I just found out that I’m doing pretty well on saving money buying food.
For 2 years I’ve been a member of the local MOPS chapter. (Moms Of PreSchoolers ) It has been a super fun way to meet other moms in my community. I’ve made lots of new friends and had a rejuvenating and often inspiring morning at each of our meetings. (Plus there is food.) Last Friday I was asked to be one of the moms on a panel discussion on how to save money and grocery shop on a budget.
Now I am always trying to save money on food, and I feel like I do pretty well sometimes, but I often feel like I can do much better. In fact, I’m often very critical of myself and how much money I waste giving into impulse, poor planning, and convenience food. I’ve always assumed that I spend about the same as my friends do on food, maybe more than some and a little less than others.
So I wrote down my ideas–things that have helped me. When it was my turn to share my tips, I began by saying that I always like it when budget and money saving shows share real numbers so I would share mine.
For the past 3 months (because that’s what I have data for) I fed my family of 10 for $615 each month.
Mouths fell open around the room as all the moms stared at me in shock. They listened to my tips and had about a hundred questions.
I guess I have more to share on this subject than I thought. So here are my tips–maybe they can help you as well. Be sure to share your tips with me too!!
According to Angela Coffman, The Grocery Shrink, (groceryshrink.com) you should be able to feed your family a healthy variety of food according to the following formula: $100 per male age 12+, $75 per female age 12+, $50 per child age 2-11, and $30 for infants 0-2 (if you are pregnant, count the baby as well). However, the Grocery Shrink regularly attempts to feed her family for $50 per person. I like to just simplify that to $100 per adult and $50 per child. You can decide whether your teenagers eat enough to count as adults yet or not.
In my house, I have 3 males (age 12 and up) 2 females (age 12 plus), 4 children (age 2-11) and 3 infants (age 0-2)
So by Angela’s formula, I should be able to feed my family on $740 per month. It would be nice if I had that much money to spend on groceries.
By my simplified formula, I try to feed the family on $600 a month or less. I include all fast food and restaurants, but I do not include any non-food items like plastic wrap, dishwasher soap, etc. I have a separate household budget for that stuff.
The last 3 months I’ve averaged $615 per month for food. You may remember that we eat mostly vegan. I had hoped that when I stopped buying meat that our grocery bill would go down, but now we eat lots more nuts and veggies and fruit than we used to, so it pretty much evened out. Except that meat prices have gone up significantly in the last 2 years and I haven’t felt that worry of how to buy meat that often costs twice as much than it did.
#1 TIP:
I make as much food from basic ingredients as I can. It costs less, tastes better, and eliminates all the preservatives and garbage that come in processed food.
I make my own whole wheat bread & rolls, yogurt, rice milk, crackers, granola, salad dressing
***my family eats about 1 ½-2 gallons of yogurt per week, and a gallon of milk costs much less than a gallon of yogurt, so it is much less expensive to make my own.
***my family eats 4-6 loaves of bread per week. I try to bake bread twice a week, but sometimes I only get around to it once. In that case, I often make biscuits to go with soup when we’ve run out of bread.
***I buy my brown rice for 50 cents/pound and ½ cup of rice = .12 cents for 2 quarts of rice milk. At the grocery store, rice milk costs $3-4 per carton (I think a carton is close to 2 Quarts, but it may be less.)
***homemade wheat thins take less than 15 minutes to make and my kids love them.
**Snacks:
Except when I have a baby that is just learning to eat solid food, I avoid buying crackers and other convenient “snack items.” Instead I make my own. The snacks my kids love: Homemade crackers, mini-muffins, Peanut Butter Popcorn, smoothies, bread sticks, Spicy Potato Wedges, fruit or veggies & dip.
**homemade whole-wheat bread & rolls are very nutritious and filling. Bread makes the best snack/ alternate dinner for picky kids.
I will be sharing my recipes for these items in the weeks coming up, as well as sharing more tips for saving money at the grocery store.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 