Last grocery update of 2014

We spent $255.98 in December and were able to, for the first time EVER, have only one major grocery run.  This meant we only spent $56.50/week over the four weeks.  A good savings but our cupboards sure feel empty.  It has been a struggle not to go out to eat recently and I can't wait to shop this weekend.  But this did save us $32.08 this month which mean, for year I was over $334.11 or $6.43/week.  That is almost 10% higher than I budgeted, wow!  But, I do have small budget.  But that small budget is going to continue in 2015 and I can't afford to go over like that.  So, we are keeping our noses to grindstone and will continue to work on keeping the grocery spending low.

I'm going to continue to push for once a month shopping, with little purchases to supplement during the month.  I'm going to work on crockpot meals as well as finding a new recipe to try once a month to keep variety and not cause me to eat out.  Does anyone have any other ideas on how to keep the grocery bill low?

Join or create a buying co-op to save money

When I first started looking around on blogs to learn tricks to save money many people talked about how wonderful stores like Costco are.  But often unless gas is much, much cheaper and you drive a lot, as a single person, Costco is not a good deal.  But what if a whole group of people went in on the large box items together?  Sometimes then it is a good deal.  And what if one of those people can get free access to a big box store via their parents?  It might become a wonderful deal.

And you can take this idea further than just Costco.  A local butcher shop in Buffalo will occasionally have major deals on chicken and steak but you have to buy 40lbs in chicken or 15lbs in steak.  Besides the fact that 40lbs won't fit in my freezer, I can't afford 15lbs of steak.  But if a bunch of grad students chip in, we all can get a little bit and save a lot of money.

That is the idea behind co-ops, groups of people getting together to buy large amounts.  I have notice quite a few high end co-ops for organic groceries, but you can create your own as well.  So all you need to do is fine one person with a car, one person with a membership to a big box store and a few people who want to buy in and you are set.  Each person picks a store to watch and then a text or email to the whole group when a deal comes and everyone benefits.  

This collaborative approach towards saving money can save you money, time and space, all things many college students lack.  Are their any readers that have tried this before?  Or do you plan to try this during the new year?

Three week grocery round up, with a Serious Fail!

Single week shopping does not work for us!  We averaged 68.97 every week and were careful, so very careful.  We did fine at the main store, but not good and we still spent at the "deal" stores because of course, we found deals. 

We were over a total of $8.97 which makes us owe $366.19 with a month to go till the end of 2014.  Granted only being over by 8.97 with thanksgiving in there is pretty decent, but we can't go with decent, we need good.  We could not shop one bit and still not be within budget.  And, not shopping won't work at all.  So my plan is to go back to once every three weeks shopping (though maybe I will stretch it to once a month, what do you think?) and do my best. 

This has taught me that screwing up is hard to fix, and much easier to just not screw up in the first place.  Now if I can just keep to that.  I am going to be keeping a better eye on my accounts, one reason I got mint in the first place and trying for some more cheap meals during this winter.  This is going to be a struggle for me, but one I fully intend to win.  See you soon.

Three Weeks of Groceries, what a spendy time!

We overspent so much this last three weeks!  We spent $283.93, a budget busting $85.93 more than budget!  That is more than a weeks worth of food.  What did we spend it on?  Well we spent $48.13 on chicken because the meat store had a sale for 1.49/lb (.50 cheaper than the grocery store), but we had to buy 30lbs.  And we had bought a couple splurge items when Tops Market had some major sales and then we stocked up. 

So what are we going to do?  We are $357.28 over our spending with seven weeks to go and Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping is in there.  There is no way I can spend $14.96 a week.  However, we won't have to buy chicken for the rest of the year (and probably even longer) so I am going to take this as alright.  We will end up dipping into our EF to cover this which sucks but that is life. 

So what is the plan?  Because we know we are buying our turkey next week at Top's, we decide to not doing major shopping this week.  We are hitting wegmans for some basics on Sunday (which looks to cost less than $40) and then next Saturday will buy our turkey for .48/lb but we need to spend $25 more to get that price, so we will probably do the thanksgiving spending there and spend about $30-40 that week.  The week after we will see what we have left over from thanksgiving and go from there.  We may not be able to make up all of this money but we can do some fixes.

One of the best things I have learned from this is to change things up when they don't work.  It may work great one week but not work the next.  Don't be dogmatic, and you can take on anything!

Grocery plan updates for a month and half!

We spent 107.44 wegmans, $31.53 for the warehouse club, $31.27 for tops and $7 meat store for a total for three weeks 177.24 which averaged out to 57.88 for each week from Sept 13-27th.  This is a savings of $20.76 from our "debt to the grocery gods" given that we went over during the first half of the year.  However, that was not enough.  Our goal was $48/week, with a reach goal of $45/week.  I am not surprised we went over because we needed to purchase both ground beef and chicken during those weeks. Hopefully we can stretch the meat so we don't have to buy more in the near future.  But still our "debt" to the grocery budget was down to $270.24 at that point.  But, life got in the way of posting so that was three weeks ago, so where are we now?

Well we spent $179.55 at wegmans, $7.89 at tops, $7.67 at the warehouse, and only $4 at the meat store because I was out of town last weekend.  This means we spent $199.11 over the three weeks, which is $66.36/week.  We went over our weekly max of $66/week from the grocery annual budget and now are in more "debt" to the grocery gods.  We now owe $271.35.  And the year end is getting closer and closer.  Do you think we might be able to make it?  Obviously we won't be spending anything this weekend.

We have ten weeks to go, and in there is Christmas and Thanksgiving in there.  Maybe we will get lucky, but we are cutting down the wire and we have eaten much of the food in the house that allowed us to cut down earlier this year.  Our normal budget allows for $66, so cutting $27 off would be $38.  We can't get below $50 so I doubt we can get to $38.   But this experiment has taught us how low we can go and how easy it is to go over.

Grocery update: I am almost there!

My weekly goal has been $48/week average with a stretch goal of $45/week.  Over the last three weeks we averaged $52.77/week.  It is a savings of $39.69 from our normal weekly spending but not where I need to be. We are still short $291 for the year.  And, on top of that, the only reason we are so low is that ground beef prices went up to $2.99/lb and we chose not to buy them this time around.  Sadly, we will have to do our chicken and some ground beef stock up next weekend. 

So let's break it down:
I spent $57 at BJ's over the last three weeks.  This needs to be cut down dramatically.  Thankfully I only spent $80 at wegmans and $11 at tops and I kept my weekly meat market spending below $4 each week which kept the overall price down. I did not end up stopping by trader joe's for anything in the last three weeks.  So what is my plan for the next three weeks?  Well I do expect to spend higher at wegmans and lower at BJ's so maybe they will even out?  Otherwise, my goal over the next few weeks is to find recipes that stretch our meat and therefore be able to buy less. 

Thankfully, we are so close to our $48/week goal that we don't have to depress it again so our goal for the next round is still $48/week with a stretch goal of $45. 
So I am going to reach out to my readership, does anyone have simple recipes that stretch meat or are vegetarian?

Grocery goal still not met, but I am getting better!

I'm improving, I'm improving!

I am not hitting my grocery goals of $49/week, but I am under my normal weekly budget of $66 so at least I am not making it worse?  Over the last three weeks I averaged 53.61, this was better than the previous three weeks (those weeks averaged $55.33).  This means I have cut the $400 overage by $69.18 to $331 over the last month and half.  Still not good enough, but slowly we are getting there.  I might even have a three week period of spending less than $45/week by the end of the year. However, if I don't I need to now aim for $48/week, not $49.

We were able to cut our spending at the meat market to $4 but we were out of town for one of the weekends.  I do expect it to go back up to $6 for the next three weeks.  However we spent $23 at grocery stores while we were out of town, to avoid eating out all the time.  Given that we won't be out of town for the next three weeks, I'll count this as a win.

We did very badly at Wegmans and spent $109.81 and I had wanted to only spend $92 max.  I am not sure what I can do to cut this down farther, but I am going to try.
I did cut BJ's warehouse to $5 in this three month period, but for the next I have a couple stock ups so I expect to spend about $20.  I also doubt we will be going to the asian grocery store in the next three weeks, like we did this round ($10) because the items we bought should last more than a month and half.   We only spent $8 at trader joe's but because we will be home, I assume that will doubt for the next round.  I spent $9 at Tops and expect to spend a little more because just for this week the deals look good, so let's say $30 for the next round. 

Based on all the other spending, if I was to aim for $48 average, I'd only get $72 to spend at wegmans this weekend.  However, if I only looked the budgeted weekly amount of $66, I'd get $132.  I'll be making my list (and checking it twice) and we will see how low I can go!

First three weeks of my new grocery plan: Complete

So, as I look back over the last three weeks, I did not achieve either of my goals, either my safety goal or my reach goal.  See my previous post on my goal and why my goal is $50 or less and my plan for achieving it here: http://frugalstudents.blogspot.com/2014/07/biannual-review-time.html .

I am disappointed in myself and sort of worried that we won't make it.  We spent $92 at wegmans, $23 at trader joe's, $12 at the meat store, $11 at tops market and $28 at BJ's warehouse for a total of $166 for three weeks.  This averages out to $55.33/week.  That means I have to spend less than $45/week for three weeks to make up for this OR find a way to consistently spend less than $49/week for the rest of the year.

So what caused this higher spending?  First, I neglected to account our spending at the meat market. Also, I found a few more items that were cheaper at BJ's than wegmans's, including one that was only cheaper because of a coupon BJ's sent me.  Third, we went through our fruits and vegetables faster than I expected and we did a top off at trader joe's.  Fourth, tops had a sale on my sodas in two litters and I stocked up.  I am noticing a trend here, I stock up ALOT.

So, what is my next step?  Well, logically I won't need to spend as much at BJ's because we have stocked up but what if I find another deal?  Maybe I should leave that amount alone for now?  Given that I neglected to even think about the spending at the meat store tells me I should take a closer look, and maybe cut that down.  My goal will be to cut that by half, down to $6.  Next, because of those larger purchases I am hoping to spend less than $92 next week at wegmans.  The best goal would be $67 but I don't think is possible so I am going to try to spend less than $92 at wegmans.  Combined this should set me up to spend no more than an average of $50/week. 

This does not mean I'll break even, I'll still be over budget BUT I think that I will do better by slowly cutting down than any huge cut.  I had a hard time the last three weeks with not just saying screw it and going out to eat and that costs me more than a $16 extra dollars I spent.  There is also a chance I'll spend nothing at tops over the next few weeks because that depends on the sale and deals and sometimes those just are not there.  I am going to get used to the first $16 cut and then work my way down as needed. 

Biannual Review Time!!!!

My husband and I are in the process of organizing our ENTIRE life, including our finances.  One way to do so is to have an fiscal review time.  Back when I was staying home we reviewed the finances monthly, but honestly I did not have time once school and our daughter came.  So we decided we would get together and review our finances twice a year, once during the summer and once during winter break.

However, after this review I don't think we are reviewing enough and we need to be more in touch than we have been.  So, bad news first, we are $400 over in spending for groceries.  Wow, that is six whole weeks of grocery spending. Thankfully we did our review before our major grocery shopping trip and because of finding this out, we made some changes.  Normally we do a major grocery trip every other week and then go to trader joe's for fruit and other items only at trader joe's the opposing week.  We also do runs to cvs and tops market when there are good deals.  Part of the problem was that there have not been many good deals from cvs so we have been spending our normal cash on non-food items like paper towels, bathroom tissue and such.  Also, I have not been spending as much time getting the gift cards from mypoints as I could because my life has been so crazy busy.  But, I need to organize myself because I can't be that crazy busy for more than six months without changing something about my life.  But we will get back to that later.  What are we doing to save that $400?

Well, we cut out all of the "fat" from our grocery budget and were about to get down to $92 for the next two weeks.  But, I think we can stretch that food to three weeks if we hit trader joe's and our new store BJ's warehouse.  Our new plan will not include a major run every two week, but every three weeks, allowing for a run to BJ's warehouse and trader joe's in the weeks between, which does mean stretching the time between trader joe's visits as well.  This should save us some time as well.  Even if we spend high at trader joe's and average at BJ's, we will average about $41/week for the next three weeks if this works.  This does mean that we are eating out of the freezer and cupboard at lot so we won't be able to keep this low of spending but we should be able to get close to my goal of $50/week for the rest of the year this way, I think.  I will be reviewing this in three weeks to see how we did and I will report back!  I am also on the looking for more meals that can be made cheaply.  We also will be relying on our very small garden.

Because of our schedules our garden is mostly dead.  We have one tomato plant holding on, two basil plants barely holding on, our apple tree and the multiple blackberry bushes.  Right now this means I can get a few basil leaves a week and a small handful of blackberries every day.  I am going to use the blackberries to stretch our budget.  Then, when the apples come in, we will do the same with those.  We are lucky to have these fruits that will really help our budget, but that is not just luck.  Part of why we chose this house was the tree and we planted the blackberries three years ago because I know I don't have a green thumb.  Blackberries are one of those plants that acts like a weed and is very hard to kill.  If you don't have much time, or are like me and kill plants, a blackberry bush can be great if you plan to live in your home for over three years.  Pre-planning when you have time can have great benefits in the future when you become busy. 

But on to the better news!  We ended under budget for miscellaneous expenses, like hair cuts, small appliances, etc which is surprising because we had to buy a new printer and I thought that would mean going over.  One of the reason I try to be strict with myself is so if issues happen I don't have a major problem.  Guess that did not work on the groceries, sigh.  Again, on to other expenses.  We are within budget for utilities but I would like to cut those down a little more so we are trying to cut down on dryer usage this summer. Everything else is pretty similar to utilities, within budget but I am still looking for more ideas to cut. 

Does anyone have ideas they have used for cutting expenses that they would like to share?  I always say "never assume you can't do better" and therefore am always on the lookout.

Food plans are bad plans

Last year a lab mate of mine ate out for lunch every day, but would talk about not having any money.  Finally someone said, well then don't eat out!  But, he already bought $500 per semester of meals which equaled to one meal a day during the week.  Our semesters were 16 weeks long so that equaled $6.25/meal.  There were nights that he did not eat because they had no food in the house, because they could not afford to buy any.  How does that make sense?

We had access to a fridge and microwave at school and he had access to a fridge, stove and microwave at home so why spend $6.25/meal to eat out when that meant no dinner?  It really seemed like it was just another bad habit from undergrad.  You hear of the freshman 15 because freshman are eating out and can't cook in dorms.  Why are we setting these kids up to fail?  We set them up to overeat and overspend.  Neither of these are good and this is how we start our adult lives.  So what is a better idea?

First, cut the meal plan out if your university allows, if not call and see if they will waive the requirement and let you rent an apartment on campus.  Most colleges only allow that for upper-division students but sometimes, if a parent pushes prior to acceptance, they fold for the younger students.  As much as I believe in doing things for yourself, in this instance a parent has a lot more clout even if you have gotten a full scholarship or you are taking loans and working and therefore your parents are not paying.  If you do have to take a meal plan, take the smallest plan you can so you do not spend too much money.

If you are in a small dorm room, get a mini-fridge and microwave and use that for breakfast and weekend lunches.  You may even be allowed to have a crockpot which can make some wonderful dinners, all ready when you come home from classes or your part-time job.  Speaking of part-time jobs, restaurant jobs are wonderful for college students.  I paid my way through university on a server salary though I did a year of hosting to get enough experience to move up. 

Does anyone have a positive experience with food plans that I am missing?

Great Combo Deal

I love going out to eat but it can great very expensive, especially if you like higher end restaurants, which I do. But sometimes there will just be a great deal that turns an expensive night out, into a relatively cheap one. The Melting Pot in Cheektowaga is having discounted cheese and chocolate for two if you sit at the bar on tuesday nights. By doing so you will save about $7 compared to the normal price. Ok deal, not a great one. But here comes living social to make it even better. $15 for $30 worth of food. https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/326354?ref=conf-jp&rpi=62811398 That saves you another $15. It goes from being a $50 meal for two at minimum to a $27 meal for two. Way better deal in my mind.

Heathly Eating, Costs and Benefits

People may have notice that I have not kept up on my food budget updates and their is a reason for this. I am changing my eating habits and that has thrown my budget completely out of whack. I expected that we would have to spend more this year just because of inflation but adding in eating better we are now consistently spending about $65/week. Part the reason for that is food I do not eat. I am not used to eating healthy so some fresh veggies have gone to waste or the meal ended up not tasting good and I threw it out. However, I truly believe that once I get accustomed to cooking and eating well, our cost will go down. Making a change means I am not perfect at it, or even good at it.

This is true of any change, food, financial, anything. However, often we try to change and because we make mistakes we give up and that is the real mistake. Is being over my budget by $10/week going to kill my budget? Kinda, I won't be able to save the amount I need but is going over by $10/week for a small time going to kill my budget, probably not. In the end, being healthy will mean less medical expenses, it may even mean less food costs once I know what I am doing. I also think that over the summer our food bills will decrease even more, because we will be eating out of the garden and used to eating fresh fruits and veggies. Does anyone have cheap healthy meals that I can try? What ways have you kept your grocery bill low while still eating healthy?

Update on grocery savings plan June

I averaged $48.08/week last month on groceries. That was below my weekly allowance for groceries and I am quite please with it. I even was able to spend lower then the amount I need to bring my year to date grocery spending closer to my annual goal.
I am now averaging $51.78/week. I am at exactly halfway though the year and I am $46.22 over my goal. I am still within budget but by achieving this goal I will have more money for savings and invest or even more fun. I think I can cut $46.22 from 26 weeks even with Christmas dinner. If I am to achieve my goal of $50/week, I will have to spend average less than $48.22/week for the rest of year. This is more then I spent last month, on average and I think I can do it.

Anyone have any advice for keeping my totals low while eating well?

Frugal Food

When I moved out on my own, I could not cook. Well, I could not cook most things. I remember one night trying to make dinner and getting so confused I called a friend's parent and had her walk me through how to cook whatever I was cooking though I do not remember what it was. I have gotten much better now and also have bought a crockpot which helps a lot. I have learned to watch sales and stockpile but it is just a fact of life that certain types foods will be cheaper than other types. For example ground beef is cheaper than steak but I can get a good deal on both. Since I am trying to say money on food I am going to start pricing out some of my favorite frugal recipes and posting it. Today's is crockpot chili.

Chili
ground beef or turkey-$1.99/lb using one pound
can of black beans .69/can
can of kidney beans .69/can
taco or chili powder depending on the size it would be at max .79/each
tomato soup .69/can use two

Brown the meat, then throw everything in the crockpot and leave on low for 8 hours.
You now have about 4-6 servings of chili for $5.54, about one dollar a serving. If you can afford or want to, you can add cheese and/or sour cream once it is in bowls. Adding that might increase the cost to $1.50 per serving.

Now I hate eating the same thing day after day so I understand if you are sitting there going but I am not eating 4 meals of chili in a row. I would not do it either. What I do is put half in the freezer for a later date and eat one bowl of chili and then the next meal we cut up a potato, fry it in vegetable oil and pour the chili over it and make chili fries. I may spend a little more on the vegetable oil and the potato but not much (maybe another .50) and it makes me willing to eat the leftovers.

Some people may say that these are not health meal because there are no fruits or vegetables in them. You could add in some frozen corn to the chili or stewed tomatoes but I found I did not like it that way. Some people might add some vegetables on the side but for me, I am ok with an occasional cheap meal that does not have everything in it. We can't always be good.

Anyone else who has a great frugal meal, let me know in the comments.