The best way to take charge of a food budget is to buy all groceries with cash. The debit or credit card makes it easy to spend more than planned. It’s not hard to eat well yet stay on budget. Read on to discover different ways a frugal shopper can live well with a $50 weekly cash food budget.
Cash is King!
A useful activity is to track food expenses for a month or two. Save every receipt for purchases at the grocery and convenience store. The cup of coffee & purchased with a gas fill up is part of your weekly expense. Include all meals out as well. Use a notebook and pencil or a spreadsheet to chart every penny. After two full months, you’ll see trends and where you spend the most. Pick a week to start and either withdraw $50 in cash from the bank or $60 from the ATM. Save the $10 for a surprise expense fund we’ll talk about in a later article.
If part of your social life includes a cup of coffee and muffin at a local diner every morning, maybe that’s where the $10 will be spent. But, it’s all you have for the week. It’s important to live well, but keep an eye on costs. Consider one or two days a week instead of the daily visit. Locally, Brookfield Orchards has a $5 pancake breakfast once per month. I look forward to that and squirrel away the funds out of the cash weekly to go. Look for opportunities locally to do the same. It’s fun to socialize, just keep to cash.
Stock a Pantry
It’s important to plan the meals for the week and refer to the grocery store flyer for specials. Build meals around what is in the pantry and on sale. Start to build a pantry weekly. A pantry will have pasta, rice, herbs, spices, cereal, chicken stock, crushed tomato, flour, sugar and eggs.
Bargain Bins Bonanza!
Some grocery stores have a specific sale bin with mark downs at 50% to 75%. This would be a first stop for the frugal shopper and may create a shift in purchases. Or, be a way to start that pantry. The local Hannaford Market in North Brookfield sales bin routinely has wonderful surprises such as organic rice, cereal, cookies, vitamins and more. One day, there were premium organic taco shells for $2.00, a dozen to a box. My best day was finding jars of California Sun-Dried Tomatoes Julienne Cut With Herbs, 8.5 to 16 oz retail $5 to $12 per jar at $1.25 and $3, There’s a foodie inside of me that raves at moments like this. Yeah! We’re gonna have a great Italian dish with these for weeks to come 🙂
The local Big Y in Spencer and Ware have a mark down shelf. The Spencer Big Y routinely puts out a clearance table with deep discounts on premium products such as honey, soup beans, seasonings, cat food, cooking oils, etc. The bargains are there, it’s up to the savvy shopper to check, check and check again. Investigate local markets and find those patterns for savings.
Budget Meal Planning
An example of a planned budget meal recently was based on pork chops at $1.99 a pound. Buy a package of three for $3.89. The pork is nice and thick. The pantry will have rice, low sodium soy sauce and breadcrumbs (homemade). Purchase $1.00 bag of frozen peas or corn. Marinate the pork chops in soy sauce and canola oil. Dip in breadcrumbs and bake. Prepare the rice. Prepare the peas. Dice the cooked pork chops. Save the bones for soup recipes. Blend together the rice, peas and pork. This meal will most likely expand to four or five servings. Living on a frugal budget sometimes means eating the same thing a few days in a row. Or, brown bag three meals and freeze the rest.
Dollar Tree Stores
Bargains can be had for routine household items at Dollar Tree stores. Click on the link to find the store near you. Everything is a $1. Check them out for routine needs such as toilet paper, dish soap, nasal tissue, etc.. Personal care products such as shampoo and soap are available. A real find was Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Lip Balm, SPF 15 retail at $4. The grocery section often has name brand items such as Healthy Request® – Campbell’s Chicken Noodle. While I strongly advocate learning to make soup from scratch. This can be a pantry item and be a nice little meal when the dollars need to stretch a little more. I enjoy soy milk and have been delighted to find Eden Soy at $1 a carton. It normally retails for $3 to $4. Bring your own bags and enjoy a bonanza!
Coupons
A golden rule of frugal shopping is coupons. Always check for coupons. It’s so satisfying to watch the costs come down at the register. And, make sure you have a shopper’s store card for additional savings. Those $1, $.50 and $.30 cents off savings add up.
Frugal Choices
Several of my recipes on this blog are a combination of left overs and pantry items running low. I’ve learned to jazz up meals with herbs and spices included at the right moment. I always start soups with aromatics such as a shallot, carrot and garlic. This is the base and everything is added to it. While it would be wonderful to use a quality Olive Oil, and I only recommend Olive Oil directly from Italy or California, canola will be fine. It is tasteless and provides the cooking oil. Wesson brand sells for about $2 per bottle versus California Olive Ranch at $12. On a cash budget, it has to stay out of the cart. However, check that sales bin, you never know when the fancy oil will be there. I’ve picked up several bottles of quality toasted sesame oil for $2 per bottle.
Once you get into the pattern of $50 cash, the bargain hunter mode sets in.
I hope these ideas help you think outside the routine of one stop shopping. By knowing the pattern in the store, it can help make eating enjoyable but affordable. If you have ideas to share, leave a comment below.
LuceStellare 