Seeking local grocery budgeting tips and tricks...

10 for 10's at Kroger. Weekly specials/coupons via "The Fresh Market" email list.

Buy on sell, or buy one get one free specials. Buy in bulk and store or freeze.

Get a bushel or two of tomatoes this summer and can them. You could make a lot of meals over the fall/winter using them.

I have purchased all my staples from Aldi's for years. Get produce at farmers market when available, buy meat from IHM and only use grocery store for a few items.

I also can and freeze anything I can get my hands on when in season.

Our total grocery bill (for 2 seniors) is less than $200/month. And we are on special diets for a couple of health problems.

We went through a period of extreme belt-tightening some years ago. A few ideas:

• One area we found to save money was in maximizing leftovers: never let food go to waste. Sure, sometimes the leftovers are not tantalizing, but remind your family about the money involved.

• You are probably already making some use of generics and house brands, but continue to see if there are other name-brand items that can be substituted.

• Consider getting a part-time job in a restaurant or grocery store. Sometimes there are food items that for various reasons cannot be sold, but which are still edible. In the pizza business, we occasionally had pies made incorrectly that got cooked, and there were numerous occasions I fed my family with these errors.

• Be sure to look for the dinged-up can and clearance racks at grocery stores. Of course, check the packaging for signs that the food is still protected, but half-off a can of chili or soup can be some big savings over time. I bought some Fiber One the other day that was on clearance; the cereal was kind of forgettable, but at 75 percent off I don't mind choking down bowls of cereal that cost me about a buck a box.

• When possible, home-made products are almost always cheaper. Make French toast out of old bread instead of buying expensive products like Eggos. If you buy Spaghetti-Os or other pre-made pastas, consider cooking from scratch. However, making your own pasta with a pasta machine might turn out to be more expensive (it was for us).

• Find out who is offering free food at events around town and bring the kids. When I was an undergrad at UT I would keep my eyes open for groups offering food to get a turnout. I ate dozens of free meals over the years by going to political meetings, film showings, and workshops.

Oh, and gardening can be an inexpensive way to add fresh vegetables to meals at a very low cost. These days I plant few vegetables (going for the showy flower gardens) but over the past 10-12 years I am sure we saved thousands of dollars by growing our own tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, and so on.

In my experience, the food picture is dependent on one's work schedule and family commitments (for example, it's hard to get a home-cooked meal together while simultaneously driving kids to/from after-school activities).

Many grocery/budget tips assume that a person will buy dry beans, wash them, soak them the night before, and then simmer all day in a crockpot, or cook for an hour just before suppertime. Or get a big bag of cheap potatoes, wash, peel, trim, slice, and then start cooking them.

It might be helpful to know what kind of items you like to buy: brand-name cereal? Drink a lot of milk? Does your family like, or ignore, a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter? Do you serve chips regularly with meals, or keep them around for snacks? Not trying to be judgemental -- just wanting to identify your routines so you can maintain the same lifestyle.

Without knowing much about your preferences, I can say this: make coffee or tea at home and carry it in a thermos; cut back on soft drinks; try one meatless supper (and one meatless family lunch) per week. Do not buy anything from a vending machine and stay out of convenience stores.

Costco specifics: my grocery bill dropped about 20% after we joined --partially because I started getting cheap red wine there ;-). Buy big snack bags at Costco and split them up into portions you can take with you during the day. Get the 5-pack of romaine lettuce (in walk-in produce fridge) and serve enormous salads on hot summer nights. Buy the 3-pound packs of sliced cheese and make sandwiches. Their take-and-bake pizzas are often ridiculously cheap when they run a special. Canned tuna is sold in 6-packs; we make a lot of tuna melts and tuna salad for a fraction of what we used to pay.

I can also recommend a few visits to Aldi. Their stuff is really, really cheap and the quality of salad items, canned goods, candy, and snacks is very good.

jackie - what is IHM? (I am assuming a local meat store/butcher shop perhaps?)

In regard to meat, I have enough freezer space to buy meat from a local farmer (half or quarter cow, etc)...if anyone has any suggestions on a farm to contact, please let me know.

I know of a farm out in Archbold - we purchased meat there once through a friend who lives in that area (shared a half cow). It was good and reasonably priced, but if there's someplace closer I'd rather not have to drive all the way out to Archbold. :)

International House of Meats its a national chain of stores that are independantly owned. Lee Williams has a couple of them. They are in the Anderdersons as well. They generally have good prices and fair to good meats. my recomendations are,
Buy bulk and store, Try alternatives to national brands, Garden, Depends on size of family but pre-prepare large meals freeze half of it, use coupons and combine them when stuff is on sale.

+1 on gardening, buying in bulk at Costco, and Aldi's.

Plus I find a lot for people spend a TON of money on condiments and sauces that just sit in the fridge. They end up throwing them away after they go bad.

It might be helpful to know what kind of items you like to buy: brand-name cereal? Drink a lot of milk? Does your family like, or ignore, a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter? Do you serve chips regularly with meals, or keep them around for snacks? Not trying to be judgemental -- just wanting to identify your routines so you can maintain the same lifestyle.

We don't go through a lot of cereal, but when I do buy it I tend to stick with the store brand. (Kroger/Meijer, depending on where I shopped that week.)

Fresh fruit and veggies are a must. My whole family eats those regularly. (My dad usually plants a big garden in the summer, so I do get a lot of his overflow on veggies.)

I don't typically buy a lot of snack foods like chips or cookies - I can't eat it if they aren't in the house, right? :) But sometimes my husband picks them up because he and the kids get a craving.

I work full time during the week, but I sometimes try to do prep work and/or bulk cooking on the weekends to have portions to use and/or freeze throughout the week. (Need to be more consistent with doing that, because I do think it saves money. Sometimes the weekends get away from me though...eek!)

What would be a reasonable grocery budget for a family of 4 in this area?

I'm a little embarassed to admit that I don't even really know. I know that I probably waste money, that's for sure. (If I had to guess, we probably spend anywhere from $150-$200 a week now. It's hard to pinpoint based on past spending, because I know that the debits include some non-food items too.)

D'oh...I should have guessed! I thought perhaps it might be House of Meats, but I didn't know what the "I" stood for. (Didn't know International was part of the name.)

mom2

I remember when grocery stores only sold groceries. Other non food items were bought from the drug store. We also went to dairy to get milk. Thank goodness times have changed.

As a former working mother I know how hard it is to cook, feed, and run kids around. I did all my major cooking on Sunday afternoon and reheated up during the week. The temptation is to go for ready prepared foods and sometimes that is ok.

Now that I have all the time in the world to cook I have really lost interest. Open the freezer and what falls out is what we have for dinner according to my husband.

-Pretty sure it's not "International" House of Meats.....I think you're confusing it with IHOP :>)
-Definitely make Aldi part of your routine. Great prices(likely lower than specials at the big stores). Let me add, I've been shocked by the quality of their food. Quite good across the board. (lunch meats, canned goods, dairy, frozen foods, breakfast foods, snacks, even some produce-good stuff!) Highly reccommended.
-The Dollar Tree....specifically. Several new ones popping up in the area. Impressed by the cleanliness of the stores I've been in and everything is truly one dollar. (as opposed to some of the other "dollar" stores that somehow offer a wide range of pricing.)

Years ago I started compiling a list of all of the meals our family likes to eat. Probably around 40. It's really not that hard. I have them broken down into 2 categories, weekday meals (those that can be made in 1/2 hour or less) and weekend meals (those that take longer).I shop at Meijer for everything except laundry detergent and paper goods which I get at Costco. Before I head out, I look at my meal list and assign a meal for each day. I then jot down the items I need for those meals. I then use the weekly ad, and jot down any items that are on sale that I regularly use. I review my coupons (which I have in order by expiration date, which is easier to maintain-at the beginning of each month just toss out the expired ones)-I just clip coupons from the newspaper-I am not one of those mega couponers, but can usually save $5-$10/week. I don't buy anything that is not on my list. Meijer has MeijerPerks which is additonal coupons that you can go online and "clip" each week. You can use those in combination with a manufacturers coupon, which gets you the item for pennies or even free. I have shelves in my basement for dry goods. Within a few weeks of starting this, I got to a point where I very rarely have to buy anything that is not on sale. Most items I have in my basement, and if it's on the menu for that week, I have it. The next time I it's on sale, I buy 1 or 2 to replace.It may sound time consuming, but it's not. I can whip up a grocery list in less then 10 minutes. And when I jot down our meals (dinners) for the week, if we're having roast on Sunday, then on Tues/Wed we're having shrd bbq beef sandwhichs with the leftovers. Leftover taco meat can be thrown in with sloppy joes. Cooks.Com is a great place to look up how to cook items you don't know how to make. Another thing I do is buy a 3# pack of ground beef. We only use 1# at a time, so I repack the 3# bulk into 3-1# packs for the freezer. If you use a freezer bag, you can flatten it out so that it lays flat in your freezer, taking up less space, and thaws in no time. Good luck!

Your right there is no I in there its just House of Meats, I added international because they put in the I and I couldn't remember.

Mom2,

- I always respect people who take action. This will be a long response - sorry.

First, I would strongly recommend personal financial software such as the basic version of Quicken. If you prefer not to spend $30 bucks or so on that I would suggest creating a spreadsheet. My wife and I have used personal financial software for over 15 years. It is invaluable for guiding the personal financial ship. It is also extremely enlightening. To start with groceries are one of about 15 major expense categories for us so groceries are a great start but there are other considerations.

Automobile, Bills, Charitable Donations, Clothing, Dining Out, Gifts, Groceries, Healthcare, Household Expenses, Insurance, Leisure, personal Care (such as haircuts), Pet Care and food, Taxes and Vacation.
• In the last three years since we both retired we have contacted every place that bills us such as AT&T, Dish Network, Verizon and saved monstrous amounts – and those savings multiply month after month.

We enter every expense – 10 minutes per week or so… It is crucial.

In the last year groceries make up 18% of our expenses. Taxes account for nearly 42% of all of our expenses (and that does not include sales tax which we do not track so the number might actually be closer to 45%)

So the first suggestion is to begin tracking all expenses and see where your areas of the greatest concern are. It might take 3 months to see where trouble areas or areas for improvement are. It was through this process years ago that my wife and I discovered just how poorly we were managing our tax situation. Since then despite taxes accounting for 42% of expenses what we saved through modifications pays for our groceries 2 fold per year – but everyone’s areas for improvement are different.

Back to groceries. Changing a shopping pattern is an opportunity to not only save money but also purchase the most nutrition for your dollar and your body. Costco is Excellent! We purchased their 12 pound or organic rice and keep it in the refrigerator and make about 1.5 cups per week and keep it in Tupperware cooked in the fridge ready to reheat quickly and portion out. I make a very large batch of red beans and freeze it (without the rice) in 2 cup containers. Thaw, add rice. Substitute Ekrich Turkey Sausage and now you are eating delicious food which is also nutritious. Costco also sells Nina Italian Plum tomatoes in a 106 ounce can. This is perfect for making a large batch of spaghetti – again – freezing in two cup containers. What’s great about this is you do your cooking a few hours on Sundays and you are set for the week.

Costco sells Nabisco Graham Crackers in a 4 box case (they are on sale in a few weeks for about $6 for the 4 pack. We split the cracker in ½, spread peanut butter and place one on top. Make about a dozen of these and throw them in the freezer and you basically have homemade Nutter Butters. Avoid high priced Steak such as NY Strip and such. For a treat? Sure but when times are lean a family pack of ground meat broken up into 8 ounce portions and frozen in Glad bags is another great way to be ready to make meals. Just thaw one in the fridge the night before.

Buy in bulk – portion out. Try to avoid buying cheap food – in the long run it will have the same effect as putting cheap gas in your car. Costco has a nice big tub of Hummus – excellent for snacking.

Rules – We almost NEVER purchase items close to the register like candy bars. We have a monthly dining out budget that includes all fast food and we are religious about it. If we hit our budget amount with a week left in the month – no dining out for the week. Every time we pull out a wallet or purse we think about it – “Do I need to spend this $1 on bottled water?” Those little decisions add up.

Oh – Recommended book (you can find in the library and don’t have to buy it) – The Ultimate Cheapskate by Jeff Yeager. It’s made national headlines and he is from Sylvania OH.

If your throwing out leftovers maybe you need to create smaller recipes. Like Dannes is doing freeze small batches that can be reheated for meals. Could even make 2 serving size packages for when not everyone will be eating, or mix and match kids dont want what you having give them something else.

Thank you to everyone for the responses so far. I am sure they will be helpful to many people, not just just me.

I mostly started looking for ways to trim the grocery budget as one way to save up for something for next year. (A trip to attend a family event that wouldn't normally be within our budget.)

However, if all the tips become a habit, might as well just keep doing them. Better the money stay in my pocket and/or get used for other things, than to be forked over mindlessly to the grocery store, right? LOL

Depending on how comfortable you are in the kitchen, home made chicken soup is a very good way to stretch a buck.

1) Buy a few chickens, some onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and whatever else you'd like to throw in. (I'm assuming you already have some basic seasonings)
2) Break down the chickens. Set aside anything you think you'd eat within the next few days, and freeze the rest. Freeze them in portion-sizes, so that you don't have to thaw and refreeze the rest every time you take another meal's worth out. Roast the bones. (Very simple. Literally just put them on a tray and pop them in the oven until they've browned. Really can't mess it up.)
3) Fill up a stock pot with water, put the chopped up vegetables in, place the bones in, and put over high heat. Once it starts to boil, bring it down to a simmer and let it go. Quantities and time really aren't terribly important here (you aren't building a stock to use in a sauce over a complex dish, you're just making soup). Skim the top as you see fit (but try not to disturb the bones too much)
4) When you're happy with it, let it cool. Skim the fat. (I actually use the fat to cook with) Remove the bones (be careful, chicken bones get brittle) Portion it out. Makes as many servings as your stock pot will allow.
5) Cook up some of the chicken meat, cut/pull, put into the soup.
6) Use the rest of the chicken however you'd like
7) ?
8) Profit!

And really, you can look at it like this: you'd be buying the chicken anyway, so the bones are basically a freebie. You're just paying for the veggies you throw in, and you get a considerable amount of meals out of it. Plus, soup is something that stores very well.

We like a lot of fresh fruit around the house, so at the downtown farmer's market (and at any farm stands or orchards like MacQueens) I ask for a box or bag of "seconds." They are slightly bruised or less attractive fruit, usually 10 pounds or so for the price of two pounds (if perfect). I've bought strawberries, plums, peaches and apples this way. Take them home and immediately sort through the container; eat the soft/bruised stuff as soon as possible, and store the rest appropriately. It's nice to have the fresh fruit to cut up on cereal, to take for lunches, and to use in fruit salad. For me, this is one of those situations where enjoying an enormous portion of something fresh and local is so delicious, I'm never tempted to buy expensive fruit out of season. I'll just wait for the good stuff to come around again.