The Daily Dish Recipes

We really stretch our food dollars every month, by doing one large shopping trip a month visiting three stores and then we usually only make the occasional trip to the store (always while out running errands - staying frugal and keeping gas cost down) to pick up milk, bread, butter and other odds and ends we sometimes need.

We make a trip to Aldi’s where we stock up on soups, sauces and canned goods. We also pick up baking items (like flour, sugar, etc.) and occasionally pick up bread for casseroles, frozen chicken breasts and other odds and ends. Aldi’s keeps their costs really low by asking you to pay .25 to rent a cart (which you get back at the end), having you bag your own groceries (which I actually like and I can get the kids involved in) and literally keeping their store small and very few employees. It isn’t my favorite store, but stocking up on these items when you can get canned sauces for .16/can or .37 a can works well for me with a large family of seven. We usually spend about $50 at Aldi’s a month, sometimes less.

My favorite place to shop each month is Sams or Costco, while we frequent both, we typically don’t visit both stores in a month. I check out ads and I also know what items each store carries that the other doesn’t, so when we are running short of something, we typically use that one to do our bulk shopping. We purchase everything we use in bulk from these stores. Things like pasta noodles, rice, seasonings, meat and poultry, snacks, coffee, creamer, sometimes cereal and other items. We spend about $200 per month at Sams. This feeds us well for a month, typically with leftover product. I make nearly everything from scratch as much as humanly possible, so buying from the bulk warehouse makes much more sense for us, since we go through so much food.

The last stop in a month is our local grocery store which changes from month to month - sometimes we use the regular grocery store and sometimes we use Shop and Save which is our “low cost grocery store). Sometimes we use our super wal-mart, which is my favorite but is currently about 15 miles from the house, so I don’t like driving so far if we have no other reason to be there. The good news about that, is the one that is about 2-3 miles from our house is being converted to a super wal-mart so soon, very soon - I will be shopping there! This is where we do most of our normal shopping. I scour ads every week, if something terrific is on sale and worth it, I might visit the grocery store at a different time in the month - like when ground turkey goes on sale, fresh deli meat for sandwiches. Normally we purchase fresh fruit, vegetables and other items from our grocery store. This is where we probably spend anywhere between $100-$200 sometimes considerably less if I am using coupons and specials.

In the summer, I try to make several trips to our farmer’s market, however we don’t have one real close to the house. Since we frequent a lake spot, there is one on the way out by it, so we sometimes stop on the way home. This is only occasionally simply because of the distance, but the prices are awesome and worth it. Usually we only spend about $20-$30.

Personally, I think that spending about $300-$500 a month on groceries to feed a family of seven, three meals a day (that’s 21 dishes a day!) is not bad. Lunches are easier, because they eat at school sometimes, but the summer months, it is typical to spend $500 in a month. If you use the $500 figure - it costs us each $71 a month to eat. Not too bad. I work hard to cut those costs, so many months its a LOT less, but that is all in relation to what I am cooking and what we are out of, as well as what sales, specials and coupons are available to me that month.

So how do you do your shopping and how much is typical in your family?

The cost of food is certainly on the rise, and making our dollars stretch is something that all of us need to do. Groceries are a necessity and something we have to purchase. It is not an expense we can forgo. So how do you save money on the thing you need most to survive? Here are five easy and quick ways to start saving today.

1. Substitute your boxed or frozen meals with made from scratch meals even just two times a week and you can save up to $5-10/week. Do it four times a week and you’re looking at $15-20 worth of savings. Add that up over the course of a year and you’re on your way to saving hundreds of dollars a year. Made from scratch is cheaper and can be stretched further and if you’re worried about waste, use your freezer to save portions for another day.

2. Coupons are available everywhere for nearly every product known to man. Clip them, organize them and use them. When you are making a shopping list, grab the weekly ad from your local grocer and pay attention to what is on sale. Perhaps even create your meals around these items. If a deal is particularly good, and you have the storage room, stock up. Use your coupons to bring the cost even further down. The first time you get groceries for $42 that would have cost you $109, you’ll get more excited about the coupons. In addition, it takes about an hour a week or so in organizing, but can save you thousands of dollars a year.

3. Buy in bulk, but only if you actually use the item frequently. Avoid purchasing anything in bulk that will spoil before you use it all. Consider splitting the cost with someone else and sharing the product. Ask someone, you might be surprised at how eager they are to do the same thing. You won’t know if you don’t ask. Buying in bulk definitely saves money, but you want to eliminate the end waste if you can.

4. Before you shop, eat a quick sandwich, or an apple or anything that might make you less hungry. You don’t want to be full, unless you shop exclusively from a list (which I strongly recommend). You’re more apt to not purchase anything because nothing will be appealing to you. If you shop when you are hungry, you will wind up with many items you probably would not have purchased otherwise.

5. Meal plan, make a list, stick to it. The best advice I have for you, make one grocery trip a week if you can help it. Consult the store ads, check out your coupons and then plan your meals ahead of time. Make a list of what you need to prepare those meals.  Once you have made that list, go to the grocery store and stick to what you have listed.

More tips coming this weekend and a money saving recipe later this afternoon!

Yesterday while browsing my favorite blogs, I came across a post from Kirstin over at BeCentsAble. (I love her blog btw!) She was giving 6 absolutely perfect reasons for shopping at a Bulk Warehouse Club.

On another site that I work for, I wrote an article similar to this a few years ago, but didn’t go as in depth as she did. Since the time of my writing that article, and several others, I have tried a few experiments which undoubtedly used the advice I gave. Here are my results.

About two years ago, we started shopping at three different food locations regularly. We visited the bulk warehouses at least once a month, but often twice. We visited a “shop and save” type of store three to four times a month and we visited our local grocery store (which happens to literally be right behind our neighborhood.) every week.

At the Bulk Warehouse: We purchased anything we use a lot of in bulk - meats, pasta noodles, canned veggies, soups, snacks for school, coffee and creamer, certain beverages, milk and many other items.

At the “shop and save” store: We purchased non-name brand versions of things I needed for upcoming meals - cream of whatever soups, cheese that was being cooked into a meal, rice, flour, sugar, etc.

At the local grocery store: We purchased our deli meats, bakery items, produce and just about anything found around the perimeter of the store. We also took advantage of any 10/$10.00 sales that occurred, purchased anything we used often with coupons and sales, and watched sales fliers like crazy!

In two years we went from shopping everything at one store, to shopping between the three and even with the rising cost of food and gas, managed to save $1,483 in groceries from one year to the next. This was with the help of everything I mentioned above - purchasing in bulk, using coupons, meal planning, sales fliers, discounts, etc.

Oh, and I should mention that this did not include one single non-food related item. We purchase our toilet paper, paper towels, toiletries, paper plates, cleaning solutions, etc. from places such as Wal-Mart and Target because they cost less.

Try it for a month or two and watch your savings climb. You’d be surprised at exactly how much you can cut out of your budget and still be fed well.

If you should wish to read some more articles on Bulk Warehouses, please come back and visit and look for the following upcoming articles:

How and Where to Store Large Purchases of Bulk Items
Large Families and Bulk Shopping
Small Families and Bulk Shopping

and of course, many more money saving articles on cutting food costs, shopping and kitchen and meal preparation.

The weekend is a great time to do some meal planning for the following week. I try to do it every Friday, though I must admit I am sometimes bad about it. Planning out your meals saves you time and money.

The best thing to do is sit down and plan out how many meals you need to account for between now and when you are going shopping again. For me, doing it on Friday - I have Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner, Sunday breakfast, lunch and dinner and then Monday - Thursday of the next week, I only have to worry about Dinner. Everyone will be different. My kids eat the school lunch, and I usually don’t cook them breakfast during the school week. They eat things like muffins, bagels or english muffins, cereal, oatmeal and frozen waffles and pancakes (which I might add I whip up ahead of time in about 20-30 minutes and then freeze so they are ready any time they need them.) I also pick up deli meat, so the kids either eat sandwiches or leftovers for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. This means I am only dealing with breakfast two days, and dinner seven days. And of course I do have to pick up some extra things for after school snacks and weekend snacks.

I try to plan around sales and coupons, but that isn’t always possible. I love cooking with my crock pot and would like to use it some this coming week. There isn’t much meat on sale this week, so I will have to try to stretch it as much as I can. Leftover roasted chicken or even slow cooked chicken can be used for all sorts of things, as can pork and beef.

What you need to do is decide in advance the meals you’d like to prepare, write out an ingredient list, check your well-stocked pantry or refrigerator (or freezer if you have one), and see what you already have. Then check sales fliers or coupons to see if you can save in any other ways. Write out a new list of only what you need to purchase and head to the store.

Meal planning is a great way to save yourself some time and money in the kitchen and in your budget. These days any little bit helps.

Did you know that most grocery stores put the more expensive products at eye level? They do this because some people shopping quickly will just grab the first product they see. If the item is at eye level, they will grab it up and wind up paying much more for it.

Instead, be sure to look both high and low when looking for products. Don’t assume that the bigger package is the best deal. Sometimes purchasing two smaller packages winds up being more cost effective. The same thing goes for assuming that two smaller products are the way to go. Sometimes the big bulk package is a much better option.

Where do you find the best deals in your local grocery stores? Is it way up high, way down low or somewhere in between?

Prices might be rising, but deals, sales and other good finds are still very much available at your local grocer.

Today’s deals at our store included:

- A 10 for $10 deal. These are always great especially if they allow you to combine the items and get many different kinds.

- Deli Meat at .99/lb. They had two types of turkey and 1 ham that were on sale for .99/lb. I haven’t any idea why, but getting real deli lunch meat for that price is a great find for me.

When I looked at the end caps at my local grocery store, they had some summer drinks and strawberry short cake makings for sale. Interestingly when I shopped down the actual aisles, the cost for larger and even smaller packaging were a MUCH better deal. Avoid buying directly from the end cap and look down the aisle for the better bargains. You might just be surprised.

After my grocery store rant, is seems only fair to share my shopping experience with others.

I was getting sick of the high price of food and groceries and the fact that it isn’t exactly cost effective to be hopping around from grocery store to grocery store.

A few days ago we decided to no longer shop at a store that is nearby our home. The reason? The cost of food there. While they have just about everything under the sun that you could ever want from healthy to organic, to junk food and everything in between, it just isn’t smart to be shopping somewhere when the same thing will cost .10 less at another store. Now before you go saying that it’s only .10 the point is, that all their products are like that. We started paying attention and noticed that many things that were one price at another store, were upwards of .50 to 1.00 more at this one.

What we normally would have spent $185 on, cost us only $108.00 tonight. We wound up with more food, and more expendable items (things that can be prepared for more than one meal)

So overall, I’m quite satisfied. No more rants….at least for now.

The prices of everything have dramatically risen lately. The price of milk is nearly double what it was only a year and a half ago. Bread has gone up, so have fruits and vegetables - all the things we need on a daily basis.

While saving money is important, some of the older tricks do not apply anymore. Here are a few new ideas and techniques to keep you from spending so much.

Take Less Trips

Take less trips to the store. Practice the art of meal-planning so that you know what you are going for and what will be consumed that day. This will help eliminate waste as well as save you money on gas from more frequent trips.

Ignore the Paper

Unless you get the paper delivered to your home already, or have a neighbor or other source where you can scour the coupons for free - just avoid it. Coupons are still number one on my ways to save money, but if you have to buy something to get the coupons - it probably won’t work out too much in your favor.

Name Brand is for the Birds

Never one to follow the crowd, I avoid purchasing name brands whenever I can. Even a .10 price different adds up when you total your grocery costs at the end. If you can cook or prepare a meal with a non namebrand item, this is a better practice to get into. Now I will be the first to admit, there are certainly items that just taste better by certain companies - those are the ones you want to try to get on sale or with coupons.

Hope some of these tips help. Do you have any good ways to save money on food?

With the price of food on the rise, consumers are looking for any way to save money they can. Here are a few simple suggestions on ways to share the cost of food with your friends, neighbors and family members.

Bulk Warehouse

This is one of our primary methods of saving money. With as many people as we have in our family, we don’t usually have anything spoil before we use it. However others don’t have large families like I do, so why not share the cost with a friend or neighbor? Go shopping together and split the cost of food and then bring it home and divide everything up.

Meal Making Co-op

This is another of my favorite methods, except that is because it is an excuse for me to hang out with a friend or two. I will be writing more on this method in the upcoming days, so please be sure and check out those articles for starting your own and tips and ideas once you have.

Special Sales

Many grocery stores have these special types of sales where you can purchase 10 for $10.00. The catch is that you have to actually buy all 10 of those items. What in the world are you going to do with ten boxes of cheerios. Are you really going to be able to eat all those before the spoil? If not, consider including a friend or neighbor in the deal and split the cost of purchasing them all together. Keep a careful watch because sometimes they will allow you to mix and match at that price so you don’t have to have ten of the exact same item.

These are just a few ways I can think of to split the cost of food. Another is the Angel Food Ministries, and if you haven’t checked them out - you really should! More on that coming up soon!

Gas? On a food blog? Oh yes my friends. With these higher gas prices, we are also seeing an increase in the price of certain foods. So how do you save money on both at the same time? Here are a few tips.

Just like in the past, make a list when grocery shopping. Don’t just wing it when you get to the store, actually spend time browsing through your pantry, refrigerator and freezer to see what you already have on hand, and what you need to get or replace.

Because of the gas prices being what they are, I am less likely to tell you to grocery store jump for the best prices, HOWEVER, there is an exception to the rule. If the stores are close together (like less than a half mile) it might still be worth your time and money to shop at more than one to get the best value. Be sure to really watch sales flyers at this point.

When you are going grocery shopping, get everything and come home and put it away. If you find that you forgot to get something, to not run back out and get it unless it is imperative for that nights meal, and then I would recommend that you plan better (bring a pen and cross off what you put in the cart as you get it).

When you have forgotten something, or you run out of something, combine the trip to the store with another errand. For instance, if you have to mail out a package or pick up some dry cleaning, do them both in the same trip.

Also, watch how much food wasting goes on in your kitchen and try to plan to avoid that at all costs. Wasting food, is at the same time wasting gas because you are going to have to go back out and get it again.

These are just a few of my favorite gas and grocery tips.

Here are two for saving money on gas only.

Pump early in the morning or late at night when the day has cooled off. You will get more fuel in your tank than you will on a hot day. When pumping on a hot day, you are actually paying for a certain amount of gas, but getting less.

If you have a gas station or other service station near you that offers a discount for paying with cash, take advantage of it. We have a local station that will give you 4 cents OFF per gallon if you pay with cash rather than a debit or credit card. I have also heard that you can get a discount by purchasing a wal-mart gift card and fueling at their pumps (if you have one) using it. I think it’s like 3 cents off per gallon. Any little bit helps, and in the long run you will be thankful.

If you have any tips on saving money on gas, this is the post to do it in. I know it’s a little unlike “food” but since I feel like saving money is an all around your life thing, it counts.