B & B Dreams

I purchased Crystal Paine's "Supermarket Savings 101" this week and am trying to save money on groceries.  I was not very successful my first attempt out, but I do not get the newspaper or sale ads, so I will start there.  I'm interested in how she gets most of her household products for free at CVS or Walgreens.  Looking forward to reading that chapter, as I can easily drop $100 or more every two weeks at WalMart for such things ($102.58 this trip, to be exact, but that included a couple extra purchases like a cheap MP3 player, a cheap stop watch, some barettes for my 6yodd, a clipboard and two belts for my teen son; would have been about $60 without those extras).  So, how to get dish detergent, hand soap, diapers and wipes, hair care products, etc. for free -- that is the question. 

Granted, we will never spend $35/week on groceries.  Crystal has only two small children and I've glanced and her menus and they eat quite differently than we do.  My dh has a whole range of health issues, so we try to eat more whole foods.  Though the kids don't really enjoy that, so I go easy on them at lunch when dh is gone.  So with a family of six, with four children including a growing-and-eating-alot-13yo (thank God for only 1 teenager right now!), to a 6yo, an almost 4yo and an almost 2yo -- what is a resonable budget?  I do usually plan menus -- two weeks at a time -- which I did and headed off to the store.  I spent about $200 between Aldi & Food 4 Less.  (BTW, Food 4 Less, at least ours, does not take internet coupons.  So I put back an item I had a coupon for.)  Aldi does not take coupons either.  And there is some produce that I have not been satisfied with at Aldi -- most notably their apples, so I get those at F4L.  In addition, I buy the more expensive, less fatty ground turkey at places other than Aldi.

My kids are not really sandwich eaters.  Only my 14yo will have a grilled turkey sandwich.  So lunches are difficult -- frozen or bagel or biscuit pizza, chicken tenders, leftovers from previous dinners.  Chicken tenders are rather expensive even at Aldi.  I did save on pizza this trip -- usually $1.99 ea at Aldi (which would be about 5/$10), on sale at F4L for 6/$10.  But caution -- not always a good deal.  I had to calculate this.  The Tony's pizzas on sale at F4L were smaller than the Aldi pizza.  It still came out cheaper, but that's something to watch.  I also saved $0.50 each on 3 gallons of milk at F4L.

My shopping this trip also included some extra items (plates, cups, hamburger buns, fruit salad fixings) for a cookout we are having tonight.  We have people over several times a month (once a month for a hymn sing and another guest here and there), so perhaps I should not be alarmed when we're even over $50/week.  A big blessing is that hubby is a chef -- and yes, I do cook, and no, he does not come home and cook every night! -- and he brings home leftovers.  Usually this is in the form of unused meat that was about to be tossed, so instead of burgers at tonight's family cookout, we're having grilled chicken, pork loin, and shrimp/other seafood.  Quite a blessing!  I'd like to say this cuts our grocery budget significantly -- however, we usually use this to enable us to practice hospitality, not for our nightly family dinners.  The seafood, especially, gets given as "gifts" as hubby is allergic, I don't care for it, and so we just never serve it for ourselves and the kids.  It does enable us to serve guests more than just spaghetti!

So my goals for this next two-week period is to finish a 4-week menu plan (ala Crystal and Sheri Graham, whose e-book is included in Crystal's package) -- see my Biblical Womanhood Affiliate Link for more info -- and to make a master shopping list off those menus.  I do have a master shopping list, but actually standardizing a weekly menu and listing them by weekly menu will prevent me spending extra time preparing a new menu every two weeks and looking up the recipes to put on the grocery list.  I like this idea a lot!  

My other goal for this week is to get a Sunday paper, and start learning coupon-clipping, ad shopping, and Crystal's secrets for shopping at CVS and Walgreens!

Who knows, in a couple months, I may have this all figured out and be saving significant money.  I hope.

Blessings,

Barb