$100/month for groceries?

[ceeveg]

Is there a tried and true economical and healthy way to feed two people per month on $100 that any of you wonderful mamas use? We don't really have a pantry stocked, nor are we close to a farmer's market. I am just learning to cook and bake, however, so I could make my own bread, etc. Our major grocery options are Aldi and Kroger.

Also, my husband is a bigger guy (over 6ft and 200lbs). He's not interested in being completely vegetarian, but when we work out our budget on paper, we're making $600 less than we need to be -- groceries is one of the major areas we can cut back. We're both trying to lose weight and eat less processed food, so this could be a blessing in disguise...

Thank you so much!! Cee :

[LilyGrace]

There's a couple of different ways. You could check Angel Food Ministries site and see if there's one near you - $20 for a box of food meant for about a week's worth, no income requirements. www.hillbillyhousewife.com even has a menu using that month's food, plus low cost recipes.

Aldi's is a great place to shop. I used to feed 3 of us for $25 a week shopping there and just buying the basics.
I would also suggest investing a few minutes a week to get a coupon stash going and planning meals around "loss leaders", the foods advertised in weekly circulations to get you in the door. I have my coupons organized in a binder with baseball card pages to help me maximize savings potential. A price book helps, too. Each week, take your receipt and fill in items in a small notebook: item name/size/price/best price+date. Keeping track will help you figure out when sales cycle around so you can plan buys better.

Also sit down and make a list of items you usually purchase. If you can make it cheaper from scratch, do so. If you can do without it, cross it off.

$100 might be hard to do when you're just starting out, but as you build your pantry little by little it gets easier.

[ceeveg]

Thank you, LilyGrace. Where do you get your coupons? We don't subscribe to a paper.

Thank you again!

[LilyGrace]

I don't have a newspaper here (overseas), so I either print them off company websites or pick them up at my grocery store. I tend to get the best ones by writing to the companies directly or signing up for their newsletters - some of the stuff I buy could be expensive otherwise.

[SeekingJoy]

You can print some coupons, but the best way IMO is to just pick up a Sunday paper. Or, if you don't subscribe, does someone you know? Someone at church? A neighbor? I have also heard of people going to gas stations on Monday morning to ask for any unsold copies. The goal is multiple copies of a coupon so that you can stock up when you find a deal on something you will use lots of (rice, flour, veggies, milk, cheese, eggs, etc).

Check out the sticky at the top of this forum for more coupon info. At www.hotcouonworld.com there is a list of the current and past "deals". Kroger has some good ones regularly.

However, IMO, couponing isn't the first place to start when trying to learn how to eat on a budget. Meal planning is. Learn to eat seasonally. Build your meal plan around loss leaders and seasonal veggies. Use up everything you buy. Learn how to use scraps for stock instead of buying it.

If you want feedback on your budget to see if there are other things you can cut, you can also post it here.

[bobandjess99]

$25 / week is going to be a lean budget........
You will have to drink water, period. no juice, no pop, etc. Maybe 1 gal milk per week.
Basically, that is about $3.50 per day for food. That is a hard budget to keep.

Breakfast oatmeal made with water 50 cents
lunch beans and rice $1.00
dinner spaghetti noodles w/marinara sauce $2.00

that's $3.50 worth of food..no snacks, no veggies, no fruit....can you do it? Sure...but $25/week is....really tough. I think you will find yourself feeling much less deprived if you can up that even a tiny bit...to say $35 per week.....that will allow for meat buying, more veggies and just a greater amount and variety of food. That gives you $5 per day for food.

breakfast 2 eggs apiece plus 1 piece toast and milk 75 cents

lunch veggie soup + piece bread $1.50

dinner hamburgers ( 1/4 lb patty apiece) and baked potatoes( or cut into "fries"), with sliced tomato and green beans $2.75

that.s $5. worth of food.

[bobandjess99]

actually, i see you have a child..are you and her on WIC?? that can stretch your budget a LOT. juice, cereal, eggs, PB, beans....that woyld make a $25/week budget a lot easier.....

[ceeveg]

bobandjess99, unfortunately we do not qualify for assistance. We are very much borderline. Thank you so much for those suggestions. I think we can do about $10 more per week, but I am not sure. I've just posted my budget to the site to see if I can get advice. We have a lot of student loan debt, a car note, and some credit card debt, which eats up the majority of our monthly budget. Plus, our insurance is more than a paycheck because we pay out of pocket. I shopped around for it, and couldn't find anything cheaper with a maternity rider.

Thank you all again.

[lolar2]

Can you get a deferral or reduced payment plan for the student loan?

[bobandjess99]

I agree to seeing if you can reduce the student lona debt..have you looked into the new programs to reduce your payments? Or else can you defer?
Also..not to be rude, but if you are in such financial straights and already have an infant, is another baby really something you think is best right now? Perhaps dropping that rider for a year and saving that money would be a better use of your funds for now?