How We Cut Our Food Bill

A few years ago when Kevin and I became serious about our finances, setting a budget, reducing our debt, and living within our means, I put together a couple of documents about how we choose to save money. A few years ago I did the post How I Reduced My Energy Bill so that friends could reference some of the things we had done. Recently, budgeting and finance have become a hot topic in our circle of friends and one asked for the document I put together about reducing our food bill. So here is the information, posted to the web so we can spread the love.

Disclaimers

1. We are a family of four with two preschoolers. At this time, we are not feeding teenagers. While I feel like the little monsters eat contantly, I know teenagers are another ball game. However, we share food; we have people over often, we take meals to families, we go to potlucks and parties.
2. I am a full-time home maker. It is my full-time job to stretch our dollars (and often pennies.) When both parents work outside of the home, they are forced to pay for many conveniences that I have the luxury to avoid. Currently, I have time to prepare meals at some point during the day for us to eat that evening. I have time to make things like bread and cookies from scratch.
3. Many of the things I do may not work for every family. However, shopping smarter is the main point.
4. We don't eat solely organic, but try to avoid the dirty dozen. On our journey to eat real food, it was more important to me to start eating fresher foods than organic and grass fed. Organic is better, but more expensive. We buy very little packaged/processed/canned food.
5. I believe in natural, unprocessed foods including limited whole grains and beans. Boxed mac and cheese is cheap, but not worth the price for your health. I use real butter, uncured meats, whole fat dairy, and many other things people often avoid.

General Notes

1. First, we stopped eating out. If we do eat out, which is rare, we split a meal. Not only is this cheaper, but it's better on our waistline. Meals at restaurants are too big and often not very healthy. We skip the special beverage and drink water. Our typical splurges include Chipotle and In-n-Out.
2. We always pack lunches. Kevin takes a lunch to work everyday, never wasting leftovers. If the kids and I are going to be out for any length of time, we take a meal and and/or snacks. Trips to the zoo, the park, road trips, the drive-in, etc. Food out is over priced and highly processed.
3. I do a big shopping trip every two weeks and doing a midweek run out to pick up things we need or are on sale. I plan at least 8 cooked meals every two weeks. I don't cook every night. We eat leftovers or I make leftovers into another meal. For example; on Tuesday we had roast beef with vegetables. On Wednesday we had barley stew with the leftover beef. If we aren’t going to get to the leftovers, they often end up in the freezer, not the trash. Don’t over buy fresh items; you’ll end up throwing them out.
4. Plan meals based on what you have that needs to be used up, or is on sale. Check your freezer and pantry. Avoid planning meals based on what you have a craving for; the items may not be on sale or even in season. I try to make sure every dinner has a protein and two vegetables.
5. You pay for convenience. This isn't a bad thing, as long as you are aware of it. Be aware of the things that could take just a few more minutes that you can save on.
6. I make a lot of things we eat from scratch; bread, cookies, granola, chicken broth, hummus, pizza. You don't have to go to this extreme, but be aware of what you buy that is conveniently packaged. Frozen meals are rarely healthy. Chips and crackers can be put into Ziplock bags. A 100 calorie pack is never as healthy as an apple. Cookies can be made in a bar pan and cut in squares saving time. A pot of oatmeal for the family only takes a few minutes more than 4 individual bags of instant oatmeal. Additionally a large pot can be made on Sunday and individual bowls reheated throughout the week.
7. I freeze just about everything; leftovers, broth, casseroles, ceans, meat, bread, fresh lemon juice, cookies, waffles, fruit and some vegetables that are in season, grated cheese, pizza dough, half jars of marinara sauce, buttermilk. I often double a recipe and freeze half. This is especially good for nights you know you won't have time (or energy) to cook.
8. I watch printed advertisements at grocery stores but stick to the ones that are on my typical routes. I don’t have time/energy/gas to shop multiple grocery stores each week. Winco is out of my way but worth the drive twice a month. I stock up when things are an amazing deal, often freezing or canning extra.
9. I clip coupons, but I don’t go to extremes. I use the coupons on things I would normally buy and try to use them when things are on sale. 
10. I do my primary shopping at Winco. First, their prices are extremely lower for often the same brand I purchase at large chains. Second, I buy a lot from the bulk bins. I have to have my own storage containers but I save hundreds by avoiding paying for the packaging.
11. We pay the warehouse membership. For us, the amount we save is worth the price of the membership. I get a lot of our food at Sam's club; milk, butter, eggs, cheese, fruit, veggies, meat and fish.
12. I carry my own reusable bags. Many stores offer a discount for each one. It adds up. I also think it's better for the environment.

Poultry and Meat

1. I stopped buying (as much) boneless/skinless chicken breasts. We make casseroles, enchiladas, salads, etc. and boneless/skinless is very expensive. I buy whole chickens at the grocery store when they go on sale and freeze them. I cook the whole chicken in the crock-pot with onion, carrots, garlic, and celery. After pulling all of the chicken off, I throw the carcass and skin back in the pot, add some water, and cook it for about 12 more hours. I strain it all and freeze the stock in 2 cup measurements. I use the stock to cook rice, put in soups, and many other recipes. Sometimes, for convenience, I buy a rotisserie chicken for dinner. I often freeze the carcas until I can throw it in the crock pot to make stock. I also keep a container in my freezer of kitchen scraps to cook with the carcas; tops of onions, celery, and carrots.
2. For grilling and roasting I buy bone-in split chicken breasts. They are more work, but worth the price.
3. I rarely buy lunch meat. We eat leftovers for lunch. It's cheaper and I rarely waste food. If I do buy lunch meat (on sale and with a coupon) I freeze half to make sure it doesn't spoill.
4. When eating/cooking bacon, I always cook the whole pound and freeze what we don't/shouldn't eat. Half strips can be pulled out and chopped for salads, pizza, or other recipes as needed. A little bacon flavor goes a long way. I also save the fat from my uncured bacon. I keep a jar in the frige and add strained fat to the jar in the freezer. When the jar in the fridge is empty, I move the jar from the freezer and start a new one for the freezer. I use bacon fat in anything where I would normally use butter or oil but want more flavor; pancakes, waffles, biscuits, quiche crust, eggs, roasted potatoes.
5. When turkeys were super cheap at Thanksgiving, I bought two extra. Turkey isn't my favorite, but I don't mind it in casseroles and enchiladas. I usually stock up on corned beef in March when it is cheap

Breads/Grains/Dry Goods

1. I buy from the bulk bins and probably cut my grocery bill in half. I have to provide my own storage containers but I save hundreds by avoiding paying for the packaging; flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, baking chips, corn meal, salt, spices, pasta, beans, rice, oatmeal, cold cereal, dried fruit, nuts, honey.
2. My mom gave me a bread machine and I started making my own breads; sandwich bread, dinner rolls, breakfast breads, etc. I usually freeze half of it for another time. There are no preservatives in the fresh bread and it doesn't last as long as store bought.
3. I make pizza dough at least twice a month. I have a lot of recipes that call for pizza dough. If I don't make 2 pizzas (which I usually do so we can have leftovers) I freeze half of the dough. We haven't bought pizza (fresh or frozen) in over a year.
4. I make my own granola bars. Less sugar. No preservatives. Cheaper.
5. I make granola. I use this recipe as a start but usually add more nuts (whichever ones I have on hand) and ground flax seed. Kevin likes it on yogurt, I like it with milk.
6. I buy fiesta or family packs of flour tortillas and freeze them in smaller portions to pull out as we want them.
7. I started soaking and cooking my own beans. They are high in protein and fiber. I can cook up as much as I want and they freeze well in the bean broth. I can pull out frozen beans to put in soups or on salads. I make my own refried beans and freeze them or make burritos to freeze for lunches when there aren't any leftovers. I make my own hummus. We sometimes add beans to ground meat to stretch the meal.
8. Boxed rice mixes appear to be cheap but when you have your stock you made from chicken bones and some chopped onion you store in the freezer, it's healthier and cheaper to make from scratch and takes the same amount of time. Reduce some of the broth and add salsa for a Mexican flavor.

Dairy/Eggs/Refrigerated Goods

1. I buy 2 pound blocks of cheese to last me two weeks. To prevent cheese from molding, don't touch it; pull the wrapper back little by little. Avoid grating from the block; cut off what you want grate. If your cheese does get a little powdery-white in places, just cut it off; don't throw out the whole block! Trust me; the mold taste will not spread like it does on other foods. Cheese is an aged food and has quite a long shelf life if unopened. It's the exposure to air and other surfaces that cause it to mold. Taking the time to grate your own cheese saves a lot of money, and doesn't have the additives that shredded cheese does. Seriously, read the ingredient list on shredded cheese. If you are lucky, it will be potato starch instead of cellulose. Once grated, cheese freezes very well. I buy the 5 pound block of mozzerella and grate the entire thing using a shredder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I freeze it in gallon size ziplock bags to use for pizza.
2. I buy 32 ounce containers of yogurt instead of individual containers. This is especially helpful for Littles who don't eat the entire container of an individual serving. If I want to take some with me, I put it in a travel container. I often buy plain yogurt. I can flavor it with fresh fruit or jam or use it to replace sour cream. I have made yogurt, but prefer the convenience of the store bought.
3. I make my own dips and salad dressing. Huge savings and less preservatives.
4. I buy 36 eggs. I often make a quiche, baked egg dish or large pan of scrambled eggs for Kevin to eat on during the week.  These store well in the refrigerator or freezer and reheat easily. They are great for a breakfast on the go or a high protein lunch.
5. I make my own biscuits; it’s really just flour, baking powder, salt, and milk. I just drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Much cheaper and healthier than Pillsbury.
6. Refrigerated cookie dough has a huge mark up. You can freeze unbaked dough; you don't even have to roll out little balls like they do on Pinterest. You can freeze a large chunk and thaw in the refridgerator.
7. I make cinnamon rolls using my bread machine and freeze half a batch for a later use.
8. We stopped using flavored coffee creamers. Not only are these filled with tons of ingredients I can't pronounce, they aren't cheap. We use good 'ol half and half which costs about a $1 for the pint and some raw sugar.
9. I buy a small block of feta (or other soft stinky cheese) and crumble it myself instead of buying it already crumbled saving money and avoiding added "anti-caking" incredients.

Produce

1. Heads of lettuce are cheaper than bag/box mixes and last a lot longer in the crisper.
2. I started a garden this year. I tried very hard to use all of the tomatoes without wasting them. Besides fresh salsa, tomato pies, salads and more, I made spaghetti sauce and froze it and canned 12 jars of crushed tomatoes. I have only done this once, but maybe again next summer.
3. I find it better to under-buy produce and head to the store again later, than to over buy and throw food out. This most often happens with produce. If you plan meals before or while you shop you will be less likely to over buy.
4. Carrots keep for a long time in the crisper. Because I typically grocery shop every two weeks, the carrots allow for a fresh vegetable at the end of the shopping period. Additionally, carrots in bulk are a lot cheaper (often less than a dollar a pound,) than peeled and ready to eat. I peel and cut carrots into sticks and store in an air tight container to munch or bag up for lunches.
5. Buy produce that is in season. Here in sunny Southern California, we grow a lot of produce year round and prices of some things don't usually change but by a couple of pennies; lettuce, summer squash, broccoli, bananas, potatoes, onions. But some do; most of your fruit, corn, tomatoes, avocados, winter squash. When at all possible stock up/freeze/can the seasonal. I buy double of needed berries when they go on sale. We eat half and I freeze half for later. Lily loves to eat blue berries and sliced strawberries right out of the freezer. Great for smoothies or baking. Free is always better, but when pears were 3 pounds for a dollar I bought a bunch to make jam and to can. Now that fresh pear prices have gone back up, I pull a jar from the pantry to eat. Canning does take time, but is very easy. I made applesauce when apples were on sale in the fall. When corn was 5 to 10 cents an ear, I bought a bunch, cooked it, removed the kernels from the ears, and froze them in quart size bags. We throw it in soup, chowder, salad, corn bread, and corn cakes.
6. I stopped buying prepared or processed potato products. Potatoes can be cooked in the microwave, oven, Crockpot, or boiled. Frozen potatoes are very over-priced. A 5 pound bag of Russet potatoes at Winco is less than $1.50.
7. When chopping onions, I chop extra, place a thin layer and freeze in a ziplock. If I need just a little bit of onion for a recipe, I can break off a section from the frozen square.
8. If it's free, I will find a way to use it. My mother-in-law gave me a lot of lemons a few summers ago. What I didn't use, I juiced and froze the juice in 1 cup increments (mostly for lemonade) and ice cube trays for smaller amounts.
9. When the bananas have turned brown and no one will eat them, I peel them and stick them in a freezer bag to pull out later for breads, muffins, pancakes, smoothies etc.
10. Because I shop for 2 weeks at a time, we often eat fresh the first week and frozen the second week. Other fresh vegetables that last until the second week are carrots, sweet potatoes, and fall/winter squash.

Beverages

1. Alcohol is a rarity saved for special occasions typically with guests.
2. Soda is also a rare treat, usually bought in 2 liter bottle so that when it is gone, we don't just go open another can.
3. We drink water. It's good for you. We drink Brita at home and buy pre-packaged bottles for on the go. We try to fill up our reusable bottles.
4. We occasionally drink iced tea or homemade lemonade from those free lemons from my mother-in-law.
5. I hardly ever buy juice. It has a lot of sugar. Even natural sugars in fruit is still sugar.
6. I do occasionally buy a Starbucks beverage with my allowance (or a gift card,) but it is rare. We splurge and buy K-cups for the Keurig since Kevin leaves the house two hours before I even get up.

Snacks

1. We are trying to purchase less and less pre-packaged foods as they are not as healthy and can be expensive. However, as much as I have replaced snacks with nuts, fruit, and some veggies, my kids love crackers. I have found that many store brands taste (almost) the same as the name brand. Except Goldfish . . . no one seems to have mastered the copy of that recipe. However, I often buy the family size and rarely an individual size unless traveling.
2. I try to keep fruit that can be picked up to go quickly; bananas, apples, and oranges.I keep snack veggies like bell peppers, carrots, blanched asparagus, and sugar snap peas chopped and easy to grab or bag up for on the go.
3. I buy snack bags to hold nuts and dried fruit and make up my own trail mix.
4. We pop our own popcorn. Our favorite topping is brown sugar dissolved in butter with a dash of cinnamon. Garlic salt is another favorite.

June 20, 2014

Wow, I used to have a blog. In fact, everyone I knew had a blog. But in the age of status updates, Twitter feeds, and Instagram, no one takes the time to write much any more. And now that I haven't written in almost two years, people likely aren't following me. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. As far as I can tell, my family loved reading updates and seeing pictures. I didn't ever really write anything profound. Yet, I find myself today, nostalgic and reading past posts. I liked reading what was happening around me and even wishing I had written what I was truly thinking. I'm not sure how many more posts will be coming this way, but I have a feeling I will be posting more often. Maybe I'll get up a routine enough so that family in other states and such can see what is going on. Time will tell.

September 2012

Somehow I missed all of September. There was nothing major going on last month and yet it felt busier than most of my summer. I thought this would be the month to start a weekly routine with Lily, but that was a bit of a joke. Each week seems to be varired from one to the next. We find weekly routine difficult. I had dreams of doing the crafts every Monday and shopping every Tuesday and the library every Wednesday. Even the scheduled library time was missed when visitors came over or Lily got sick.

We have embraced trying something new each week. With Lily turning 2, her attention span has grown, and we have really begun to enjoy doing new things together. Play dough was new. Too cheap, or lazy rather, to go out and buy playdough, I made some during nap time one day.  

Poor thing had never played with play dough before. She had a great time. She does prefer that I make things and then she can smash them. And of course there is the constant "on the tray, not in your mouth."

And one of the things I find the most odd is that she smells the dough every time and says, "Mmm, smells good."

We have been visiting the library a lot more. We don't always make it to story time, but we bring books home each week.

September was pretty hot here. In fact, it's still hot. Our outdoor play time was usually right after breakfast. This means we were often still in our jammies.

Another big change is the amount of pretend play Lily is doing. She has always been into baby dolls, but we have added dressing up and talking on the phone.

Lily has often put everything from the television remote to my car keys to her ear and said hello, but she has moved on to full conversations. You may not always be able to understand her, but she is having a conversation. Every day she asks to call someone new. She doesn't quite understand the concept of waiting for someone to say hello before talking and still makes motions as if the person on the line can see her. All in all, she is a hoot on the phone.

August 2012

August can be summed up in one word; HOT! It was hot in Virginia and even hotter in Riverside.

Lily didn't even wait to change before climbing in the pool. Puppies, too. But then again, if the hose is on, the boys will be there.
We turned the car seat forward this month. (The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests leaving children rear facing until 2 or older.) But man, she likes looking out the window.

She has also started role playing more and pretending a lot more. I have had more pretend cups of tea this month than in my entire life. She has also started the "Mommy? Game" in which she asks for me and I answer and she asks for me again. Repeatedly. The other day, when I stopped answered her for the umpteenth time, she started playing the game with Dolly; not to be confused with Beebee. She was ask "Dolly?" and answer "What?" all by herself.


We had one cooler week in August where we had some morning cloud cover and were able to head to the park before it got too hot. She is just now enjoying these baby safety swings. Although, I am starting to miss her wanting to sit on my lap to swing.

However, the slides still remain a favorite.

Baby Austin Keys was born in July, and Lily already adores him. Occasionally, we let her and her cousins hold Austin (or as Lily calls him, Boston) using the Boppy pillow. She now uses the Boppy to hold all of her dolls. She pulls the pillow up, places a doll or two on the pillow, and starts ooing and awing over the baby and giving out the sweetest kisses.

August also marked Lily's second birthday. We didn't throw a party but instead got with different groups of cousins to celebrate. Here she is hanging out with the Vizon cousins opening gifts from the Vizons, Grandpa and Grandma Atkinson, and Mommy and Daddy.

She adores all of her cousins and now knows which ones belong to which family. She knows sibling sets and which Auntie goes with which. It's really a lot of fun.

August was busy but we have already hit the ground running with September!

D.C. and Nationals Baseball

While we were in Virginia, we headed into D.C. for an afternoon/evening. We picked up the Metro train outside D.C. so we didn't have to drive, or pay to park, in the city. Best decision ever!It was Lily's first train ride, but Kevin and I are old pros. (Not really, we downloaded a map to keep with us, but we never did get lost.)

We walked around the American History Museum for a while and then headed out to the Mall for a little lunch.


It was pretty hot. The last time we were there we practically froze but I think I would chose the cold wind over the humid heat.

After lunch, and to beat the heat, we headed back into the museum.
There were quite a few hands-on exhibits that Lily could enjoy.



After the museum we headed over to a Nationals baseball game.

It was Lily's first ballgame and she was a trooper!

Hopefully this is one of the last times you see Beebee out of the house . . .

She loves her Daddy.


And she picks on Mommy . . .
Wonderful time!