I have not been planning my menus for something like three months now. It’s awful. I’m spending way too much on food, and going to the store way too often, and I don’t even know what we’re having for dinner. One of my goals is to drastically cut down on shopping trips. As in, I want to get down to going no more than once a month. That takes planning! And a well stocked pantry. We’re not getting enough milk from our cow now, as we dry her off in anticipation of her calving around New Year’s, and I can’t keep more than a week’s worth of milk in our little fridge, but I can stop by the local store on Friday morning’s on our way home from our church meeting pretty conveniently.
Which brings me to my second goal of saving up enough cash to get another cow. Did I mention that we’re drying off our cow in anticipation of her calving around New Year’s? We had to drink store bought milk for the first time since August this week and the natives are protesting. I was looking forward to the milking break, but now I’m just looking forward to finding another pretty Jersey girl to be Maybelle’s friend – and to keep us in delicious dairy products! There won’t be any extra money in the household budget for the next few months, so David can’t help. Of course, by the time I save enough from the grocery budget to pay for a cow, Maybelle will be milking again, but it doesn’t matter. I still want the cow. Cows are really good investments. (So are chickens. Our hens laid a full three dozen eggs for the first time yesterday!)
I need to stock up on toilet paper this trip, and I need to buy our Thanksgiving fixin’s (which is contrary to the spirit of Thanksgiving, methinks, now that we’re living on the farm) but I’m aiming to keep the tab down to $250 for the food we need for the rest of the month. Think I can do it?
You can do it! If you’re okay with a regular old store turkey, you might be able to swing that for free with one of the rewards programs after you do your other shopping. (Or are you not going to the regular civilian grocery?:))
I just did it – a smidge over two weeks worth of meals, plus re-stocking some seriously depleted pantry reserves, buying lots of toiletries, etc. that I normally wouldn’t have to buy all-at-once, but that we’d run out of between the swine flu, the back, and well, you know…life. LOL
They have some good buys at the commissary on Thanksgiving foods. I stocked up on the chicken broth! Do you use coupons? I can give you addresses to websites for FREE coupons, no gimmicks.
I use coupons when I have them, but I don’t buy a paper and I can’t ever get that internet coupon printer to install properly. My computer’s wonky.
I shop at the commissary mostly, Andie, and one of those discount stores like Sav-a-lot or Aldi. The commissary sometimes has turkeys available for like $4.99, but my experience is it’s luck of the draw whether or not you’re there when they roll ‘em out of the back.
You can totally do it.
You know, because of your recommendation, I checked out the Complete Tightwad Gazette at the library (a very worn copy, how tightwad is that?!) and liked it so much I found a used hard copy on Amazon for $5. I love her idea of the price book, and started my own. I used to shop entirely at Walmart for groceries, because I was finding that my bill would be double anywhere else. However, after doing the price book, I’ve found that Frye’s (Krogers) is much cheaper than Walmart (on most things) and have been able to reduce my grocery budget, besides staying away from Walmart.
I also like the idea of shopping monthly instead of weekly and then just picking up milk and produce weekly. Not only will this save money (I think) but time too. The planning is what has stopped me thus far from acheiving that. Since my hubby left and is now home, I’m finding it hard to think about cooking things other than mac and cheese and hot dogs.
I’ve really got to get back in the swing of things.
I’ve also heard of Angel Food Ministries, but haven’t tried them yet. I’m not sure if it will actually help with the food budget, or if I really want to go that route.
Jennie, how many chickens do you have laying, now? That’s so exciting! Our Land Plans have been sidelined by the Health Plans, but now we’re refocusing and getting back on track… orchard, critters, fencing (not in that order, lol!)
I don’t know how to tell which ones are laying and which ones are just goofing off in the field all day.
I assume that 36 of the 48 hens are laying now, though it might be a few more. Not all of the hens lay an egg every day, so I just assume that whatever my high-water mark is is the number of layers.
They are GREAT chickens. They’re smart, productive, hardy, broody, friendly… I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about them.
Jennie
I had to turn of my antivirus program to get the printers to work for the online coupons.
http://www.wow-coupons.com/grocery.php
I tried it without the firewall and without the antivirus software, but it still doesn’t work. No coupons for me.
Regarding Angel Food Ministries:
They are a great organization and they do offer interesting deals sometimes. We ordered from them once. However, they aren’t the way to go to shave your grocery budget. We bought chicken from them. It was divine. The best chicken breast I’ve ever had. However, it was about $0.20/lb more than the local store. Why? Because AFM sells restaurant grade meat, while the grocer sells regular grade meat. Now, for restaurant quality stuff, AFM has fantastic prices. But it’s really not much of a money saver. Also, I find their main box of food to contain foods we don’t eat, like store bought pizza, or margarine! (yuck!) So it’s really not saving you money if you aren’t going to eat it. I have to admit, though, I was really sad when we emptied the chicken box!
I looked into Angel Food Ministries, too, but it seemed like a whole lot of stuff I don’t normally buy, which means it’s not much of a savings. In Colorado, there was a SHARE program, and I’ve seen that elsewhere, too, where you get a discount box of food (mostly produce as I recall?) in exchange for two hours of volunteer work. That was a pretty good deal, I think. It was fifteen years ago and before I cared, so I’m not sure.
Ok, you have two more kids than I do, however, as they reach their teenage years (19, 14, 12, & 12) they tend to eat a WHOLE LOT! I normally will start out with a budget of $500 a month for food, and after all of my coupons, BOGO items, and other sale things, we usually don’t spend more than $300. I don’t have time (nursing school) to do all of the wonderful canning that you do anymore, or (I’m jealous) the wonderful animals that you have, so it’s possible! You can do it!