I go shopping twice a week now and have my budget down to $20 or so a week. Granted, I’m only feeding myself, but at least I have a better idea of what I want to eat and have energy to cook that night. Although I’ve found myself having to choose between shopping or cooking–without the energy for both.

I wish I has the luxury of buying processed food. It all has too much stuff that makes me sick to eat.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05mar14c.cfm

I’ve noticed grocery stores tend to have “sales” on expensive cuts of meat that my family simply cannot afford; we tend to buy ground beef and turkey, salmon, whole chicken or chicken breasts, pork chops and, from time to time, kielbasa and bacon. If shopped strickly “sales” I’d have to buy cuts of meat that are $6/lb. The things I buy you usually only get one or two of those on sale every week. But if I find a true sale on something we use, I stock up for the weeks ahead when there will be no sale. For example, I recently bought individually frozen, skinless salmon fillets for $3.50/bag (1lb.). I bought 4 bags (the max allowed by the store and my freezer space) and that will last us about 8 meals. Since I know we eat salmon about once each week, this is about a 2 month supply.

Another method is to build a 2 or 3 month database of recipes you know you and your family will love. Just save your weekly meal plans and make sure to cross out any recipes you didn’t like. By the end you’ll know how much of each item you need for the main course and can build sides around seasonal produce. Let’s say you’ve got an 8-week supply of dinner ideas and you’ll be eating ground beef every week. (For easy math we’ll say 1lb. of ground beef every week.) Next time ground beef is on sale, buy 8 pounds and freeze in 1lb. packages. If you’re not repeating yourself on the 8-week (or 12 week, which is what I have) supply of dinner ideas, you won’t get bored, I promise you.

For instance right now my freezer contains lentil and barley soup, thai green chicken curry, chicken and vegetable soup,indian cauliflower and chickpea curry, cooked brown rice, homemade baked beans, black bean chillie, pea and ham soup, osso bucco, bolognaise sauce, all in single serve containers. Who needs takeaway with an assortment like that? Because there are only two of us in the house, I hate making just two or three serves of any soup, curry etc that takes long cooking time. Instead I tend to make anywhere from 8-12 serves at a time. Also as I am gluten intolerant, I don’t eat sandwiches for lunch. Instead I just take something out of the freezer the night before, leave it to thaw in the fridge and just reheat for lunch.

I personally have found a freezer to be a fantastic time and money saving idea, and this is just for two people. I can only imagine the savings for a family.

During the 10-month CSA season, I do it a little differently. I plan my meals around what fruits and veggies we got from the farm FIRST. (Example: we got lima beans – never had them before – so I found a recipe & need to add an ingredient to the shopping list). Then I see what produce is on sale (I usually need to buy 5-10 lbs more for our family of three).

Then I pencil in my meal plans. I usually have a fair bit of leftovers (2-3 nights), and one “easy” night (pasta, grilled cheese) because sometimes the leftovers last longer than I am expecting.

I also second (third?) the idea of making substitutions based on what you have. This is where you need practice practice on figuring out what will work.

Ryan-making more money is good, but saving money is sometimes more effective. You have to earn $1.50 to take home $1, so saving $50 on your groceries is actually like taking home $75. If you do enough stuff like that, the savings are significant.

I guess we just need to plan out or “quick meals” better for those nights we both work.