If you had $125 for groceries for the month....

[Percysgirl]

I'm grateful that I have food storage right now. I have all of the staples, dry beans, meat, grains, and some canned goods. I have $125 for the next four weeks for food. I've planned to get some fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy and eggs (assuming my chickens don't start producing), bread for DHs lunches (I can't bake his bread due to allergies, and allergen free bread costs more to make than what his store-bought loaves cost), and some frozen broccoli and some ground turkey from Aldis sine we're low on those.

 

That leaves me $40 left out of my $125 budget. What would you do with it?

[Stephanie]

It's so hard to say when I don't know your eating habits and exactly what you have. But, here's a few thoughts...

 

My best frugal breakfast is Oatmeal! With raisins, as a muffin, cookies, help to stretch meatloaf, etc... So, if you already have the oatmeal, I'd buy some stuff to go with it and do some of those things.

 

My best frugal lunch item would have to be peanut butter, it can go on apples, crackers, celery, bread, and with the oatmeal to make no bake cookies.

 

Another really frugal and filling menu item for us is Pancake Mix, which requires nothing but water and ofcourse syrup if you like that.

 

One last suggestion, buy a bag of the Tortilla mix at Walmart, for under $3. You add nothing but water, they are easy as pie and absolutely delicious.

 

I hope that helps a bit!

[Homemaker]

For me personally, in my situation, I would focus on high-quality proteins.

I grow and store a lot of garden produce. I can do without grains, but need protein.

Of course, not everyone's situation is like mine.

[susie]

I would be making lots of soup.

[Percysgirl]

Thank you for the ideas. Keep them coming. I'm just looking for a variety of ideas to spur the imagination.

 

I do have a good amount of meat in the freezer, both beef and chicken. I am continuing to buy ground turkey because I can get it for $1.20 a pound.

[KMatheson]

Thank you for the ideas. Keep them coming. I'm just looking for a variety of ideas to spur the imagination.

 

I do have a good amount of meat in the freezer, both beef and chicken. I am continuing to buy ground turkey because I can get it for $1.20 a pound.

 

I would purchase bulk rice and bulk beans. Beans are loaded in nutrients and are very low cost. Being down in the south we eat a lot of beans... lima, butter beans, red beans, split peas. All of these can be made with or without a meat additive. If you'd like a couple of recipes, let me know and I'll pm 'em to ya.

[Cat]

I use dry beef and chicken flavorings (boullion?) to boost the flavor... and I buy it in bulk. Ground turkey is indistinguishable from ground beef in dishes when I add a teaspoon or two as it's browning.

 

It also boosts flavor in noodles, soups, rice, etc. (for variety)

 

 

 

[Leah]

If you already have the basics, go for just a couple of 'treat' items.

 

Last year, I went to everyone in the family with a little notebook and asked them to write down their own personal 5 'must haves' - the few things that they would be sad if they didn't have.

Oddly enough, almost everyone put down rice, broccoli, and chicken! When I picked up the papers, I told them I had been thinking of treats. Then it was chips, cookies, red vines, pop, beer, cheese, pudding, and bananas. HippieDad wanted the beer.

 

The thing is, what was considered to be most important was not what I expected; so ask...

You may be surprised!

[Aint2nuts]

We have 231.48 left after we pay for our bills. From that about 45 dollars has to come out for gas. 15 dollars comes out of that for pet care :-( We have been living off about 170 each month for a while. We have four people in our family, two cats, and a cockatiel. (That is for personal supplies, grocery, anything the kids need for school, clothing, shoes, the works. All three need shoes right now, and it isn't happening).

 

I barter -- a lot. I coupon - a lot! I saved almost 200$ on my last grocery shop couponing. No, I didn't always get things we eat on a regular basis. We got things that were free or almost free...and eat those.

 

I go to the food bank once a month and buy a 30$ food package. In it is enough bread to last about 2 weeks, I have to give some away because it won't all keep and there is no room in the freezer. (This is day old bread already usually).

 

Also, my church has a free 'store' for lack of a better word called the Bishops Storehouse, that you can 'order' things from and then go shopping for. They give out basics. Meat, cheese, flour, yeast, canned vegetables, canned fruit, cereal, bread and they also have fresh vegetables and fruit etc. You have to have a good idea what you need though when you sit down with the relief society president and make out the grocery list.

 

We make out a menu at the beginning of the month using what we have and what we have gotten on sale. About mid way through the month I ask the bishop if we can do a Bishops Order because, by then, I am BROKER THAN BROKE. LOL

 

Here are some ideas for low costs meals that I have for the kids and I.

 

Goulash, Hot dogs, mac and cheese, enchiladas, spaghetti, tamale pie, jambalaya with an inexpensive sausage, quesadillas, sausage and eggs, hotdogs and eggs, soup, grilled cheese sandwich, muffins (home made), cream of wheat, burritos (just plain, beans and maybe some cheese), spanish rice, homemade granola with yogurt or milk, bean soup, taco salad, egg drop soup, (usually served with fried rice, with a tiny bit of chicken in the rice or some other leftover meat), french toast.

 

It all depends in how you make whatever you are making if it is going to be low cost or not. If you put shrinp in your jambalya -- it is going to cost more!

 

]Beans, rice, homemade bread products (from pancakes, to biscuits, to yeast bread (only if you buy the yeast in bulk), are usually less expensive.)

[nmchick]

At this time of year, there is very little good cheap fresh fruit around us, so we've been supplementing with #10 (108 oz) cans of pineapple. The kids love it and it works out much cheaper than most other options. Sams Club has it for about $4.50 a can. (Ackk, just checked and it's now $4.88 a can.) A 108 oz can is equivalent to 6.75 16 oz cans.

[Skagitgal]

$125.00.

 

OK, you put $25.00 in an envelope and stash it some place secure.

That leaves you 25 for each of the coming weeks. WHAT do you NEED........not what you want, each week.

The very basics, milk, powdered juice,....... you make the list.

 

The speciality bread most certainly. And an extra loaf stashed in the freezer. That has to be for health, but duplicated, to avoid the 'outs'.

 

During this time of year, IMHO, people can get away with very cheap, but filling one pot meals. Stretch the budget as much as you can now, and continue stashing the 25 each month.

 

Buy no pre-prepared foods. Be as strict, and as costcutting as possible now......have a couple of extra bucks for the food budget later. When you buy, forget fresh fruits & veggies for now. No one is going to be harmed by not spending big bucks on fresh during the winter.

 

Our ancestors lived with out fresh during the winter. Root veggies, cabbage & apples, came from the root cellar. Use sauerkraut, tang for vit. C; fortified milk for vit. D, use a good vit. for the whole family.

 

Use rice for a mininum of 1 meal a day. Hot rice cereal for breakfast. A huge bowl of rice with a meat sauce, bean sauce, lentil chili, ect. for lunch...or supper.

 

Challange yourself to use ALL those 'prepper/survival/SIP recipies you have been faithfully gathering from MRS S.

 

Go for a notebook. Write down all your inspirations/meals that 'go over' with your family. Then, when the dreaded day comes that YOU are out of ideas/money/time and have the blahs. ....Presto-Keeno, you have an idea!!!!! Then pat your self on the back for being a clever gal, prepared and withit!!

 

 

[Percysgirl]

The rice idea will definitely work for us- rice is the staple of our diet due to our wheat allergy. I regularly do home-milled rice farina for breakfast, as well as buckwheat, oat and sorghum farinas. We don't buy any pre-prepared anything due to our food allergies. I even make things at home that people think of as ingredients, such as ketchup and mustard.

 

We normally only eat in-season produce, plus what we have home-canned. About the only things that are a decent price right now would be potatoes and carrots. I've got some butternut squash and a few sweet potatoes left downstairs from when they were in season, plus our home-canned stuff. I've got thirty pounds of fresh sauerkraut in the crock down-stairs we haven't started eating on yet that I packed in November.

 

I have everything I need to make the bread except the eggs, and we pay about $1.25/dz here. Each loaf takes 6 eggs.

 

I do keep a log of every meal I do- I've got over 2.5 years of records, since the food allergies began. I need to flip back through it to see what ideas I can come up with.

 

I greatly appreciate the ideas!

[Josephine]

I don't know how large your towns are, but I buy most of my produce at the International Markets. It's definitely cheaper, and sometimes a lot. And meat too, I once got boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.55 a lb. That is unheard of in my name brand stores!

[PureCajunSunshine]

You might be surprised what you can do with all that bread. You can dry/toast it and make all kinds of great things with it. If moisture is kept away from the dried bread, it will store well for a long time, too. You can put some of the dried bread back into the bags they came in, and put the rest in a better container.

 

Susie (from France) has some great ideas what do do with dried bread, from homemade cereal to desserts. Hold on, I'll see if I can find either her or that thread...

 

Ok, here you go... Gazillions of delicious ways to use stale or leftover bread:

 

http://mrssurvival.com/forums/index.php?sh...mp;#entry278649

 

I go to the food bank once a month and buy a 30$ food package. In it is enough bread to last about 2 weeks, I have to give some away because it won't all keep and there is no room in the freezer. (This is day old bread already usually).

[Andrea]

I use dry beef and chicken flavorings (boullion?) to boost the flavor... and I buy it in bulk. Ground turkey is indistinguishable from ground beef in dishes when I add a teaspoon or two as it's browning.

 

It also boosts flavor in noodles, soups, rice, etc. (for variety)

 

Ooooh, I am so going to borrow this idea!

[jakesnana]

The older we get the more DH and I enjoy one pot meals.

we also don't waste food so it can go a lot further with just

the two of us. We love the feel of a hot cup or bowl of soup/

stew during the colder months. All our meat is bought once

a month on sale so thankfully our 2 freezers a full. Getting

back to the original post-if I had 125.00 for a month for

groceries it would be beans, rice, onions, chicken and ground

beef. If any were left over as a treat it would be bananas.

[Mel]

Hi, I have been cooking on a shoe string budget for a long time. That I put things togerther with what ever I have. There is only 3 of us. I cook 500g of noodles and devide that into 4. for 4 days

Just one of the things I put together

This will not be to everyones taste, BUT we do with what we have.

With 1/4 of noodles

tin of tuna

steam cup of mixed veggies

table spoon of flour+cup of milk+50g cheese. Bring to boil(to make a cheese source)

mix all together

Enjoy.

Mel

 

 

 

[cheles2kids]

Pasta meals are cheap.

I personally will cook up a lb. of spaghetti or something & will eat off of it for 3 or 4 days in a row for lunch.

I like jarred pasta sauce, stir-fry sauce & just some butter with parmesan & salt & pepper.

I also like to make a noodle stir-fry with spaghetti noodles, a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies & sme sauce, instead of using the go-to rice that most people think of when they fix stir-frys.

 

Soup, as someone already mentioned.

Vegetarian chili, potatoe, vegetable, are just a couple.

 

Eggs are fairly cheap-breakfast burritos, egg salad/fried egg sandwiches, boiled eggs (this is a favorite for breakfast around here) with a piece of toast & some kind of fruit (apples, bananas or 1/2 of an orange) on the side.

 

Casseroles are usually cheap, all of this of course depends on your ingredients.

 

Also cooking in your crockpot can help as well.

You can cook less tender pieces of meat, you can cook your beans, you can make soup, even cakes, etc.

There's tons of crockpot recipes out there on the 'web', just go do some searching.

 

Also remember that beans can easily be substituted for meat in alot of dishes.

We make black bean tacos & nachos, black or pinto bean chimichangas, or just a good 'ole bowl of cooked down pintos with cornbread, alot!

I just made some 'wraps' the other night, I cooked up a potful of mexican rice & threw in a can of pintos, warmed up some flour tortillas and that's what we had for dinner.

They are also great in all different kinds of soups.

 

If your kids are not accustomed to eating beans, then you'll go through a learning period with them.

Just introduce them slowly, a little bit at a time, until they start to get a 'taste' for them.

It's like anything else that's new or foriegn to us, it just takes a little bit to get used to, kwim?

 

As for fresh produce? It all depends on the season & what's on sale (key word there).

If fresh is not an option, then go with frozen, it's usually cheaper & has a better texture, then lastly I would co the canned food route.

But all of this would irrelevant depending on *your* family's preferences.

 

I personally shop fresh, but only what's on sale that week.

If that might be just a head of lettuce, carrots & apples. That's what we'll buy.

You can easily make a salad out of those 3 items, or just cook the carrots for a side dish.

Cut up an apple as a snack, or you could even dice them up to make some apple muffins.

Carrots are good in muffins too, they are really great in pasta sauce.

 

Well, you get the idea.

 

You could also do some searching online for 'cheap meals' & should come up with some other ideas.

 

$40.00 isn't alot, but if you also have your food storage to fall back on, you might be surprised at how far you can make it stretch.

I was also a little confused, do you mean that you only have the $40.00 to finish out the rest of *this* month, or to get you through the entire month of March?

If it's this month, then you only have another week to get through.

 

If it's the whole month of March, then you will have to be much more resourceful, but with some food storage, it can be done.

 

Hth you some.

Michelle

[Percysgirl]

$40.00 isn't alot, but if you also have your food storage to fall back on, you might be surprised at how far you can make it stretch.

I was also a little confused, do you mean that you only have the $40.00 to finish out the rest of *this* month, or to get you through the entire month of March?

If it's this month, then you only have another week to get through.

 

If it's the whole month of March, then you will have to be much more resourceful, but with some food storage, it can be done.

 

 

What I meant is if I bought all that I laid out, I'd only have $40 left. It was a hypothetical.

 

I'm on day four into this month. So far I've spent $50, but some of that was stuff that would get us through the whole month, like a 50-pound sack of potatoes and 10 pounds of rice.

[GirlNextDoor]

Percy's girl, come down to the wire I bet you have some skill you can barter for somebody else making our special bread.

[LaBellaVita]

I use dry beef and chicken flavorings (boullion?) to boost the flavor... and I buy it in bulk. Ground turkey is indistinguishable from ground beef in dishes when I add a teaspoon or two as it's browning.

 

It also boosts flavor in noodles, soups, rice, etc. (for variety)

Cat, I'm guessing this is the boullion 'base'? Not the cubes, but the paste? That is a great idea. I used to buy a lot of ground turkey but stopped because when I served it people (well, mainly one friend of mine) kept saying it was tasteless and I thought it was fine (I"d put it into spaghetti for example) but then I wondered did it really taste that bad. I didn't think so... but since DH loves flavor (especially garlic and pepper) I'd love to find ways to use turkey and spice it up.

 

Another idea, CHECK!

 

[PoGo]

I bought ground turkey once, to substitute for ground beef. My husband and I thought that it tasted horrible. Perhaps someday we'll try it again, and spice it up some.

[Tracy R]

TVP can stretch any ground meat (or substitute for it completely) when reconstituted with meat stock. You want to reconstitute separately and add it at the end, though, or it can go mushy.

 

As to the OP, if I only had $40 left for the month, I'd buy as much rice, beans and oatmeal as that money would get and rely on my spice cupboard to vary flavors -- but I keep a pretty extensive spice cupboard, too .

 

Soup is a boon to stretched budgets. Any ingredients that would make up ONE plate for one adult can be turned into soup for four with only a few small additions. Noodles made from flour, egg, salt and water are a wonderful stretcher for soups -- a cup of flour, one egg and a tsp of salt, with enough water to make a stiff dough -- roll out, slice up and drop in the boiling soup. If you've got ONE plate of leftovers to feed your family for dinner, the addition of a cup of flour and an egg can turn a scanty meal into a relatively filling one. Add a loaf of homemade bread or a dozen fresh baked muffins (both are relatively inexpensive to make fresh) and you've got a wonderful meal.

 

I have a 22pg booklet "More Month Than Money" at my website that helps with grocery budgeting when finances are tight. I hope no one minds my mentioning that here -- but it might be of use to you. It's a free PDF download.

[Percysgirl]

I have a 22pg booklet "More Month Than Money" at my website that helps with grocery budgeting when finances are tight. I hope no one minds my mentioning that here -- but it might be of use to you. It's a free PDF download.

 

Thanks, Tracy. I'll check it out. I'm going to read through your site later today.

 

My situation is further compounded by the problem that we have food allergies- can't have gluten flour or dairy. So everything with flour in it I have to convert to being gluten-free, and it's just not cut and dried. I'm a master gluten-free baker and I write cookbooks for a living and I still struggle with it from time to time!

 

We also have to rotate our foods to help avoid more food allergies, so I can't serve the same thing every morning for breakfast, for example.

 

I think one thing I do need to do is to start serving home-made bread with soup. But each loaf has six eggs in it.

 

I'm so thankful for my food storage right now. I can't imagine how hard this would be, especially with the allergies, if I didn't have that, since we can't eat most things that food banks carry.

[Tracy R]

We, too, struggle with food allergies. Luckily, they're not life-threatening, and there are no issues with gluten here! I don't know what I'd do if there were!

 

I don't know what your specific allergies are, but there are some substitutions you can make for eggs --- not for ALL of the eggs in a recipe, typically, but some. A tablespoon of flaxseed, crushed, can be substituted for each egg up to 1/2 of the eggs called for with good results. So can applesauce, but I'm not sure of the ratio -- I think it's 1/2 cup per egg and adjust your liquids accordingly.

 

If you have issues with gluten, then you're probably going to have problems with oatmeal, if my memory serves me correctly. You could try rice pudding as a healthy, inexpensive breakfast alternative. Do you grind your own flour? Rice flour is pretty expensive, at least here, but you can still buy rice at a reasonable price, and grind it yourself if you have a grinder.

 

Most of what I feed my family is from basic sources (so I know for sure what is in them and that they're not going to set off DS's allergies because of undeclared ingredients) with basic recipes that I adapt for variety. A great side-effect is that this way of eating is a LOT less expensive.