Storybook Woods

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 6

Even though I said I did not like writing these posts, I really had fun too and actually I have a lot more to say :-) But I will take a break and in a couple of weeks I will write some more. It is funny when it come to food, I can talk for days.

I did want to say that all these ideas I have written about do work for our family and I have really been able to make our money stretch so much farther then 7 years ago. But I do not want to look like I never struggle. Believe me I do. I have days were I do not want to cook. I have days were I succumb to some expensive cheese temptation at the grocery store. There are weeks were I am really careful and still run out of money and have to go to hubby and ask for another $20, to hold me over till payday. As a matter of fact, as I was writing these post somehow unbeknownst to me, I ran out of a bunch of bulk items. I had $50.00 but was saving it for a Trader Joes run. So I had to dip into my household budget. Just remember to do the best you can that day. Luckily everyday is a fresh start.

Powdered Coconut Milk

This is the coconut powder, I was talking about. I guess you are suppose to use it like powdered milk. Add water and make coconut milk but I never use it that way. I just use the powder straight from the packet. I add it to chocolate mousse, stir fries, puddings, soups, ect. I get mine in the Asian section of my market. I pay I think 60 cents for a 60 gram packet. It is Angie who turned me on to this, thank you xoxoxoxo



Olive Oil

Well this is somewhat of a minefield question because olive oil production is somewhat becoming like wine making. There are soooo many, (too many for me to keep up with) olive oil producers. The truth is I can barely afford the olive oil I buy, which I buy the better olive oil from Costco. I cook everything including baking with olive oil and go through so much, this is the best I can do at this point. I will tell you if looking for olive oil, look for something that had a deep green color. An idea I have had is to check out stores like TJ Maxx food section for good olive oil. But to be honest, except for drizzling a little bottle of oil is just completely impractical for us. So I am sorry I can not be of better help.



Here are posts were I talk about freezing muffins, scones, ect.

Muffins

Biscuits

Soda Bread

PS. run down to Target and get your .99 cent cupcake pot-scrubber !!!!

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 5

Now that I have said so much about how I save money, how do I splurge ? Actually I do not like writing these posts because I do not like to talk about what I do not do, what I can not buy, I do not like to dwell in the negative. But rather embrace all that I do have. I want my girls to know how to wisely spend their money but I also how to wisely splurge. We all need treats. It is like a diet, you can not be on one forever, you will go crazy one day. Plus even though there is a lot of food we can not afford, I want my girls to try them. I do not want them growing up and never having fresh fennel or not know what really Parmigiano-Reggiano taste like. I want them to have an educated palate and strive for the best food they can. I suppose I sound a bit over the top about food (this is were my foodie youth comes in) I can still taste dinners I had in France when I was 18. I want that for my girls and I think it is important. Life is too short to eat bad food.

So how do I buy treats ? Simple with any leftover money at the end of my two weeks. I now get $200 every two weeks and yes I do have leftover money. Some weeks $3.00 (I can at lest buy them some soda or chips with $3.00) and some weeks $100 (I love those weeks)

You see by knowing at the end of two weeks we can splurge, have what our heart desire, (well at lest one thing our hearts desire) it makes it soo much easier to be good and not buy extras. Every time I give in and buy a box of awful cookies, just because I was stupid enough to shop when I was hungry, I am now cheating myself at the end of the two weeks. I could have had some rosemary ham and dried, cured black olives instead. 

When I first started this budget, I did not have extra money but after about 6 months of bulk buying and making everything from scratch, I had a house full of food. I tell you if I had no money right now, I could feed us for a month. That is my plan. I make sure my cupboards are full of the basics and those yummy (but cheap) do-dads to give my menus some flair. I always have my grains, a block of cheddar cheese, a log of goat cheese (or feta or blue. I can buy big wedges of these and get a lot of bang for my buck). I aways have lemons or oranges. I always make sure my balsamic is not running low. Get the idea. I put my money into those tried and true items I have found over time work for us. Then at the end of the two weeks it is spurge time. Now if I have a hundred dollars I do not use it all on chips and soda. I take advantage and maybe buy a special expensive item to cook with or more meat or extra olive oil. But I try to have something yummy we do not have often.

I only have one more post to write. I hope I am not at the point of boring all of you, I did not want to make the posts to long. I will answer your questions next. So if you have any, there is still time xoxoxo

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 4

The other thing I think that makes a big difference is making the most of my bulk section. I am lucky that my gourmet grocery store has a large and varied bulk section. Now do not assume you do not have one in your area. More and more grocery stores are carrying them. I know both Fred Meyer and Safeway have one. Also check any heath-food stores in the area.

One of the ways I save large amounts of money is doing all our baking. I have talked about this before. I make large batch of muffins, scones, ect. Freeze them unbaked and bake them off frozen. This way I always have something to feed my family and I can control how much they eat, or should I say I eat :-) Plus by making it yourself, not only it is cheap but much healthier. I use lots of different gains, much less sugar, ect.

Also as quick comment, if you do not have a large freezer I would encourage you to get one. I know it is a big investment but it will save you so much money. You can ask for it as a birthday/Christmas gift. You need to be able to buy in quantity when things are cheap. Also take advantage of things like picking fruit in the summer. I froze 70 pounds of strawberries for $40.00 this summer and we are enjoying them now.

There is also the issue of breakfast and lunch. For breakfast we eat a lot of muffins and such, oatmeal, granola, eggs. I do buy some cereal. I get cheap organic ohs from trader joes and then a few boxes of yummier cereal. We mix mostly ohs with a small amount of the good stuff. But I only buy so much. So if everyone chows down on the cereal and we run out, then they have to eat something else. Lunch is often leftover from dinner. I never buy juice, soda, ect. except treats, which I will talk about in my last post.

Back to the bulk. I keep a large array of grains, beans, flours, spices, ect. I think it is important to rotate what we eat, not always eat the same thing. So we might have sushi rice, pearl barley, whole wheat cous cous and risotto all in one week. Bulk section allows me to do this and not spend a lot of money. Nor do I have to go to the grocery store as much. So please take advantage of your bulk section. Just think you can decorate all those pretty jars that hold all you stuff xoxoxoxo

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 3

 

Meat, oh the woe of my life. For me a day is just not worth living if it does not have chocolate in it. Well that is my hubby except it is meat. Especially big slabs on steaks that hang over the side of his plate with a nice ale on the side. Here I am struggling to feed my family and hubby is begging for meat ;-) How can I afford that. It was tough and we had 3 nights a week with no meat or something like one pork chop cut up in little pieces and served with a lot of pasta (actully I still do that) So soon as my hubby got his next raise, we started having a separate meat budget. About once every 3 months I go to the little, ugly, dinky store down the road that sells big 10# packs of meat and fill up my freezer. Ohh doesn't that sound yummy. No seriously I do buy most of my meat (except for really great sales) in bulk. I get some from Costco but most from the little grocery store. I call it my meat run. Since meat freezes beautifully it is easy to buy large amounts and freeze it. The lovely thing is you always have something for dinner.

So my grocery budget does not include meat, except for a rare sale. It also does not include household items, another separate budget. I will say about household, I keep it really basic. Paper produces Costco, also laundry soup and dishwasher soap Costco. I use mostly baking soda and vinegar for cleaning. Except when I have a little play-money and get some Mrs. Meyers.

I also have made a line in the sand about what I am will spend on meat per-pound. I have had to raise this line but not too much, so far. This cuts out a lot of meat and different cuts. I will tell you when things go on sale, I go for it. Like once a year when my grocery store has it lamb steaks sale, boy do I load up. But you can not freeze meat for a whole year. I find 3 months a good time for meat and then it starts to get yucky. I find it is much easier to say once every 3 months I will spend $60.00 on meat. I try to let my hubby know about 3 weeks before I think I will need to go, that it is getting near the time to get meat.

Thank you for the questions and I will do a separate post at the end and answer them. So if you have a question or two just ask aways xoxoxoox

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 2

So once I started to get an idea of what was good price, I still need to be able to feed my family on $50.00. With my beer budget and champagne taste, something had to go. I started off stripping out all extras. Basically pre-made stuff and treats. Ohh and good cheeses, produce out of season, my favorite expensive chocolate, ect. It was hard but somehow I knew it would only be for a season, not forever and that helped me.

Not only was I going to have to totally cook from scratch (which was not really that hard for me) but I had to, or should I say wanted to make food that is yummy, healthy and interesting without all the expensive dod-dads. I started looking over what I used and eliminated what was expensive and focused on what was cheap. Like herbs from my garden or homemade flavored vinegars. I also looked for things that would give a lot of bang for my buck. For example I would make mac and cheese from scratch, but I would mostly use inexpensive cheddar, then get a small wedge of really strong tasting cheese.

Now there were some things I did not compromise on, well not that much. Like olive oil. I can not afford to get amazing olive oil, but I did not buy the totally cheap no-flavored olive oil. Also balsamic vinegar, it must be some what sweet and some character. I found that Costco and Grocery Outlet has some interesting gourmet items. Now we have Trader Joes (which we did not have then) it totally has opened up all kinds of fun, gourmet items to spice up my dishes. Grocery Outlet also has some great gourmet and organic items and really good deals on cheese, like blue and garlic jack.

So I focused on how to cook cheap cuts of meat, simple ways and add drama with usual inexpensive ingredients. I also looked at ingredient's and what I could do myself. I have dried my own fruit, made my own jams, mustards, vinegars, ect. Some I thought was worth the time, some I did not. I do not want to say a lot about this, because I think it is a very personal thing what is worth your time.

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Here is a list of inexpensive ways to add flavor:

herbs, spices, coffee, coco powder, powdered coconut (it comes in these little packets and it like powdered sugar. It is also dirt cheap and amazing. I throw it into everything))

lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, ginger

strong tasting cheeses

roasted veggie and garlic (roasting intensifies the flavor)

capers, olives, sun-dried tomatoes (these can be really expensive, you have to look for deals and use lightly)

homemade broth made with bone's that have been roasted in the oven, it intensifies the flavors. If then boil down the broth intensifies more.

mustard, horseradish, vinegars, alcohol

Help, I Need A Grocery Budget: part 1

I have had several letters asking me if I could share how I save money on my groceries. I am going to talk about what I do over this next week. But I want to share a bit of background about me first. Mostly I want to share because if anyone is struggling to feed their family yummy, healthy, interesting food and feel discouraged, I am hoping I can encourage you. Because belive me, if I can do it anyone can.


Now I was lucky to be raised in northern California, which I call the Disneyland of food. In my youth I was blessed with going out to eat at amazing restaurant, hand crafted food, wonderful wineries all around me, two trips to Europe and really no budget. Even when I was first married I would spend my mornings planning wonderful three course meals for my new hubby, go to the gourmet grocery store and spend the afternoon cooking for him (He is soo pampered !!!). Then Aubern'e came but the first 7 months of her life is a blur of doctors, surgery, hospitals. After her open-heart surgery, we need a fresh start. My mother sadly was newly divorced and also needed a fresh start, so we all moved to Washington. For six months we live in this amazing 100 years home on the water. Oh I wish you could see it. Then my mother bought an old farm-house with the idea we would all live together. David and I paid very little rent. So again I really did not have a strict budget until 7 years ago, when we bought our house.


We went from a small rent to a large morage. It was scary and I guess you could say I had to grow up. I had $50.00 a week for four people and remember we homeschool, so we are home all the time. I live in a fairly food expensive area, so it was stretch for me. It took me a good year to make it work and I am still learning to make my money go farther.


The first thing I did was start a book of prices. I realized I had no idea if something was a good price. As silly as I looked (and I had people staring at me) I took a notebook with me and wrote down the prices of things, where the store was. It took months of this. First because I have a bad memory and could not remember what I saw last week, but I also checked out all the stores in my area and that took time to see what they had, to compare it all. I found there is not one perfect store. But over time I could see that store A has the best over-all deal on produce, store B best deal on meats, store C best bulk section, so on.

So the first  things I did was learn what was a good a price, were to get it and go to cash only. For me I do best when I actually have the cash in my hand and can see how much I have. I do not know why, but when I have cash, I can make it go amazingly far.


What I do will not work for everyone and some of it will be stuff your probably have already heard, but I hope you will come away with a tip or two and will be inspired.

PS. that sweetie-pie above is Auberne'