Frugal March chatter (Marching on with Savings) cont'd Frugal Feb....

[jasperandchar]

Everyone is here to help, I think that perhaps $300.00 may be a little ambious for your 1st month, HOWEVER it's up to you & Jon, I think that if you calculate what you both spent on groceries last month and maybe knock off $75.00 to start because of price-matching & using coupons for the month that would be a realistic first step and then the following month knock off another $50.00 - $75.00 and see how things go.

Are you on a reserve? And what province are you in - that is a big factor as well.

Originally Posted by jasperandchar
winbly11,

Groceries are so hard to budget for - here are a few questions you need to answer (to yourself or on here whichever you choose) and then we can help out or make suggestions.

1. How old is your step-daughter and are you purchasing stuff like pizza pockets or is she a "GOOD eater" not picky, will eat whatever is cooked? I think your answer will make a huge difference on your budget. Also if you are providing lunch snacks such as granola bars, etc. that makes a difference as well. She's 11 and is fairly picky. We have her twice during the week and every second weekend. We don't have to provide anything for lunches because the band pays for that. But she is somewhat picky, however, we try and get her to try new things.

2. Do you cook from scratch or pre-packaged foods? If pre-packaged foods how often do you cook them i.e. only on weekends, etc? A little bit of both really.

3. Are you brand specific (will only buy Heinz ketchup, name brand bread/buns), etc. Or do you buy whatever is cheapest at the time? Not brand specific at all.

4. Do you have a good stockpile on can food or frozen meats? do you have a deep freezer? Do you contribute a certain amount of your grocery budget to your stockpile (I know some people do this, I don't)?I try to stockpile as much as I can. Space is limited, but we are hoping to move in May. No deep freeze right now due to space restrictions.

5. Do you make a grocery list before you go shopping or as supplies run out? Always

6. Do you stray from your list? that's a hard one in my opinion, I personally don't anymore but still struggle at times. I try not to but it happens. Especially if Jon is with me lol

7. Make sure you have a bite to eat and a beverage handy in your car so that you don't buy a drink or a snack while out shopping, I find that if you shop hungry you spend more $ than you should have (lol). Agreed!

8. Do you only purchase certain cuts of meat (rib steak, porc loins, etc) or purchase whatever meats are on sale. We try to have a pasta dinner once a week, it's cheap & easy. We also have a leftover night which is normally on Thrusdays as Friday is our meatless day.I will purchase whatever is on sale. We don't eat a huge amount of meat. We tend to do lots of pasta as well.

9. Do you use coupons (lol) and price match at the same time? I find this makes a huge difference regardless of what you are purchasing. I wasn't but I'm getting back into this now. Sales and coupons all the way!

10. What can you afford to actually pay vs. what are you spending/budgeting? I find this is difficult to admit!Last month I budgeted 200 for myself to spend on food/eating out. I alone spent about 350 not counting what Jon spent. I want to try and cut it to both of us spending maybe 300 a month between us?

11. Who does the shopping you or your husband or both of you at different times, and is he willing to use coupons & price match. It all adds up. He's never used coupons before but he probably would.

FOR ME: We are a family of 2 adult and two boys (12 & 10) and 2 dogs and 1 stray cat we feed. I do stockups when items are on sale and not before, so we may not have juiceboxes until there is a good sale or coupons that I can use & pricematch, my kids of course end up brining a water bottle & a koolaid single to add so they are not deprived.

I must admit that the prices of groceries is ridiculous, they have gone up over time and are absolutely ridiculous, I stock up on milk when it's on sale, fresh fruits I generally purchase for a 2 week period if it's a great price (apples, oranges, nectarines - I keep them in the fridge). Lately because of the lack of coupons and great sales my grocery bill is $100.00 or so a week, however, when more coupons will become available I will probably be at $50-75.00 a week. Keep in mind that my 14 year old Golden Retriever now eats 2 big cans of Pedigree wet food which is not cheap and that in itself is 14 cans a week so there is $20+ of my grocery bill every week.

I personally am stocked up on laundry detergents, body washes, hand soaps, cleaners, deoderants, toilet paper, paper towels so I don't have to worry about those items for atleast 6 months or so.

Hope this helps.

This does help! I wonder could we get away with $300 a month if we price match and use coupons.

[SassyAshley]

Crisco Shortening was on sale at Freshco for $1.99 and I had 5 $1.00 off coupons from a baking booklet. All out of $1.00 off coupons but now have $0.75 from Ziploc packages I might use if it goes on sale again.

Could you please tell me who has the Crisco Shortening for $0.99?

Right now any money I save is just savings I will keep in the bank for now and decide what to do with it later. Would not mind adding to my TFSA but we will have to see. I would also like to take some money and do something for me, whether it be a day of shopping or a couple days away. I find it so hard to do these things as I am always worried about the money factor and tend to regret spending the money even though it is always money I have so it is not like I am using credit but still I hate doing it. I am always worried I will spend the money and than something will come up and I won't have money to cover it. Think it goes back to my teenage years when I was broke, had just paid my tuition for school and my car broke down and thought of fixing of it was impossible, ended up calling my dad in tears as I stood in the driving being mad at my car for not starting, thinking really you had to do this now (yes in my mind it was the cars fault).

My mom is constantly making fun of for not spending gift cards or gift money, I tend to hoard it saving it in case we NEED it one day.

So ladies what is for dinner today?
I am making homemade perogies and going to start my turkey stock for turkey soup for lunches.
DH is not a big turkey fan but the girls will enjoy a thermos of hot soup in their lunches
When I "picked" the carcass I put a big bag of meaty bones in a ziploc bag in the freezer so we can enjoy turkey soup next month too!
So that is at least a week's worth of meals from ONE TURKEY~! Awesome!

I am currently at $80/$250 for groceries for two weeks. We will be needing fresh produce for filler and milk again. Diapers too.
My youngest son is autistic and has extreme sensory issues so he eats mostly instant oatmeal, crackers, waffles and popcorn. That is about it, no kidding! He has recently started eating pizza (we are thrilled!) so I am buying some packaged/processed stuff for him.
I wonder if anyone has any ideas for making oatmeal? We have tried several brands and he does not care for any of the larger chunkier flaked brands.

Question for the day: What are you doing with your savings this month? Paying debt or saving?

Me, I"m paying debt with tax refund but want to register my kids for their sports (gymnastics, swimming and soccer about $500).
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They are slightly cheaper at Costco, I bought my last roll before the postage increase, I think I paid about $65 dollars (I will have to check at home tonight as I do not have the receipt on me) for 100 stamps, this included taxed. I will update tonight when I get home and can find my receipt.

I hear ya, they are expensive, I don't know if this is true or not but my mother-in-law said that you can purchase bulk stamps by the roll at Costco and they are cheaper, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE!

[jasperandchar]

what do you ladies make with crisco shortening (pies)????

[LuvToUseCoupons]

It's a train where you list the coupons you are looking for...the others riders on the train with you look at your list and send you coupons from your list.

Ps... What the heck is a vwt?????

[LuvToUseCoupons]

OK. will look at it.

Yes, or in my signature.

[LuvToUseCoupons]

It's $58.49 there. I check last time I was there.
Which works out to 10% off, so when Shoppers or Rexall has it for 10% off it works out to be the same price as Costco. And you can buy less like 30/40/50 etc. In case you don't have the $60 all at one time to spend on stamps at Costco.

Yes!! You can, I think it's like 100 stamps for around $50... I'll be going there this week and can confirm when I do.

[LuvToUseCoupons]

Plus taxes.

[SassyAshley]

My mom uses it for icing when she doing cakes or teaching a cake class. Also we have a recipes that call for shortening instead of butter.

I know you need shortening for pie crust, but for some reason my mom is not good with pastry and I do not even try. On that note though we have found the best pastry recipe and it is made with cream cheese and it amazing, we love it.

what do you ladies make with crisco shortening (pies)????

[jasperandchar]

please share the icing recipe

My mom uses it for icing when she doing cakes or teaching a cake class. Also we have a recipes that call for shortening instead of butter.

I know you need shortening for pie crust, but for some reason my mom is not good with pastry and I do not even try. On that note though we have found the best pastry recipe and it is made with cream cheese and it amazing, we love it.

[SassyAshley]

I will post it tonight when I get home as I will have to get it from mom.

please share the icing recipe

[Insane]

We've started a budget, but we're wondering what to budget for food. That seems to be our downfall because we were both stopped at the grocery store whenever and spending way too much. We thought we would pick a number and actually take that money out each month to spend. What do you guys spend on groceries? There's the two of us and my step daughter on a part time basis.

Honestly, we built our budget around our fixed expenses and our food expenses. Cause we gotta eat! What I would start with first is planning and only shopping once. It's the shopping more than once that is a budget killer in my opinion. When you do that, you get a better idea of how much you spend. Our budget is $450 every 2 week at the grocery store and $50 for other places (for stuff I go to the other grocery store for or the butcher, ect...) I get paid every 2 weeks, so on week 1 I shop, and then get gift cards in whatever amount to make my bill come to $450. Week 2 I use the gift cards. That way week 2, I know exactly what I have to spend. I can't go over. I can only spend what I have left. I do this over cash as I didn't want the hassle of having to carry so much cash.

Our budget isn't really categorized as being $X for personal care, $Y for cleaning, $z for diapers, ect.... Our budget is made by store. Granted we don't have that many stores! We have an amount that we call the float. Cash goes in there and when we go out to say Walmart or Canadian Tire to buy something we take money from the float. When the jar is empty, then there is no more to spend. The grocery store, SDM, and Timmies all have their own amount. And we load money onto the GC every 2 weeks or month depending on the store. We use it up, then it's gone. You basically have to get to the end of the 2 weeks before the GC (or money jar) is empty. This method has worked really well for us. I found it too stressful trying to figure out how much I had spent in each category since most shopping trips involved multiple "categories" (ie diapers, and groceries and personal hygiene). By using this method I was able to put aside a whole bunch of money so that when my top up from my employer ended (I get a top up for part of my mat leave), we weren't in financial ruin trying to survive off EI only. It took discipline at the beginning, but honestly, it's second nature now.

[SimplifiedMommyTips]

so I'd been looking for meat on sale, went to Freshco yesterday and did not found any, went to metro today and they have 40-50% off on some pork ribs and pork chop, beef strip for stir fries, bought whatever good deal I found for my stockfile..

Also I found yeast for $2.99 for Quick rise and for bread machine at Freshco and started making bread this morning, the house smells so yummy and the boys were like so excited to have it for breakfast, now will try making egg bread..

[lecale]

.

[Frugal Lisa]

I haven't made egg bread... But I love making my own bread. I make 90% of the bread products that we eat. $2.99 for the yeast is amazing!!! I didn't need any, but I bought an extra last week for $3.99.

[Frugal Lisa]

I like the GC idea Insane...if I shopped at fewer stores I would definitely do this.

I move all cash other than grocery budget over to savings...and my savings isn't connected to my debit card. This way anything outside of regular purchases I have to go transfer back $ to my checking, so no impulse buys for me.

That is a great idea too!!!