Frugal Mania

When people want to save money, many times it is the grocery budget that is first examined for the possibility of saving money. When I stopped my full time telecommuting job I had to immediately cut back on groceries. I had one household responsibility from my paycheck and that was to buy the groceries. When I got paid, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on whatever we wanted. I loved to cook and bake and could easily spend $500-600 a month on a family of four–and number three was a toddler and number four a newborn!

Granted my grocery budget has always included all household and toiletries items as well as food, but even so my spending habits were outrageous and shamefully wasteful. My husband reviewed the budget as we transitioned from a two-income family to a one-income family. We decided that $400 per month was a good budget for us.

I knew that I’d have to make some changes in order to stick to our budget. First, I made menus for each week. I decided how many nights per week I would cook dinner. We had leftovers or sandwiches and cereal on the other nights. Next, I made a grocery list. Before my grocery budget was necessary I would only list the things that we were out of and had to buy or the ingredients for new recipes that I wanted to try. I’d wing the rest, even decided right there in the store what to have to dinner that night. I’d often make a couple of trips to the stores each week.

I decided what day I would do my shopping, made my list the night before and purchased everything for the week so that I would not have to go back into the store at all until it was time for my next weekly shopping trip.

I had never disliked generics, but was more apt to buy brand names because I wanted to or because they offered some sort of convenience that generics did not. I stopped buying brand names unless I had tried the generic and it was wasted because we didn’t like it. (Really, if your family won’t eat it, don’t buy it. That’s not frugal, it’s wishful thinking.)

I planned to cook four meals per week and at least one was a vegetarian meal. Now my husband was not on board with that at first, but when I promised him that it would only be one meal per week and reminded him of the health benefits he reluctantly gave it a try. Now he eats most vegetarian meals I make with no problem.

Instead of throwing out leftovers as I was apt to do before, I would freeze them and use them again in less than two weeks.

I began buying only the produce that was in season and though we got a little tired of oranges in the winter and strawberries in spring, it definitely saved us money.

I made as many things as I could at home (bread, desserts, snacks, baby food) which not only saved money but was healthier for us also.

Now, as a family of five (the youngest is a very hungry toddler) plus one sweet dog, I still have my budget, now $550 per month and am even trying to come in under that amount if possible. Even when I work outside of the home again in a few years we will have to budget for groceries. My three sons (all around two years apart) will be teenagers before I know it and my grocery will grow up, up, up right with them!

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Check out this fabulous food post!