This is How We Do It......

I have gotten some questions on a Facebook post I posted about us eating for 9 days on $42 and in my previous post, when I said our grocery budget is usually $40-$50 a week.  Lots of people wondering how we do it.  I never really thought that much about it, since I do not consider myself to be a super budgeting wizard, I am no coupon cutter (though I would love to learn it!), and Neil and I often fall off the wagon I feel like.  But, in spite of that, I guess we do kinda keep our grocery budget in check and we manage to eat pretty well!

Our Tricks:

1. Meal Planning- when we don't meal plan, we fail. I used to post them and list them out day by day.  That doesn't really work for us and stresses me out more if I "fail" to make what I said I would make on Tuesday.  So our meal plans generally start in our kitchen with what we have.  Then we plan 7-8 meals for a 5 day work week, cause stuff happens, tastes change, so we don't make all of them.  We pick some meals that require a lot (i.e. grilling, pan frying, baking) and some that require little to nothing (i.e. crock pot, or making grilled cheese)  Our meal plans are a loose kind of conversation and list.  "How bout tacos, pot roast, grilled cheese and soup, steaks and salmon?" Done.
2. We buy meat in bulk.  This is why it is *sort of* a misnomer to say we only spend $40 a week on groceries.  We do, but we don't.  If it is a $40 week, we are only buying sammich meat, eggs and maybe one other meat purchase.  Other than that, we have meat at home.  So when we "fall off the grocery wagon" it is generally because we found chicken at an ridiculous price and bought 12 packs, buy one get one free pot roasts, one time Neil spent $45 on a beef tenderloin but had it cut into 14, 10 oz filet mignon steaks (we share).  That averages to $3.21 for a filet mignon steak.  Not too shabs.  But the $45 is a hit.  Gotta think long term.  We also get a lot of manager's special deals and freeze them right away.  It makes it easier, if you have a tight month lemme tell ya!  You still eat well.
3. We make dinners that make lunches.  I cannot believe how much moolah we used to spend going out at lunch time! YIKES! We try not to.  We budget to go out to lunch once a week and it is usually $20 or less. Sometimes this is a major downfall for us.  It is our date, since it is harder to find a sitter at night and we never go out at night. Ever. Anyway, lots of our dinners become lunches.  From chili, to scalloped potatoes and ham, I usually make enough to make a few lunches.  If I have two dinners a week that do this, I am set lunch wise.  I only really have to pack and worry about one day that way. So dinner costs are absorbed into lunches too.
4. We buy only the stuff we make a lot of in bulk.  Costco is a dangerous store.  I think it can save you money and cost you money.  We are a family of 3, only 2.5 real eaters. Costco can be tempting but also encourage waste too.  So, we have it down to what we know we will use and what we don't.  What we do use, saves us money.  That is generally sliced cheese, shredded cheese, ground beef, raw tortillas, dog food, eggs, mushrooms, sandwich rounds, ravioli's and the like.  We get our staples and freeze what we don't need right away.
5. I quit buying Bountiful Baskets for the most part.  Sigh.  I love them.  I do.  But we were throwing away too much and it was costing more than it was worth.  So maybe once in a blue, when I know what they are getting and I can plan for it, we get it.
6. We gave up the need to cook fancy every night.  That doesn't mean we gave up health.  Generally, I HATE pre-made/canned food.  Blech.  I didn't grow up eating that way and I don't wanna feed my family that way.  I don't do the Hamburger Helper thing, we eat no TV dinner's, no Lean Cuisines, no frozen pizzas. It is not our thing (mkay it is not MY thing, and hubby goes along.  he prefers my cooking anyway).  In fact, I laughed this past weekend when I made a Rice a Roni thing that had been sitting in our cupboard for over a year, just to get rid of it.  I don't think you have to sacrifice health for money.  Could we eat more organic... yes but do we do pretty well not having processed stuff..... yes.  The most processed we go is usually pre made raviolis we get at Fresh and Easy.  They have no artificial anything, preservatives, additives etc and they are a P-man favorite. We do keep it simple.  Taco's are easy, grilled cheese and ham (on homemade bread and Earth balance butter, yum!), I make a mean "fancy" bagel sammich the my hubby loves.  I make homemade baked french fries that are easy breezy and potatoes are .88 a bag.  Stuff like that.  We kick it up a notch or two a couple times a week, others, we aim to fill our bellies and move on.
7. We don't buy booze.  That may sound funny or kind of like, duh, but you don't realize how much that adds up.  We don't normally spend more than $10 on a bottle of wine, but now, for obvious reasons, we aren't really buying much in the way of booze and if Neil does, it generally comes out of his personal money.  I (proudly) created a beer snob.  He drinks the good stuff on the occasion that he drinks at all, but at $8.00-$9.00 a six pack, it can make a dent (none of that Bud Light crap here). Let's just say if our friend Travis is over, 21 year old behavior ensues and much expensive beer is consumed.  But, me and his wife Andra don't mind our 30+ year old husbands occasionally reliving their youth in one of our backyards.  The next morning is usually a good reminder of their actual age :)

This week, I can honestly say I haven't even begin to touch the $42 of stuff I bought for the week and it is Wednesday.  I did eat at my mom's last night, but mostly we have been eating leftovers and I made a sandwich for lunch.  So it will be easy to push through the weekend if we want.  We may need to buy milk for P-man but that is about it.  We try to be good for Porter's sake.  He drinks only organic milk (at $5.00 a gallon.... gulp) and we don't give him juice or anything else like that.  Flavored coconut water on occasion.  We just don't see the need to fill him full of that stuff right now, so we don't. Plus it is expensive. Water and milk.  He is 15 months old.  He'll live.

I told Neil I was writing this and he thought it was funny.  His words were "I don't think we do that great, we still spend a LOT".  Ha, ha. So we are both kinda surprised.  We still allocate a decent amount to food/miscell. income but things are always creeping up that eat it up, so we still eat on pretty little money. We could really see the savings if we didn't eat out at all.  I would love to do that for a month, but life seems to get in the way and laziness overcomes!

 We act on a modified envelope system.  Meaning, money goes in, we pay all of our expenses/savings, we leave $160 each check for gas (we buy at Costco, so you need a card, cash doesn't work) and the rest we take out in cash.  So, if we are doing good one cycle as we call it, then we may spend more, or we may go out or stock up.  But for the last 2 months, I haven't spent more that $50 a week I don't think.  We usually end up with enough left over to have a splurge or two or have money to put towards vacation.

So that's it.  Our "crazy" life.  Meal plans and budgets.  We have come a long way from the people that used to spend $800-$1000 a month eating out (yes, you read that right) plus what we spent on groceries.  Those were pre kid, pre three mortgage days.  But I wouldn't trade it or this spot and I never want to go back.  I am hoping even in more bountiful times, we spend better ways to spend our money than slacking off and eating out.  I have found much better places to spend money!