that’s how you save money on your grocery bill; why didn’t I think of that?

Bluegrass Moms blogger Jessica Frye spends only $75 every two weeks on groceries for her family of three. I was intrigued. Her family is half my size, so I could double her $75 to $150 a payday , and that would still mean significant savings for my family.  I was hoping for some new tips that I hadn’t tried before.   I believe she has hit on something that I have never considered.  She explains how she gets her food bill down to $150 per month:

Our $150 budget includes every meal for our son, about 24 official supper meals each month, 3-4 lunches each week for my husband and 2-3 lunches each week for myself. The other meals are from restaurants or special dinners elsewhere such as church meals or meals with family. The money used at restaurants is not included in our $150 monthly budget.

I had to laugh when I read the details of her grocery bill being so low. Now why didn’t I think of that? She eats supper away from home 6-7 times a month, plus she and her husband eat about half of their lunches out to eat too.  She doesn’t mention breakfast; I’ll just assume those are at home and included in her grocery budget.  If my family ate as many meals away from home as much as Jessica and her family does, I could definitely get my food budget down into her range. Her numbers are hardly an accomplishment.

I’m always trying to find ways to spend less on groceries. Each time I read someone’s tips, I have to say to myself, I’m already doing that.

• I make lists.
• I shop sales.
• I cook from scratch.
• I use the crock pot.
• I don’t spend more than $2 per pound on meat–except when I splurge on New York strip steaks for $5.99 a pound.
• I stretch meat into more than one meal by making soups.
• I shop at Aldi. (among other stores)
• When I make something like lasagna or enchiladas, I make 2-3 meals at a time, eat one and freeze the others
• I occasionally use coupons, but couponing for me hasn’t been worthwhile. Even when stores double coupons, it’s usually less expensive to buy a different brand than the coupon calls for.
• I tried the grocery game for awhile and if it weren’t for such a high user’s fee, then I might stick with it. If I had all the coupons that they said I should have, it definitely would have been cost effective for me. But each week, I was searching for coupons that just weren’t available to me. I e-mailed their customer service and their answer to my problem was that I needed to get the biggest newspaper available to me.  So they wanted me to also purchase the Courier Journal.  Oh well. I just canceled the service.

Going out to eat more?  I’ll have to try that. Thanks for the tip. I can’t wait to read part 2 of this series.