As soon as
it was official that I would be heading back to graduate school and instead of
bringing in a teacher's salary and benefits, I would be a full-time student,
paying for my own health insurance and tuition, it was decided: our budget needed to be simplified.
Part of the change we needed to make came in the form of our grocery bill. I love
natural, healthy, fresh food, and am usually willing to spend a little more on
it. However, I knew that our bill had to be cut significantly - we just
couldn't afford my former eating/grocery habits. At first, I went as
cheap as I could be at our chain grocery store - canned goods, casseroles that
would last us for almost the whole week, and lots of pasta. And that
worked, but it didn't satisfy my desire for at least some degree of freshness in our weekly eating.
That's when I decided to explore options other than the chain grocery store
closest by. I went to local stores, markets, and family-owned
shops. I learned that some are convenient, small, and even local, but not
cheap. Out of that exploring, I found two options that work really well
for us and met my three criteria -
- They offer fresh food,
- Have bulk dry options,
- And are significantly cheaper
and local.
For the most part, I now alternate my shopping between the
local farmer's market in our small city each week for great, fresh produce,
good bread for special occasions, and occasionally flowers or gifts; and doing
the bulk of our regular, everyday shopping at a small country grocery store in
a nearby town. Although it is about a 20 minute drive to and from, it is
worth it for the huge discount on prices we get. Because most of it is
from local Mennonite farms and bagged by the workers at the store, it is
offered at a very modest price. Also, they offer bulk dry goods, like
sugar, flour, oats, and spices at a great price that allow me to go longer
without needing to restock.
Each week, I plan what I will buy and then occasionally change only when I find
a better deal on something else. I stick to mostly the same produce
purchases each week (and the routineness does take getting used to...) because
I've found what works well for our budget.
Fruit:
I now purchase mostly apples and bananas for our fruit (because they are
cheapest) and occasionally berries from Costco. I split half of my
berries and often a few bananas and freeze them right away to use for smoothies
and oats.
Vegetables:
Over the summer, it was essential - and enjoyable! - for us to grow most of the
vegetables we ate in our city backyard garden. We grew tomatoes, kale,
squash, cucumbers, pumpkin, herbs, lettuce, carrots, and eggplant.
In the winter, it's a little harder. I either purchase lettuce and
squash from the farmer's market, or buy a mix of frozen vegetables in bulk to
stock our freezer and bagged spinach leaves, potatoes, carrots, or celery, and
occasionally tomatoes to use for BLTs (our favorite cheap, go-to meal on the
weekends).
Meat/Protein:
We rely mostly on chicken breasts to fulfill our meat cravings. We buy it
in bulk freezer packs at Costco, and take out as much as we need each time we
cook. This lasts us for at least a month or two. We usually rely on
gift cards to eat out to have steak or burgers.
I buy a lot of canned black, pinto, and white beans to use for protein in tacos,
chili, and black bean burgers. We also eat a lot more eggs than we used
to.
Other Items:
I buy 2 pks of eggs at a time to last us awhile, and buy locally cut and
packaged bacon and cold cuts for my husband. The cold cuts have been a
huge savings - I now pay about a third of what I used to pay!
So, what do we eat?
We eat a larger variety of things than I'd imagined we'd be able to, but we do
have a few stand-by favorites:
- chili (vegetarian) and
cornbread
- pot roast (with frozen venison
my husband's family gave us)
- quesadillas (with frozen
peppers, corn, and bbq chicken)
- BLTs
- chicken caesar salad
- baked potatoes
- grilled chicken w/ any
seasoning imaginable!
- healthy chicken casseroles
- egg and salsa wraps
- soup
Although is
has been a change for us to embrace shopping and eating frugally, it has been
one that we have learned from, continue to work on, and enjoy experimenting
with. I love the help and ideas I've gathered from the blogging community
on how to eat healthily and frugally on a budget. I've also sought advice
from our families, who have had to endure the effects of budget ups and downs
on their eating habits as they've experience life.
More to come on how we approach eating
out.....
