I made out the menu this week and realized there was very little we needed to buy. Our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer are rather full and the sales were pretty sparse. So my hubby just made a quick trip by the store on his way home from work to buy milk, cheese, chicken, and produce–all which were on sale.
My husband also surprised me with a few special treats, too, since we had some extra wiggle room in our budget (we don't always completely follow our "only buy what's on sale rule"–just most of the time!). He bought my favorite-in-all-the-world Milano cookies, some delicious Pepperidge Farm cookies, and whipping cream (for homemade strawberry shortcake–yum!).
All in all, he spent $32.86. Somehow, we've managed to stay significantly below our $40/week budget most of the last four weeks–even with some splurging! I'm curious to see if we can continue to keep with our $40/week budget now that we're feeding five people. So far, it's going quite well, but only time will tell.
Check back on Monday for details and specifics on this coming week's menu plan.
In other frugal news, I had the privilege of meeting three frugal
friends in the last two weeks whom I've gotten to know through the
blogging world. Amy and Laura and I met up two weeks ago and then Amy and Carrie and I met up this past week.
(photo from Laura)
We managed to totally forget to take pictures with Carrie, but Laura and Amy posted some fun pictures of our meet-up here and here. It's always such a boost and encouragement to get to chat face-to-face with other frugal moms!
And in other completely unrelated news (but because this is my blog so I guess that means I have license to post whatever I please!), after four weeks, I finally got a few pictures of all three of my precious little ones together…
There is never a dully moment around here and most nights I go to bed quite exhausted, but feel incredibly blessed to be the mama of these darling little ones. They bring so much joy into our lives!
Enough of my biased mama ramblings, for now, though. 🙂 Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save
money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and
leave your link below.
Note: Please remember that this weekly round-up is to
share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this
week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and
inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have
little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be
deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through
the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday
post.
Allison left the following comment on my picture of this week's $30 shopping trip:
I've
enjoyed reading this blog the past month or so since I've discovered
it, and you've really helped me snag some good deals. And I think it's
neat when you come home from the store with a pile of groceries for
only a few dollars.
But every time I see the picture of your groceries, I wonder
something like, "What is she going to cook for dinner with easy mac,
salad dressing, and jello?"
Is this all the grocery shopping you do? Do you have a garden? Or
raise your own beef? How do you round out your bargain purchases to get
a meal on the table?
One of my biggest secrets for grocery saving success is that I practice the Buy Ahead Principle. What's that, you ask?
Well, basically, other than dairy products and produce, I aim to never pay full price for anything. Instead, I stock up when an item is on sale to tide me over until the next sale.
For instance, in this shopping trip picture, you'll see that I mainly stocked up on cereal. In fact, I bought 16 boxes of cereal–enough to last us for at least 6 weeks, likely longer. Did we only eat cereal that week? No way! We ate a few boxes of cereal that week and the rest of what we ate mostly came from items I'd stocked up on during previous sales.
You see, because I stock up on items when they are on sale at my target price (providing I can afford it in our budget), my grocery shopping trips will usually look quite strange and will certainly not be the basis for a balanced menu. But you can check out some of our menus here to see that we do eat a fairly balanced diet. Well, at least we're certainly not subsisting on Easy Mac and Jell-O every meal!
How is it that we can eat a fairly balanced diet when I buy such an odd assortment of groceries each week? It's because the bulk of our meals are based upon what we already have in our refrigerator, pantry, and freezer.
To give you an idea of how this works, here's a rundown of our menu this week:
Breakfasts: Cereal or Kashi waffles and fruit (The cereal was from our big stock-up mentioned above, the waffles were purchased two weeks ago at Target for $0.29/box, and the fruit is from what we purchased this week and leftovers from last week.)
Lunches: Sandwiches or leftovers and carrots or fruit (I had lots of bread in the freezer I'd gotten for $0.50/loaf from Aldi last month and the peanut butter was from our pantry. My mom also gave us some extra lunch meat she had leftover from a lunch they served so we've used that, too. The carrots and fruit were purchased this week or leftover from last week's purchases.)
Dinners: We're eating meals from our After-The-Baby Freezer Stash paired with homemade bread from the freezer and frozen veggies from the freezer. All of the items in our After-The-Baby Freezer Stash were purchased within our usual grocery budget over the course of a few weeks' time as I had a little extra wiggle room in the budget or items were on sale.
Snacks: Fruit, cheese, crackers, granola bars, yogurt (The fruit, cheese, crackers, and yogurt were all purchased this week. The granola bars were from the pantry.)
When I plan the menu for the week, I first check out what we already have on hand. This gives me the inspiration for the majority of the menu. I then consult the sales fliers and my coupon box to decide what items are on sale and in-budget that I want (or need) to stock up on. I also add in any specific ingredients I need to round out a recipe or meal I've planned from the freezer and pantry ingredients.
For many people who are used to buying only what groceries you'll use in the next week, the concept of buying ahead can be mind-boggling. However, I highly recommend you at least give it a try as it can save you a great deal of money. In fact, I would estimate that we routinely save at least $30-$50 each week by doing so.
If this is a new concept for you, don't go out and spend $500 tomorrow trying to build up a stockpile. Instead, just designate a small percentage of your grocery budget each week to buying extra of those heavily-discounted items which you know you will use sometime in the next few months.
Slowly
start to build up a stockpile of items you regularly use as you find
them discounted by 50% or more with a sale and coupon. Over time, your
stockpile will grow until you come to a point where you can begin to
pretty much only buy items which are at rock-bottom prices, in addition to produce and perishable items.
Just by adopting the Buy Ahead Principle, you will see a significant savings in your grocery bill. And you'll likely be shopping less and eating better than ever before!