How do you save money on groceries and what is your weekly spend on it ?.

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This week is "purge week" for us. Something we do every 6-10 weeks or so. We plan our entire menu on what we have in the house. We may have to buy some groceries but it is usually well under 10% of what we normally buy / spend. Sometimes we will stretch purge week into 2 or even 3 weeks, but usually it's just the 1. I dig to the bottom of the freezer searching for cuts of meat that have been waiting a long time to see the light the day, we rotate through canned goods, we open that box of whatever that just seem to sit there for ever, and we make sure any produce that has reached the end of it's lifespan gets used up. The money we save on these purge weeks goes into our vacation fund but the meals we eat are sometimes very interesting.
 
Sort of a pantry challenge @Sentry18 and sounds like a great idea to use groceries that have been hanging around forever. What a great cause to put the savings to your vacation fund.

We put our savings either to savings, paying off the mortgage or saving for our bore to be put in or buy any equipment we need.

My wife has our finances locked in so tightly if I found a penny on the sidewalk she would already have it budgeted. We skipped taking any vacations one summer because she (we) wanted to pay down debt, after that she removed the vacation budget entirely and added it all to debt relief. We came up with this to restore most of the money we spend on get-a-ways. Now we only have reoccurring costs and our mortgage, which is less than 3 years away from being paid off.
 
I once did a seven week test of the preps, not one trip to the store. The MIL was ill and the wife was gone. It went well and I didn't have any problems or feel like I wasn't eating properly. I was living in a community only accessible by air. The test ended when I had to fly into town for a doctor appointment and I wasn't going to pass on a trip to Costco. I too got rid of some old stuff.
 
Since I am the cook and meal planner I make sure to use "leftovers" and our pantries are kept in constant rotation to use the oldest stuff first. We only go grocery shopping once a month or so except for fresh greens, eggs and milk.
 
@Sentry18 and DW congratulations on almost having your mortgage paid off.

@Caribou good to do dry runs on how long your groceries would last and yes we wouldn't have a problem either with lack of food.

@SheepDog we do the same and shop once a month and top up on fresh veg, fruit etc when we have other appointments to go to. We use everything in the home too and leftovers get turned into another meal or two as well. Usually we cook a large roast and then make meals for days afterwards with the meat or freeze the extra meat to use later in meals.
 
After work I have a "date" with a lady from church who lives just outside of town. I am going to mow her lawn and help her with a few other chores. In exchange my kids are going to pick a few buckets of pears and a few buckets of apples, some for her and some for us. My wife is thinking about canning some pears and applesauce this weekend.

pears1.jpg
 
Great barter trade, Sentry.

She is an older lady who needs the help but won't ask for it. This way we can help her out and she gets to keep her dignity. Plus my wife makes some amazing no sugar added applesauce, even if isn't Keto. So yes, a good barter all around.
 
Just wanted to post that prices at our local walmart went up.

About 2 weeks ago the whole pasta area for the GV brand was empty. Only the expensive name brands were there. Now their pastas are back but went from 88 cents a box to $1 a box.
Their boxed stuffing ( like stovetop) went from 89 cents each up to a $1 each. So did their boxed potatoes ( like au gratin and scalloped). They're $1 each now
I didn't check the veggies or canned fruits.

I think I'm going to head back in one day this week to see what the prices are. I also forgot to add applesauce to my grocery list and want to get some and their seedless grapes are down to $1.49 lb but I didn't know how many oranges I had left so I want to get some grapes for snacks
 
I bought those canned veggie at Walmart yesterday, and yes they went up. I believe they were 43 cents ea prior, now 50 cents, but still cheaper than any around. I noticed the dry potato flake packets were all a buck. No deals in produce at all. I bought the canned veg and 2 cans of roast beef, and that's all.
I then went to Big Lots. Now, their prices went up so noticeably, that I doubt that I'll shop there anymore. Canned veg there is a buck a can. The Bear Creek Soup mixes were usually a good buy there at $3. Now $3.95. I left with just a couple of items. Usually I fill the cart.
Here it comes.
 
Yea I was telling hubby on the way home that I'll now wait until the local grocery store has their pastas on sale. They sometimes have them for only 77 cents each or 88 cents each if you buy a certain amount ( which is fine I just vacuum seal them in jars for later lol)

I've been getting more and more unimpressed with walmart and their groceries. Although around the beginning of Nov they put their canned veggies on sale which was always a good bargain. I'll have to wait and see what they charge this year
 
@Sentry18 good trade and a nice way to give the lady service without her asking for it and making sure she is okay too :) .

@WVDragonlady you are all now seeing what is going on here with the drought but there it was floods and now trade wars. Groceries just shoot up in price with no warning and then the budget you used to have doesn't cover near as much.

@Amish Heart good for you to check the prices on tinned veg and get the best prices and stock up. That is what we have been doing here is when we see a good sale is buy a carton or two. Meat is just ridiculously priced over here but I have managed to get good sales and a lot of clearances with some marked about 45 - 50 % off which we have filled the freezer with. By doing this we have wound back prices, so to speak, and still have more than we need in the home in stocks. It is getting harder though with sales here very few and far between as the big supermarkets are saying they are concentrating on profits instead of having sales. Good luck I say to them as our wages here have gone backwards and most don't have the money to pay the higher prices.
 
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I am not impressed with grocery prices lately at all. I normally write three lists a week, from three different stores that are near to each other and make my rounds on Wednesday or Thursday. My lists have been pretty small, not many good sales. Prices have crept up at all stores the last few months. It's noticeable.
 
@Amish Heart and @WVDragonlady might have to wait for the case lot and or annual clearances and buy a years supply or more like we do. I am hoping the prices level out for all of you but usually when they put the prices up they never come down again. It does increase your grocery bill usually in one big jump with the sudden price increases.

We took our budget up from $240 a month up to $300 a month after the price rises on meat and a lot of other items due to the drought and floods here. We find we are still a fair way under budget but only by shopping when the big sales/clearances are on and buying bulk supplies and looking for good specials on things like vitamins and all other needs. If we are over budget having to buy in bulk at sales so be it and we just take the over expenditure off the next months budget as we usually need less supplies.
 
We only buy groceries once a month when the wife and I go in for doctor appointments.

To save money we tend to buy everything bulk. I buy 50# bags of potatoes for $9 each, I buy 50# bags of onions for $12.50 each. I buy 50# bags of flour for $12, 25# oatmeal for $12.50, 25# rice for $14, 50# sugar for $16 and 25# carrots for $11.50.

I buy all my spices in the bulk section as well as coffee creamer, beans etc.

We buy very little of anything that is processed, makes meals a little more work but keeps things a lot cheaper and healthier.

For meat we buy a couple turkeys each year and maybe 10 or 12 packages of chicken each year when it goes on sale for .98 cents a pound.

Most of our meat comes from over sized 600 to 1,000 pound hogs that I buy at the livestock auction 3 or 4 times a year. I pick them for anywhere from $1 an animal up to 1 cent a pound. I slaughter them and process the meat for us to eat. Some of the meat I trade out for venison, elk, moose, bear, beef etc.

We have a flock of chickens that we collect about ten dozen eggs from a month, then we buy 10 to 15 dozen more eggs a month in the five dozen packs at the store.

I have four ponds full of fish, three of them full of catfish and one full of large mouth bass so we fish often and use that as part of our meat. I also hunt some of the pheasant, quail, wild turkey, Canadian geese and chuckers that live on our farm.

We also have an orchard here on the farm where we have apple trees, plum trees and cherry trees that we harvest for food. We also drive the old torn out railroad tracks and collect apples and plums from the wild trees growing alongside the old tracks.

I grow a large garden each year which supplies us a lot of food in the late spring through the fall. I can up a lot of things like turnip greens, beet greens, mustard greens, Swiss chard, spinach and radish greens for winter use. For the roots crops and veggies I cook them in vinegar and make a fermented kimchee style mixture for winter use.

I also collect a lot of wild plants from dandelion leaves and flowers, lambsquarters, Oregon grape, elder berry, huckleberry, service berry, black caps, thimble berry and black berry.

I also collect wild mint, lemon mint, peppermint, wild rose hips, and St Johns wort growing here on the farm for teas.

My forests grow a great quantities of slippery cap boletus mushrooms in the fall. I have never been able to collect them all as I could easily 200 to 300 pounds of them, but I commonly collect and process 50 to 75 pounds a year.

Our monthly food bill including our hog processing averaged out is around $250 to $275 a month for a family of six. Some times in the summer we squeeze it out a bit to save a little money and we drop our monthly food bill to $175 a month for the summer months.
 
Saving was the last thing on my mind yesterday! I was like a kid in a candy store. and it was Xmas day when I found out our gracery store would deliver this far out in the rural area.Joined a club for delivery it wshere same day.
After being locked away for 46 days ,once we sterilized all that good stuff she brought us It was Xmas,Thanksgiving easter and Sunday Dinner all wraped up into one big party or two.
We had locked front door and hid behind blinds watching that poor lady run it from her car to our porch we were ready for something other than oatmel,biscuits and beans,peanut butter and jelly saltine crackers and MEAT!! I like meat but not without sides.We used out last fried ric ingrediants earlier this week.
First had a ice cream Hunky, ,Cheetos,tomato sandwich,then another of all of it for desert.
Cost didn't matter guess it will later though.
 
Local & organic fruits & vegetables are sky high, it will be far cheaper to raise my own organic F & V, plus it will be local too.
I have been looking for chickens that lay 300+ eggs a year, I thinking 2-300lb pigs should be enough per year, maybe a steer & 100 meat chickens.
Ducks may fill the gap on the chickens not laying in the winter. I can raise some kind of vegetables year around, others are seasonal.
Fruit in summer & fall, nuts in fall.
 
Most ducks don't lay in the winter, either.
I don't do the grocery shop anymore, so we are not getting any specials. Husband goes online to Sams, like he did yesterday morning. Inputs what he wants, asks me if I need anything, tells me they don't have it, then I do the pickup. The order he placed yesterday will be ready Monday night between 7 and 8 p.m. I work with what was available and what we have.
 
Most ducks don't lay in the winter, either.
I don't do the grocery shop anymore, so we are not getting any specials. Husband goes online to Sams, like he did yesterday morning. Inputs what he wants, asks me if I need anything, tells me they don't have it, then I do the pickup. The order he placed yesterday will be ready Monday night between 7 and 8 p.m. I work with what was available and what we have.

And they only mate in water. Poor Sassy couldn't go near our duck pool without Aflac jumping on her in the water.
 
Most ducks don't lay in the winter, either.
I don't do the grocery shop anymore, so we are not getting any specials. Husband goes online to Sams, like he did yesterday morning. Inputs what he wants, asks me if I need anything, tells me they don't have it, then I do the pickup. The order he placed yesterday will be ready Monday night between 7 and 8 p.m. I work with what was available and what we have.
I have read the Khaki Campbell are better at laying then many chickens, at over 300 eggs a year, still leaves 60 day without eggs.
 
Local & organic fruits & vegetables are sky high, it will be far cheaper to raise my own organic F & V, plus it will be local too.
I have been looking for chickens that lay 300+ eggs a year, I thinking 2-300lb pigs should be enough per year, maybe a steer & 100 meat chickens.
Ducks may fill the gap on the chickens not laying in the winter. I can raise some kind of vegetables year around, others are seasonal.
Fruit in summer & fall, nuts in fall.


Actually if chickens are given a light in their coup they will lay eggs all winter long, mine always have anyways. It is also handy to keep the coup above freezing temp as trying to pry masses of 15 to 20 eggs frozen together apart is not the funnest or easiest feat. Feed them good try to keep the coup 30 F or higher and give them 12 hours of light a day and you should get as many eggs in the winter as you do the rest of the year.
 
Actually if chickens are given a light in their coup they will lay eggs all winter long, mine always have anyways. It is also handy to keep the coup above freezing temp as trying to pry masses of 15 to 20 eggs frozen together apart is not the funnest or easiest feat. Feed them good try to keep the coup 30 F or higher and give them 12 hours of light a day and you should get as many eggs in the winter as you do the rest of the year.
I just got home from a friends home that has 20 hens & she said her chickens lay year around, they are spotty in cold months & at time she only get 12 eggs a week. She is begging people to come get FREE eggs & no one will stop by for them. She tried to give me a dozon, but I have two in the frig now.
Backpacker you are right! the Black Orpingtons holds the record of 364 eggs in one year. No I do not have a link, but that is a claim of more than one site. The Golden Comet is a 300 a year layer too.
I like the Black Orpingtons & the Goden comet, but I may add another also.
 



Check out 5:30 to see 1000 Black Orpington layers.
 
I never thought I would see the day where ribs and chicken wings would cost more than other cuts of meat from the same animal. I just got back from the store and 32 oz of cut up wings was 9.99. I really wanted to make some more hot wings tomorrow. Oh well, instead I picked up some legs and thighs at 6.99 for 36 oz. I am going to make them hot... LOL

I am also going to try to make some buffalo shrimp.
 

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