Ok, I told you earlier that I'd read an article in Newsweek, Oct. 6th
issue, entitled "Flowers from Uncle Sam." The author,
from Baltimore, stated that her family of four (2 adults, 2 kids)
wasw now exceeding $1,000 a month for groceries!
WHAT???
That means that each person was eating $3 per meal 3x a day.
As a stay-home-Mom it's my job to save money, and slashing the
grocery bills without killing the palate while still making
healthy choices makes for FUN and challenge!
I've been tracking our family's food budget for years, but in the
springtime of this year I decided to experiment by boycotting the
large, mega-mart grocery stores
(weekly sales ads & time-consuming coupon cutting)
in favor of Aldi and Save-a-Lot and an
occasional trip to the amazing farmer's market.
GOOD CHOICE!
We have SEVEN in our family:
High Schooler,
Jr. Higher,
Elementary-aged,
Preschooler, Toddler
and Mom & Dad.
(and pretty often there's a friend or two at the table, also
but I didn't count that in my figures.)
Careful examination & calculations of my "Aldi Experiment"
have revealed that in our family,
seven people eat 3 daily meals for an average of...
dun, dun, dun...
$1 per meal!
It's actually even less than that because our weekly
grocery bill also includes diapers, pull-ups, most cleaning
supplies, laundry supplies and about 1/3 of our toiletries.
(but I didn't wanna figure all that out!)
"Thank You, Jesus, for helping us in the daily, ordinary
parts of our lives!"
In future blogs-entitled "Netta's Niche"- I'd love to share
my menus, recipes & ideas so that you won't be blaming
Uncle Sam for your crazy-high grocery bills.
Here's a recipe that was used in ALL YOU Magazine
in September. Taco Bowls
4 comments:
... and we don't just eat 'cheap', we eat delicious meals!!
That is insane!! I posted a discussion thread on a blog that I read that averaged almost that on a family of four and I was shocked. We are averaging between $200-250 per month on our groceries. It was lower than $200 before the grocery hikes so it has definitely adjusted some, but we still run a tight ship over here.
I am so proud of you! You are doing incredible on our budget- you should be really proud of yourself.
I think people have no idea how much you can really save at Aldi's and Savealot. I actually wrote a paper about Savealot a few years back in my marketing class. People were surprised...
One of my newest favorite tricks? Making my own fun fetti.... $.79 white cake mix from Aldi's, and purchasing a big thing of sprinkles for $1 which makes A LOT of sprinkles in many cakes! Besides my daughter who knows the truth, I haven't found one person who thinks it's not real 'fun-fetti'.
I need to come hang out with you and GLEAN from the Netta way!
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