There’s no magic wand for saving money with food. It’s like everything else that matters–it takes hard work, and a little bit of sacrifice to make it happen.
When I give tips such as shop the sales, garden, make more from scratch….The thing I hear a lot is, “I don’t have time for that.” That’s a statement I relate to and get frustrated about at the same time. I have 6 kids. They play violin and piano. They do sports and ballet class. I work 4 part time jobs and have a toddler. We volunteer at church. I understand busy.
We all have the same number of hours in the day, and we each get to choose how we spend them. When I hear “I don’t have time for that,” I understand that person to mean, “That is not important to me.”
I usually buy bread instead of make it from scratch. The savings of making over buying bread isn’t high on my priority list with everything else on my plate–even though I understand the health benefits. On the other hand, I do make my own Kombucha and Greek Yogurt. It probably doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
You don’t have to do EVERYTHING the hard way to whittle your budget down to a workable number, but you will have to choose some things. Your hard, won’t be my hard. I don’t do coupons, maybe you do.
The important thing is that you are willing to push up your sleeves and do something to change the direction of your finances. Do what YOU have to do. Your family is counting on you. And the people watching are about to be inspired.
If you had an envelope with $200 cash and knew you had to feed your family with that alone for the month, would they starve? I bet you’d figure it out. What are the first 5 things you’d buy?
(PS $200 is a ridiculously low amount–and I’m not in any way suggesting that is what your budget should be…. I think it’s interesting for arguments sake to think about what we’d do with it. When your survival depends on it, something changes in your brain. Unfathomable things become fathomable.)
My first 5 things: Salt, Dry Beans, Wheat flour, Eggs, & Yeast
My 2nd 5 things: Potatoes, carrots, onions, brown rice, Whole Chickens
Leave what you would buy in the comments :).
Chicken (3 types), chips, and salad
I had $200 to shop for two weeks worth of groceries for our family of four. I have basic pantry staples. So I bought a ten pound bag of chicken breasts (antibiotic free, free range, ect.), two 5 pound boxes of chicken nuggets, three 4 pound bags of chicken wings, two 50 count boxes of individual chips, and spring mix salad. Those are the first five (3 types of chicken, chips, and salad); however, I purchased a few other things with them and was still under my $200. 🙂 I did cook the ten pounds of chicken in three different flavors and cut it up into cubes and slices. I froze most of it. I can use it in a variety of ways, when needed.
Assuming the pantry was more or less bare: Flour, Rice, Dried Beans, Milk powder, eggs, oil of some sort. If I could make it 6 things, I’d add the cheapest actual meat I could get.
Brown rice
Chicken breast, pasta, diced tomatoes, vanilla almond milk, and bananas.
Great question! Mine would be milk, eggs, carrots, celery, onions, chicken, hamburger, tomato sauce, apples and yogurt. Cheese might edge celery off the list, though! We could pretty much get by on those 10 items, with endless possibilities for combinations. If we were out of rice, it would make the list, too. Those are pretty much my main staples.
I always love reading your blog Angela. My first five things: dry beans, whole chickens, Costco frozen veggies, potatoes/squash (cheapest starchy veggie), eggs.
Ham, Chicken, Potatoes, Mixed Veggies, Eggs
Second five things would be Flour, yeast, dried buttermilk, rice, oatmeal
Rice, eggs, beans, chicken and whatever frozen veggies are on sale.
Rice, eggs, frozen kale, potatoes, raw milk.
Flour, salt, dried beans, powdered milk, and eggs
The lightbulb just went on in my head, finally! I have never really considered
prioritizing food items just like I would bills/expenses if money was tight. I wish I read this post prior to buying groceries today. I think I would have had more money left over.
Yolanda, I love it! It is all about how you think about it.
1st: flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, milk
2nd: hamburger, whole chicken, sweet potato, a vegetable on sale, apples
Fun! I would buy:
1. Oats
2. Bananas/Fruit
3. Peanut Butter
4. Chicken
5. Potatoes
Eggs carrots potatoes bananas beans
chicken, potatoes, carrots, lettuce (or something fresh and green), flour.
2nd 5 would include apples, pintos, rice, oats, almonds (for milk and more protein)
oatmeal, rice, beans, eggs, and… um tomatoes?
Rice eggs sugar flour baking powder. …. with my pantry as is…. ground beef spuds frozen veggies tea sugar.
I don’t think $200 is ridiculously low, that is exactly what my monthly food budget is for a family of 5 and it just went up to that this month (my children are still small though so they don’t eat much yet and I do have trouble staying within that amount). 🙂 My priority foods are fruits, vegetables, cheap healthy protein and the ingredients I need to bake bread.
Rosana. You are doing really great. Amazingly great! We stuck to a $200 month budget 7 years ago for our family of 7 for about 6 months–but that was only because my husband was out of work and we were trying to save our house. It was ok, and we never starved (though food would appear on our steps…probably from church family) but when he finally got a job I broke down and cried—ugly sobs. Food prices were lower then too. It would be really hard for me to go back to that, but it is doable with simple basic foods.
1st 5- Milk, chicken, potatoes, apples, bread
2nd 5- Pasta, rice, cheese, hamburger, lettuce or carrots 🙂
Eggs, real milk, beans, apples, carrots.
Regardless of me watching my pennies unfortunately we still lost our home. I would buy my meat from a program at my children’s school. When chicken steaks were on special I would buy 3 boxes, same with ground beef. I would spend around $100 and the meat would last about 2 months. Then I would spend $25 a week for staples bread, potatoes, rice, veggies, eggs, milk pancake mix cereal and we always had enough. My friends and neighbors couldn’t believe we could survive on such a little bit, but we did.
Mary, I’m so sorry you lost your home. It’s true that saving your pennies isn’t enough if the income isn’t there. You were a master at saving pennies though!
1st: Whole Chicken, almond milk, peanut butter, wheat flour, bananas
2nd: Potatoes, onions, garlic, cheddar cheese, apples