Balanced meals and budgeting...

[redvlagrl]

I see that lots of people here manage to spend very little on groceries and I am wondering how they do it.

Many of the meals that I see posted on the frugal threads aren't as balanced as we like to do. They seem to be quite carb heavy.

We do a serving of protein, 2-3 veg and sometimes a small serving of a whole carb (sweet potato, wholemeal something, quinoa etc. We eat a fair amount of fruit for snacks. We only cook from scratch and use cheaper cuts of meat, though we do eat meat daily.

We buy our veggies mainly from a local farmer and only in season. Some fruits (bananas for example) have to come from elsewhere.

How do people do it, or do you rely more heavily on carbs than us? Our budget is divided pretty evenly between veg/fruit and meat with a small amount for other staples (milk, butter, cheese etc)

[ewp11100]

I agree! We go through so much fruits and veggies and I'm not able or willing to substitute that with carbs. My advice:
Grow your own, we have a 1200 sf garden that has really produced this year
home can on cheap in season
buy bushels of seconds (apples, tomatoes)
look for discount produce bins at the grocery store

Anyone else have suggestions?

[bandgeek]

I don't eat tons of carbs, maybe 4-6 servings a day vs the 6-11 "they" recommend (which I think it ridiculous). But I also don't eat meat or dairy either, which trims my budget a lot I'm sure. We eat a lot of beans. I eat tons of fruits and veggies, but I try to get mostly stuff in season when it's cheap.

I think it helps that I live in a low cost of living area too.

[frugalmum]

I buy cheap produce--some things are a lot cheaper than others. I find the cheapest produce tend to be carrots, bagged apples, bagged potatoes (we always leave skin on), yams, celery, romaine. Tomatoes are too expensive so we buy them canned. Bell peppers also, too expensive. I buy grapes or oranges only if they are on sale.

We also buy lots of frozen greens which in terms of nutrition are still very good. Frozen spinach and broccoli cuts are cheap, especially if on sale.

I generally stay away from canned except for tomatoes and pineapple.

Also beans are "kings" in the nutrition world and are very cheap, whether canned or dry.

My kids are picky so they don't each much produce but my diet is easily 50%+ non-refined-carb plant based.

A big expense if quinoa-- cheapest is goya brand (not organic) which runs $3.40 for 12 oz where I live.

[BetsyS]

We do eat some carbs (probably more than you), but we also eat a fair amount of produce. I shop at a couple of international markets, and I try to buy the best deals there. That really helps. I preserve some produce (mostly tomatoes, berries, peaches, apples) at the peak of the season. They are our favorites, and the price difference is substantial.

I buy grocery store meat, only on sale, and I stock up when I get a good price. Like I can find ground beef for $1.39/lb, so that is what I buy. Roasts and London Broil for about $2.29/lb. Bone-in chicken breasts for $.99/lb regularly. If I can find whole chicken, leg quarters, or thighs for cheaper than that, that's what I buy, cause that's what we prefer. But, most often, we make due with the breasts. We also have a BIL that gets a deer for us every other year or so, so that adds some meat. And we love, love, love some beans!!

Recently, we moved, and I emptied our pantry/freezer. So, I've had to rely on naturally cheap meals instead of the stock of sale-price meats int he freezer. We've eaten lots of beans, some dairy-heavy meals, and a fair amount of eggs.

[sunnysandiegan]

We live in a high COL and spend $335 per month on food we buy, which includes our CSA and the cat's raw food. We get the large box from our CSA every two weeks and split it with another family. Local, organic produce for less than in the stores.

We also grow some of our own food. We live in a townhome and have a postage stamp size yard. We still make it work. I purposely grow only things we like to eat and that our CSA either does not provide or only provides a little of.

[Poddi]

Well I think some people do quite well on carbs. I don't, though so I don't eat very much of them. The thing is I'm the only person in my family who need to eat tons of meat, veggies and little carbs, so I'm the only person who eats like that. That doesn't push up our budget too much. Although I see you live in Canada. Food is not cheap here so the examples you see like $200 - 300 a month is just not possible, unless you grow a lot yourself. People posting those budgets can probably get eggs for $1.49 /dz. Over here they're usually $3.29 - 3.49 a dozen. I've never been able to spend less than $150 a week. I figured there are always other areas to cut, food is rather important compared to, say music lessons.

[redvlagrl]

great tips!! Please keep them coming! I had never thought of buying frozen veg apart from corn kernels and peas! What is the quality of other things like? Texture?

We don't buy canned food (BPA).

We had a small garden this year but the tomato plants I bought were mislabelled and were cherry toms even though they were supposed to be beefsteak. Grrrrr.

I will look out for Goya Quinoa. Will I find it with the other Goya stuff?

We buy our meat from a place where they are grass fed and ethically raised which is a little bit more than supermarket but not as much as organic. Not willing to compromise here which is why I do a lot of ground meat and cheap cuts and whole chickens.

Poddi - thanks for reminding me of the Canada thing. i forget how cheap the US is. We used to buy a kilo of cheese for $6! Our eggs are $4 a doz for farmer eggs.

I think I will have to look at our garden as a way to save some money rather than as just fun.

We also eat a fair amount of beans (dried not canned) but you're right - we should eat more. I'm just such a carnivore (raised by vegetarians!)

[GardenStream]

I have a huge garden. I focused on the things we eat a lot of which led me to 120 pepper plants this year, 75 tomato plants, 20 green beans, 50 pea plants, 10 broccoli, 6 zucchini and lettuce going year round. Of course there were other items thrown in, but not enough to feed us all year. Most of it gets frozen or canned and then we eat fresh lettuce constantly.

We also buy in bulk for certain things, mostly potatoes and onions. My FIL works at a distribution site for produce and gets me 50 pound bags of each for about $10.

I think a lot of it is how cheap food is in my area. I'm in rural farmland, so food is inexpensive. I get all my beef and chickens come from the farm 10 miles down the road, all the pork comes from my husband's coworker, the eggs come from another local farm. All of our milk and butter comes from the local dairy. Everything is very local and bought directly from the farmer or producer. It's normal for me to spend around $30 at the grocery store each week because most of our food comes directly from the farm rather than a store.

Poddi - yes my free range eggs are $1.50 a dozen and local cheese is $2.50 a pound.

[jimblejamble]

Substitute beans instead of meat sometimes.

Look for meat that's a little older. My husband can find 2 very nice cuts of steak for about $4 sometimes. If he finds a really good deal we buys a few packages and we freeze it.

[Chicky2]

We do things more like atobols does. We raise rabbits, chickens, guineas, goats, quail, ducks, bees, and in a couple of weeks, pigs. We also help in large quantity butchering of wild pigs that my FIL traps. (instead of them getting shot from the air and left to rot he traps them, worms them and 30 days later we butcher and have all the meat we could want). We pick pecans, pears, peaches, grapes, berries, persimmons, go fishing, have a garden, and my neighbor supplies us w/free goat milk. This coming Spring we'll have our own goat milk, and I'll start cheese and soap making.

We often get free excess from friends or family (like 50 keiffer pears and about that many sweet potatoes from my mom's garden), and when we have extra, we share.

We can and freeze and dehydrate. We take people up on their offers to come pick their pecans or peaches, or whatever. We buy when things are on season and on sale. We get shrimp from around the corner at the freshwater shrimp harvest. We barter my or my dh's services (he does HVAC and minor electrical and we teach how to butcher/process animals, and I have taught certain cooking skills) for food. Hey, we have 4 kids, we're not too proud to say we'll work for food!

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by redvlagrl

We don't buy canned food (BPA).

Here is a list of several companies that use BPA-free cans for canned veggies, canned fish, canned beans:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010...nned-foods.php

[redvlagrl]

Thanks for the non-BPA link. Does anyone know if it is possible to commercially can tomatoes without BPA? Are there any companies that do this? The plan this year was to home can a whole lot of tomatoes but i never got around to it.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by redvlagrl

great tips!! Please keep them coming! I had never thought of buying frozen veg apart from corn kernels and peas! What is the quality of other things like? Texture?

If you like wilted/creamed/etc spinach, I actually prefer the frozen over the fresh. You get a lot more for the money. Around here, one bunch of spinach is about $1 and I can use that for about one meal's side. Whereas a bag of frozen costs me $1.29, and I easily get three-four meals of sides out of that.

I'm not sure I'd eat the frozen spinach not cooked into something, tho.

I also find there's little difference between frozen and fresh green beans once they've been steamed.

[Chicky2]

Sugar snap peas are good frozen, too. And snow peas. That and spinach is about all I buy frozen (we usually have lots of produce in our garden). Oh, I buy frozen brocolli too.

[redvlagrl]

OK. I will try out the frozen veg this week. I had always worried that they would be soggy and waterlogged as my only experience apart from peas and corn kernels was overcooked soggy broccoli and corn on the cob at camps.