Grocery Mama's Blog (8)

The most expensive part of my grocery budget is the meat. While I do try and go meatless from time to time, my husband enjoys seeing meat on his plate. So, I try and stretch our meat dishes as far as they can go. A good way to do this is to add non meat ingredients to your meals. Ingredients such as beans, vegetables, lettuce, rice, noodles and others can make your main meat go much farther. For instance, last night we made steak salad. I actually had less than 1 lb of steak for four people. B… Continue

I make up a detailed list before I go grocery shopping. I mark which item I have a coupon for, so I know to pull it out before I get to the register. My list includes the brand name (even if it's the store brand) and how many I'm going to buy. I usually do the grocery shopping, but it just so happened that last night my husband got to go instead. I handed him the list and a stack of coupons and off he went. Now, shivers run down my spine as I have flash backs of when he used to go grocery shop… Continue

I read an interesting article in Sunday’s Parade Magazine. It highlighted the amount of food that went to waste in grocery stores and that the consumer was paying for that waste. According to the article, grocers waste around $20 billion of food each year. Combined with what we throw away in our homes, experts think that annual number is closer to $48 billion. Some stores are beginning composting p… Continue

One of the first keep steps in creating a financial budget is to track where your money is going. Once you understand where you are spending your money, you can decide if it’s necessary and if there is someplace you can cut back. Grocery budgets are the same way, you have so much money each time and you need to buy the food your family needs. But are there food areas you are spending too much? Can you cut back? The first thing to do is keep a few weeks of grocery receipts. After each trip make… Continue

You guessed it, I’m a coupon clipper! It’s fun for me to see what I can save. Because I love saving money so much, I try to help others do the same. Whenever I come across coupons that relate to cat food, I clip them out. I don’t have a cat – but my sister does. I had three coupons for her that allowed her to get $6 worth of free cat food! It took me a few extra seconds and saved her some cash. You could take this idea one step farther by organizing a Coupon Exchange group with your friends. F… Continue

Ice cream is a staple at our house. It’s mostly for my hubby. He loves it. And thanks to his amazing metabolism, he can eat half a gallon a night and still loose weight! His favorite is Breyers. His current favorite is the Twix flavor, and I agree its super good. (Yes, I sneak in a spoonful or two or three . . .) The thing is, Breyers retails for about $6.59 a half gallon. Since he goes through a gallon a week that would be $13.18 out of our grocery budget. Now, I love my husband but that is w… Continue

Have you ever sat down and calculated the cost to make something versus buy it. Or how much each meal comes too? It’s one of the tricks of the trade when it comes to saving money at the grocery store. If it costs more to make it – buy it. If you can make it for less – do! Here are some basic ingredients and about the cost per serving or measurement. Bag of Flour: There are about 4.5 cups in each pound of flour. If you buy a 5lb bag, that’s 22.5 cups of flour. Do the math. If you spend 1… Continue

I love summer time. One of my favorite parts of it is getting together with friends for a BBQ. Summer cookouts are fantastic memory makers. Good times, good friends and even better food! If you know you have a cookout coming up, plan for it in your weekly menus. Pick a side dish or dessert and plan out the ingredients. Use what’s on sale, especially the veggies. One thing cook outs are known for is those impromptu get togethers. This could cause a frantic journey to the grocery store AND too m… Continue