If you were interested in frugal living in the early 1990s, you might have heard of Donna McKenna’s books called The $30 a Week Grocery Budget, volume I and II.

I wasn’t aware of Donna’s books when she wrote them in the early 1990s, but I was definitely on a tight budget at the time.

After reading through older copies of her two print books that were sent to me from a Monroe on a Budget reader, I can tell you a lot of Donna’s ideas hold up as well for the current recession as they did for the recession of the early 1990s.

The early 1990s was a really tight financial time for me. I was a single / divorced mom with one toddler daughter living in northwest Ohio. I worked full-time as a newspaper reporter, but much of the media industry had pay freezes and hiring freezes. If you had a newsroom job, there was no sense in looking around for anything better.  My babysitting bills during 1990-1992 were higher than my rent.  I had to buy a used car because I couldn’t afford payments on a new car.  I spent a lot of time reading books and listening to radio because I had no TV for a year, and then still did not have cable for another three years.

In 1991, Donna wrote her first edition of The $30 a Week Grocery Budget. In the years before many families had Internet access, frugal living tips got passed from family to family via newsletter such as The Penny Pincher and The Tightwad Gazette. Donna credits the popular newsletters of the day as “all very good,” but she did follow up on requests  that she herself write a booklet. After all, she was spending $30 or less a week on groceries for her family.

Keep in mind what household budgets were like in the early 1990s. In those days my used car payment was $142 a month. My rent for a two-bedroom apartment without laundry hookups in northwest Ohio was $285 a month. A student loan payment of $137 a month drove me crazy until I refinanced it and my initial payments dropped to about $85 a month.

I cannot pin down my exact grocery bills from that time. The problem I have when looking through my old financial records is in determining how much of my grocery money was actually diaper expenses rather than milk, eggs and hamburger. Reason: I didn’t have laundry hookups in my apartment, and had to wait my turn if I took laundry to my parents’ home.

But to do some comparisons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture publishes a Cost of  Food study every month that I’ve been referring to for the past couple of years. The USDA prices its “thrifty” food plan in December 2009 at $133 a week for a family of two adults and two grade-school children. Donna says on her web site that her family menus probably would have run about $50 a week in 2008.

They did not starve. Her children ate foods such as pancakes and orange juice for breakfast, and baked chicken with rice and salad for dinner. She would have coffee in the morning. Her husband packed a lunch to take to work.

How did she do it? Donna writes about a lot of tricks that I, and many of my readers would, find familiar:

• When Donna saw a good price on a favorite grocery item, she stocked up. If she couldn’t pick up a lot of that product because of more immediate needs, that was fine. At least she saved money on her next purchase.
• She didn’t buy cold cereal to serve her children for breakfast. Now, my husband and I do enjoy Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran and other popular cereals. But I also buy oatmeal in a can like Donna did, and I cook a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast in the microwave just as often as I’ll pour a bowl of cereal.
• Donna paid close attention to what the price break was for homemade vs. store-bought on a variety of everyday grocery items. If store-bought would be cheaper, she bought it. If homemade was cheaper, she made it.
• She bought several loaves of bread at a time at a thrift store and stored them in the freezer until needed. I am familiar with this trick because my mom used it when raising my siblings and I. Now as an alternative these days, I do get a lot of use out of my bread machine!
• Donna would shop at several different stores depending on prices adding, “but I never go out of my way.” She watched for grocery specials as she went about her other errands for the month. Breaking up the grocery shopping is one of the tricks I teach in my Grocery Shopping on a Budget class.
• She had a deep freezer where she would store her grocery finds. I never had that convenience, and probably won’t get a freezer since it is only my husband and I at home these days. But my parents have a freezer, my sister and her husband with four children has a freezer, and if you have a hunter in the family, you probably have a freezer too.
• Donna used coupons when and where they worked out for her on purchases. The details of how to get the most out of coupon shopping are different now than in the early 1990s, but it’s also a lot easier these days to research coupon tips and tricks.
• Donna knew how to use a sewing machine, thrift shops and hand-me-down clothing to stretch her budget.
• Birthday parties in her family alternated years with a family dinner and a cake and ice cream vs. a more elaborate friends get-together with party favors and games.

Donna also shared quite a few recipes in both books that you might want to look at. You can buy the updated versions of her books as ebooks. Although I’m obviously reviewing her earlier printings, rather than the current versions, I think my readers would enjoy Donna’s expertise.

Yes, there’s a little bit of money involved – $14 for Donna’s ebook bundle. Do remember that many of today’s nationally known frugal living experts are freelance writers or speakers or self-employed business owners. It is therefore a reasonable request to pay for e-books, coupon spreadsheets and other tips you may find on their sites.