Please HELP! I can never do this right!

[Peacemamalove]

So we received are foodstamps this morning !

I can never seem to make it last the whole month and this month we received twice as much.. and I want to make sure I spend it wisely.

We are allergic to Wheat and Gluten and I can shop at local health food stores and co-ops .

I would like to have some sort of pantry supply and I also receive the Cooking TF menu mailer so that covers dinners.

I would LOVE some help creating a list to things to buy. I am horrible at doing this and usually just end up with a bunch of groceries that can make nothing!

Please help!

[StormySar]

Plan your meals for a month. Base your shopping list off of everything you'll need for your meals. Plan to make snacks instead of buying them. Plan your breakfasts, even if it's just cereal or something simple. ddon't buy anything that's not on your list. Remember that when planning, some ingredients can be used more than once before it's gone - you can get several meals out of a small container of sour cream, or go for a larger tub and freeze the excess.

Remember odd things can be frozen well if you buy in bulk. sour cream, cream cheese, blocks of cheese, bananas (in the peel) and lots of other things are freezable.

Also make sure the amount you got is accurate - they can make you pay back excess benefits if they make a mistake. Only spend what you are entitled to - and I have no idea of your situation but because you mentioned it was twice as much I just wanted to mention that too ;-)

[MariesMama]

Remember that your benefits will roll over to the next month and will not disappear - you don't need to spend it all this month!

[justmama]

Shop the sales. Each week when you recieve your flyer in the mail about the sales at the stores you visit(and keep in mind that you can eat organic and healthy and gluten free at regular grocery stores too. most times those health food stores are way more expensive for the same products.), plan your meals according to what's on sale. This first month that you have extra, stock up on the basics. If you eat a ton of rice, buy in bulk and store properly(check out the bulk and stockpiling threads for that info). Like a previous poster said, there aren't many things you cannot freeze. Stock up your freezer on the essentials which for US are brown rice, shredded cheese, black beans, whole wheat pasta, etc. For cheap meals, you can look through the $2 meal thread(search for it in this forum) and get what works for you. Sometimes substitutions are needed since you are gluten free. I'm vegetarian so not all recipes work for me there but it's easy to fix. We do a ton of soups. My oldest likes to make chicken noodle soup and we freeze a container or two for them when we need a quick cheap meal. We save the ends of bread because the kid don't like to make them into sandwiches and they are great to freeze and then toss in the oven to toast and warm up to dip in soup. Also, leftovers can be repurposed. After I cook the chicken and give it to my oldest to put in her soup(she's 9 so she needs SOME assistance even though she likes to think of herself as a fabulously self-sufficient chef ) I save some to put in chicken/cheese quesadillas for lunch the next day with a little sour cream and steamed veggies on the side. So using every little bit of what you buy is essential to saving money. We are a family of 4(one adult and 3 children: 9, 5, and 2) and we get $403 in food stamps monthly and eat organic and mostly vegetarian. I feed the kids meat only sparingly and it's free-range, organic, hormone-free chicken usually. So it's expensive. And with some creative repurposing of leftovers and buying in bulk on sale, we usually have more than enough. And they eat A LOT. And a ton of fruit.
Do you get wic? We don't drink a lot of milk here but for the cheese and the fruit and veggie vouchers and the peanut butter, I think it's worth it. You can get beans and brown rice or bread or quesadillas now too so that helps. Even being gluten free I guarantee that will shave some money off the grocery bill and you qualify for wic if you get food stamps.

[KnockedUpButtercup]

How exciting, to get a sudden windfall like that! If I were you, I would do the following:

1. Budget. Divide the usual amount by 31, thus determining how much money you have "per day" for food, and multiply by 7 to achieve a weekly total. That doesn't mean you have to spend that much per day - it's just a starting point. And some of this money is going to go towards replenishing staples that you run out of, as you use them. But you have to start somewhere!

2. Meal Plan. Make a meal plan, based around what you have in the fridge and pantry that needs using up, as well as the "loss leaders" in your grocery store circulars. Pair cheaper meals with more expensive meals, to balance out your costs. (For example - we're vegetarian, and fake meats are expensive, so I'll pair a meal of rice and lentils - cheap - with a meal that includes GimmeLean faux sausage - expensive.) Then shop once a week. If you shop more frequently, you can waste money - if you shop less often, you miss sales. But ALWAYS start your meal plan with what you have on hand that needs to be used up, so you don't waste food.

3. Stock Up. Consider the (non-perishable or freezable) items you depend on - then load up on those items with part of your overage, and keep the rest in reserve for emergencies.

Have fun using your windfall wisely!

Holly

[KnockedUpButtercup]

Hey, Justmama! Great minds...

H.

[BetsyS]

When I used to budget for a month at a time, I'd make a big list of a month of meals that we liked, and I wanted to eat (more stews in winter, more salads in summer). Then, I'd make a list of all the ingredients I needed for the month.

Do a big shop for all the non-perishables. Buy all the rice, beans, cans of whatever, meat, cheese, butter (and all dairy that will last a month), snacks, even down to Tabasco and worchestershire sauce. Add in some canned fruit and frozen veggies, too, even if you rarely eat them. I also think it's nice to have a can of evaporated milk in the pantry, just in case you are out of money and need milk in a pinch. It's helpful to sort of add it up in advance to have an idea of how much you are planning to spend.

I'd aim for about 2/3 on that stuff. The other 1/3 is for perishables. Divide the amount into 4, and that's what you spend every week on a quick trip for produce, dairy, and if you eat it, bread.

This isn't the easiest way for me to meal plan, but it's the best way that I've found that stretches my money all month. If you overspend on weeks 1-3, and you're out of money the 4th week...well, you don't have dairy, and you don't have fresh produce, but you have plenty of food to eat, you know? Better to eat meat, rice, and a frozen veggie (stuff you bought at the front of the month) than not have anything at all.

edited to add: my experience with once a month budgetting was when I lived in a town that had a Walmart that consistently beat everyone's prices, even sale prices. So, a once a month trip to the lowest priced place made sense. Now, I live in a place with lots of competition amongst grocery stores, and pretty good sales. I'm not quite sure how I'd do it now. Just sharing what worked for me in those circumstances.

[_ktg_]

not to hijack, but I was following your other post so for getting your FS today!!

[SuzyLee]

I would aim to establish a regular rotation of meals you all like to eat. In our house this is salads, tacos, burgers, stir fry, and spaghetti. We eat 4 of those 5 almost every week (with variation on the side dishes to mix it up). We also eat the same basic fruit every week- apples and oranges- and the same basic breakfasts- PB toast and oatmeal. So 70% of our shopping is the same list every week, which makes it easy to have a consistant grocery bill.

I find we stock up on staples slowly- like one week we are out of butter, another week we are out of flour, etc. For us the bulk bins at the co-op are good prices, so no need to buy a 50lb. bag of flour. We also try to use the same staples over and over, rather than keeping lots of variety. I use quinoa for any recipe that calls for rice, brown rice, wild rice, wheat berries, etc- I just keep one thing in the house. Otherwise I end up with 3/4ths of a bag of some odd grain that never gets used. Same with beans- we pretty much just eat through the bag of beans, and get a different variety the next time.

The other 30% of the bill is based on what is on sale- if a snack food we like is on sale, we might buy it. Whatever fresh or frozen veggies are on sale are the side dishes for dinner that week. If cream cheese is a good price we might have cream cheese toast instead of PB toast. If hummus is on sale we will have hummus and veggies for snacks. Etc.