Mary's Saving on Food Write Up

Written by Mary aka SalHemings@aol.com

I have several basic strategies that can allow you cut those $700 food bills in half automatically. It takes a little work, but it's worth it in the longrun.

Only buy groceries at loss leader sale prices. Keep a price book of things that you buy and you plot when those items end up on sale. There are definite patterns. Do this over the course of a year because some sales only come once a year.

Buy enough to last until the next sale. That way, you're always paying $.49 for your can of DelMonte spaghetti sauce instead of $.99. You're always paying $1.99 for boneless pork loin instead of $3.99. And you never pay more that that lowest loss leader sale price.

It's a simple concept, but it's profound. Gone are the days of just going to the store and buying what you want no matter what the price. But, also gone are the days of paying twice as much for the things you use regularly.

This step alone an save you almost 50% (or more) on y our regular food bill and it doesn't take a whole lotta' effort once you get the store patterns down.

If you can, it's really great to take advantage of marked down items. I find that I get 50% to 90% off on most of our meat, dairy, eggs, bakery bread, and produce this way. I'm very fortunate in that that we have GREAT markdowns at our stores. If you're not aware of them at your store, ask.

I can get a bag of salad for $.29. Most of the marked down produce sells for $.19, $.29, and $.39/lb. Sometimes more.

On Sunday, I found 10 bunches of wonderfully fresh asparagus for $.59/lb. This was a little over my price limit. But it's normally $2.59/bunch here. I bought $25.90 worth of asparagus for $2.80. I came home, washed and blanched it, and froze it in vacuum sealed bags. That's $.28 per meal sized portion of asparagus.

I can get whole vacuum marinated chickens for $1.75 marked down 1/2 price once a week. I never pay more than $1.08/lb. for marked down ground chuck or ground round. (If we ate regular ground beef, I could get it as low as $.58/lb.) I can get steak marked down to $2.48/lb. I buy chuck roasts when they're $.99 or less. And I'll pay $1.49 for a rump roast. $.69 is my limit for turkey breast. Once a year they have whole fresh salmon for $1.99. I buy several and have the fish guy cut it up. I vacuum seal it and freeze.

I try to combine meat markdowns with loss leader sales. For example, if boneless chix breast is on sale for $1.99/lb. (it goes on sale every 2 months), I buy it for $1.20/lb. or $1.48/lb. when it gets marked down on Monday before the sales change for the next week.

I have top prices that I'll pay for baked goods. Regular whole wheat sandwich bread is usually $.33/loaf marked down. I'll pay no more than $.33 for a package of English muffins or $.50 for a package of bagels or loaf of bakery bread.

Mary's Meals - I can make a meal of roasted marinated chicken (1.75) with stuffing (I save cubes of bread) (.06 for a bit of onion and celery), bag of salad including dressing and extras (.29), mashed potatoes (.20), fresh broccoli (.20), and some fruit (.20) for under $2.75. And this would provide enough chicken for leftovers for lunch and a pot of chicken soup.

We also like spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs and Italian sausage. I get the sausage on markdown for $.59/lb. I make enough for 4 meals and freeze 3. I pay $.49/can for spaghetti sauce (on sale once a year), which I doctor up a bit. I buy the crushed tomatoes from the salvage food store. I get the diced tomatoes from the markdown bin for $.10 or $.15 each. I never pay more than $.39/lb for pasta. We like penne rigate. Big Lots sells all their pasta for $.39/lb.

I try to keep all of my meals to $3.00 or less. And once a week we have a fancier meal like salmon, steak, or shrimp.

Sometimes, we eat leftovers for lunch or breakfast. We have one big breakfast a week of bacon, eggs, potatoes, etc. We have sandwiches and soup for lunch sometimes.

Control your use of paper products. Don't buy things that are not truly necessary like paper towels, paper plates, paper cups. I've seen folks who spend as much as 17% of their food budget on paper products. Of course, if you're running day care in your home, then this may be necessary.

Don't buy fancy cleaning products. You can pretty much do every cleaning job you have with bleach, ammonia, vinegar, and baking soda. CAM & I spend less than $1/month on cleaning products.

Use "Just Enough" of everything. You can successfully manage with 1/4 or 1/3 the recommended amount of detergent. You can put one teaspoon of liquid softener in the Downey ball and fill with the line with water. You can use 1/2 or 1/3 of a fabric dryer sheet. One pea sized portion of toothpaste is enough to brush your teeth. Use less shampoo and conditioner. So much of what we buy goes down the drain -- literally. I figured that a large family could save as much as $41/month by using the concept of Just Enough. You can run the numbers, but that money that's going down your drain could go a long way toward providing a college education. Add to that that Coke or coffee you grab out of the house everyday, and you've got yourself a degree.

Use your leftovers. We used to put the leftovers in the fridge, and they'd end up getting thrown away. Now, we put them in the freezer right away. In there right now is a few stalks of asparagus and a little bit of ham. I want to make cheesey scalloped potatoes with ham and asparagus. With a salad, that will make a nice meal for under $1.00.

Someone on another board recently asked "What would you buy if you only had $20 to spend on food for a whole month?" If you're interested in my write-up, let me know. It was a really fun exercise. We'd have to scale down to things like chix leg quarters and ground beef. And, I'd have to exert portion control on my hubby, but I came up with 30 dinners for $20 with leftovers for lunch and simple breakfasts.

Amy Dacyczyn of the Tightwad Gazette feeds her family of 7 (5 kids, some teenagers) for $200 or less per month. They grow 500 quarts of food per year and apply the basic strategies listed above. Although they don't eat fancier items like we do, they do really well on that amount.

So, if she can do $200 a month for 7 people, ya'll should have no problem with going $250 or $300 for fewer people.