Krogers Trip Jan 9
I went to Kroger’s on Saturday and picked up all of the above items for $10.71. The produce was all on sale and I was able to stack this e-coupon with an online coupon to get the meals for $.07-$.20/each. These will make very cheap lunches for my husband!
I am doing a scaled-back version of moneysavingmom’s eat from the pantry challenge. This week we only needed to buy produce, milk and cheap lunches and will be creating the rest of our meals from items in our fridge and freezer. So far, by using what I already have, I am $30 under budget for groceries. My goal is to save $50 by the end of the month, or 25% of our food budget.
Storing Bulk Food
One way that we keep our groceries down is by buying bulk rice, beans, oatmeal and flour when possible. We are able to get a good deal on 25 lb boxes and buy them about twice a year which cuts down on our monthly grocery expenses. Since our family and apartment are small we have to be creative on storing food and packaging it to keep any critters out. Here are some key ideas for keeping our bulk food fresh.
1. Right containers
One of the best things I’ve found for storing bulk food items are 3-5 gallon food grade buckets. I can often get these for free by calling around to local bakeries and asking if I could have any frosting buckets they’d be throwing away. They are often eager to give away containers that would just go in the trash. I make sure to wash them out really well to get rid of all frosting traces.
2. Keeping the bugs out
Bay leaves, bay leaves, bay leaves. Bay leaves are a great investment to keeping any insects out of your food. I often throw 3-4 leaves in each bucket of food and have yet to have trouble with insects. You need to be more careful with flour though since flour contains little eggs that will hatch in 6-12 months. One thing you can do to kill the eggs is to freeze the flour for 24-48 hours. Since we just have one small freezer I divide the flour into gallon bags and freeze a few at a time. I also try to use up our flour within a year.
3. Date and rotate
This is the most critical aspect of keeping your food fresh. I mark all of our bulk food containers with the date on a piece of masking tape. This way I can tell which containers to use first and also gauge when I need to purchase new food. If you stock up on cans or other shelf items I would recommend dating those as well so that the cans don’t sit in your cupboards for years.
Tonight we are going to purchase some more rice and oatmeal and I am excited to have my pantry full once again.
Making Orange Zest
Tim’s been coming down with a cold so we’ve been eating a lot of oranges over the past week to boost our vitamin C intake. Since I don’t like things going to waste, I put all of the orange peels in a large cup. When I have collected enough peels, I sit down and grate the peels to make orange zest to use in baking. I then store the zest in a jar in the fridge.
Making orange zest isn’t the only thing you can do with orange peels. You can thrown them in the disposal to freshen up the drain. Or you can put an orange peel with your brown sugar to keep it soft. Dried orange peels are often used in potpourri as well.
I waste more than I like to admit, but one easy thing I can do is save my orange peels for other uses.
Ways to Save On Organic Food
I will be honest and say that I haven’t gotten on the organic food bandwagon. We do buy our son’s soymilk organic (I simply can’t find non-organic soymilk) and if organic fruit is cheaper than other fruit I will pick that up as well.
I have personal, and financial reasons for not buying a lot of organic but I know that organic food is very important to some people who feel dissuaded by the high prices. Here are some recent posts I’ve found on cutting costs on organic food.
The Affluent Pauper compiled a list of organic coupons and the best ways to get organic for cheap. I signed up for the Silk Soymilk coupons and am excited to use those.
Getrichslowly also had a post on buying organic for less. The blog included multiple links and opinions on the best ways to include organics in your budget.
Right now I’m mainly focusing on stretching our food budget to include plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in our diet without worrying if they’re organic. But for those who have adopted the organic lifestyle hopefully these links will help you out.
$79 Grocery Shopping Marathon
Grocery store savings are where I try to save the most money. My monthly budget is $180 for food and $30 for household, or about $53/week. I try to pay for groceries and household in cash so that we don’t go over budget and because I am more aware of what I’m spending with cash than what I spend on a debit card. Also, when I pay in cash I round up to the nearest dollar and put my change in a savings jar.
I usually split the month in half and allot myself $105 the first half and $105 the second. If there is money left over I add it to the next week in case a good deal comes up. I make two big shopping trips at the beginning and middle of each month. I usually spend all but $15-$25 which I leave for staples for the next week and for any good deals.
The grocery portion of our budget includes soy milk for our son (at $5/gallon we spend about $25-$30/month just on the milk), meats, produce and others. The only items it doesn’t include is bulk rice and oatmeal which I buy about twice a year for an exceptional price. We are also working on setting aside three months of food for emergencies and have budgeted a separate $40/month to build up our supply more quickly.
The household portion of the budget includes cleaning products, toilet paper, medicine, paper products, and hygiene items. It does not include diapers.
Yesterday was one of our big shopping days and I hit Krogers, Aldis, Trader Joe, WalMart and Target. I usually don’t go to more than three stores in one day (Kroger, WalMart and Aldis) but yesterday I made a couple of more stops. Here is what I bought and the totals below.
Kroger:
Total: $18.00. The only coupons I used were for the Cottonelle Toilet Paper.
Aldis: (The flour and tortilla chips accidently got in the picture)
Total: $33.00
WalMart: (We had already eaten one bunch of bananas before I took this picture)
Total: $22
Target: More details here
Total $1.00
Trader Joe: More details here
Total: $5.00
Grand Total: $79
This wasn’t the best week for me, but it wasn’t the worst. I couldn’t find many coupon deals but this is our typical shopping spending. We will round this out with food we already have in the cupboard and freezer. I am also excited that we have so much fresh produce to use.
