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dried beans
bulk grains (brown rice, millet, oats, couscous, barley...)
frozen fruits and vegetables
celery, onion, garlic, bananas, mushrooms, carrots, rutabaga, jicama, some lettuces and cabbages, collard greens, cauliflower
canned salmon, tuna, sardines (I buy wild caught and still find it to be relatively cheap and nutrient dense; I buy canned salmon with bones in for added calcium source)
potatoes, sweet potatoes
cornmeal or polenta
natural peanut butter
for cleaning, use white vinegar on mirrors, lemon juice on countertops or for grease or grime etc. I use washing soda sometimes in the bathtub.
for hair, I only use Dr. Bronners liquid castile soap. A bottle is slightly more expensive than commercial shampoo, but a little goes a long way and I can make it last more than six months (I wash my hair every other day also which saves on water; granted I have very short hair and don't sweat much).
If I eat bread, I often make my own, several loaves and freeze one. It requires little more than whole wheat flour, water, yeast, a pinch of sugar. I add a tiny amount of oil and blackstrap molasses in place of regular sugar. I am very picky about the ingredients in commercial bread, most of which are appalling, so making my own saves a lot of money versus expensive organic bread, though it requires more time (I make my bread by hand not machine). I often pick a few hours on Sundays to prepare lunches for my work week and also make foods for the week that take a long time to make (dried beans, bread, long cooking grains etc). It saves a ton of time during the busy week, though it does take planning for the week. Planning is work but saves money because you are not impulse buying, but buying only what you absolutely need.
I do buy expensive local fresh fish but only 1-2 x month and usually buy direct from a local fishery. I do the same with eggs, spend more on quality grass fed pastured eggs etc from the same farm and limit egg intake to 6 eggs per week (for husband and self) at most, so a dozen will last two weeks. I do buy plant milk but it will last me a whole week. My husband buys dairy milk for himself separately. I eat minimal dairy but do splurge on organic plain Greek yogurt for a source of protein, calcium, B12 etc and eat this most days. Cheese is a luxury item I buy once every few weeks.
My splurges are stuff like pure local maple syrup, sunflower butter, whole raw or unsalted nuts, Kerry gold butter etc but I limit how often I buy them, and stretch them out so they last. I also buy cold pressed extra virgin olive oil to make my own salad dressing (a bottle will last me several months), and keep vinegars on hand like cider, balsamic, red wine vinegar etc. Those usually last up to a year and make great staples for flavorings, sauces, etc. Red wine vinegar in canned tomato sauce with simmered vegetables (mushroom, green bell pepper, zucchini etc) and oregano spice, garlic clove, and cooked red lentils is great over spaghetti and the whole meal is dirt cheap.
For an every day treat or dessert, I make chocolate hummus, which is no more than blending a can (or 2 cups dried cooked) chickpeas, 1/4 cup maple syrup or other sweetener, 1/4 cup tahini (can also use peanut butter in place), and 1/4 cup cocoa powder (baking kind with nothing else in it which is relatively cheap). I eat it with toast, or rice cakes, or apple slices etc, and it keeps refrigerated for four or five days.
I hope these ideas help! It also helps if you know what produce is in season.
If cupcakes are a staple of your diet, you can save a lot by baking your own. Even if you buy a cake mix, it will be cheaper.
Its not salmon, but if you add 1/4 cup of oat bran to your cake batter, you will bump up the nutrition value and not even know it is there. It helps lower your cholesterol. For more nutrition, sprinkle chopped nuts on top, or make carrot cake cupcakes with grated carrot or zucchini.
If you are baking, make extra cupcakes and freeze them unfrosted.
I save on dish soap by buying Dawn in the gallon bottle and decanting it into a small squeeze bottle. Be careful to only use what you need instead of pouring it lavishly.
I've gotten a brownie mix, added chopped walnuts, and used a mini muffin tin. It makes 24 mini bites when I just want something sweet, not a whole cupcake size. I freeze half of them or more. Easy to do with any cake mix as well.
But these items are on the "grocery list" when one goes to the "grocery store", so I think they can fairly be considered groceries, no? This begs another question, then.........what do "you" (the general population) consider "groceries" when grocery shopping?
I consider groceries anything I buy at the grocery store. Cleaning supplies are definitely "groceries". I do not see what else they would fall under. They are a household necessity.
You can buy Odoban by the HUGE jug at home improvement stores. Add water in a spray bottle and add some Odoban. The jug will literally last you a year. Just be careful around pets and kids like you would any strong cleaner. It is powerful.
I need to cut costs and food is a likely place to start. I started yesterday. I landed at $43. I spend nearly three dollars on dish washing liquid and commet. I made my goal.
There is room for improvement. I spent $4.99 for cupcukes. I know. I should have bought salmon.
Let's see how I do this week.
Yeah, no, the only food you listed was cupcakes and you could cut costs on food if that is a usual type of food purchase you make. The other stuff are cleaning supplies and like, shoes, paint, potting soil, paper towels, etc, etc are Not food/groceries.
Food you can budget just so far and then it can become unhealthy, the other stuff can usually be found super cheap or even put off buying for awhile.
Just saw bits and pieces of a show called Extreme Couponing. These people were buying hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for like $3, lol. One guy gets like 12 newspapers a week for the coupons.
My question, related to this thread, is where can one get coupons if you don't buy newspapers? My cat's litter has coupons in it, which I use, but other than that, I really don't have access to any other coupons. It would be great to save money by couponing on groceries but I don't know where you get them.
But these items are on the "grocery list" when one goes to the "grocery store", so I think they can fairly be considered groceries, no? This begs another question, then.........what do "you" (the general population) consider "groceries" when grocery shopping?
When someone says something on the order of, " I'm only going to/planning on spending only $XX on groceries I think food only.
Things like toilet paper, soap, detergent, etc. shouldn't, in my opinion, be counted. You can easily hit $40 on those in a week if everything runs out and needs to be bought at the same time. That's without food.
But these items are on the "grocery list" when one goes to the "grocery store", so I think they can fairly be considered groceries, no? This begs another question, then.........what do "you" (the general population) consider "groceries" when grocery shopping?
The cost of feeding yourself includes the cost on cleaning up after, wrapping leftovers, removing trash, etc. As well as the cost of cooking fuel and investment in utensils.
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