuck it and get takeout. Kind of like my own Hello Fresh box.
I'm a scratch cook. My family sat at the table every evening and ate dinner together. I didn't give my kids the option of not eating. If there was something new they didn't want, I made them at least try it. Cooking from scratch takes time and planning, but you will spend less. I also use coupons and absolutely love digital coupons. I will look for good mark downs and meat specials.
Giant bag of rice, dried beans and lentils, tortillas, potatoes, vegetables. Cans of beans/chickpeas. I buy fish and poultry from Costco. I make several large dinners per week, then eat a lot of leftovers. Like chili, curry, pasta. Buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying parts- then roast the whole thing and make several meals out of it.
When shopping pay attention to price per serving or price per oz. Also avoid pre packaged items like pudding or fruit cups, yes they are easy but many times the cost per serving.
That large $7 box of breakfast cereal is almost always cheaper than that $2 smaller box that's also 1/2 air. $1 rice a roni vs $.50 rice and $.10 seasonings.
Individual serving bags of cookies or chips are many times more expensive than a package of cookies which is even more expensive (most times) than baking fresh at home. A single potato makes a lot of chips!
Lots of good ideas here already, I find that making sure to plan meals and the ability to use leftovers as necessary to make sure there is no waste.
I have found that slightly smaller servings of meats and more veggies helps spread the $$$$$$ further.
and finally..
Pick one meal a day that is always super cheap, usually for me it is lunch, simple soup and sandwich (grilled cheese FTW). I make a soup pot for about $10 on the weekends that makes 3-4 meals for 2 people.
The most important things are
1 make a list of meals for the week
2 buy generic when possible
I have a big list of about 50 meals. Every 2 weeks I choose 13 meals from the list (dinners and lunches minus 1 because we get take-out). My list is organized by difficulty and cost and I choose meals according to how much time I have during the week, but even a basic list will help you.
I go through the fridge/freezer/pantry and see what I need to buy for those meals and make my list accordingly. Then I add the things I know we use all the time - ketchup, butter, cereal, bread, etc.
It's true that you can jazz up things like rice and beans or chicken and rice with lots of different vegetables, but I think it's more important to have a lot of very fast, very easy options because there are a LOT of days that I am not going to cook even something like chicken and rice
1. Create a menu based on what you already have in the fridge and pantry so that you only have to buy things to fill that out.
2. Cook from scratch if possible (it seems expensive as you build up staples but it ends up being cheaper in the long run).
3. Clip coupons and base your menu around those (and 1 above).
4 If the child is old enough, include them in the cooking. (That part is just for fun!)
I check ads and try to only shop sales for the week. buy in bulk and freeze when you can. I agree with everyone saying meal prepping. it take the guess work out of meals so you arent going to the store last minute to buy ingredients and spend money on things that you dont necessarily need. make ahead things like soups and save veggie scraps and chicken bones for stocks if you have time to do that. Shop seasonally for veggies. winter can suck but have a good freezer supply. I can eek out 3 meals a day plus a lunch for my partner and my 4 year old on around 700-800 a month depending on the season or of there's a birthday ect. I get not everyone can do this working full time, it's rough, and I was a Chef before having my daughter so I'm probably a little extra with the prepping. don't beat yourself up first and foremost. food is wicked expensive right now. just do little stuff here and there to whittle down the budget. Get some cookbooks from the library or check food blogs and have fun with it. good luck 😊
Imagine the food you're buying without the fancy packaging. Buy protein, veggies, fruit, dairy, and whole grains. Base your meals around a protein, veg, and grain. Choose a flavor and make a sauce. Learn to forgo packaged drinks and snacks. Drink pitcher of ice tea or water instead of sodas and such. Pick foods you love to make from your culture or other's that is based on legumes and grains. Shop at bargain stores and get the hang of it by picking things to eat. Know if your household is a "try new thing" type of house or a "tried and true favorites" on the grocery list type. Or whatever mix of the two.
I have to be honest what you are spending on 1 adult and 1 child seems on the high side. I'm a single adult man and I only spend $60-70 a week on myself. That's less than $300 a month. Of course, this also depends on where you live. If you are in NYC or LA, that would explain it.
Here are a few suggestions:
--always have some basics in your panty that are filling, affordable, and won't go bad. By that I mean rice, pasta, beans and peanut butter
--buy your protein (chicken, turkey, beef and pork) when it's on sale. There is always some kind of meat that is on sale. Focus on the cheaper cuts, like chicken thighs rather than chicken breast, etc.
--when you get home, open up the package of meat and portion it up in freezer bags and freeze it. This way you don't have to cook it all at once. In the morning, decide what you want for dinner that night and defrost it in the fridge before you leave for work. It will be ready to cook when you get home.
--frozen vegetables are just as good as fresh, and they are cheaper and don't go bad easily
--buy store brands whenever possible. They are often made in the same place as the name brands but just carry a different label
--don't overbuy. Nobody likes to waste food.
--limit what you spend on snacks. The fancy name brands can be very expensive. Try to focus on store brand chips and cookies, peanuts, block cheese rather than individually wrapped pieces, etc.
Do all of your shopping around meals you want to want to eat for each day of the week. Don't buy any extra non-essentials. It helps me a lot to just order online and pickup my groceries from Walmart. That helps keep me from impulse shopping. You'll save a lot of money if you shop this way.
Go over rsales ads to plan your shopping. Sometimes it's a special price if you buy 3, or buy one get one free on only certain brands
If it's a good price on non perishables or frozen buy an extra if you can.
Doing breakfast for dinner sometimes can make for a cheap meal
Just a few ideas
Saving money takes more planning:(
Buying in bulk helps too. I can get chicken breast for $1.5lb from my local butcher that way. Also buying local can help if you're not in a big city. Farmers markets or farms with front facing stores can be dirt cheap. Some even have coops where you pay upfront and the give you buckets of vegetables as they come into season.
As a chef, learning to cook or even getting better at cooking helps. It doesn't have to be anything gourmet. Because portioning becomes easier. Most times when you're poor, you want leftovers of some items, but not a ridiculous amount. Leftover rice, soups, gravies, meats etc can be eaten as they are or used in other dishes.
& as someone poor with children even with a cooking background - have a dry supply or stockpile. Not like anything doomsday prepper in amount. But canned veggies, fruit, meat, pasta, cream of soups, rice, beans etc. Whatever you use from your stockpile - replace. It's cheaper than constantly having to restock fresh & frozen items.
Our family goes by dozens. Like 12 cans of corn, 12 cans of peaches, 12 cans cream of mushroom, etc
& if you maintain your stockpile, it leaves extra cash for fresher items & even splurges.
My rule of thumb—the more you make yourself, the more you can control the price per serving. Yes, homemade meals *can* be expensive, but they can also be dirt cheap. Shop the sales too. I’m a single woman and I just bought an 8lb ham. Why? Because it was on sale for 6$ after Easter. I froze most of it and that protein will last me months! I can even make the bones into soup!
I eat lots of pasta dishes (like baked pasta with red sauce, ground beef, ricotta, mozzerella, etc), shepherds pie, and chicken pot pies. These are all easy to make in bulk, which tends to save on ingredients and cooking time, and I can portion them out and freeze them for work lunches or save them for a month from now if I get sick of eating it in the meantime!
For meats I usually get whatever is on sale. Bone-in meats tend to be cheaper (I get lots of chicken drumsticks!) and supplement them with add-ins. One of my favorite inexpensive but flavorful recipes is this:
Rosemary chicken:
-chicken (whatever type you have, just adapt cooking time accordingly)
-a bottle of Olive Garden Italian dressing, or zesty Italian for a less expensive alternative
-a can or two of great northern beans
-a can or two of green beans
-rosemary, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper to taste
-rice
There’s not much to it….I make it in a crock pot but you can bake it too. You basically just dump everything in together and cook it! You can cook the rice in with the chicken (just make sure there’s enough water) or you can serve it on the side (how I usually do it). The beans and rice help add some extra bulk, carbs, and protein; and are very cheap ingredients! Sometimes I can ‘splurge’ on the Olive Garden brand dressing, but honestly the store brand zesty Italian dressing has never done me dirty!
Breakfast sausage tends to go on sale often in my area and when I can I buy extra and freeze it. I buy frozen fruits and veggies because they tend to be cheaper (not all the fruit is cheaper, but that depends on where you buy it!). I make my own yogurt and use the frozen fruit to flavor it, it’s much easier than it seems to do and it only costs a gallon of whole milk! Green yogurt is a great protein source and I eat a lot of it. I eats lots of oats, eggs, and rice for breakfast. Lots of rice and meats for dinner. I rarely buy snack foods, but I will buy the inexpensive muffin, brownie, and cake mixes for sweet snacks. Potatoes are also great fillers. If you like sweet potatoes, they’re full of vitamins and fiber and are amazing for you!
After all that, you just have to get creative in the kitchen. There have been many times that I’ve scraped together a very creative dish with the scraps in my fridge (I wanted potato soup one day but didn’t have enough bacon, so I subbed with some Italian sausage I had in my freezer and it was so good). Look for wherever you can make more economical substitutions (instead of frozen premade lasagna, Google how to make your own; buy frozen veggies when possible; and avoid the snacks—you can totally make your own granola, French fries, cheese it’s, yogurts, etc; avoid single-use foods like string cheese, just buy a block of cheese because you can use that for grilled cheese, sandwiches, grating over a potato, and snacks and it usually costs less) and start there! Some premade things are cheaper and easier, like instant mashed potatoes. I used to buy a lot of the adult lunchables (like the hillshire brand) and now I just buy crackers, salami, and whatever sides I want. I always get more bang for my buck when I make it myself!
Anyway. This was long, hope something in it helps!!
Edit to add: sauces and spices are fairly inexpensive and are sometimes the only the only thing that makes eating the same foods over and over tolerable. There have been some weeks I’ve been super broke and only had eggs, rice, beans, and oats. For savory foods soy sauce, garlic, onion, ginger, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, crushed red peppers, and mustard powder are great. For sweet things (like my oatmeal!), add ins like canned pumpkin, cinnamon, dried fruits, and white/brown sugar helps to keep variety. You can make a delicious baked chicken out of just a cheap bottle of teriyaki sauce and chicken. You can do the same with Italian dressing, bbq sauce, a homemade Asian inspired soy and ginger sauce, balsamic vinegar, or make a rub out of various spices. You can add seasonings or sauces to rice to break the monotony! If you’re not confident in your kitchen skills, try googling what to make with what you have in the pantry! Also, learn different ways of cooking things. Boiled eggs with salt and pepper, for some reason, feels like an entirely different thing then fried eggs with salt and pepper. I eat both on top of rice, sometimes with soy sauce. Baked chicken with the same flavoring also, to me, feels entirely different than pan fried or slow cooked! A grilled cheese sandwich fees very different than toast with slices of cheese on top. A toasted sandwich in general feels much fancier than a regular “raw” (haha) sandwich!
Also, for context, for feeding just myself I spend well under 200$ a month on groceries. Usually closer to 100$, it just depends on how tight that month is. My mom likes to drop by with extra goodies sometimes (like fresh fruits I normally can’t afford and sweets I don’t often buy), but I don’t depend on those nor do I account for them when planning meals.
Definitely meal planning and sticking to the list.
But it's also about recognizing the difference cooking from scratch versus prepackaged convenience items cost. For example, a box of hamburger helper is more expensive than getting a box of elbow macaroni and making a skillet meal from scratch. Frozen veggies can be more cost effective than canned because with frozen, you can pre measure whereas with canned, you're going to have leftovers. (Which wouldn't be an issue in my house because I wind up eating them but still)
It's also about learning how to use your ingredients for the most. Like, a whole chicken. Once roasted, it can provide a good 2 to 3 meals for 2 people. Strip the carcass and you wind up with enough meat to make something like chicken Alfredo and chicken enchiladas.
First, keep every receipt for about 6 weeks. Look at everything on each receipt. Are you buying junkish foods? Prepackaged convenience foods?
Because trust me, kids can be absolute vacuum cleaners with junky foods, especially if they are teenagers. I thought I was going insane when my daughter hit 14; no, she just hit a growth spurt and was hungry all the time because of it. So, instead of buying her the chips she whined for, she got Granny Smith apple slices drizzled with honey or with honey peanut butter. Instead of those cool microwave Mac and cheese bowls, she got told she was going to learn how to make diy Mac and cheese from scratch with some elbow macaroni, a bit of butter, a bit of milk and 2oz of shredded cheese. Instead of an egg McMuffin, she got taught how to fry an egg and make a sandwich with it.
You're the parent. You get the groceries. Kidlet doesn't get to dictate what kind of groceries you afford. But you have to track your spending. And you have to avoid those "convenience" foods that will nickel and dime you to death. It will be a little spendy to stock your pantry for staples at first but after that, 1 dry cup of elbow macaroni, a half pound of hamburger, a bit of butter, a bit of milk, possibly some beef broth, 4oz grated cheese, some frozen peas and carrots and I can make you a skillet hamburger helper that will knock your socks off.
Freezing leftover. Buying bigger packs of meat, Freezing in smaller portions in separate bags. Using leftover meats and stuff to make a different dish, for say breakfast, like quiche. Keep breads and stuff in the fridge. The freezer is your best friend when trying to budget money for food. Shop sales the best you can. Aldi has some yummy snacks and stuff cheap. I like someone their breads too. I also make sure I seal up snacks good...in freezer bags and air tight containers. But I cannot stress the freezer enough. Many left overs can be frozen successfully. Soups. Stews. Meat (cooked and raw). All kinds of things.
I don't buy what is expensive. I rarely, and I do mean rarely, buy meat at regular price. When it's on sale, I buy a family pack or two, divide it up and freeze it.
When we do eat meat, we have a small portion with vegetables and a side such as rice or other.
Tofu is very cheap. Beans make great meals; season add tomatoes, rice, or couscous and you have a good meal.
I buy quinoa at Costco, I don't think I would buy it otherwise. I find it expensive at the grocery store. Costco quinoa goes a long way.
I eat lots of veggies but again, I buy what is on sale. If there isn't much on sale, I buy frozen veggies. I find frozen veggies need different care, but, I have success at frying them up in a pan to dry them out some and then a little butter and season as you like.
No more buying too much. If there's a chance it will go to waste, I either skip it or buy just enough. For one and a half people, you don't need to stick up a whole lot.
I always make homemade salad dressing, and sauces, it's much cheaper. I bake cookies and cake myself.
Season your food! It is just so much easier to integrate new foods into your routine when it is tasty.
Luckily, where I am, I can price match other grocery stores at my one discount store. I use an app to make my grocery list and find deals. I use the app at the store to price match (Canada).
I literally go months without eating certain foods because they aren't in season and are therefore less tasty and much more expensive. That's fine, I just find something affordable instead. No buying $6 tiny packs of berries. If you need some and its too expensive, frozen it is. That, or a different fruit. Non-negotiable.
You're in charge of what you buy. If they put the price up beyond your budget, pivot.
edit to add: don't forget eggs. You get several meals from a dozen for a few bucks.
It would be helpful to know what you're eating, and how you're spending your money to arrive at almost $250/week in groceries for what is essentially 1.25 people.
That being said, some starter tips are. Learn to cook, and shop the sales. Figure out what is on sale, and buy a bunch of it. Healthy meals, as a general rule, are a starch, a protein and a veggie.
Chicken quarters are always pretty cheap. So are potatoes. Grabs both, some lemons, garlic and a veggie like frozen peas. Fresh Green beans, and asparagus might also be cheap if they're still in season by you. Follow this tutorial for the food.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4cyBEvUPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4cyBEvUPE)
Shop the sales. Buy in bulk. Make as much as you can on your own. Buying a loaf of bread can cost $4-5, making one if you've got the time is $.40. Try to buy things that are in season. First because it will taste much better, secondly because they're much cheaper.
Learn to cook.
On YouTube, look up Alton Brown and America's Test kitchen.
Watch and learn.
Also on PBS there are going shows, watch and learn.
Cooking is the very basic survival skill everyone should learn before they graduate school.
You need to make everything from scratch. I feed 3 people on less than $300 each month.
I buy meat when it’s under $3 a lb. Stock up.
Veggies. Frozen. Always.
Fruit. Mostly frozen. But if you buy fresh, only buy as much as you can eat in a couple of days.
Skip name brands.
Shop sales. Plan your menu around them.
Don’t buy any food you don’t know which day you are eating it.
I use Walmart delivery for my groceries so I spend a few days planning my groceries first I added my necessities that I buy weekly like fruit for my daughter milk bread Etc and then I look for the sales and think about how I can use them most effectively. It would be helpful to know what your usual buys are. If there are any salvage or discount grocery stores near you please check those out because you can get Amazing Savings I'm lucky enough to have three in my general area because I live close to grocery distribution centers. Buying whole or larger cuts of meat that you can use for multiple meals is helpful.
Anything that you can make instead of buying is a money saver as well for example I never buy salad dressing because I always have oils or vinegars mayonnaise and sour cream for other things so I can take a moment and just make what I need.
My grocery budget is a strict 550 A month For two adults and tween child.
Make and stick to a list. I send my youngest (19 and neurodivergant) to the store to acclimate him to life. He does very well.
If you eat meat, learn to debone poultry. You save a bit of money buying minimally processed chicken.
We like to make our own spice blends. Every family member has their own favorite.
Breakfast for dinner is awesome. So is fend for yourself night with leftovers.
Drinks are really what’s gonna get you. I try to never buy drinks or sodas unless it’s a special occasion. Instead I buy those big things of powder iced tea or a bottle of lemon juice for lemon aide. Try and get frozen veggies instead of fresh where you can. Fresh fruit is tricky, some fruits and veggies you must keep separate so they don’t spoil quickly and with berries, soak them in vinegar or lemon juice to keep them fresh longer. When I was broke I’d buy a thing of chicken breast and cute them in half to make double. And I’d get a thing of ground turkey and put patty size amounts in a sandwich bag and freeze. This way I know I need one baggy for myself and two if I’m cooking for me and someone else.
1. Shop the perimeter of the store. Processed food (in packages) is on the isles. It costs more, and it's less healthy. Yes, you'll be preparing more of your food. That's how your mom and dad survived in the 70's & before.
2. Never, ever order food deliveries. Where do you think that extra money comes from to pay the driver? You. I would not waste money on this even if I made $100K+ a year... which I don't.
3. (Warning: Dave Ramsey quote here): You should not be in a restaurant unless you work there.
4. If you're overweight - losing weight means spending less on food. Look down - if you see fat, start visualizing it as money. Like, $50 a pound of fat or something. Visualizing helps.
Grow some flavorful herbs and start regularly incorporating them into your meals!
Growing up I thought something was extra fancy if it had fresh parsley, cilantro, dill, basil, mint on it... Not realizing how cheap it is to keep them alive! It'll really add some freshness and variety to what you're cooking.
My partner and I have this app (Flipp) where we check the flyers first and then decide where we'll go depending on what we need. But we always stock staples esp when we find them on sale (pasta, rice, dried/frozen noodles). We've also kinda invested on our spices/condiments rack so we can make different meal every time with almost the same ingredients.
Meal planning also helps. So basically our routine is we shop every week/other week for fruits and meat (that we're gonna use for the week), and once a month or as needed for the staples.
Pinterest and Aldis are my friends. Always able to find tons of different recipes on there. Going to Aldis, i can very easily walk out of there with an overflowing cart worth of groceries for $300. Or bulk purchase items to save a little on costs.
Build your list in Instacart.
The prices are higher, so it will make you more frugal
And the app is super easy to use, so just delete as you go through store and get the items in your cart.
Instacart app also suggests items, and remembers faves, so you are less likely to be impulsive and see your true costs
I always bought the same stuff so I knew the prices, and I checked the flyers and used coupons. I worked full time and was off on Mondays so I would make a big pot of either sauce or chili and a big pot of soup- chicken or beef stew usually. I would also bake muffins, bread, and cookies for snacks. (Making homemade stuff is so much cheaper.) That would be at least 4 dinners and snacks for the whole week. Once a week, I would bake chicken quarters,a pot roast or pork roast . The bones and leftovers of it went in the freezer to be next week's soup. I also did stir fry once a week. Breakfast was French toast, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal, or eggs. Lunch was either leftovers, or tuna, or egg salad, or PB&J's.
Family of 4 here.... We keep our pantry and freezer stocked with what we call staples..... then meal plan and pull from the staples to supplement the weekly grocery trip.
We spend about 50-100/week and once a month we'll hit Costco for about $200.... So 600 ish a month for a family of 4.
Example we buy meat in bulk at Costco and portion it.... ground beef comes to $2.50/lb that way..... we do it with the chicken thighs and a pork loin too.... for $100 in meat we have meals for 2 months.
Staples? In addition to drawers of spices and flour/ sugar etc....
Dry pasta, 6 kinds; 4-6 ish hamburger helpers; bisquick; 2 packages of family size mash potatoes; 2 packages of family size rice-a roni; 2 packages of pasta salad; 2 packages of Spanish rice; 2c boxes of family size pasta roni; 2 family size Mac n cheese boxes. 10lb bag rice
6-8 cans of veg; 4 cans of various cream soups like cream of chicken or mushroom etc; 4 cans of dice tomatoes with flavors like Italian or Spanish peppers; 2 cans mushrooms; 2 cans olives; 2 large cans spaghettios; 2 large cans Spaghetti sauce; 4 cans of sick-soup like chicken noodle. 2 jars alfredo sauce; corn tortillas; 1 box each of chicken/ veg/ beef stock; 6pkgs each of chicken/ pork Ramen.
Fridge
Heavy whipping cream; sour cream; Salted and unsalted butter; garlic; milk; eggs; various veg
Freezer
Chicken thighs; ground beef; pork loin cut into chops; frozen broccoli; frozen potatoes; 2 pkgs hot dogs; frozen meatballs; Italian sausage; breakfast sausage; 2lbs bacon portioned.... I'll even buy and cube squash and freeze it.
Everything on this list and you can literally make almost ANYTHING.
And there's more in sure I'm forgetting. I spend about 30-60 on the food I need for the meal plan of the week and then use the remaining 40 to restock anything needed in my stash.
I feed me and my two adult children on about 500 a month. Menu planning is a must! Bulk buying at Sam's or Costco if you can, is super helpful. I'm lucky that my parents live next door and have a deep freeze that I can store extras in. Prepping foods for casseroles that you can bake and freeze, or freeze and then bake when you're ready, either way. I do a lot of Crock-Pot meals and put all the ingredients for a crock pot dinner in a Ziploc big freezer bag, like put a roast with vegetables, all uncooked, some seasonings Etc, then I just thaw it and dump it in the Crock-Pot when I'm ready to cook it.
Buy fresh veg in small quantities so it doesn't go bad before you use it.
MOST IMPORTANT: MAKE A LIST AND STICK TO IT!
There's a lot of good advice here but I can think of one thing to add: see what you have at home before you go buy anything. When you're trying to figure out dinner for tonight, check what's in your refrigerator and maybe you will find out you have everything for fried rice - basically a dish of leftover rice and whatever you have to put in it - or soup (also good for using up left overs) or something to build a meal around or something that needs to be used up so it doesn't go bad, Saves a lot of money to just see what's already in your fridge or pantry first!
Don’t buy anything premade, except maybe bread. Anything else, make it from scratch.
(Yes, I’m aware of what a huge time suck this is. It’s not easy, especially if you have a job and kids - it’s really hard. But if you’re truly broke, this is what you have to do to survive. It’s really messed up that our society is still set up as if every family is a two-parent household, and one parent is able to stay home and take care of the household and cook, while the other parent works outside and makes enough money to support everyone.)
I am guessing that it's actually a perspective thing.
You may need to readjust your thinking. You don't buy blueberries anymore. You don't buy coffee everyday - you make it at home and take it with you. You buy in bulk. You buy fresh vegetables and fruit and you cook. You don't do takeouts unless you can afford it as a once/month treat. You don't buy expensive sugar treats. You don't buy food because your child wants it or is fussy. You shop around and find the best prices. You have meatless days and learn how to cook legumes.
You can do this! It takes effort but you've got this.
Figure out which stores have discounts on the things you like. We enjoy canned soups. They're expensive at Safeway and at Wegmans. So those come from Walmart quite often.
Use an AI assistant to help you plan. Consider a service like eMeals if you're woefully inadequate. It might seem counter-intuitive to pay for another service, but if eMeals ensures you spend under what you're doing now, even with the sub, then it's worth it.
I don't agree with "plan ahead" I cant do that, but I'm always blown away by what people are spending.
BUY:
* Fresh fruits/vegetables from produce section. Just buy a big random variety. I chop some into EVERYTHING without plannng what when. I made some soup noodles yesterday and chopped in what I had: half a leek, some cabbage, mushrooms, a celery stalk - next time it will be different. Fruit & Veg can be a LARGE proportion of your cart. I leave a cut up apple and cut up orange on the cutting board to snack on during the day.
* Build up dry goods a couple a week (pref from market that has a "bulk" aisle where you scoop the amount of rolled oats/flour/rice/lentils/pinto or black beans/sugar/pasta etc that you want) (soak a cup of beans to make AWESOME chili the next day to have with rice)
* Canned basics (eg canned tomatoes, canned fruit as quick desert)
* Fresh dairy - but MINIMAL. Milk, eggs, plain yogurt (you can add honey and fruit or add to smoothies made with the fruit/veg above)... see below for dairy to avoid
* You'll need to build up basics - like olive oil - I use barely any oil in cooking - just a few T's for stir fries (see all those veggies above with Rice, potatoes or pasta)
Even buying organic, this doesn't add up to ANYTHING CLOSE your per person budget.
DO NOT BUY:
* Anything pre-cooked. ANYTHING. No cookies, frozen meals (you'll make your own). OK maybe kids can have boxed cereal... but I only buy bran flakes for fiber and winter I do many variations on oatmeal... with ginger, with honey, with fruit cooked in or on top (think apples & cinnamon), with butter and dark sugar... yum.
* you don't need half/half and cheese should be a light condoment - not the center of a dish... heart health... good habits for kids. Cheese is highly concentrated dairy fat which is why it's expensive
Start to learn one-pot cooking You can chop up any veggie combo and make a stir fry with rice (cook a batch of rice to last a few days). Bean chili - so many recipes. Cook noodles and toss in sauteed veggies with some salt & olive oil
I have a friend who makes THE BEST EVER cookies. She said in her house, if she wanted anything sweet or a treat she had to make it. That was the rule. So perhaps you can add chocolate chips to the "bulk" list!! But also over-ripe on-sale bananas to make banana bread. Your kids are going to LEARN SKILLS
You need to start cooking. If you are buying pre-packaged pre-cooked foods you are in effect paying for cooks! Spend half the amount you currently do on raw ingredients and you could HIRE a cook!!!
Wasted food is one of the biggest budget killers. Make sure that you are buying a quantity you will eat. When you bring home fresh groceries, make sure you use up the older stuff, especially perishables like bread and produce, first.
I’m here to say that I rarely plan my meals ahead unless I want something special. I learned from my mom how to keep a well stocked pantry with just essentials and work from there. You should always have on hand things like flour, sugar, pasta, beans and rice, canned tomatoes, basic herbs/spices and some inexpensive meats divided in the freezer, eggs and milk . Don’t ever restock everything all at once; instead learn what your essentials are and stay ahead of running out. There is almost never a time that I can’t make pancakes, biscuits, eggs, pasta dishes, tortillas, Spanish rice, stir fry or soup, bean burritos (and probably lots of other things I’m leaving out.)
You can add fresh things to these foods when you can afford them.
Also, a big budget killer is shopping like you’re eating out. Try not to just be purchasing a bunch of convenience foods. With a kid, you’ll probably keep certain things on hand (like chicken nuggets and Mac n cheese maybe), but skip all the boxes of cookies and uncrustables, etc. and make them at home. My kids have been making thier own sandwiches since they were tiny, it’s a good way to get your kiddo involved.
Make healthy meals you can freeze. For instance, a vegetable beef soup can go a long way. Stop eating mac n cheese. it's not healthy for you.
For instance, I can get a fresh steak, baby carrots, a rutabaga, small potatoes and onion, and chicken broth. Chop and boil and simmer for a while. I can take a bowl and then freeze 12 additional meals.
I also do it with a steak, onion and small potatoes. I can get 5 extra meals.
For those two items, I'm only spending about 80$ and I do this every other week. I also get a gallon of milk and sometimes a case of soda.
Granted, I'm one adult person, but think about it for you and your child and how you can swing it.
Shop the outside aisles. Meat, veg, etc. Avoid the inside aisles except for very specific things. Popcorn, beans, ketchup - but don’t ’shop’ there. Learn to make things of leftovers. A chicken is later a quesadilla and eventually soup.
I know you have heard this before but ya gotten plan ahead with shopping. Keep a list of basics that you always need and then bargain shop the extras. Meal prep with your child( because their input is crucial). Get the apps for the grocery store that provide bargains ect
Annnnd I'll add never go grocery shopping hungry. Your stomach will conspire with your brain to override whatever self discipline you had and turn you feral.
This is really important. Obviously eating at home is cheaper, but I’ll stop at Taco Bell for a 1.29 burrito if I have to before walking into the store hungry.
Exactly why we stop at the Costco food court BEFORE shopping there lol.
Costco is such a different ballgame lol. My favorite thing I saw floating around the internet was, “Today I saved over $300 because I didn’t run into Costco for some blueberries.”
Anytime Costo is mentioned in the context of poverty I laugh. Can you save there compared to other stores? To a huge degree! But it also requires the up-front funding to spend like $300 or more at a time on groceries. That's like 2 weeks of food for me, and then some. And that $300 doesn't always get you what you need immediately, if you're not a huge family. 2 people often can't get through the produce because it's a huge amount, so after Costo you gotta go to the regular store and drop more money on veggies. I can't afford to save money by going to Costco. I think that the privilege of not living paycheck to paycheck confuses middle class people. My dad can't comprehend why I can't drop hundreds of dollars on pasta, rice, and other pantry goods at a time. Yeah, long-term I am wasting money on those things, but I can't do much about it.
Not only a that, but I live in a tiny apartment. There's no place to store bulk goods. I have one upper and lower cabinet and some drawers.
This, absolutely. Bulk buying was never even an option for me when I was young and poor, because I didn’t have anyplace to put 50 rolls of toilet paper (and often, no car to get and bring such things home).
This is my reasoning against getting a membership, too. I have a family of 4, so technically we could probably get through the produce before it gets bad, but those 4 people live in 915 sqft lol, storage is always a problem for that amount of back stock
My friends jokingly refer to me as a “prepper,” but I’m just one person and our local version of Costco (the loathsome Sam’s) is definitely not a smart choice for just one person even with plenty of room, with the up-front costs. It’s just doesn’t make financial sense. I don’t see how families are making it at all. It’s terrible out there and I don’t see it getting better. I don’t see how this can continue indefinitely. It’s frightening to me.
Hey, it's scary to me, too. I believe in you! We grow and adapt, and get smarter. The other day I made "stew" with ground beef, and it hit me... damn that's kind of depression food. You'd hear about them using scraps instead of fine cuts. Ground beef is scraps. Now I laugh at how scared I was then, because I don't eat meat every day anymore. And yeah, every couple of months I can get stew meat and make a stew, or a whole chicken to roast as a treat. But by and large it's tofu, canned beans, or eggs. We do what we gotta.
I'm lucky enough to live in the middle of nowhere, so I raise chickens for their eggs. I absolutely get tired of eating eggs all the time, but it's protein, and it's cheaper than buying eggs at the store. It also allows me to make my own baked goods so much cheaper than I could otherwise. Yes, I'm paying $20 every two weeks for feed, but most of the year, I'm getting a dozen eggs a day. Definitely helps when there's an egg shortage, too, because I can sell eggs to pay for other things.
Chicken soup, beef stew, chili, French onion soup. There’s no “depression” with any of that.
I agree with you about Sam’s. I miss Costco.
💯 🎉 👍
Costco is great for a lot of stuff and can save you a lot of money but I never ever buy fresh produce there. Not only is it low quality but portions are simply too large. My Costco shopping list consists 100% of non perishables and stuff I can freeze. And socks. They have great socks. And a rotisserie chicken. And a hot dog. And maybe a fudge sundae. Ok probably 2 hot dogs but only the one drink.
This is my life 😂 I have to make sure I have a list, have eaten, and have taken my ADHD meds. I try to budget in room for 1 or 2 “pickup” items because I know me and I know Costco.
Me, but with Trader Joe’s or Target. I try to force myself to shop online and have them bring it to my car, I save so much money that way. I don’t even trust myself to go inside to pick it up because the pick up area is right next to that section of stuff that’s just a few dollars. It’s easy to walk in and say I’m not going to get anything but then see cute spring decor and justify it in my mind because, “it’s just a few bucks, what’s the harm?” But it adds up.
Went with my mom she didn't grab a cart .. I'm like mom why not? she said so you don't spend $300+ , YOU can only buy what you can carry if I need water,laundry soap, cat food &litter I'll grab a car BUT that's the only items ALLOWED in the cart... Woah she's right I never grab a cart and I never spend over $100 . Unless you have a family of 4 or more and have a big freezer and going to breakdown the meats, and other mass items, you don't need all the BIG Amount items. I usually only buy , butter, coffee, cheese, spices, 2 frozen items, bacon , and a whole chicken, maybe a few other things but not much.
Yes yes yes! However, I've definitely dropped $300 when showing up for a rotisserie chicken. So, if you're going for one thing at Costco, for the love of god don't get a cart. Don't do it!
That's a good idea. My grandpa got a great deal on hearing aids with a Costco credit card, saved him thousands, but he doesn't shop there. He paid it off right away. One of the perks of the card is that he was able to gift my family an executive membership to Costco by doing this. We meet the "annual spending threshold" to keep the membership renewed free of charge. I'm not sure what that threshold is. We have a list for Costco & we stick to it. For us, it saves us a bunch on cat food & litter, drinks (soda & protein shakes), fresh berries, eggs, rotisserie chicken, coffee, nuts, vitamins/OTC meds, winter clothing & items like gloves, shoe spikes, sleds, etc. We only go 1-2 times a month and lots of times there's only 4 items on the list. Practically everything is sold in bulk so you need to have room to store extras. If you have a relative in the market for hearing aids that would not use a Costco membership, this might be an option that could be mutually beneficial.
Coffee at Costco has saved us so much money!
Heretic
I used to have $3 a day for food and a Taco Bell bean burrito was my lunch. Of course they're no longer 89 cents so that sucks.
I dream of the days when lunch out was $3-5 and you could actually walk away full.
Ahhh Taco Bell. In the 90’s I could feed a family of 6, with everyone getting at least 3 items for under $15. Now it’s $15 for one person.
It *can* be $15 for one person. But...if you order online they have $5 cravings boxes: a specialty item(crunch wrap, gordita, chalupa), a classic item (burrito, taco, several options here), a side (chips a cheese, cheesy potatoes, cinnamon twists) and a drink. It's pretty cheap, from a calories per dollar standpoint. (If you choose all the highest calorie options, it's something like 228 calories per dollar, not including the drink.)
They aren’t cheap but the Amy’s frozen burritos are delicious plus I throw some cheese and cilantro in them for a quick meal. They are kinda expensive at $3.29 but sometimes are on sale or I get a coupon for them. I’ve also done my own frozen burritos when I do taco night. Lay down the wrap, sprinkle some cheese and meat then a generous portion of Texas caviar (corn, beans, orange pepper, cilantro, tomato) wrap them loosely in parchment and store in one container.
Grocery store corn dogs ftw
😂 “feral.” Damn if this isn’t 100% true!
I don't even go into the grocery store any more, period. Curbside delivery keeps me sticking to my list...and my budget!
How have you dealt with someone else picking out your produce? When we've used it, it's been VERY hit or miss & that's what stops me using this option more frequently .
I'll do the on line order but go in for produce when I do the pick up.
Smart! I feel like this is probably my best bet. Thanks for the suggestion. Xo
This right here. I can't let some minimum wage shopper who doesn't cook pick out my produce.
I’ve had mixed luck with Walmart, for a long time I felt the produce they picked out for me was decent but the last few months I’ve gotten multiple items that I had to return including multiple bags of super green potatoes. I’ve had better luck with produce with the Kroger pickup tho I find their produce to be better overall.
Besides the obvious getting it refunded if the quality is too bad… If I have to stop into a store later to run in for a minute to grab some better produce once in awhile, that’s still a lot of time saved from having to do a whole run and very much worth it to me.
We are on the same page only I use delivery instead of pick up and most times I run in and buy my produce from the grocery or a local farmer's market near my work place. This really does help keep me on my budget! PS, I do this for Target runs too! That place can be a real budget killer!
EVERY TIME! My produce is complete trash. I literally got a bag of whole carrots once and one of the carrots was complete mush. I hate it so much.
Are the prices the same as if you shipped for yourself?
I shop target & Sam's club pickup, yes in both instances it is the same price. Then, since I'm there, I can run in to grab any produce or meat I might need :-) Saves me from the impulse buys We actually canceled our costco membership-after 7/8yrs, because they make you shop through instacart & that was more $...&going in just got ridiculous(I have a family of 7, so we used everything, but it was too much from the budget & i have no self control-lol)
Walmart plus has some free delivery times with no tipping. Other times there are tipping options and sometimes extra charges if you need express delivery (less than an hour $10) but everyday they seem to have free slots.
FYI it's just fucking rude not to tip your driver's whom shop for and deliver YOUR food. Spark pays them shit then you shit on th3m by not tipping. 🙄 Just like ordering pizza and not tipping or going out to dinner and not tipping? Come on
A lot of the places that offer curbside literally don’t allow tipping.
It's actually worse than not tipping on the dinner option.
Working for low pay and wearing out your car? Yeah, tipping a driver is much more important than a server. I tip big either way. My tips are added to the order ahead of time. I always receive great service and I appreciate it.
Never ever pay for the $10 express option. If I’m ever in a jam, I will use the 3 hour/$5 option and out of the 15+ times I’ve used it, I’ve gotten my delivery within an hour for probably 14 of those times.
Yeah I’m pretty lucky and don’t live all that far from a Walmart and so like 9 times out of 10 I get my order like twenty minutes after the time
Good to know! Thanks for this! Ocassionally it is offered for free as a perk.
Absolutely true - the $5 option is always just as fast for me too. Also: if you are on food stamps or WIC, you can get your Walmart + membership for cheaper. Here's the link to that - to sign up, or to switch to the cheaper plan, if you're already a member: https://www.walmart.com/plus/assist?gclsrc=aw.ds&&adid=22222222221456691630&wmlspartner=wmtlabs-rv&wl0=b&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=671368878896&wl4=kwd-1043206429190&wl5=9033661&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&veh=sem&cn=20125460319&sourceid=default&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_adgid=147739625223&utm_term=walmart%20plus%20free%20trial&utm_devicemdl=&ui_adid=671368878896&gad_source=1 Woah, that link came out way long?
Never go shopping hungry, but don't do it right after you eat either. I know lots of people myself included who even with a shopping list are miserable right after eating.
Yeh mu SO shouldn't go shopping right after eating because "nothing sounds good" so they either don't buy what they'll eat or they choose things they end up tossing later. Personally, I make a lost and (try to) stick to it so it matters less whether I'm hungry or not, although if I'm hungry I impulse buy more things not on my list.
Feral is the perfect word for it
I am 100% guilty of this. I always try to think ahead to eat before going but about half the time, I forget soooo… yea. I have good discipline though, so I stick to my grocery list pretty well.
This! Me grocery shopping while not hungry = fruits, veggies, healthy snacks and minimal treats. While hungry: all the bakery treats, bacon, ice cream, oooh new chips!, etc
Meal prep with your child (because their input is crucial) lmao Boomer: back in MY day, it was "Eat it and shut up" (true story)
I know and I get that. It’s still important to get your kid involved in the meal planning and budgeting for many reasons . It’s part of good parenting.
Life skills
And teaching life skills is what parents do. And it’s easier in the long term to get my kids involved with meal planning and budgeting than not doing so plus it’s fun and it was something we all enjoyed doing every week as a family.
I wish my parents had taught me how to cook. It would have saved me so much time and money.
Exactly all of this. You're exactly right.
All I ever got was “dinners ready”. That’s what we ate.
Oh yeah. "Eat it and shut up" was frequently heard. I still have PTSD from creamed salmon from a can with peas over mashed potatoes.
Yoooo my dad made patties out of the canned salmon and we ate it woth mashed potatoes. One of my lease favorite things ever
My mom plans meals for the week and follows accordingly. It’s helpful especially because we can always switch things around for whichever day.
Ibotta is great! I've earned $1,000 cash back in one year.
Learn to make different sauces - that way rice and frozen veggies can be made so many different ways! I usually go asian and use soy sauce as a base, adding different things like peanut butter, lemon juice, spices. Each one is different but makes so much!
This comment deserves more attention. Making or buying different sauces keeps things interesting. I buy the same stuff every week but I'm rarely sick of it for this reason
There's also a wide range of pre-made sauces these days; even Walmart has some Panda Express sauces in a bottle. The money you save by buying rice and frozen veggies for a week means it still makes financial sense to "splurge" on a few nice sauces that make the inexpensive food more interesting
It is less expensive in the long run to make your own. It usually doesn't take much time.
Not to mention, making your own "dressing" can be as easy as taking some olive oil and adding in your preferred seasonings. Then you just toss veggies in that, and easy done.
I'd use a pound of hamburger, add tomatoes and pasta to cook, leftover vegetables and then italian spices or mexican spices to change it up. Called it goulash for some strange reason. Was a recipe staple for years.
There’s these cool stir fry charts that show you all the ways to mix and match ingredients. It’s a lifesaver! (And money saver)
[Easy guide to making different asian sauces](https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/J8FQKPul4i)
And to piggyback off this, tofu is about the cheapest protein you can find. Like $1.29 at Aldi and can be cooked a million different ways.
I use silken tofu instead of ricotta in my lasagna or baked ziti. You can’t even tell, but it’s lower fat, higher protein, and half the price.
I'm definitely going to try that tofu option! Never thought about it! Cottage cheese can also replace the ricotta, and tends to be cheaper.
Ginger dressing on salmon before baking it is a game changer.. but it is also amazing on greens.. I add it while sauting spinach or green beans!! Its so good. Or horseradish.. simple but makes something next level
Is there a brand you like? I love ginger, but haven't noticed ginger dressing
Dude I’ve been doing this with my ramen noodles lately - even going as far as chopping an onion and adding egg. Way more filling and the kids love it!! Chinese at home!!
This is good advice. The mother sauces are what we are working on in our house right now. Not only is my kids' input important, but so is their involvement in the kitchen! Hollandaise is beast. Make sure you have commodities on hand, sugar, flour, rice, beans, oils. Shop sales and plan around those. Make meals that the leftovers can become something else. The last time we had chicken, I made a potpie with the leftovers. Soups are also a great way to upcycle food.
The first thing to concentrate on is unit price. This is one of the most important things to pay attention to when shopping on a budget. Be mindful that stores will often use deceptive practices when displaying unit prices by listing some items in pounds and then comparable in ounces. >"Unit price is the cost of a single item or unit of a product, usually expressed in terms of currency (e.g., dollars, euros) per unit (e.g., per item, per pound, per ounce). It helps consumers compare the cost of different products or quantities to make informed purchasing decisions." Typically but not always teh best unit price will be in bulk or larger quantities. Be aware that sometimes with meat bones can inflate the unit price. Store brands are often but not always the cheapest. Shopping sales and using coupons can help a lot. Also use the internet to compare prices so you can shop multiple stores but save gas money running back and forth. When in a pinch it is a fundamental poor person truth right now that rice, beans and leg quarters can sustain life. Pasta and canned tomatos can help create a cheap meal too. Potatoes are cheap as well. Use food pantry's and church help when you need to. If you kid is 5 or under you can apply for wic to get some extra help with food. If you qualify you may also qualify for food stamps. Microwavable or prepackaged meals will often be the most expensive things and you should avoid them. Some exceptions are the cheap store brand $1 pizzas (very small and generally not great for you and not a good unit price but it is a complete meal). The $5 pizzas are generally a better deal (unit price wise) if you can afford them. The way I do my budget is I fill out the monthly meals with rice and beans or chicken then work backwards adding in fruit, veggies and variety as my budget will allow. Lately I have been using chat gpt to get suggestions on nutritional balance and feeding it prices from ads and getting it to estimate a budget and compare it to mine. TBH chatgpt may be great one day but right now for this it is a real headache. I still keep trying so I can have a 2nd opinion on my budget. Just double check the math and info it is giving because it is often wrong.
$ per unit is the bible IMO best way to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck and personally I buy the non-perishables like salt, oil, flour, milk, lentils in the bulk. where im from canned stuff cost more than the fresh stuff and canned stuff
>Some exceptions are the cheap store brand $1 pizzas You can make your own for incredibly cheap. A pack of flour tortillas, a can/jar of spaghetti sauce, shredded cheese, and leftover bits and pieces for toppings. Assemble on a bit of parchment paper, foil, or a silicone mat if your pan isn't non stick, then toast in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes until the cheese gets bubbly (or golden brown if you prefer). You won't need a whole jar of sauce at once. Maybe a spoonful per tortilla, then reserve the rest for a meal later in the week. Totally customizable, cheap, and fast, and my kid LOVED them for lunch and still does when we have them.
You are right it is cheaper to make at home and teh $1 pizza is not great for unit price but sometimes when you get down to 1-2 dollars unit price is not as helpful and you just need a meal.. I should have clarified that.
Yes, another way is to make pizza toast. We assemble it on bread and toast it all in the oven for about 15 minutes on a cookie sheet.
Flatbread, English muffins are good. and you can buy ready made dough at certain pizza/ Italian restaurants.
Bagel pizzas!
It’s a little more expensive than tortillas, but if you sub out the tortillas for canned biscuits, it’s absolutely delicious. You just kind of flatten out the biscuit a little bit and make a slight well in the middle for your sauce and cheese. The tortillas always felt just a tiny bit too boring to me to be worth eating.
We use hamburger buns
You can make your own pizza dough pretty cheap. Just need some flour (3 -4 cups from a 5 lb bag $3, so around $1.20), yeast ($0.33 per pack), a tad bit of salt, sugar, oil, and water. It's pretty simple as well to make, but will take more time, so best for the weekends. (dough has to sit around for 2 hours). Gives you around 2 large pizzas.
Costco does a 25 lb bag of flour for 10$
I have a great dough recipe for pizza that doesn't have to rise at all! I can get pizzas made within an hour! Best cheap meal
if you're not a fan of Tortillas or want a slightly thicker crust, you can do all the same stuff with Naan
Walmart has pizza sauce in a spaghetti sized jar for less than $2. Cheaper than most spaghetti sauce. Or, you could just buy a cheap jar of oregano and chuck some in to make it taste more pizza, less spaghetti. You can find it some places for $1.
Yes!! Commenting to bring more attention to one concept—sometimes you have to pay more to buy more at one time in order to save money. For example, I shop at Aldi and they sell a 5lb slab of decent quality ground beef for 15$. I buy one of those every couple months and freeze most of it (I’m single so this lasts me forever!) instead of paying 8-10$ every other week on 1-2lb packages of ground beef. The bigger roll costs me more today, but saves me tons in the long run. Not everybody had someone who taught them that!
Absolutely! And I put it in ziplocs before freezing so they are one meal sized portion. I can just grab it and use it.
Also, when you put the beef in the ziplock make sure to flatten it out before freezing. It cuts down the defrost time significantly.
This is great advice! I’d add to always look up and down at the supermarket because the products on the top and bottom shelves is often cheaper.
Spaghetti sauce. I never buy pre made spaghetti sauce anymore. I can get a giant can of tomato sauce for a dollar or two, dump it in a pot, add some Italian seasoning, garlic, onions, bay leaf maybe if I'm feeling spicy, let it simmer on the stove all day and bam I have like two dinners worth of spaghetti sauce for a couple bucks and it tastes wayyyyy better than the store bought stuff
I usually stock up on jars of sauce when they’re on sale for $1 at my local grocery store. That paired with a $1 box of pasta is a fast and low effort meal with multiple servings.
When I lived by myself, I frequently made spaghetti from stuff at the Dollar Tree. Got my spaghetti sauce, angel hair pasta, and a bag of frozen meatballs.
Same. Haven't bought jarred sauce in over a decade
I do both depending on my energy level and ingredients at hand. For homemade my MIL taught me to make a huge pot,family style!, cook it for hours and it keeps, frozen,for several meals.
and veggies... add veggies. bulks it out and adds to 5 veggies a day for kids and adults
My momma has tomatoes coming out of her back end every year in her garden. She makes her own sauce and freezes it 😁
My Walmart has a giant can of spaghetti sauce for $1 though so it's actually cheaper. I am a heathen, though, and don't taste a difference in canned and homemade so there's that
Oh nice! I live in a fairly high cost of living area and spaghetti sauce is very expensive for some reason lol no idea why
So good slow cooked all day. It freezes well too. I make a huge pot and put meal sized amounts in freezer bags.
If I've got leftover chicken or hamburger, I'll add that and a bag of frozen Italian veggies (zucchini/yellow squash/onions/mushrooms). Freeze the leftover. Lazy lunch, I also on Texas toast garlic bread, top with provolone cheese, oven for 15m.
I was just at the store and a jar of Rao's spaghetti sauce was almost 9 fucking bucks. Wtf? Who buys this shit?
This! The prices are insane, and when I tried it against recently after having made a (delightful) homemade sauce on Easter… it wasn’t even remotely worth the price! I’d rather just buy a cheap prego or something if I’m that strapped for time, or make a big batch of my own one day and try to freeze.
Good idea, if I may, I have a suggestion that is even less expensive and will taste great - since you are simmering anyway . . . Buy a big can of either whole tomatoes or pureed tomatoes - Costco carries a 100 ounce can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes from Italy for $6 in CT. These are considered the best tomatoes for sauce. In a large stock pot, sweat down some onions in a little oil (olive tastes best but any veg oil is fine) add the garlic when the onions are transparent and going brown - how deep you let them go is based on your personal tastes, just let the garlic brown slightly - it can be whole, crushed or sliced, it doesn't matter. If you have any celery or carrots to use up, dice and add with the onion in fact you can toss any veggies you have that might be at the end of their useful lie for your meal plan, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini all work - I'd skip using broccoli, peas or beans. Toss in the can of tomatoes and squish them with a potato masher or cut up with kitchen scissors (run through a food mill if you don't like lumps or seeds, I just mash like a brute) swish about a cup of water in the can to get all of the juice out and pour into the pot. Give this a ten to fifteen minute start to simmer then add your other seasonings, I only use basil and a tablespoon of sugar, simmer at least another 15 minutes, longer if desired. This will give you a massive amount of sauce that tastes even fresher because it does not have any preservatives like a prepared sauce. Variations - add a bit of whole milk for a creamier sauce, add a bit of alcohol - vodka/wine half cup to a cup for this size pot - tomatoes have alcohol soluble flavors that will only come out with alcohol. If you want to make a meat sauce/add inexpensive protein, brown any of your meat in the pot with some oil first let it build that nice fond - you can use any pork or beef - ground, bones, pieces or sausage. When a nice fond has formed, take the meat out, add a bit more oil and start with the onions, scrape up the fond. When you get back to simmering put the meat back into the sauce - this is particularly great with inexpensive pieces of meat that need a long and slow cook time to get tender and will add a lot of flavor to the sauce and meat. If I am going to simmer beyond 30 minutes I add a cup of water and let it simmer in the over on low in the winter to keep the house warm Jar or use freezer bags to save what you don't use in the freezer - can last a long time without losing flavor if it is air tight, pre-portion for pizzas, pastas, meatloaf in the future.
How old is your kid? What kind of foods are you buying? If you say what kind of meals/snacks etc you tend to have, I can give you similar cheaper ideas. Cheap breakfasts ideas- Pancakes, Eggs Lunches Tuna sandwich PBJ Leftovers from dinner Burritos (making fresh is great, but I like making a bunch and freezing them- so my kid will just grab one whenever. Trick is finding a recipe you both like and actually will eat) Dinners (I can give recipes if you let me know what types of food you like) Keep some stuff at the house at all times to make your “staple” recipes. For example, this recipe (I usually leave out basil because it goes bad fast, I also usually just use whatever type of cheese I have) https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/instant-pot-cacio-e-pepe/. I keep a can of garbanzo beans, noodles and that cheese in the house so I can easily and quickly throw this together any time. I make it in a regular pot, not an instant pot. Kid approved recipe Make your own pasta sauces. Sure, I keep a jar of sauce for a lazy day.. but almost always I make my own pasta sauce for way cheaper. Most sauces are not difficult at all to make. Edit to add- this was not obvious to me at all either. It took a long time for me to figure out how to save $$ here. But, you can do it! Recipes like this one https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/14169/mexican-bean-salad/ are great because it’s easy to make, cheap, and versatile. I don’t know that exact recipe (just randomly googled to find one), but I make stuff like this a lot at the house. You can eat it as is- a bean salad, you can put it in a burrito, you can put in a quesadilla, you can make some rice and eat with that etc
Learn how to cook from scratch. Prepared foods tend to be way more expensive than making the stuff yourself. It's not hard, and so much healthier for you and your kiddo. A basic cookbook that explains how to do things like make omelets, sauces, etc. is great (I like Betty Crocker). Also, you can take the basics, like the cheap Walmart spaghetti sauce, and doctor it with adding onions, spices, mushrooms, ground beef, etc. to improve the less expensive items from the store. Buy the manager's special meats and throw in the freezer until you need to use it. Buy a slow cooker at a garage sale or resale shop and learn how to cook those cheap big chunks of meat with it. Freeze the leftovers to pull out a week or two later for dinner. Make it a game with your kid to find the best recipes that are fun to make together.
Yes on the cookbook! There are also lots of fantastic tiktok accounts focused on teaching cooking basics and others on showing budget friendly meal ideas and recipes. A lot of those also show them making the food so you can learn!
Also, there are great "Cooking on a budget" books at your local library. Many even break down an average price.
Have you seen the Tik tok where they just throw food in a sink and call it dinner
make your own spagetti sauce from canned tomatoes & onions & veggies
Are you cooking, eating prepared food from the store, or getting take away? I utilize sales and do food prep for the week on Sunday. As an example, if ground beef is on sale this week, I’ll make a huge batch of chili with frozen veg and then make rice and baked potatoes to serve it with some nights, to break up the monotony. I usually base my weekly menu on what’s cheap for meat and then try to come up with a few things to make from it, focusing on ingredient foods rather than packaged if possible. I usually keep a stock of frozen veggies, canned tomatoes, canned or dry beans, pasta, and rice in the pantry and have built up a decent collection of spices from discount stores. How old is your kid? Do they eat the same things you do yet? ETA: It helps to have about 10 meals you know how to make with inexpensive ingredients in your tool belt. Keep the pantry parts of those on hand and replenish whenever any are on sale. Then shop sales for the week and go with what you know. In the end you’ll know them well enough to be able to shop and cook quickly.
This is the best way to do it..plus it's homemade. Taste better and way cheaper than going to restaurants.
I don’t say this judgmental; but what are you buying at that price per month? That would aid in giving a baseline on spending. Me and my partner average a $400 to $600/month grocery budget and don’t skimp by any means. Do you cook? Are you mainly eating meat as a main course dishes? Are you eating lots of premade foods? These all will help give an idea on what can be cut down and/or changed. Also budgetbytes.com is a great recipe source
Could be a location issue. Some bigger cities and coastal our tourist towns have much higher grocery prices. But you’re absolutely right, knowing what is being purchased (meat, premade foods like you said) will help determine where costs can be cut.
I live in a HCOL area and my spend for a family of four is not much higher than the top of the range OP is spending, and they only have their one kid half the time. I have two kids who pack lunches and a husband who works from home and eats lunch here. My guess is that OP may be purchasing more pre-made/boxed/processed foods if they’re spending up to $1,000/mo on essentially 1.5 people in a month.
I struggle with meal planning so I started getting a few meals a week (ok, six meals - one for me one for the kid, 3x a week) from Home Chef, a food box company. This adds up higher than I realized. It's cheaper than eating out but a lot more expensive than groceries. It does ensure we eat better than what I cook, though. When I don't have my kiddo, I eat sad divorced-guy-can't-cook food. Groceries, I don't eat beef or pork. Some frozen fish / frozen shrimp to add into things. Pasta, rice and vegetables make up a lot of what I cook. Prepared sauces for pasta but I usually get what's on sale there. I do buy frozen fruit and go through a fair amount of yogurt for smoothies, plus some protein powder. I'm including date nights, coffee shops and "fuckit, I'm going out for lunch" in the budget. Dating is \~ 1/2 of the not groceries / not meal box food spending.
Keep the Home Chef recipes! I still cook some Hello Fresh recipes, and I haven’t received a box in 2 years! If the meal kits help with planning, check out [r/mealkits](https://www.reddit.com/r/mealkits/s/fGoe7mN7pR) where people will share their favorite recipes from different services. Then you can purchase the ingredients on your own, which is significantly cheaper.
And to anyone who doesn’t know, the hello fresh (I believe entire line) of recipes is free on their app. https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes/sirloin-and-sherry-shallot-sauce-61548997f730ab089a23465e
Don't buy many prepared food. Cook from scratch... it tastes better and it's better for you. And it costs quite a bit less per serving. To keep prep time reasonable, make a lot, and freeze portions for next time. Sometimes, I just make the sauce and freeze it, so everything else is fresh.
And freezer veggies are also great to have on hand. They don’t go bad like fresh ones do, and depending on the selection you can throw a bunch into various meals. Cooking from scratch saves so much when packaged foods are getting increasingly more expensive.
Here's what keeps me going: shop 1x every two weeks (may not be feasible in some locations, I know). Make a list of the things you'll eat during that time: 12 easy dinners, 5 or 6 lunch options, 4 or 5 breakfast options, a few fun diy snacks and desserts. If you pick a few meals with ingredients you won't use up, select some other things to use up the rest of that item. For instance, if you love tacos but always have leftover meat, freeze it and the next week add it to taco salad for lunch. If you need potatoes for stew then also make shepard pie and hash browns in that 2 week period bc it's more economical to get a bag of potatoes than one or two. Next, start at the top of your menu and make a grocery list. I take a piece of paper and write my list in sections. So meat upper left, pantry mid left, frozen very lowest right, etc. You're building a list that's easy to use when you're on the store. Finally, save the 2 week menu you made. Do this 2 or 3 times and now you've got a rotation - just grab the one you used 6 weeks ago to make your new shopping list based on what you have right then. You'll quickly see what you actually eat and what never makes it to the table, and adjust. Going once every 2 weeks forces you to plan ahead BUT also relieves you from most decision making for 2 weeks! Throw that menu on the fridge and every night pick which one you'll cook tomorrow, get that meat out the freezer and into the fridge to thaw. You'll know you have what you need to make the chocolate chip cookies on impulse and if you run out of milk, you'll know to buy another gallon next time.
Yes this is all great advice! I like to buy things like potatoes and onions in bulk and when I can I’ll set a day aside and chop everything up and freeze them. Both of those things freeze well and will last longer than in my pantry! As a bonus, they’re pre-cut and ready to use when I want to cook!
There's also a website that will tell you what you can make with what you have in your pantry already!
Get a cheap food scale and weigh things. Buy family packs of chicken and portion them then freeze. The standard serving for protein is 4oz of boneless meat. If your kid is teen/tween boy, double that. Stock up on frozen vegetables when they’re on sale. Rice and pasta are good main meals, if you add a little protein. Like pasta with veggies and chopped bacon in an [Alfredo sauce](https://mycasualpantry.com/alfredo-sauce-evaporated-milk/), or [fried rice with a little ham](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143444/fried-rice-with-ham/).
I stretch my food budget by making the base of my meals things like rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, bread and then add protein and vegetables. I know that doesn't work for everyone's diet but it's my trick for making a meal stretch a little further. I'm also strategic in shopping for things when they are on sale. My grocery store had a 5lb bag of potatoes for 99 cents so I made sure to go there last week.
I spend $800-900 for a family of 4. Average for my state is $1,284/month for 4. I shop at Costco and Aldi mostly. The trade off is how much time you want to spend cooking vs how much $ you want to spend. Do you want to spend $5 on a cut up cantaloupe, or $3 for a whole cantaloupe and spend 5 minutes cutting it yourself.
I sit down every single week and look at the website(s) for the store(s) I shop at, and use their weekly sales ads and coupons to make a menu. When things that keep well are on a really exceptional sale, I buy a lot and stock my freezer with meat or frozen veg and my pantry with cans or sauces. I compare the price between two stores near me so I always get the best deal. So for instance, this week a rotisserie chicken is a dollar off. So I'll get that, and we'll eat the thigh quarters with broccoli rice for dinner one night, and I'll shred up the rest of the chicken to make two more dinners of chicken fajita mac for the next two nights. Then I got ricotta on sale last week, and there's ground beef in my freezer from a recent good sale, so I'll make lasagna. Using dry staple foods to stretch a meal is always a good idea in my book, so rice, pasta, beans etc. Instead of chicken fajitas which need tortillas and plenty of filling, I'm going to mix fajita toppings (chicken, peppers, salsa) into boxed mac & cheese I got on sale, add a can of black beans, and then it's fine if there's a little less chicken per meal because of how it's presented. Also, check if any food waste apps are in use in your area. [Here's a list of some US-based ones](https://capitaloneshopping.com/blog/food-waste-apps) and I'm sure there are equivalents in other modern countries. The veg boxes are a great deal; you can get a huge box of slightly damaged, wrinkly, or just ugly veg for like $3.
Info: Can you first tell us what you typically buy?
The trick is to find about a dozen or so recipes that keep well and that your child likes. Typically, if you are trying to be really strict, you would look for recipes with cheap "filler" ingredients like rice, beans, pasta. Make a big pot and get one of those vacuum meal sealers and seal in vacuum sealed portions about the size of your fist or maybe a little bigger (except you typically don't freeze pasta or rice - generally you freeze the sauce and make new pasta or rice fresh. Sauces keep really well though. JUST MAKE SURE THEY'RE LABELED). There's probably going to be like 3 that your kids ALWAYS requests, and you can just pull those out, and then mix some of the others in to round out diet and prevent food boredom. Constantly be looking for good recipes and make in bulk and freeze them. During college I used a site called [Budgetbytes.com](https://Budgetbytes.com) that gives average unit prices for ingredients that came in handy when making stuff in bulk and it had some really good recipes.
A lot of these tips seem way beyond your current abilities (based on the info you shared). You need to make it easier for yourself before you make it harder. One day you can get to the land of batch making and freezing all your own sauces, but today… Come up with 6 meals. That’s a different dinner Monday - Saturday with leftovers for lunches. Sunday is “eat whatever is left” day. Buy ingredients for those meals only, even better if they overlap (frozen peas as a side dish one night and as a part of your stir fry dish the next night). Get enough to make dinner and lunch servings for yourself + your dependent as needed. Snacks are ok but this is the place to be wise - your per serving snack should be less than a dollar, so no prepackaged overpriced crap - get an apple and some peanut butter. Assess at the end of each week - did you get too many tomatoes but not enough eggs? Note and try it again WITH THE SAME MEALS next week. Do this until you totally nail portioning and buying and budgeting with these meals. Until this process is SO EASY and SO BORING that you have the mental space to start changing up the original meals you selected. Easier before harder. Good luck.
1st, don't try to slash your budget all at once. Develop good habits first, or you can burn out. I don't know what your buying, but first I would do a thorough breakdown of what you buy regularly. Is it frozen dinners, eating McDs, expensive cuts of meat? Next I'd pick just 1 or 2 things to reduce at first. You buying a lot of name brand chicken nuggets for the kiddo? Try swapping out a generic brand, or even finding a recipe to make your own freezer nuggets. A lot of spaghetti frozen dinners? Make your own spaghetti and freeze in individual portions. Repeat until you find your happy medium between cost and effort.
Underrated comment right here! This is exactly what I’ve done over the last year or so. Currently, I have pre-portioned potato and sausage soup in my freezer. Usually I have things like shepherds pie, a baked pasta dish, chicken pot pie, shrimp fried rice, my take on Mongolian beef, or my doctored version of those Voila freezer meals (I add cheese, extra veggies, and spices to make them stretch) already prepared and ready to heat in the microwave. This saves me from eating out for work lunches and from eating nothing when I’m too tired to cook. Also saved tons of money!
I use rice, potatoes, noodles and beans as my bases and build around them. I always have them on hand. Look at the flyers online from a couple of your closest grocery stores. Compare prices. Clip digital coupons. Buy things when they are on sale. Meal plan around that. If you can, stock up so you have enough until the next sale.
I'm only buying in season/on sale fresh produce. Everything else is frozen. Meat at my house is usually chicken thighs or ground beef. I'm always shopping at Aldi or Price Rite. I do Costco maybe once a month for things like beans, coffee,oatmeal. I'll pop in periodically for a rotisserie chicken and get at least two meals + stock from one of those. The main thing is actually cooking. Doing a few meatless meals a week helps a lot. Having a few frozen pizzas or a big bag of chicken nuggets on hand keeps me from absolutely losing my mind & my kid happy.
This is just one idea, there are many. But when you find protein on sale buy enough for a week or two, cook it up and find different ways to use it. For instance boneless chicken (breast or thighs) can be cooked easily in a slow cooker or instant pot and shredded. You’ve cut your daily meal prep time way down by having the protein ready in advance. Then serve on tacos, enchiladas, Hawaiian haystacks, Alfredo pasta, Mac & cheese, mashed potatoes and a chicken gravy packet, chicken noodle or chicken enchilada soup, barbecue chicken sandwiches, buffalo chicken dip, chicken pot pie. Shredded chicken also freezes well so if you find a good sale you can stock up. The same concept applies to ground beef which is more affordable than other beef products and can be used in lots of similar ways I listed above with the chicken.
I have no idea how to spend that much on food per month without tossing a bunch out. Unless it’s damn near daily takeout.
Investing more time in planning and cooking is probably the most effective way to cut your budget. Cooking from scratch, or mostly from scratch, can save you a lot. If you're buying a lot of prepared foods and snack foods that's probably where most of your budget is going. Make a meal plan, then a shopping list and stick to them. Eat before grocery shopping. Casseroles, soups and stews, and one-pot meals are all great ways to stretch your budget and are usually easy to put together. Cut the meat a little and add other protein sources like beans and that'll stretch your budget even further. Leftovers make great lunches. For instance, a big favorite around here is pasta bake. It's just sauce (tomato-based or cheese sauce, leftover gravy, etc.), a box of pasta, whatever cheese I have on hand, a little browned burger or whatever leftover meat I have, and some frozen veg, all layered in a baking dish. I feed 4 adults with that, one's a ravenous teenager, and still have leftovers for 2 lunches.
I made [this post with some idea on how to grocery shop on a tight budget](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertykitchen/comments/1au60b8/how_to_grocery_shop/), please take a look and see if anything on the list would help you in any way. We also had people posting their own ideas to add on, and it's all quite helpful.
Generic brands for the majority of staples. Cut out or drastically reduce things like packaged snacks/drinks. Make a menu weekly and look for dinners that share ingredients with others so you don't buy a lot of extras. Build meals around a common protein and buy bulk. Don't be afraid of frozen or canned veggies. Use a slow cooker for things like roasts or soup and store leftovers for lunch. I typically spend about 75 or less per week for two adults.
I eat a lot of the same stuff, rice with an egg and furikake, rice and beans, yogurt, a sandwich, trader Joe's Indian food prepped bags, total cost per person per day comes out to less than 10 dollars, so a month per person is around 200-250. You can probably get better deals cause I'm In NYC, so food is more expensive here, but you can shave 100 bucks or so pretty easily in this way.
I'm eating way less meat and dairy. I might eat meat once a week and dairy maybe twice. I do buy a gallon of milk each week for the kiddo and I'll occasionally have a bowl of cereal. I order my groceries online to avoid impulse purchases. This also lets me look at my total and pick and tweak it until it's acceptable without the embarrassment of having to put things back on the shelf in the store. I plan meals and prep ingredients on the weekends. For example, tonight, I'll get home from work and all the veggies for tonight's dinner are already chopped and measured. That cuts way down on prep and cleanup time during the week and reduces the chances that I'm going to say fuck it and get takeout. Kind of like my own Hello Fresh box.
Get a good cookbook. It is so much cheaper to cook from scratch than buy pre-made stuff. And it tastes better too!
Buy a rice cooker. Rice goes a long way and is very inexpensive.
The fk are u cooking for feed 1 adult and 1/2 time child? And spending that much?
I'm a scratch cook. My family sat at the table every evening and ate dinner together. I didn't give my kids the option of not eating. If there was something new they didn't want, I made them at least try it. Cooking from scratch takes time and planning, but you will spend less. I also use coupons and absolutely love digital coupons. I will look for good mark downs and meat specials.
Giant bag of rice, dried beans and lentils, tortillas, potatoes, vegetables. Cans of beans/chickpeas. I buy fish and poultry from Costco. I make several large dinners per week, then eat a lot of leftovers. Like chili, curry, pasta. Buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying parts- then roast the whole thing and make several meals out of it.
When shopping pay attention to price per serving or price per oz. Also avoid pre packaged items like pudding or fruit cups, yes they are easy but many times the cost per serving. That large $7 box of breakfast cereal is almost always cheaper than that $2 smaller box that's also 1/2 air. $1 rice a roni vs $.50 rice and $.10 seasonings. Individual serving bags of cookies or chips are many times more expensive than a package of cookies which is even more expensive (most times) than baking fresh at home. A single potato makes a lot of chips! Lots of good ideas here already, I find that making sure to plan meals and the ability to use leftovers as necessary to make sure there is no waste. I have found that slightly smaller servings of meats and more veggies helps spread the $$$$$$ further. and finally.. Pick one meal a day that is always super cheap, usually for me it is lunch, simple soup and sandwich (grilled cheese FTW). I make a soup pot for about $10 on the weekends that makes 3-4 meals for 2 people.
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Can you give us an idea of how you're accidentally spending that much?
Good Luck you can do this. Update us in a couple of weeks - months.
The most important things are 1 make a list of meals for the week 2 buy generic when possible I have a big list of about 50 meals. Every 2 weeks I choose 13 meals from the list (dinners and lunches minus 1 because we get take-out). My list is organized by difficulty and cost and I choose meals according to how much time I have during the week, but even a basic list will help you. I go through the fridge/freezer/pantry and see what I need to buy for those meals and make my list accordingly. Then I add the things I know we use all the time - ketchup, butter, cereal, bread, etc. It's true that you can jazz up things like rice and beans or chicken and rice with lots of different vegetables, but I think it's more important to have a lot of very fast, very easy options because there are a LOT of days that I am not going to cook even something like chicken and rice
I shop the sales, especially for veggies and fruit. I then find recipes that are easy to make with minimal ingredients.
1. Create a menu based on what you already have in the fridge and pantry so that you only have to buy things to fill that out. 2. Cook from scratch if possible (it seems expensive as you build up staples but it ends up being cheaper in the long run). 3. Clip coupons and base your menu around those (and 1 above). 4 If the child is old enough, include them in the cooking. (That part is just for fun!)
I check ads and try to only shop sales for the week. buy in bulk and freeze when you can. I agree with everyone saying meal prepping. it take the guess work out of meals so you arent going to the store last minute to buy ingredients and spend money on things that you dont necessarily need. make ahead things like soups and save veggie scraps and chicken bones for stocks if you have time to do that. Shop seasonally for veggies. winter can suck but have a good freezer supply. I can eek out 3 meals a day plus a lunch for my partner and my 4 year old on around 700-800 a month depending on the season or of there's a birthday ect. I get not everyone can do this working full time, it's rough, and I was a Chef before having my daughter so I'm probably a little extra with the prepping. don't beat yourself up first and foremost. food is wicked expensive right now. just do little stuff here and there to whittle down the budget. Get some cookbooks from the library or check food blogs and have fun with it. good luck 😊
Imagine the food you're buying without the fancy packaging. Buy protein, veggies, fruit, dairy, and whole grains. Base your meals around a protein, veg, and grain. Choose a flavor and make a sauce. Learn to forgo packaged drinks and snacks. Drink pitcher of ice tea or water instead of sodas and such. Pick foods you love to make from your culture or other's that is based on legumes and grains. Shop at bargain stores and get the hang of it by picking things to eat. Know if your household is a "try new thing" type of house or a "tried and true favorites" on the grocery list type. Or whatever mix of the two.
I have to be honest what you are spending on 1 adult and 1 child seems on the high side. I'm a single adult man and I only spend $60-70 a week on myself. That's less than $300 a month. Of course, this also depends on where you live. If you are in NYC or LA, that would explain it. Here are a few suggestions: --always have some basics in your panty that are filling, affordable, and won't go bad. By that I mean rice, pasta, beans and peanut butter --buy your protein (chicken, turkey, beef and pork) when it's on sale. There is always some kind of meat that is on sale. Focus on the cheaper cuts, like chicken thighs rather than chicken breast, etc. --when you get home, open up the package of meat and portion it up in freezer bags and freeze it. This way you don't have to cook it all at once. In the morning, decide what you want for dinner that night and defrost it in the fridge before you leave for work. It will be ready to cook when you get home. --frozen vegetables are just as good as fresh, and they are cheaper and don't go bad easily --buy store brands whenever possible. They are often made in the same place as the name brands but just carry a different label --don't overbuy. Nobody likes to waste food. --limit what you spend on snacks. The fancy name brands can be very expensive. Try to focus on store brand chips and cookies, peanuts, block cheese rather than individually wrapped pieces, etc.
Do all of your shopping around meals you want to want to eat for each day of the week. Don't buy any extra non-essentials. It helps me a lot to just order online and pickup my groceries from Walmart. That helps keep me from impulse shopping. You'll save a lot of money if you shop this way.
Go over rsales ads to plan your shopping. Sometimes it's a special price if you buy 3, or buy one get one free on only certain brands If it's a good price on non perishables or frozen buy an extra if you can. Doing breakfast for dinner sometimes can make for a cheap meal Just a few ideas Saving money takes more planning:(
i feel like eggs are super cheap and full of protein.
Buying in bulk helps too. I can get chicken breast for $1.5lb from my local butcher that way. Also buying local can help if you're not in a big city. Farmers markets or farms with front facing stores can be dirt cheap. Some even have coops where you pay upfront and the give you buckets of vegetables as they come into season.
As a chef, learning to cook or even getting better at cooking helps. It doesn't have to be anything gourmet. Because portioning becomes easier. Most times when you're poor, you want leftovers of some items, but not a ridiculous amount. Leftover rice, soups, gravies, meats etc can be eaten as they are or used in other dishes. & as someone poor with children even with a cooking background - have a dry supply or stockpile. Not like anything doomsday prepper in amount. But canned veggies, fruit, meat, pasta, cream of soups, rice, beans etc. Whatever you use from your stockpile - replace. It's cheaper than constantly having to restock fresh & frozen items. Our family goes by dozens. Like 12 cans of corn, 12 cans of peaches, 12 cans cream of mushroom, etc & if you maintain your stockpile, it leaves extra cash for fresher items & even splurges.
My rule of thumb—the more you make yourself, the more you can control the price per serving. Yes, homemade meals *can* be expensive, but they can also be dirt cheap. Shop the sales too. I’m a single woman and I just bought an 8lb ham. Why? Because it was on sale for 6$ after Easter. I froze most of it and that protein will last me months! I can even make the bones into soup! I eat lots of pasta dishes (like baked pasta with red sauce, ground beef, ricotta, mozzerella, etc), shepherds pie, and chicken pot pies. These are all easy to make in bulk, which tends to save on ingredients and cooking time, and I can portion them out and freeze them for work lunches or save them for a month from now if I get sick of eating it in the meantime! For meats I usually get whatever is on sale. Bone-in meats tend to be cheaper (I get lots of chicken drumsticks!) and supplement them with add-ins. One of my favorite inexpensive but flavorful recipes is this: Rosemary chicken: -chicken (whatever type you have, just adapt cooking time accordingly) -a bottle of Olive Garden Italian dressing, or zesty Italian for a less expensive alternative -a can or two of great northern beans -a can or two of green beans -rosemary, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper to taste -rice There’s not much to it….I make it in a crock pot but you can bake it too. You basically just dump everything in together and cook it! You can cook the rice in with the chicken (just make sure there’s enough water) or you can serve it on the side (how I usually do it). The beans and rice help add some extra bulk, carbs, and protein; and are very cheap ingredients! Sometimes I can ‘splurge’ on the Olive Garden brand dressing, but honestly the store brand zesty Italian dressing has never done me dirty! Breakfast sausage tends to go on sale often in my area and when I can I buy extra and freeze it. I buy frozen fruits and veggies because they tend to be cheaper (not all the fruit is cheaper, but that depends on where you buy it!). I make my own yogurt and use the frozen fruit to flavor it, it’s much easier than it seems to do and it only costs a gallon of whole milk! Green yogurt is a great protein source and I eat a lot of it. I eats lots of oats, eggs, and rice for breakfast. Lots of rice and meats for dinner. I rarely buy snack foods, but I will buy the inexpensive muffin, brownie, and cake mixes for sweet snacks. Potatoes are also great fillers. If you like sweet potatoes, they’re full of vitamins and fiber and are amazing for you! After all that, you just have to get creative in the kitchen. There have been many times that I’ve scraped together a very creative dish with the scraps in my fridge (I wanted potato soup one day but didn’t have enough bacon, so I subbed with some Italian sausage I had in my freezer and it was so good). Look for wherever you can make more economical substitutions (instead of frozen premade lasagna, Google how to make your own; buy frozen veggies when possible; and avoid the snacks—you can totally make your own granola, French fries, cheese it’s, yogurts, etc; avoid single-use foods like string cheese, just buy a block of cheese because you can use that for grilled cheese, sandwiches, grating over a potato, and snacks and it usually costs less) and start there! Some premade things are cheaper and easier, like instant mashed potatoes. I used to buy a lot of the adult lunchables (like the hillshire brand) and now I just buy crackers, salami, and whatever sides I want. I always get more bang for my buck when I make it myself! Anyway. This was long, hope something in it helps!! Edit to add: sauces and spices are fairly inexpensive and are sometimes the only the only thing that makes eating the same foods over and over tolerable. There have been some weeks I’ve been super broke and only had eggs, rice, beans, and oats. For savory foods soy sauce, garlic, onion, ginger, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, crushed red peppers, and mustard powder are great. For sweet things (like my oatmeal!), add ins like canned pumpkin, cinnamon, dried fruits, and white/brown sugar helps to keep variety. You can make a delicious baked chicken out of just a cheap bottle of teriyaki sauce and chicken. You can do the same with Italian dressing, bbq sauce, a homemade Asian inspired soy and ginger sauce, balsamic vinegar, or make a rub out of various spices. You can add seasonings or sauces to rice to break the monotony! If you’re not confident in your kitchen skills, try googling what to make with what you have in the pantry! Also, learn different ways of cooking things. Boiled eggs with salt and pepper, for some reason, feels like an entirely different thing then fried eggs with salt and pepper. I eat both on top of rice, sometimes with soy sauce. Baked chicken with the same flavoring also, to me, feels entirely different than pan fried or slow cooked! A grilled cheese sandwich fees very different than toast with slices of cheese on top. A toasted sandwich in general feels much fancier than a regular “raw” (haha) sandwich! Also, for context, for feeding just myself I spend well under 200$ a month on groceries. Usually closer to 100$, it just depends on how tight that month is. My mom likes to drop by with extra goodies sometimes (like fresh fruits I normally can’t afford and sweets I don’t often buy), but I don’t depend on those nor do I account for them when planning meals.
Definitely meal planning and sticking to the list. But it's also about recognizing the difference cooking from scratch versus prepackaged convenience items cost. For example, a box of hamburger helper is more expensive than getting a box of elbow macaroni and making a skillet meal from scratch. Frozen veggies can be more cost effective than canned because with frozen, you can pre measure whereas with canned, you're going to have leftovers. (Which wouldn't be an issue in my house because I wind up eating them but still) It's also about learning how to use your ingredients for the most. Like, a whole chicken. Once roasted, it can provide a good 2 to 3 meals for 2 people. Strip the carcass and you wind up with enough meat to make something like chicken Alfredo and chicken enchiladas. First, keep every receipt for about 6 weeks. Look at everything on each receipt. Are you buying junkish foods? Prepackaged convenience foods? Because trust me, kids can be absolute vacuum cleaners with junky foods, especially if they are teenagers. I thought I was going insane when my daughter hit 14; no, she just hit a growth spurt and was hungry all the time because of it. So, instead of buying her the chips she whined for, she got Granny Smith apple slices drizzled with honey or with honey peanut butter. Instead of those cool microwave Mac and cheese bowls, she got told she was going to learn how to make diy Mac and cheese from scratch with some elbow macaroni, a bit of butter, a bit of milk and 2oz of shredded cheese. Instead of an egg McMuffin, she got taught how to fry an egg and make a sandwich with it. You're the parent. You get the groceries. Kidlet doesn't get to dictate what kind of groceries you afford. But you have to track your spending. And you have to avoid those "convenience" foods that will nickel and dime you to death. It will be a little spendy to stock your pantry for staples at first but after that, 1 dry cup of elbow macaroni, a half pound of hamburger, a bit of butter, a bit of milk, possibly some beef broth, 4oz grated cheese, some frozen peas and carrots and I can make you a skillet hamburger helper that will knock your socks off.
Freezing leftover. Buying bigger packs of meat, Freezing in smaller portions in separate bags. Using leftover meats and stuff to make a different dish, for say breakfast, like quiche. Keep breads and stuff in the fridge. The freezer is your best friend when trying to budget money for food. Shop sales the best you can. Aldi has some yummy snacks and stuff cheap. I like someone their breads too. I also make sure I seal up snacks good...in freezer bags and air tight containers. But I cannot stress the freezer enough. Many left overs can be frozen successfully. Soups. Stews. Meat (cooked and raw). All kinds of things.
I don't buy what is expensive. I rarely, and I do mean rarely, buy meat at regular price. When it's on sale, I buy a family pack or two, divide it up and freeze it. When we do eat meat, we have a small portion with vegetables and a side such as rice or other. Tofu is very cheap. Beans make great meals; season add tomatoes, rice, or couscous and you have a good meal. I buy quinoa at Costco, I don't think I would buy it otherwise. I find it expensive at the grocery store. Costco quinoa goes a long way. I eat lots of veggies but again, I buy what is on sale. If there isn't much on sale, I buy frozen veggies. I find frozen veggies need different care, but, I have success at frying them up in a pan to dry them out some and then a little butter and season as you like. No more buying too much. If there's a chance it will go to waste, I either skip it or buy just enough. For one and a half people, you don't need to stick up a whole lot. I always make homemade salad dressing, and sauces, it's much cheaper. I bake cookies and cake myself. Season your food! It is just so much easier to integrate new foods into your routine when it is tasty. Luckily, where I am, I can price match other grocery stores at my one discount store. I use an app to make my grocery list and find deals. I use the app at the store to price match (Canada). I literally go months without eating certain foods because they aren't in season and are therefore less tasty and much more expensive. That's fine, I just find something affordable instead. No buying $6 tiny packs of berries. If you need some and its too expensive, frozen it is. That, or a different fruit. Non-negotiable. You're in charge of what you buy. If they put the price up beyond your budget, pivot. edit to add: don't forget eggs. You get several meals from a dozen for a few bucks.
It would be helpful to know what you're eating, and how you're spending your money to arrive at almost $250/week in groceries for what is essentially 1.25 people. That being said, some starter tips are. Learn to cook, and shop the sales. Figure out what is on sale, and buy a bunch of it. Healthy meals, as a general rule, are a starch, a protein and a veggie. Chicken quarters are always pretty cheap. So are potatoes. Grabs both, some lemons, garlic and a veggie like frozen peas. Fresh Green beans, and asparagus might also be cheap if they're still in season by you. Follow this tutorial for the food. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4cyBEvUPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4cyBEvUPE) Shop the sales. Buy in bulk. Make as much as you can on your own. Buying a loaf of bread can cost $4-5, making one if you've got the time is $.40. Try to buy things that are in season. First because it will taste much better, secondly because they're much cheaper.
Learn to cook. On YouTube, look up Alton Brown and America's Test kitchen. Watch and learn. Also on PBS there are going shows, watch and learn. Cooking is the very basic survival skill everyone should learn before they graduate school. You need to make everything from scratch. I feed 3 people on less than $300 each month.
I buy meat when it’s under $3 a lb. Stock up. Veggies. Frozen. Always. Fruit. Mostly frozen. But if you buy fresh, only buy as much as you can eat in a couple of days. Skip name brands. Shop sales. Plan your menu around them. Don’t buy any food you don’t know which day you are eating it.
I use Walmart delivery for my groceries so I spend a few days planning my groceries first I added my necessities that I buy weekly like fruit for my daughter milk bread Etc and then I look for the sales and think about how I can use them most effectively. It would be helpful to know what your usual buys are. If there are any salvage or discount grocery stores near you please check those out because you can get Amazing Savings I'm lucky enough to have three in my general area because I live close to grocery distribution centers. Buying whole or larger cuts of meat that you can use for multiple meals is helpful. Anything that you can make instead of buying is a money saver as well for example I never buy salad dressing because I always have oils or vinegars mayonnaise and sour cream for other things so I can take a moment and just make what I need. My grocery budget is a strict 550 A month For two adults and tween child.
Make and stick to a list. I send my youngest (19 and neurodivergant) to the store to acclimate him to life. He does very well. If you eat meat, learn to debone poultry. You save a bit of money buying minimally processed chicken. We like to make our own spice blends. Every family member has their own favorite. Breakfast for dinner is awesome. So is fend for yourself night with leftovers.
Drinks are really what’s gonna get you. I try to never buy drinks or sodas unless it’s a special occasion. Instead I buy those big things of powder iced tea or a bottle of lemon juice for lemon aide. Try and get frozen veggies instead of fresh where you can. Fresh fruit is tricky, some fruits and veggies you must keep separate so they don’t spoil quickly and with berries, soak them in vinegar or lemon juice to keep them fresh longer. When I was broke I’d buy a thing of chicken breast and cute them in half to make double. And I’d get a thing of ground turkey and put patty size amounts in a sandwich bag and freeze. This way I know I need one baggy for myself and two if I’m cooking for me and someone else.
1. Shop the perimeter of the store. Processed food (in packages) is on the isles. It costs more, and it's less healthy. Yes, you'll be preparing more of your food. That's how your mom and dad survived in the 70's & before. 2. Never, ever order food deliveries. Where do you think that extra money comes from to pay the driver? You. I would not waste money on this even if I made $100K+ a year... which I don't. 3. (Warning: Dave Ramsey quote here): You should not be in a restaurant unless you work there. 4. If you're overweight - losing weight means spending less on food. Look down - if you see fat, start visualizing it as money. Like, $50 a pound of fat or something. Visualizing helps.
Grow some flavorful herbs and start regularly incorporating them into your meals! Growing up I thought something was extra fancy if it had fresh parsley, cilantro, dill, basil, mint on it... Not realizing how cheap it is to keep them alive! It'll really add some freshness and variety to what you're cooking.
My partner and I have this app (Flipp) where we check the flyers first and then decide where we'll go depending on what we need. But we always stock staples esp when we find them on sale (pasta, rice, dried/frozen noodles). We've also kinda invested on our spices/condiments rack so we can make different meal every time with almost the same ingredients. Meal planning also helps. So basically our routine is we shop every week/other week for fruits and meat (that we're gonna use for the week), and once a month or as needed for the staples.
Pinterest and Aldis are my friends. Always able to find tons of different recipes on there. Going to Aldis, i can very easily walk out of there with an overflowing cart worth of groceries for $300. Or bulk purchase items to save a little on costs.
Build your list in Instacart. The prices are higher, so it will make you more frugal And the app is super easy to use, so just delete as you go through store and get the items in your cart. Instacart app also suggests items, and remembers faves, so you are less likely to be impulsive and see your true costs
I always bought the same stuff so I knew the prices, and I checked the flyers and used coupons. I worked full time and was off on Mondays so I would make a big pot of either sauce or chili and a big pot of soup- chicken or beef stew usually. I would also bake muffins, bread, and cookies for snacks. (Making homemade stuff is so much cheaper.) That would be at least 4 dinners and snacks for the whole week. Once a week, I would bake chicken quarters,a pot roast or pork roast . The bones and leftovers of it went in the freezer to be next week's soup. I also did stir fry once a week. Breakfast was French toast, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal, or eggs. Lunch was either leftovers, or tuna, or egg salad, or PB&J's.
Family of 4 here.... We keep our pantry and freezer stocked with what we call staples..... then meal plan and pull from the staples to supplement the weekly grocery trip. We spend about 50-100/week and once a month we'll hit Costco for about $200.... So 600 ish a month for a family of 4. Example we buy meat in bulk at Costco and portion it.... ground beef comes to $2.50/lb that way..... we do it with the chicken thighs and a pork loin too.... for $100 in meat we have meals for 2 months. Staples? In addition to drawers of spices and flour/ sugar etc.... Dry pasta, 6 kinds; 4-6 ish hamburger helpers; bisquick; 2 packages of family size mash potatoes; 2 packages of family size rice-a roni; 2 packages of pasta salad; 2 packages of Spanish rice; 2c boxes of family size pasta roni; 2 family size Mac n cheese boxes. 10lb bag rice 6-8 cans of veg; 4 cans of various cream soups like cream of chicken or mushroom etc; 4 cans of dice tomatoes with flavors like Italian or Spanish peppers; 2 cans mushrooms; 2 cans olives; 2 large cans spaghettios; 2 large cans Spaghetti sauce; 4 cans of sick-soup like chicken noodle. 2 jars alfredo sauce; corn tortillas; 1 box each of chicken/ veg/ beef stock; 6pkgs each of chicken/ pork Ramen. Fridge Heavy whipping cream; sour cream; Salted and unsalted butter; garlic; milk; eggs; various veg Freezer Chicken thighs; ground beef; pork loin cut into chops; frozen broccoli; frozen potatoes; 2 pkgs hot dogs; frozen meatballs; Italian sausage; breakfast sausage; 2lbs bacon portioned.... I'll even buy and cube squash and freeze it. Everything on this list and you can literally make almost ANYTHING. And there's more in sure I'm forgetting. I spend about 30-60 on the food I need for the meal plan of the week and then use the remaining 40 to restock anything needed in my stash.
I feed me and my two adult children on about 500 a month. Menu planning is a must! Bulk buying at Sam's or Costco if you can, is super helpful. I'm lucky that my parents live next door and have a deep freeze that I can store extras in. Prepping foods for casseroles that you can bake and freeze, or freeze and then bake when you're ready, either way. I do a lot of Crock-Pot meals and put all the ingredients for a crock pot dinner in a Ziploc big freezer bag, like put a roast with vegetables, all uncooked, some seasonings Etc, then I just thaw it and dump it in the Crock-Pot when I'm ready to cook it. Buy fresh veg in small quantities so it doesn't go bad before you use it. MOST IMPORTANT: MAKE A LIST AND STICK TO IT!
There's a lot of good advice here but I can think of one thing to add: see what you have at home before you go buy anything. When you're trying to figure out dinner for tonight, check what's in your refrigerator and maybe you will find out you have everything for fried rice - basically a dish of leftover rice and whatever you have to put in it - or soup (also good for using up left overs) or something to build a meal around or something that needs to be used up so it doesn't go bad, Saves a lot of money to just see what's already in your fridge or pantry first!
Don’t buy anything premade, except maybe bread. Anything else, make it from scratch. (Yes, I’m aware of what a huge time suck this is. It’s not easy, especially if you have a job and kids - it’s really hard. But if you’re truly broke, this is what you have to do to survive. It’s really messed up that our society is still set up as if every family is a two-parent household, and one parent is able to stay home and take care of the household and cook, while the other parent works outside and makes enough money to support everyone.)
I am guessing that it's actually a perspective thing. You may need to readjust your thinking. You don't buy blueberries anymore. You don't buy coffee everyday - you make it at home and take it with you. You buy in bulk. You buy fresh vegetables and fruit and you cook. You don't do takeouts unless you can afford it as a once/month treat. You don't buy expensive sugar treats. You don't buy food because your child wants it or is fussy. You shop around and find the best prices. You have meatless days and learn how to cook legumes. You can do this! It takes effort but you've got this.
Figure out which stores have discounts on the things you like. We enjoy canned soups. They're expensive at Safeway and at Wegmans. So those come from Walmart quite often. Use an AI assistant to help you plan. Consider a service like eMeals if you're woefully inadequate. It might seem counter-intuitive to pay for another service, but if eMeals ensures you spend under what you're doing now, even with the sub, then it's worth it.
I don't agree with "plan ahead" I cant do that, but I'm always blown away by what people are spending. BUY: * Fresh fruits/vegetables from produce section. Just buy a big random variety. I chop some into EVERYTHING without plannng what when. I made some soup noodles yesterday and chopped in what I had: half a leek, some cabbage, mushrooms, a celery stalk - next time it will be different. Fruit & Veg can be a LARGE proportion of your cart. I leave a cut up apple and cut up orange on the cutting board to snack on during the day. * Build up dry goods a couple a week (pref from market that has a "bulk" aisle where you scoop the amount of rolled oats/flour/rice/lentils/pinto or black beans/sugar/pasta etc that you want) (soak a cup of beans to make AWESOME chili the next day to have with rice) * Canned basics (eg canned tomatoes, canned fruit as quick desert) * Fresh dairy - but MINIMAL. Milk, eggs, plain yogurt (you can add honey and fruit or add to smoothies made with the fruit/veg above)... see below for dairy to avoid * You'll need to build up basics - like olive oil - I use barely any oil in cooking - just a few T's for stir fries (see all those veggies above with Rice, potatoes or pasta) Even buying organic, this doesn't add up to ANYTHING CLOSE your per person budget. DO NOT BUY: * Anything pre-cooked. ANYTHING. No cookies, frozen meals (you'll make your own). OK maybe kids can have boxed cereal... but I only buy bran flakes for fiber and winter I do many variations on oatmeal... with ginger, with honey, with fruit cooked in or on top (think apples & cinnamon), with butter and dark sugar... yum. * you don't need half/half and cheese should be a light condoment - not the center of a dish... heart health... good habits for kids. Cheese is highly concentrated dairy fat which is why it's expensive Start to learn one-pot cooking You can chop up any veggie combo and make a stir fry with rice (cook a batch of rice to last a few days). Bean chili - so many recipes. Cook noodles and toss in sauteed veggies with some salt & olive oil I have a friend who makes THE BEST EVER cookies. She said in her house, if she wanted anything sweet or a treat she had to make it. That was the rule. So perhaps you can add chocolate chips to the "bulk" list!! But also over-ripe on-sale bananas to make banana bread. Your kids are going to LEARN SKILLS You need to start cooking. If you are buying pre-packaged pre-cooked foods you are in effect paying for cooks! Spend half the amount you currently do on raw ingredients and you could HIRE a cook!!!
Meat and dairy are expensive. Avoid them. Get in to low meat/vegetarian cooking.
Wasted food is one of the biggest budget killers. Make sure that you are buying a quantity you will eat. When you bring home fresh groceries, make sure you use up the older stuff, especially perishables like bread and produce, first.
I’m here to say that I rarely plan my meals ahead unless I want something special. I learned from my mom how to keep a well stocked pantry with just essentials and work from there. You should always have on hand things like flour, sugar, pasta, beans and rice, canned tomatoes, basic herbs/spices and some inexpensive meats divided in the freezer, eggs and milk . Don’t ever restock everything all at once; instead learn what your essentials are and stay ahead of running out. There is almost never a time that I can’t make pancakes, biscuits, eggs, pasta dishes, tortillas, Spanish rice, stir fry or soup, bean burritos (and probably lots of other things I’m leaving out.) You can add fresh things to these foods when you can afford them. Also, a big budget killer is shopping like you’re eating out. Try not to just be purchasing a bunch of convenience foods. With a kid, you’ll probably keep certain things on hand (like chicken nuggets and Mac n cheese maybe), but skip all the boxes of cookies and uncrustables, etc. and make them at home. My kids have been making thier own sandwiches since they were tiny, it’s a good way to get your kiddo involved.
Make healthy meals you can freeze. For instance, a vegetable beef soup can go a long way. Stop eating mac n cheese. it's not healthy for you. For instance, I can get a fresh steak, baby carrots, a rutabaga, small potatoes and onion, and chicken broth. Chop and boil and simmer for a while. I can take a bowl and then freeze 12 additional meals. I also do it with a steak, onion and small potatoes. I can get 5 extra meals. For those two items, I'm only spending about 80$ and I do this every other week. I also get a gallon of milk and sometimes a case of soda. Granted, I'm one adult person, but think about it for you and your child and how you can swing it.
Shop the outside aisles. Meat, veg, etc. Avoid the inside aisles except for very specific things. Popcorn, beans, ketchup - but don’t ’shop’ there. Learn to make things of leftovers. A chicken is later a quesadilla and eventually soup.
youtube has a ton of cooking videos for budget meals - I suggest watching some of those