(This is part 3 of a series on how our newlywed grocery budget of $25/week actually worked. If you missed them, you can go back and read part 1 and part 2.)
Everyone knows living on a budget isn’t easy. You have to say no yourself a lot. When we had a $25/week, I learned to not only say no, but to look at the budget as a fun challenge instead of a straight jacket.
It seemed like everyone could afford so much more than we could. Other people could run by the store and buy a couple cans of spaghetti sauce without meticulously weighing how it would effect the rest of their food that week.
Once, I borrowed an ice cream maker from my in-laws so I could make dessert for the dinner we’d share with them later. Unfortunately, I ran out of ice and didn’t have the money to just pick up an extra bag. We sheepishly carted the sloshy milk mixture to their house, and they let us raid their freezer so we could finish that night’s dessert.
Sometimes things are just that tight. It’s not that we didn’t want to buy the bag of ice (although I still rarely justify buying frozen water). It’s not like we wanted to raid our parent’s freezer and delay dessert by two hours so the ice cream had time to harden.
Thankfully, they had gone through their own lean times and understood our situation. I’m so grateful for their stories. I’m also thankful for the resources online that helped show me we weren’t alone. They showed me that I could look at our tight budget as a fun challenge rather than a set of handcuffs.
While it was still really hard – and honestly, periodically embarrassing – I learned to roll up my sleeves, learn whatever I could about saving money, and figure out what worked for us.
Coupons
In the early days of our marriage, I started pouring over a blog that many of you are probably already familiar with: Money Saving Mom. During the early days, she routinely wrote about her $35/week grocery and household budget, posting photos and tutorials about her shopping trips and how she managed to feed her growing family on such a small amount of money.
I was hooked. I read the blog constantly, trying to learn as much as I could about couponing and “the drugstore game” – two areas of shopping that I knew very little about.
But it didn’t really work for me. There were a lot of reasons why, and many of them had to do with our own personal choices at the time.
For example, my husband is very brand loyal when it comes to household products and toiletries. While there was some appeal to being able to stock up on several weeks of super cheap hair products of various brands, we knew that we wouldn’t enjoy using them. We had enough money in our tiny budget to buy a very minimalist pile of products, and it worked for us.
When it came to food, Chris and I preferred our simple, basic menu to stocking up on the kind of items that routinely had coupons. I was also very hesitant about diving into the whole process, so I chose to stick with the shopping and cooking routine that I was used to.
In retrospect, I think it would’ve been great to try it out and become proficient in couponing. However, now I can say that it is possible to eat super cheap without relying on couponing or the drugstore game. I’m also positive that our diet was significantly healthier thanks to the lack of processed foods that would’ve inevitably ended up in our cupboards.
Health
Shopping with coupons doesn’t mean you’ll end up eating tons of junk food. I know there are plenty of coupons out there for health food products or less processed foods, or even staples like cheese and fruit!
However, we lived in a town with many stores and sales, so I eventually learned that for my situation, shopping the sales and markdowns saved me more money than the coupons I had available to me.
I made a list of the whole foods that I wanted in our diet: fresh produce, whole grains, basic cheese and dairy products, basic minimally-processed meats, the bare minimum of baking ingredients, and a few snacks and sweets.
A few key stores and resources helped me accomplish this, and while we wouldn’t win an award for being the healthiest eaters in town, I think we did a pretty good job.
Bargain Shopping
I was a pretty meticulous, ruthless shopper. With $25 a week, I had to be. We splurged on very little, I only bought food I knew we would eat before it went bad, and I shopped at several different stores to get the best prices I could find.
Like I said last week, I was bringing home boxes of slightly bruised and overripe fruits and vegetables from my part time job at the produce stand. So that basically took care of the fruit and veggies department.
For whole grains, I used a lot of the methods I shared in my post about frugally eating whole grains without a grain mill.
Aldi saved me when it came to kitchen staples. I discovered Aldi through the blogs that kept mentioning this fabulous little discount grocery store chain. A quick internet search showed me one a few minutes from our house, and it stretched our budget beautifully.
Our local Gerbes had fantastic manager’s specials in meat and dairy products, so I bought most of these things here. Meanwhile, we found a local connection where we could purchase fresh eggs from free range chickens for $1.50/dozen.
We had one car between the two of us, juggling several jobs with various schedules, so working in the bargain shopping could be tricky. However, we learned to streamline the process so that bargain shopping became an easy part of the routine and we could get the best prices for our food.
{The lid of my hope chest routinely doubled as a countertop}
Looking back, I know we could’ve done a lot of things differently. However, we did the best we could, and I’m extremely grateful for the ways this season stretched us. Buying a bag of ice probably wouldn’t throw off our whole budget now. But because we went through a time when it could, we learned to be creative and resourceful with what we have now.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
How did you shop during lean times? Did you coupon? Did you have any favorite stores?
Cheers,
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Barefeet In The Kitchen
07/29/2011 at 6:46 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I am enjoying this series so much, Steph. I’ll be honest and admit that our budget has never been as tight as $25 a week. However, having been much tighter in the past than we are now, it still makes me pause over many items that others might just toss into the cart.
I felt truly extravagant last week, when I splurged on fresh mozzarella AND a fresh basil plant! I’ve watched a friend, who has told me she is trying to cut back their grocery expenses, put together a fresh ranch dip using herbs from the store. I guarantee you that the two cups worth of dip ran her at least $25. (Do I even need to mention that I was horrified?)
There are plenty of things we can live without and finding the right balance for our own families is really what is important.
Steph
07/29/2011 at 6:57 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Barefeet in the Kitchen – Yeah, “cutting back” definitely has different definitions for each person. Right now for me that means trying to save a few dollars a week toward bulk purchases. When I end up with extra cash, I tend to party and buy a little splurge item, like Greek olives or pickles.
Michele
07/29/2011 at 9:21 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks so much for sharing. I’m loving these posts. I do use some coupons, but I tend to agree that sticking to basics saves far more money and is far more healthy. I do make a lot of my own cleaners though, just because I don’t wish to use harsh chemicals in my home. Aldi is a good 45 min. from our home, we live in a rural area. But we do buy produce from local farmers at an open air market in town. I also visit some of the farms that do packing and buy culls (peaches are big in GA, tomatoes, okra, etc.) and freeze or can what ever I can. A large box of peach culls is only $3, so I will get a couple, cut them up, flash freeze and then put into baggies for the big freezer for smoothies or cobblers. I’ve been married for almost 23 years now, so I don’t remember what our budget was in the beginning– haha, a sign of age I suppose.
Barefeet in the Kitchen– gasp $25 for two cups of dip!! I make my own Ranch, but if my herbs are not growing so well in the garden, I buy the super cheap dried ones in the store– dried herbs have more concentrated flavor so it takes less anyway.
Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy
07/30/2011 at 5:46 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Looking back at our married lives together, our early years were actually the “fattest” in terms of extra room in the budget. The first few months were tight because I was only working PT, but then I went back to my FT job for a couple years before we had kids. My grocery budget then was $40, and I bought a lot of stuff then that I can’t afford now (like mozzarella cheese, and cottage cheese, and other stuff like that). Two kids and two sets of food allergies later, and our slightly increased grocery budget (now $200-210/month) is the tightest it’s ever been. I am really being forced to prioritize, plan… and make sure we eat all the food before it goes bad!
Regarding coupons, I don’t do the coupon thing extensively, because you are right that much of it is not healthy. However, I’ve found that coupons can be useful, especially during coupon events like super doubles or triples. I always keep up with my coupons, even if a couple weeks will go by when I only use one or two. Coupons allow me both to save money on things I have to buy anyway (like So Delicious or Silk coconut milk, or certain brands of eggs) or splurge on special treats without breaking the budget (like dairy-free ice cream, etc.). I regard coupons as one tool in my grocery budget tool belt, but certainly not the only one.
And free range eggs for $1.50?!?! WOW! The cheapest here is just under $4.
Steph
07/31/2011 at 6:32 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Anne – Yeah, I realize now how spoiled I was with those amazing eggs! Huge blessing, because we ate a lot of them. You do a *fabulous* job working on a tight budget with all of the food allergies your family deals with. I’m thorughly impressed when I read about your allergen-free food that you manage to afford on your blog.
Elizabeth
07/30/2011 at 7:59 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
First of all, that is an adorable pic of you!
Secondly, this series has by far been the most applicable and helpful to me… and yes… downright inspiring. Thank you!
Ok, so, $25 a week was JUST food, right? Right now was are doing between 40-50 a week (and that makes me cringe, knowing you did it on half that!), but that includes any cleaning supplies, and personal care items. I just find it too difficult to try to separate those things. Even if I took those out, though, I doubt I would be at $25! Our budget also includes my husbands Pepsi, and I can get a month supply of that for $10.
I am TRYING to coupon, but I’m not up to speed on the extreme couponing stuff. i look through my parents Sunday paper, but, there are rarely coupons for whole food items. Where do you find coupons for things like fruit?! We hardly buy any processed stuff, but I feel that is ALL the coupons are for. Also, I don’t have a printer right now, so, I feel like I am letting a lot of good coupons slip away that way
I hear a lot about Aldi online… but have never heard of one around here. We have kroger, walmart, foodlion, and the farmers market. I buy things like flour, cereal, and anything canned at walmart, and then dairy, meat, and sale items at kroger. I buy our produce at the farmers market, but end up paying a much higher price for it.
Would you be willing to post an example of what a $25/wk shopping list looks like?
Steph
07/31/2011 at 6:49 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Elizabeth – Thanks so much forr te encouragement about this series! Yes, $25 is just food. I don’t remember what our household budget was… maybe $15/week? And that was for toilet paper, shampoo, freezer bags, everything like that. 40-50/week is still really impressive! Like I said, we had the benefit of getting free produce from my job and a few free meals from my in-laws every week, so that certainly helped keep our budget down.
I highly recommend looking up Money Saving Mom’s blog and her couon tutorials. I think she has a really balanced approach to coupons – not an extremem couponer, but gives you the tools to significantly decrease your budget by using coupons that work for you.
AS far as “whole foods” and coupons go, there are lots of health food products that have coupons, but most that I see are printables. Although Whole Foods Market has a monthly coupon booklet you can pick up in-store. Other staples you can find are things like frozen of steam fresh vegetables, eggs, and certain brands of clementines. Every now and then a coupon appears on the internet for cheese or milk. It really helps if you aren’t brand loyal or super picky about the ingredients in your food.
I finally decided that I could get a better savings for the return on my time by focusing on sales and making a few key things from sctratch – but that’s just what works for us right now.
You’re doing a great job! Don’t get discouraged. Everyone’s budget and grocery list is going to look a little different depending on what’s available to them and what they like to eat!
Brittany
08/01/2011 at 8:51 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Steph- I appreciate this series sooo much! My husband and I are currently trying to pay cash for the rest of his college career before we can get going on our Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball (yes, we’re cash converts as well!) Using your tips, we’ve been able to drop our grocery budget from $300/month to $200/month and we’re still finding ways to trip that even further! Thanks so much for all of the help and inspiration!
Steph
08/03/2011 at 6:00 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Brittany – WOW!!! You guys rock! Talk about “gazelle intense”
. Keep up the good work!
Jenifer Campbell
08/22/2011 at 9:42 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We use angelfood ministries, this helps cut our budget. I am afraid our budget is much higher for groceries. Although I am working on getting it down. Snacks take up a whole lot of the budget, I am not a snacker but my wonderful kids and awesome hubby are! Also soda is an expensive, luxury item my spouse insists on having. I guess it seems we’re not quite on the same page with prioritizing what’s a want v.s. need in the food category. Definately a work in progress!
The Cheapskate Cook » The Cheapskate’s Shopping Bag: Kroger, Trader Joes’s & Free Produce
09/16/2011 at 8:40 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] our series on on how our $25/week grocery budget actually worked, several of you asked for details on our current grocery habits. We don’t work with $25/week [...]