Comment from mikemax
Time: December 9, 2009, 12:10 am

I don’t think it’s possible to feed a family on $50 week indefinitely. You can for awhile, but eventually–as 4littlebuffaloes has found–you lack the money to replenish the staples in your pantry.

She makes one mistake, however. She considers items, such as sausage, as “staples,” when in fact they are “protein” or “dinners.” (Staples are things like oil, salt, spices, milk, etc.). I am guessing she has not been buying enough meat/cheese/protein each week to match the amount she has been using. If she is going to cook 7 dinners, for example, she needs to buy 7 meats just to stay current.

I buy whatever meat is on sale, freeze it, and plan meals from my freezer and the store ads. Some weeks I might buy nothing but chicken–if that’s all that’s available in my price range. But, I’ve got ham, pork, etc., in my freezer from the weeks when those were the meats that were on sale. The meats I am buying at the moment are pork roasts, hams, turkey and whole chickens. I never pay over .79 lb. for whole chickens, and of course I stocked up on turkeys at Thanksgiving for .27 lb. (lowest price in my area).

We don’t eat leftovers for a week when I cook a roast, ham or turkey. (We did that when I was a kid, and I can tell you, by the time we finished the Thanksgiving bird, I didn’t want to see turkey again for a year). Regardless of the type of meat, I strip the leftover meat off the bones, make soup with the bones, cube the meat and freeze the meat cubes in 2 cup bags. Most recipes call for 2 cups. If you routinely use more or less in a recipe, that’s how big the package should be.

To cook at the lowest possible price, you need to shop smart (lots of good tips in Monroe on a Budget), cook from scratch, use up leftovers and eliminate snack foods like chips, candy and soda. A freezer really helps! However, until I got one (used), I managed to stuff most of two weeks’ worth of food into the refrigerator freezer. It can be done!

Over the past few years, we’ve started eating more beans (and enjoying them). A ham bone is a wonderful thing! I have found I much prefer the quick soak method, and cooking the beans in the pressure cooker. Any pressure cooker booklet should explain quick soak and give the times for cooking various bean varieties (typically 10-20 minutes).

Comment from Paula Wethington
Time: December 9, 2009, 7:33 am

Yeah, MM, I also got the impression she was cutting that grocery budget a little too thin unless she had a very well stocked freezer or pantry.

If you want an estimate of reasonable grocery costs for a family go to this site hosted by the USDA and use the charts to look up how many people live in your home and how old they are:
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm

Then aim your grocery budget at the “thrifty” plan or just below it. That is a very do-able range.

Comment from Carol M
Time: December 9, 2009, 9:34 am

Paula, 4little buffalos is feeding a family (2 adults, 4 kids 11 and under so more like 4.5 adults food quantity wise) and struggles on $50/week. The tips on Frugal Village are great, and things that I incorporate as means to eating a healthy, varied, yet frugal diet. A few questions come to mind:
-Just what are her “staples”? I view this as things like flour, sugar, salt, spices-the basics needed for most recipes. Sausage, which she lists as a staple, is an expensive (for what you get protein value wise) “staple” that she lists
-what is she packing for lunches? Lunchables, prepackaged convenience foods all eat into the grocery bill. My 4 tweens to teens are eaters. I make bread/rolls or get them off the marked down shelf; home roast meats or use planned overs for sandwich fillings, seasonal fruit, a home baked good, a refillable bottle w/ home brewed tea (pennies) or reduced sugar “Koolaid” are taken to school. I also buy blocks of cheese and hand plane it or buy it pre-sliced at Aldi’s @ reasonable prices. Buy qts of yogurt and fill your own tubs. Bake cookies, slice up your own meats and cheeses.
-Cheese is listed as a staple. ON SALE it’s $4/lb around here. I get Deli cheese ends (have to ask at the counter) @ $2.29/lb. I hand grate Provalone and Cheddar for pizza, mac and cheese, omelettes, casserole toppings.
-Saturday is homemade soup day (use up those leftovers!). Add homemade bread/biscuits and you can feed an army for next to nothing. Sat is usually when I have to also feed 2 bachelor BIL’s. I don’t mind as this costs me next to nothing. If I had to serve them a steak dinner-that would be another story! LOL!
-4littlebuffalos should reconsider what she views as “needs”-what can she eliminate, seek alternative sources for (different stores), make herself, substitute for. Generic dried beans instead of canned Goya beans are equally as satisfying, for less. Combine beans with ground beef/poultry for a taco filling. (we actually prefer it this way!)
-reduced meats, meat bought on sale, vegetarian meals all fill out my monthly dinner menus
-use leftovers/planned overs to your advantage. I work full-time. Sun is big meat dinner. I bake a ham/turkey breast/roast beef, etc and plan ahead to use the planned overs as another meal during the upcoming, busy work/school week
-I have $50/month for non food items (cleaning products, paper goods, health and beauty aids) Cat supplies are accounted for separately. I have $400/month for actual food items. I spend about $100 thru Angel Food (order varies from month to month) and have about $300 for stocking up. About 95% of our dinner menus are created with food stock on hand, bought very cheaply. The rest is filled in as needs such as fluid milk, produce-very expensive this time of year. I use fzn berries in pancakes/muffins/crisps. I use fzn banana/pumpkin/butternut squash puree as well as mashed planned over baked sweet potatoes in pies/muffins/breads/waffles. Canned/jarred fruits round this out. Currently, tangerines/oranges/grapefruits/apples are the fresh items for lunches. Potatoes/sweet potatoes/onions/celery/cabbage/parsnips/brussel sprouts/Romaine/cherry tomatoes are my fresh veggies. Fzn/canned/dried produce fill in around the edges. Marked downs are also my friend. The Dole hearts of Romaine is normally $2.49-but I paid $1. : ) My salads are creative in the winter: lettuce/onions/shredded cabbage/shredded carrots/canned beans/jarred olives/jarred artichokes/caned fruits/dried fruits/homemade croutons.
I tend to do a coupon box cleanout towards the end of the month,stocking up on non food items and grocery staples. My cellar shelves are my mini store. Ditto the 24 cubic foot chest freezer (new and uses less electricity than the 15 foot chest freezer it replaced). Today is Dec 9th. I have already spent $200 for the month with a combined Aldi/Marc’s trip and another $92 on AF for the month (pcik up is Dec 19th). I still have $158 for the month of Dec. I ask DH to pick up fluid milk, as needed. I would LIKE salad ingredients by this weekend. We could like without if desired. This is my system and it works well for us.
Here are my dinners for the week:
Sun: oven stuffer roaster (79/lb loss leader) w/ baked AF onions, store brand Stove top (Loss leader)made with “free” turkey stock from Thanksgiving (which actually was a free turkey thru DH’s employer), Aldi’s canned beets, baked sweet potatoes (33/lb loss leasder). Dessert was the candy cane cake recipe you shared. Estimate $8 cost. “Free” soup stock, “free” sandwich fillings, “free” chicken guts for the cat.
Mon: baked AF fish patties turned into Fillet-o-fish type sandwiches on homemade wheat rolls, hm tarter sauce, 99 cents/12 oz pkg store brand Amer cheese slices, marked down Romaine hearts. 2 pkgs of marked down Dole spinach was sauteed in butter and seasoned for a side dish. Est $6 cost
Tues: AF broiled ribeye steaks, AF potatoes turned into oven baked fries, fzn mixed veggies (99 sale plus 50 off w/ doubled cpn) Est $5.50
Wed: AF chicken patties tuned into chicken parmesan (homemade marinara, Aldi shredded Ital blend cheese) over sale priced spaghetti (79/lb). Steamed brussel sprouts ($2 sale) Est $7.29
Thurs: lazy golumbki casserole using AF ground beef, AF white rice, AF cabbage, 2 marked down cans tomato soup Est $4
Fri: homemade pizza using hm ABM dough, hm pizza sauce from marked down tomato sauce, Aldi’s pepperoni. Salad out of the rest of the marked down Romaine, the rest of the cherry tomatoes,a grated carrot, some canned chic peas.Est $4
Saturday: homemade lentil soup using AF carrots, AF celery, AF onions, AF potatoes. Bisquick ($1.20 off with double cpn)biscuits. Est $3 (will have leftovers for upcoming lunches for “free”

Total: $33.79 so there’s $ 16.21 towards lunch/bfst foods and stock up, and my 4 locusts would be eating alot more than the 11 and under kids.

Bfst this week has been choice of Apple or orange juice (reconstituted ALdi’s concentreate), coffee (Aldi), leftover made from almost free mix, dry milk, eggs, almost free Smart Bal oil, pancakes (choice of blueberry almost free after double cpn, plain), English muffins-$1.,89/double pack loss leader, Aldis oatmeal, toast out of homemade bread w/ assorted homemadejams and/or $1/18 oz jar peanut butter, homemade sweet potato bread (a planned over), cold cereal-$2/box or less plus AF corn flakes, quarts of vanilla yogurt 9$1.50 after doubled cpn).
Lunches for the 4 kids are listed above, DH and I take either leftovers or homemade soup for lunch. I make tea, he has coffee at work.
Snacks for the kids vary from week to week. Our usuals are popcorn, cold cereal, homemade soup, grahams/saltines or other crackers w/ p butter/jam/cheese, occassional granola bar, homemade baked goods.

IT IS do-able, once a system is in place.

Comment from Paula Wethington
Time: December 9, 2009, 9:57 am

Yes, it does take more than one trick to pull that grocery bill way down.

Bargains at Aldi, bargains from Angel Food, cook-from-scratch foods, and coupon deals all work very well on specific things. But combined, they really pack a punch on your grocery budget.

The most important thing to remember is: families have to work these bargains before they run out of groceries.

If you think that sugar will just happen to be on sale the week you run out, you will be disappointed. And Angel Food boxes have to be ordered in advance.

Comment from Carol M
Time: December 9, 2009, 10:11 am

“The most important thing to remember is: families have to work these bargains before they run out of groceries.

If you think that sugar will just happen to be on sale the week you run out, you will be disappointed. And Angel Food boxes have to be ordered in advance.”

Paula-Absolutely! If I had to take $50 and go to the store, I’d end up paying more than I currently am with my “system” and my $50 would not stretch as far as it now does.

What may help some in dire straits to know is that AF does take SNAP/food stamps, which would further your buying power.

AF doesn’s supply all that is needed for a week/family of 4. It’s mostly dinner supplies, and there are no staples il/spices/sugar/flour,etc.

I use the pantry principal as well as a price book in determining if something is of value to me. Case in point-we had been ordering 2 AF produce boxes/month (family of 6 here). I price out what the current prices are for similar items at local stores. AF produce was significantly higher than local prices, so we passed this month on the produce.

Your 8 week guide to reducing the grcoery budget has the best starting point-inventory what is actually on hand. You may be surprised! I have sections in my deep freezer for various meats, turkey goes here, chicken there, beef in the corner, etc and each section is divided by a plastic grid (came that way from Sears). I thought I knew what was in there, yet the other day I pulled my second to last whole roaster (now have a mental note to watch for a sale)and noted a whole turkey that I had forgotten about! I plan on using up alot of the fzn items in the next few weeks to allow extra space for AF as well as to be able to stock up on whole turkeys.

Comment from mikemax
Time: December 9, 2009, 12:01 pm

Carol M described in more detail what I try to accomplish. It sounds like she is doing better than I am–I wanna go to her house for dinner! (also breakfast and lunch, LOL).

To give an idea of what we eat–
Sunday was New England boiled dinner made with corned beef bought last St. Patrick’s Day for $1.48 lb. Leftovers were eaten for lunch on Monday.
Monday was turkey divan, rice and green salad (no tomatoes–too expensive). The turkey was one of those 2 cup bags I froze the day after Thanksgiving and broccoli crowns were .68 lb. Cheese was from a 2 lb. loaf bought on special for $3.99. We had an extra mouth to feed that night and there were NO leftovers!
Tuesday was ham (made with frozen cubes from the freezer) and scalloped potatoes (spuds were .88 for 10 lbs. before Thanksgiving), baked squash (.49 lb. and have enough in freezer for two more meals) and the last of the tossed salad (spinach, iceberg lettuce, green pepper, green onions and celery bought on the cheap before Thanksgiving).
Tonight we’re having beef stew, strawberry jello and homemade biscuits (or saltines, if I get lazy). The stew meat started out life as a chuck roast, which I cut into cubes and froze. Royal brand gelatin was 5/$1 at Walgreens with a coupon, and the frozen berries work out to about $1 lb. from a warehouse store.
My daughter, who is disabled, cooks for us tomorrow night. I have no idea what she and her helper (coach) will decide. On Friday, we’re having top sirloin steak ($2.98 lb. on sale about 6 weeks ago), fried rice made from Monday’s leftover rice, and whatever else I can find.

Paula, I realize your blog is not the place to post a lot of menus–there are lots of frugal bulletin boards for that. However, like Carol M, I wanted to show that you can eat well for a lot less than most people think. A freezer and pantry are a huge help, but you have to keep replenishing. This is the mistake I think 4littlebuffaloes at Frugal Village made–she ate what she had and didn’t add to it sufficiently. You can do it for awhile, but not for long!! (If I buy something like a roast, I assume it’s good for at least 3 meals, then only have to buy 4 more meats for the week).

Comment from Paula Wethington
Time: December 9, 2009, 2:32 pm

This is a great discussion guys! Yes, frugal menus are fine – I do a little bit of that at “What’s for Dinner?” and probably should post on that topic more. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/budget/category/whats-for-dinner/

My lunch today: 1/3 tub of cottage cheese (33 cents worth from a Kroger 10 for $10 sale), 1/3 can peaches (33 cents worth from an earlier 10 for $10 sale), two small brownies (freebie from my mom), water.

Dinner today will be some of the spaghetti with meat sauce I cooked up on Saturday, and some of the cheesy onion bread I baked up on Sunday.

Comment from mikemax
Time: December 9, 2009, 5:08 pm

Well, since we are on a roll…let’s talk about where and how to buy groceries.

First of all, your 8 week plan is a good place to start. I don’t have Aldi where I live, but a friend relied on it almost exclusively. I’d told her about the 8 week plan and trying new stores…which she thought was a waste of time. Then, she got a mystery shop at a store across town and discovered they have killer loss leaders and especially good deals on meat. Guess what–she still shops at Aldi, but she also goes across town.

Not having a super-low-price grocer, such as Aldi, I’ve always shopped at more than one store. You don’t have to run all over town. Just by shopping at two stores, you double the number of loss leaders available to you. I decide which two stores in a given week (out of 5) by which loss leaders I want to buy. If you go with a list, it really doesn’t take much longer to shop at two stores than one. Also, I don’t “burn up gas running all over town” (the reason cited by most people for not shopping at more than one store). I pretty much pass by all of these stores. It ain’t outta the way!

I think the American tradition of going to one store for one hour and going up and down each aisle until the basket is filled is one of the most expensive ways to shop! You absolutely cannot buy a week’s worth of food for $50 (or $80) by shopping this way.

OK, I’m done here for awhile, LOL.

Comment from Gina @ MoneywiseMoms
Time: December 11, 2009, 3:50 pm

I agree w/Mike. We don’t have Aldi here but I’ve managed to identify the lowest-cost staples and shop the loss leaders by hitting 2 different stores a week. Between that, couponing, and stockpiling, my food/toiletries bill is $400/month for a family of five (kids are 6, 3, and 3 and good eaters) in a high cost-of-living area (Washington DC). Our food prices are outrageous–milk is $3.79, for example–but I’ve learned to make my own from stockpiled baking products this time of year. You learn the sales cycles and stockpiling schedules (summer brings me free w/coupons ketchup, salad dressing, etc.) and I know my target prices for meat and chicken, which I stretch. We also have 2-3 vegetarian meals per week, which costs less than buying meat. This all takes time to learn and organize, but once your system is in place it’s easy and not so mind-cluttering.

Comment from Paula Wethington
Time: December 11, 2009, 9:48 pm

I usually do split up my shopping between two grocery or drugstores a week. I find some practicality to it beyond just picking through loss leaders:

1. We use up 3 or 4 gallons of milk a week, and it’s not worth the additional space taken up in fridge to get that all that milk at one time.

2. If I have a shorter list of what to buy, the shopping trip takes less time. I do a lot of my shopping errands on my lunch break and can therefore avoid the afternoon and Saturday morning crowds.

3. There’s often something on my list that I find is expensive to get at the first store of the week. Since I’ll be going to another store in three or four days, I’m more willing to wait and shop around for that purchase.