I wish that I could clearly and concisely list out for you exactly what we did that worked or how I managed to do a $70 grocery bill (verses our normal &100-$120) the first week of October without trying... but I really can't. A few things I can share with you:
- most off brand stuff isn't that bad and saves a lot
- Aldi does save money ($40 on our first weeks grocery bill there!) but is a lot of work and doesn't have everything you need
- coupons help, but I didn't go crazy on them - I mostly used my in-store Tom Thumb app on my iphone while I was in the store to down-load coupons or I chose something that was already on sale (even if it meant substituting an ingredient within reason) vs something that was not that week
- websites with low-budget meal ideas are awesome! (my favorite is: http://www.budgetbytes.com/)
- a little bit of meat really can be stretched a long way (example: just one chicken breast for six servings of these incredible sweet chili chicken bowls: http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/07/sweet-chili-chicken-bowls/)
- big kuddos to my husband for helping me in the kitchen with lots of extra dishes and being willing to eat lots of leftovers - he's amazing!
You can thank Josh for all of the pretty excel sheet break downs below (just click on them to make them bigger). If you don't want to look at the whole thing here's the bottom line:
$325 on all food spending (grocery and eating out) for the month of September compared to our normal $800+ saving us a total of about $500
Calculating the exact meals we ate for every meal, every single day, we only spent $255
We hope this is helpful and inspiring for someone out there. Most of all, we hope this continues to help us and you remember that our money is not our own - it is a blessing and gift from God - and we want to use what He has given us wisely and generously to others.
Love, Jo & Josh
