Grocery details

[aliall]

(I posted this originally in Frugality and Finances, but think it might be more appropriate here.)

Ok I just want to think out loud here about groceries. I am trying to budget and feed healthy foods to my family. Add yours or comment on mine.

Goals:
1. Feed healthy, preferably local and organic foods to family.
2. Stay within budget
3. Stick to and make weekly meal plans to avoid eating out/convenience foods.
4. Minimize processed/HFCS foods at my house without being a food tyrant.

Budget: $500. I want to break this down as follows:
$200/ month food staples from organic coop--black beans, flour, rice, yogurt, canned tomatoes etc.
$100/ month cash for farmers' market (only in summer)
$200/ month grocery store...mostly food we don't buy a lot of cleaning supplies etc...This means only $50/week.

This doesn't include prepaid CSA veggies which started this week

This week:
Meal plan:
Monday: Fried rice, homemade eggrolls using wilting fridge veggies/garden bok choi
Tuesday: Peanut butter dip (hummus) with apples, pita wedges, celery, carrots, cucumber and a salad with CSA greens
Wed: stir fry with CSA stir fry greens and rice or noodles
Thur: Garden burgers with potato wedges and coleslaw (vinegar based)
Fri: Always Pizza--usually homemade.
Sat: sub sandwiches (cheese and veggies) and leftovers
Sun: black bean tacos
Monday: pasta salad with veggies.

Yesterday's grocery outing:
HB buns 1.99
Sub buns 2.29
Deli cheese 4.89
Graham crackers 1.69
popcorn 1.29
grape preserves 1.79
can pinapple .99
moms best frosted wheats 1.99
OG tortilla chips 2.00
garden burger (2) 6.98
tortillas 1.75
colby jack cheese 2.48
cantaloupe 1.88
coleslaw mix (2) 1.36
cucumber .99
fresh pineapple 3.88
3.19 lb oranges 3.16
9.89 lb watermelon 4.85
1.91 lb peaches 3.59
Total 49. 64

After typing that out, I realized that I didn't get much OG stuff this week, but most of that comes from the coop and farmer's markets anyway. I am slowly trying to stock up on organic cheeses from the coop...so far we have mozzarella in the freezer. I also didn't buy milk this week. I usually buy organic, pretty local stuff for $6/gallon. That allowed up to buy the watermelon and fresh pineapple (which the kids devoured both yesterday for dessert...seriously...all of it!)

Also, I am vegetarian. Dh and kids eat a tiny bit of meat, but purchased mostly from farmers market or eaten at other people's houses. Dh and Dd pack sack lunches for school/work.

Any suggestions on lining up my goals with real life?
ali

[Norasmomma]

To me it seems like you did fairly well. I spend on average about $70 per week on groceries(food/household), but I don't do any food co-op big purchases, although I am trying to budget in a once a month(or 2 months) trip to Costco. The only things that I would say is do keep track of sales, I do this and it *really* helps with my stock up plan. Last month my store had unadvertised sales on canned og beans and tomatoes, so I bought 2 cases of the tomatoes and one of the beans.

I am debating about going to the store today, there is a one day sale and I may go to stock up on orange juice and milk, but I haven't decided yet.

For me the biggest way that I've cut my budget is to meal plan and to have an extremely well stocked house, so that I can make my meal plan. It sounds like you're doing that, so my only suggestion would be to check sales and then buy some extra of whatever items are on a good deal(if you can within budget). That would be all from me. HTH.

[BlessedOne]

we spend about 100 dollars a week....give or take 20 bucks

but my hubby preffers only name brand stuff...normally the most expensive brand name too....

but the most expensive of the food is my store bought vegetarian food

My goal is to start feeding the family more healthy balanced meals...that are preferably vegetarian (they are not veg..but I am and prefer to sneak veg meals to them...lol). And of course not spend an arm and a leg doing it!

Sadly, we do not have a lot of farmers markets around here....that I know of. We do have some people that park on the side of the road and sell produce...but you never know where they are going to be or what they are going to have. So it is not very reliable.
There are a couple of co-ops around that I have thought about getting into...but they seem pricey...but in reality in the long run it is probably cheaper and much better quality than the store.


But it sounds like you have a plan...just stick to it.

[BlessedOne]

I personally shop at walmart supercenter and comp the local sales ads of the surrounding stores

I save alot this way