Tummy Treasure

I didn’t get any pictures of this past week’s shopping trips, because there were two, and both were pretty rushed.  It was a birthday week here, and I had to plan accordingly to pick up fresh food for the weekend festivities, hence the second trip.

I didn’t do so hot this week, sticking to the budget, but considering that I could have gone WAY overboard with the birthday, it ended up not as terrible as I had anticipated.

My first shopping trip for the week was over budget at $89.42, and then the second trip to the store was for $31.48, bringing the week’s total to $120.90.  So I was over my budget this week by $38.90… I can pretty much guarantee that the overage was a direct result of the birthday.  I’d purchased a few sodas, some K-cups, some flavored syrups for milk, a five quart bucket of ice cream, and actually now that I think about it, that overage could be completely explained by the cake.  I spent quite a bit on peanut butter M&M’s and Kit-Kat bars.

I’ve decided I’m going to be okay with going over budget.   There are still three days left in January, and I’m pretty sure they are going to be pantry days.  We’ll eat what we already have on hand for part of the week.  The thing is, I’ve been figuring on a budget of $82 per week, which I extrapolated out of the average food stamp benefit for a family.  That benefit is issued monthly- it doesn’t fluctuate if a month has four weeks or five weeks.  So if I look at the initial figure I started the month with, that would have been the national average of $384 dollars per month.  Figuring weekly, using my $82 per week figure, I definitely went over.  But, if I add up all my grocery expenses, my grand total actually comes out to  $374.83.

Technically, I was actually almost $10 under budget!

Eating and feeding my family on a strict and limited budget for January was definitely a challenge, but not in the way you would think.  The hardest part of the challenge, for me, was simply the planning part.  To take the time and really think over all the meals we would need for the week, and then plan out a menu really took effort on my part.  Planning within the budget wasn’t so terribly tricky, but there were moments where I had to change my menu on the fly because I wasn’t seeing what I wanted at the grocery store.  The week we planned a roasted chicken immediately comes to mind.  When I was actually at the store, the only whole chickens available were really small.  They were about $7 a piece, but I had planned on using the chicken for three meals.  I was going to have to purchase two chickens if I wanted the planned-overs.  I opted, instead, to change my roasted chicken to roasted chicken parts.  Buying the chicken already broken down for me, and then adding one extra package of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts cost me just $8- a significant savings over buying two whole chickens.    And we did eat three dinners out of that chicken meal- plus a few lunches for Andy and I.

Overall, I think our little experiment at being budget conscious for the entire month was extremely successful, and- even better than that- we ate really, really well.  We ate such a variety of meals, and were quite well-fed while on a strict budget.   Most of the evening meals I prepared made plenty, so a lot of the leftovers became lunches, and that was quite welcome.

And so we look to February.  Andy continues to be laid off, so I will continue with the extreme grocery budgeting.  I’m not sure how much of it I will be blogging though… trying to photograph and chronicle the weekly grocery shop added an element that I didn’t care for.  I really only wanted to handle groceries once- I wanted to take them out of the bag and put them away, not maneuver them for a photo and THEN put them away.   What I am going to try and do though is stick with the menu planning through the month.  That really was a huge asset.  Though I hated the actual process of doing it, actually knowing what I was cooking every day was very nice and saved me the trouble of last minute scrambling.  (As it will be today… dinner is in less than two hours, and I have no clue what I’m making…)

So we’ll see what the weeks ahead will bring.  I was so focused on the grocery challenge this month that I kind of skimped on recipes, so watch for a few of those in the days ahead.  It’s also a busy month for us, as we officially begin competition season for dance, and that brings a whole other set of issues and craziness when it comes to keeping the family fed on wholesome, real food.  Maybe I should challenge us to stay away from the fast food this month?  Time will tell.

One of the tools that I use to try and keep my grocery costs down is simply having a decently stocked pantry.  Now, when I say that, I don’t mean that I have a bottomless pantry.  Experts advise having a stockpile of at least 3 months of food on hand in case of disaster or job loss.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Three months!!? While I would love to have that kind of pantry, it just doesn’t happen here.  And it never fails that when I do manage to seem to get close to a very nicely stocked pantry that a local food pantry announces a shortage, and then I do a purging and I’m back to where I started.

But having a simply stocked pantry is a huge money saver, and here’s why.  I very seldom stock my pantry with items that I’ve paid full price for.  I’m far from a bargain shopper, and while I try to use coupons, the coupon magic doesn’t seem to work for me often.  But there are times where I am in need of something, let’s say dried chickpeas, and I’ll go to pick up a package and discover that a particular brand of dried beans is on sale.  Instead of $1.29 per pound, they’re on sale for 99¢.  So instead of buying just one package of the chickpeas that I needed, I might get two packages of chickpeas, a package of kidney beans and a package of brown lentils.   I just stocked my pantry a little bit.

Another thing I’ll do is buy a larger size.  Plain white rice is an excellent example of that.  A 2 pound bag of store brand plain white rice at my store is $1.09.  The five pound bag is $2.99.  For just an extra few dollars, I can pick up the five pound bag and have a rather large stockpile of plain white rice on hand.  My family likes rice- and there are dozens of ways that you can change it up so you’re not just having rice again.

In store sale prices and coupons can factor in as well.  The store I shop at hardly ever advertises sales, so you don’t know what’s going to be offered at a discount until you’re actually there shopping.  I shop at Woodman’s Markets for most of my grocery needs.  If you have one near you, it’s well worth the time to explore.  The benefit of the store not advertising is that it keeps the prices lower.  The drawback is that I can’t plan this week’s shopping trip based on their advertised sales.   But when I am shopping and I find a really good unadvertised priced, I’ll add an extra one or two of something to my cart.  Not a whole case at a time- just one or two.

That’s really how I build my pantry.  One or two extra items at a time.   In this picture above you’ll see a monster package of canned tuna.  That was something I scored at a different grocery store when they had an exceptional sale.  A large package of eight cans of tuna was less than six dollars, so I picked one up.  A few days later I was thinking about it and ran back and picked up a second one.  Abigail and Andy are big fans of tuna sandwiches for lunches, so having that much on hand at once kind of supplied lunches for who knows how long.  We haven’t touched the second pack yet, and there’s still one can left from the first pack.  That I bought back in August!

Every once in a while I’ll also find a good coupon deal to use too.  I’ll find a coupon in the paper for pasta sauce where you buy 3 and get a dollar off.  I’ll tuck that into my purse, and when I find that pasta sauce on sale, normally $1.99, but on sale for $1.49, I’ll pick three up, get my dollar off, and it’s like buying two and getting a third free.   Red Gold tomato products frequently have coupons floating around where you buy 3 and get a discount.  When you buy the smaller sizes of their products, you end up getting one free with the coupon.  But I don’t really use coupons that much.  Maybe one or two per shopping trip- there’s just too  many coupons out there for products we don’t use.

As far as storing these pantry goods, you can see a lot of them stay in their packages and go on a shelf.  But I also have invested over the years in some wonderful Tupperware products.

When I first ordered a set, I think it was called The Tower of Power.   These wonderful containers stack, are opaque so you can see through, and keep my ingredients fresh.  I store dried beans, grains, and different flours in these containers.  I’ve also taken the extra step and labeled each one with my label maker.  I love these containers, and have added to them over the years.  When I have a few extra dollars in my grocery budget, I’ll take a peek at my cabinets here and see if any containers are running low and need to be replenished.  Abigail really enjoys helping me with this process- and she also really likes coming home from the grocery store and filling them up.

You know, every year when Andy is laid off, I dream of him going back to work, and then being able to take a rather large chunk of money and doing a really awesome pantry re-stock.  Every year I plan to do just that.  I plan to take a set amount of money and just go buy pantry staples, but then the moment comes, and I just find it difficult to go to the grocery store and spend a large chunk of money at one time on food that’s just going to sit on the shelf for a time.  So I pretty much stick with doing it a little at a time.  It seems to be working for us.  Armed with this nicely stocked pantry, and a cupboard bursting at the seams with spices and seasonings, we could go for weeks if we really needed to. But I also use this pantry too.  These things don’t just sit here in case of emergency, they get utilized and then replenished so that they don’t go bad just sitting on the shelf.  I’ll frequently tour the pantry before making a weekly meal plan to see if I need to use something that’s been around for a while.

Anyway, I thought I’d share just a few basic tips for stocking the pantry without going to any kind of extremes.  And by all means, make sure when you’re picking up that extra item or two, that they are extra items that you will actually use.  Don’t buy a few cans of canned peas because they’re on sale for a really good deal.  No one should eat those!

I was SO close this week!  Menu planning was much easier because I did it while Andy was around… it was very helpful to have someone else shoot out ideas, and then I could decide yes or no.  The menu plan came together easily enough, and the shopping trip was decided to be done.  With no plans for a Saturday afternoon, it seemed like a good idea at the time, even though I know Saturday’s are quite busy… what I forgot to account for this week was this little thing called Football Playoffs, of which the Packers are participating in, and everybody and their brother is planning a party.  Sheesh, it took me twice as long just from waiting to check out.

But, it was nice to know that the weekly shopping is done, and I don’t have to rush out and do it on Monday.

My total at the checkout this week came to $85.31, just $3.31 over my limit of $82, and I can tell you exactly what put it over-the extra gallon of milk I grabbed, which was $3.85.   I’ll be paying attention to when we crack open that second gallon of milk, and may penalize myself next week by subtracting the $3.85 from my $82 budget.

However, I already am anticipating a small penalty this week anyway.  I am planning a new-to-us pork stir-fry for Wednesday, and I didn’t want to pick up snow peas and scallions today, as I want them to be as fresh as possible.  So I will pick them up on Wednesday- I don’t anticipate spending any more than $3, but that still will make a difference in the weekly shopping budget.

I only added one item to my cart that was not on my list (aside from the extra gallon of milk) and that was another bag of Cuties.  I am of the mind that we need to enjoy those while we can.  It’s the perfect snack that everyone enjoys, and for three pounds I pay $4.39, which is one of the better prices I’ve seen for them.   I also made an error in my menu planning today- I asked the kids what they would like on pizza this week, instead of just deciding for myself.  Lesson learned, because my little girl loves a meat-loving pizza, and those extra little bits of pizza toppings add up.

My flours increased in price too.  I hope that’s temporary.  My normal price is $3.99 for 10 pounds of either bread or all-purpose flour.  The current price is $4.79, so when I need both, that’s nearly $10 of the week’s grocery dollar, as was the case this week.  Had I remembered the jump in price, I maybe would have held off on the all-purpose flour.

Here is this week’s photo:

And here is this week’s list.

• 10 pounds all-purpose flour
• 10 pounds bread flour
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 jar tropical fruit (coupon)
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
• 1 package oyster crackers
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits
• 2 jars mild chili powder
• 1 package Vigo brand yellow rice
• 1 pound dried red kidney beans
• 2 pounds long-grain white rice
• 1 package 10-count flour tortillas
• 1 pound smoked beef sausage
• 1 package pepperoni
• 12 ounces mild Ialian sausage
• 1 package cooked bacon pieces
• 1 (7 ounce) ham steak (much cheaper than Canadian bacon for pizza)
• 3 largish sweet potatoes
• 1 whole green cabbage
• 2 pounds Pink Lady apples
• 2 lemons
• 3 pounds clementines
• 1 piece ginger root
• 4 pounds D’Anjou pears
• 2 gallons whole milk
• 1 package Yo-Crunch M$M yogurt
• 2 packages Danimals Crush Cups
• 32 ounces plain yogurt
• 24 ounce package cottage cheese (coupon)
• 2 pounds shredded mozzarella (on sale this week, cheaper than bulk)
• 2 blocks medium cheddar cheese
• 1 package Eggo homestyle waffles
• 4 small bottles of juice for the kids

Really, that wasn’t bad this week at all, considering.  And again, I could have skipped the Eggos and maybe one of the packages of sweetened yogurt for the kids.  The thing is though, when we’re pinching pennies, we don’t really have snacks around, so I like to make sure that what I serve at meal time is something that they will really enjoy and eat.  Zander had wished this week that we’d had toaster waffles that he could smear some peanut butter on.  That’s a fabulous breakfast, in my opinion, so I thought I’d pick some up for him.  They get yogurt almost everyday with lunch, and quite honestly, if I skip that, there are, uh, digestive ramifications for my son.  So we’ll stick with the yogurt.