It's a simple equation and I think everyone gets it, but acting on it is a different thing.
(cute little mini loaf of homemade bread)
When we dropped our grocery budget to $50/wk,
I made a huge realization. There's not much food in the grocery
store! Sure, the store is packed with items, but most of it
isn't....FOOD! Most of it is a pre-packaged array of ingredients you
can't say and our great-grandparents didn't have access to. The only
way to stretch my budget was to buy said pre-packaged items at a huge
discount OR cook from scratch. For the most part, I cook from scratch.
Let's take an item and compare.
Black Beans
cost at a regular grocery store $0.79-$1.39 approx. per can
cost at a discount store $0.50-$0.99 approx. per can
(there's a good chance the can will be damaged or very old)
cost of dried beans for $0.16-$0.25 per can (equivalent)
(there's approx. 1/4 lb. or 1/2 c. of dried beans to equal the 1 1/2
c. of beans in a can. You can easily find black beans for $1/lb which
would bring your cost per can equivalent to $0.25. I've bought black
beans in a 25 lb. bag for $16.80 which would bring your cost per can
equivalent to $0.16. The best deal I've found by far was dried pinto beans 4 lb/$1 which
would make your cost per can equivalent to $0.06....awesome!)
Now you may be thinking....that savings isn't enough for me to cook beans. Maybe not, but when you've changed how you shop and cook with many items, it has a huge impact on your budget. (not to mention your health) These are items that regularly make the shopping list in our home:
Eggs (5 dz. from Costco)
Milk (from whoever has the best sale that week)
Cheese (2 lb. block from Costco)
Butter (4 lb. package from Costco or Sam's Club - by far the best deal)
Tortillas (Pro's Ranch Market)
Tortilla Chips (6 lbs. [3-2lb bags pkg. together] from Costco)
Fruits & Veggies (grocery ads, Sprout's or Superstition Ranch Market)
Canned Tomatoes (best price right now at WalMart)
Oil (canola & EVOO)
Flour
Beans
Grains
Rice
Pasta
I do buy chicken, but we go meatless many nights.
Even when I use chicken in our meal, I've generally stretched it.
Here's my beautiful Chicken Broccoli Braid. Homemade bread dough,
steamed broccoli (I remember I spent $0.14 for the broccoli I used),
shredded chicken (only one chicken breast), a little cream cheese and a
few slices of cheese. DELISH!
Once you have the real food, you need to add the effort. I'm a big fan of Rachael Ray and love her 30 minute meals, but 30 minutes isn't entirely true. Sure, we all watch her make a fabulous meal in 30 minutes, but that's not the TOTAL time for that meal. She had to plan the menu, make the shopping list, get to the store, buy the groceries, bring them in the house, unload them, THEN MAKE THE 30 MINUTE MEAL, don't forget the dishes and packaging up the leftovers. Cooking most of my meals generally isn't the most time consuming part, it's all the "behind-the-scenes" work. My husband was recently talking with a friend about grocery budgets. He told him about our budget and how I make it work. He encouraged his friend that they could do it too, but warned "There are a lot of dishes!" It's true. No way to get around that. Cooking uses dishes, leftovers use dishes, eating at home uses dishes and packing kids lunches uses dishes (we only use reuseable containers). That creates LOTS of dishes! (yay for fall break!)
Bottom Line: The equation works!
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