Fighting the High Cost of Food (Part 3)

As promised, I am finalizing my progress on how we would cut the grocery budget for the month of June.  I needed to do more than dabble in freezer cooking and cut coupons.  But I just didn't see a way to cut much more, especially with the kids at home for summer.  I predicted endless requests for food.  This movie clip kept popping in my head as I watched my family plow (yes, plow) through dinner one night.

Fortunately, we did not have to resort to such drastic measures.  Instead, we came up with a little motivation to take the focus off of food.  Here's what we did:       

• Give it a purpose  We have a big goal we want to save for.  We came up with a specific amount to save for the month, and talked about it with the kids.  No more did I say, "We spend too much on food."  It was, "We're saving for ____________."  Or "remember ____."  The kids were on board because it benefits all of us.
• Compromise  My children have been on me to quit drinking Diet Coke.  "Cokes are bad for you!" my six year old cries.  Diet Cokes have been a way for me to treat myself, to make up for all the other things I've given up, like, oh, I don't know - sleep.  So I compromised with the kids.  I would give up my drinks if they wouldn't complain about eating PB&J.  They resounded with "Yes!"  They didn't know what they were asking for, but I did it anyway.  I stopped buying Diet Coke, and made the switch to tea.  That way, I still get my caffeine fix.  But if you offer me a Diet Coke, I sure won't turn you down.  (Bless you, Sonya!)    
• Sacrifice  I love to eat out, but for a family of six, it can be a budget buster.  I dread the cleanup, because dishwashing in our home is labor intensive.  While everyone moves on to other activities, I usually spend another hour in the kitchen.  Since we decided to eat at home more, the two older children are now in charge of dishes.  I don't mind the cooking so much now either, especially when I do the math on what we saved.    
• Versatility  We've been fortunate that several grocery stores put their eggs on sale for $0.99 or less several times this month.  At the end of last week, I counted five dozen in the fridge (which will be gone by the end of this week).  My teenage son will fix three scrambled eggs for a "snack."  We have eggs for breakfast, fried egg sandwiches for lunch, omelets for dinner, and I use them in mixing up double batches of pancakes or waffles.  A bag of potatoes is a real stretcher too.  We've had baked potatoes, oven fries, and potato egg burritos.    
• Patience  After another breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes, my husband looked at me with all seriousness and asked, "Did they stop selling bacon at the store?"  I assured him I would watch for a good deal.  When we run out of something, I evaluate if we really need it or if we can hold off on replacing it. We also have had a nice bounty from the garden that we started back in February.  The hard work is paying off.  The kids love tomatoes, and we had our first watermelon over the weekend.                       

All in all, it was a successful month.  We cut almost $200 off from our May food spending, and we event went out to eat a couple of times as a family.  We saved a nice amount of cash toward our goal, and I even managed to drop a couple of pounds.

Will this happen every month?  I don't think so, but it was a nice break to give me some optimism for the future.  And by the time my younger two become teenagers, the two older ones will be out of the house.  I hope.       

Fighting the High Cost of Food (Part 2)

In my last post, I admitted frustration over our family's increasing food budget.  If you missed it, you can read it here.  

On my journey of finding better, yet easier, ways to feed my family, I decided to start with some freezer cooking.  Don't ask me how I landed on this specific decision, but part of it is my relentless quest to become more adept in the kitchen.  So with a little help from a few websites, I devised a plan to stock some ready meals in the freezer and be rid of the incessant phrase [insert teenage drama tone here] "There's nothing to eat in this house." 

The first site I started with was Money Saving Mom.  If you're looking to save and want some great ideas, this is a great site to visit.   The series of posts to fill the freezer piqued my interest.  I have never tried to freeze meals, even though we have the space to do so.  Most of the time, I do buy in bulk and I'll freeze ground beef, chicken, or spaghetti sauce into meal-size portions.  I also frequently stock up at the bakery outlet and freeze bagels, tortillas, and multiple loaves of bread.   

So in my typical fashion of big ideas (finish degree while working full-time, take a minimester graduate course, run a marathon), I planned to spend a Saturday filling our freezer.

I spent five hours in the kitchen that day, and here's what I learned:  

1.  I was smart enough to put a roast in the crock pot for dinner before I did anything else.

2.  The more cooking I did, the less I wanted to snack.

3.  I should never get tied up at home for hours with no Diet Coke.

4.  The only thing I can competently do with a rolling pin is roll out muscle soreness in my legs from running.

5.  Reading the directions all the way through is very important! 

I wasn't able to finish everything I planned on Saturday, but I did a little more Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.

What went into my freezer (by Monday evening):

The rest of a double batch of waffles from breakfast (there weren't many)

1 Lasagna Casserole

3.5 lbs of Barbecued Meatballs

1 batch of Pizza Pockets (the remainder after the kids hit them for lunch)

Southwest Rollups  

Was the freezer cooking worth doing again?

While it has been nice to have things on hand, I don't like spending hours in the kitchen at one time.  I am going to try to become more efficient with my cooking though.  For instance, Monday evening while chicken enchiladas were in the oven, I made the Southwest Rollups.  These have been a handy lunch item to have on hand, and cheaper than sandwiches.  Next time I will make them without chicken to decrease the cost per item even more.    

Meanwhile, I'm still searching for more ways to eat better for less.  If I can only master homemade pizza dough...    

Fighting the High Cost of Food (Part 1)

Newsflash!!!!


My kids are growing!

Yes, I know.  It shouldn't have caught me by surprise.  I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden they want to eat all the time.  All four of them!  My youngest will finish off his entire kid's meal.  The teenagers now eat off of the adult menu. Yet, I still want to shop for my family of six like there's a toddler at home.  So why am I surprised when a bag of Goldfish crackers disappears in an instant?

Part of this denial is due largely in part to rising food costs.  I am determined to not increase our monthly food budget.  I consider myself to be a pretty savvy shopper when it comes to the grocery store.  We don't buy a lot of meat, junk food is minimal, and I shop the ads from the local grocery stores.  I clip coupons for the things we use, and I buy some items in bulk from the warehouse store.  I know when something is at a good price, or if it will usually go cheaper.  It's a gift.  I can still tell you what we paid for sirloin steak when my husband and I first married seventeen years ago.  Those were the days we had steak and baked potatoes every Friday night.

Sigh.

I had just about decided the best way to reduce the cost of food in our home was to put us all on a steady diet of ramen noodles.  Okay, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.  Mostly.  Remember, I am the mom whose children prefer spaghetti and meatballs from a can.

Instead I decided to challenge myself to feed my family for less each month, without sacrificing quality or quantity.  Note:  I don't want to increase the amount of time I spend in the kitchen.

Stay tuned for the next post where I'll detail the first steps of my plan which includes some freezer cooking.  If you have any ideas to help me along, I'd love to hear from you!