Welcome to Dana's blog!

My grocery bill

How do I do it? I spent $1917.76 for the year. That's a family of 4 (and my boys out eat me!).

We keep our expenses on MS Money (it came free w/the computer afterall!LOL) so it's easy to track. We pay w/almost everything thru the checkbook, but you can set up cash acct to track if you spend that way as well.

We get 2 pigs every year to feed out. The cost of butchering one pays for the butchering of the other so we only are out feed. They eat ALL garden scraps! And any other (non-pork--we don't want canibalistis pigs!LOL No really, we do it for health reasons) food garbage. Pigs are not picky eaters. Also their manure is great for the garden. We figure it averages about .10-.15/lb for our pork.

Which leads me to point #2--the garden. We do some preserving. Well, I guess more than most. I never buy jelly (for personal use--I do for the food pantry) or any tomato product. We get enuf out of the garden to save probably $1000-1500 worth of food between canning, freezing and just eating. Beets are something I have no desire to can again, but we plant them and eat them all. By the time they are done, we are done w/them!LOL We also grow potatoes (red, yukon and blue! Not totally patriotic but.....LOL), corn, popcorn, peppers, peas, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe and I can't think of it all! Oh lettuce and spinach. I'm sure there is more that escapes me. 

Honestly, if you just eat from what you grow, you still save a TON of money!

Item #3: Aldi. I know it has it's downfalls, but for the most part, what little I buy, I can get at excellent prices.

Item #4: A bulk foodstore. I buy 7 grain flour in whatever amt I want (they are great). They run cheese specials that we order from. If it's too big of a quantity, I can usually find someone to split it w/ (and the cost!LOL).

Item #5: I find that most ppl have a great handle on their meals. It's the other stuff that they dont' necessarily think about. We drink WATER. No milk, no juice, not much of anythign else (I do have a wretched capuccino love, but I buy powdered and doctor it w/liquid creamer and if I'm feeling particularly joyous, a HUGE mound of Rediwhip!ROTFL!) and hot herbal tea in the winter (if I can get it cheap enuf). Dh drinks "diet" (don't get me started on the horrors of that, but he's a grown man and it comes out of his allowance!). But 95% of it is water. We purchased an RO (reverse osmosis) system when Mat was 3 months old. He's now 10. That thing has MORE than paid for itself! We all have our own water bottle that we refill.

SNACKS are the other thing. What do you snack on? Here, it's usually fruit and crackers. Sometimes cheese, but mainly fruit and crackers. The crackers aren't the greatest, but I haven't gone on the warpath of purging them yet.;)

We do have occasional splurges (foodwise) and eat well most of hte time. Feel free to puruse my Weekly Menu to see how we eat. I may not list ALL the food, but I do at least list the entrees!LOL

Untitled Comment

07:53, 2008-Jan-15 .. Posted by gabbie427

Wow. Thanks for explaining all the ins and outs of how your family does this. I am still impressed and definately inspired!!! Thanks for all the tips!

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo

Wonderful tips

06:07, 2008-Jan-16 .. Posted by momma25js

Thank you for sharing them. We get a half of beef every year as part of our christmas from my parents.. They raise it, feed it and etc and we pay like 125 bucks to have it processed and my dad grows a huge garden and we get stuff from him all the time.. You go girl.
God Bless,
Marcia