Do you know why I make such a big deal about saving money on groceries?

Last night's dinner: black bean/brown rice/cheese burritos, with leftover,
homemade enchilada sauce, rolled up in a homemade, whole wheat flour tortilla,
garden green beans and carrots, and foraged wild blackberries,
with a dressing of melted crabapple jelly.

Groceries are one of just a couple of necessary household budget items that we identified as producing a significant savings, when reducing our spending, which could be carried out throughout our lifetime. We estimate that we save about $400 to $500 per month, every single month of every year.

Additionally, these were savings that we could feel the impact of immediately, when we implemented new grocery shopping techniques. In September of 1988, we went from spending $70 per week, to spending $30 per week on groceries, in the span of 7 days. I credit a magazine article that I had read, that very week with the changes in our spending. That was 28 years ago, next month.

Today, we spend about $45 per week. Back in 1988, we were a family of 3. We're now a family of 5. The USDA's food spending charts would have us spending $195.40 per week, on the Thrifty Plan, that's about $845 per month. And do you want to know something? I think our family eats healthier now, than it did back in 1988.

The dinner we had last night really drove home the point, to me, on how advantageous it has been to cut our grocery spending from the first year of our marriage, and on.