Frugal Food, $150/month on food- possible? (sale, items, old)

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by modhatter

Price matching? Do you bring ads in from other supermarkets for their sale items and ask them to match their price? Is that common with supermarkets?
Who does it? I know some electronic stores do this, but wasn't aware food stores do this.

Walmart is the only store that does ad matching here. The regular supermarkets don't. Walmart sells for the supermarket sales price but it's not automatic. So you need to be sure and tell the cashier that it's an ad match so they can enter it correctly. I've actually had customers who thought all the stores sales ads were in our computers! lol Or worse yet, why don't *I* know ALL those sales??

There are some 'rules and regulations' when it comes to ad matching but they are few. For instance, if there's a buy one get one free ad in Safeway's sales, unless there's an actual price printed for the first one, we can't do it. And most of those BOGOs don't list a price.

[CSD610]

Our budget is a wee bit higher for two adults however, Sneakers is diabetic and I cannot use potatoes, pasta, rice and beans like I used to unless they are well planned and unfortunately can only be on days when his glucose numbers are low. We have a lot of meat, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and salad greens, snacks are generally sugar free jello and pudding for him, a small serving of ice cream or fresh popped popcorn with little if any salt and butter. Dairy is also limited and chips and things like that are again few and far between. I do make fresh salsa often and salad dressing but again I have to watch very closely what he consumes because of his diabetes. Also, I cannot have any artificial sweetner because it gives me migraines so when I make jello or pudding I make sugar free and regular. Otherwise we eat the same meals together when he is home and we don't go out to eat very often.

[hueyeats]

I think w/ tons of rice... (made into congee / porridge) then add a can of potted meat here & a can veggies there, yes its possible (that is what I reserve for my SHTF scenario food to stretch out food supplies).

Oh... and grow a garden & can your own = stretching food budget too.

[Submariner]

Not just rice [which people usually associate with beans]. But also potatoes, and any whole grain.

Whole grain has a great deal more nutrients as compared to polished white rice.

Each grain is different, so use a selection and mix it up.

[hueyeats]

^^^ITA!
And harvest & eat your dandelion greens before your garden produce is ready.... dandelion = free food & very very good for you.
http://www.leaflady.org/health_benef...dandelions.htm

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by hueyeats

^^^ITA!
And harvest & eat your dandelion greens before your garden produce is ready.... dandelion = free food & very very good for you.
The Health Benefits of Dandelions

I am absolutely going to try to do this this year.

Last year, I did a lot of foraging of dandelions (both the flowers and the greens), as well as a lot of other stuff, but I was doing it for my very old rabbit, Greg.

I also have a bunch of Japanese knotweed. It's supposed to be very good if harvested in the early spring; a couple of years ago, I cooked some up but it was pretty disgusting. It was later into the summer, though.

[frugalfoodie7]

There is a website called Po' Man Meals, where they have a $30 for 5 meals series. It really helped us save money. [url=http://www.pomanmeals.com/category/30-for-5-meals/]po' man meals - $30 for 5 meals![/url]

[charolastra00]

I've been trying to cut down my food budget. I haven't gotten it cheap and healthy (which for me means reducing carbs) but the more disciplined I get, the better it will be!

My last big meal was eggplant parmasean over baked ziti. Aldi's had cheese on sale, so I stocked up.

1 lb box of whole wheat ziti - $2
jar of tomato sauce - $2
eggplant - $2
3 eggs - .25c ($1 for a dozen)
1 cup bread crumbs - .50c
cheeses - $5
mushrooms - $2
leftovers of bulk bag of spinach - $1
Total = $14.75

I ate it for 5 days of lunch at work, plus dinner the first night, and I frozen 4 more individual serving bags for future work lunches. $1.50 for a full meal, $7.50 for lunch for the week. That's less than many people spend on one lunch out. Not bad.

Tonight I am making a kale, cannolini bean, and quinoa salad.
2 bunches organic kale - $5
quinoa - $2
garlic - .50c
lemon - .50
cannolini beans - $1
tahini - $1 (most expensive item, but it doesn't take much out of the $10 jar)

Total = $10 for 3 or 4 meals, or I could stretch it even more by tossing in leftover meat.


I keep an eye out for sales of staples like olive oil, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, etc so those are not counted in the totals.

[Dayton Sux]

^
thats an interesting question about bulk and staple costs worked into a food budget, since they dont easily factor into a weekly food cost.

I think what Im going to do as an experiment is add up food costs per month (or four weeks) and then divide up by the days to get a weekly food cost. This would pull in some bulk purchases and stapes (which sort of run out at different times...for example one does not buy a bottle of olive oil the same week one buys a box of oatmeal or sugar)

So I figure a monthly average would catch these interimittent staples/bulk purchases.

(after rent and utilities food is my big monthly expense so Im interested in this topic as a way of cutting back since this is about the only budget line where I have some flexibility)

[Osito]

It really depends on how many mouths to feed, how much one needs to eat and what you buy. I like the other mentioned deals I'll have to look into that also. Surprisingly food is actually one of my cheapest expenses and don't ask me how, I don't know.