Cutting the grocery bill: my plan (or part of it)

Another area we are reducing our spending is groceries. By groceries, here, I mean food only, not cleaning supplies, paper products, hygiene items, etc., just food.

My current budget has averaged $210 a month, for the five of us. I am hoping to reduce this to an average of $170 per month. It's been years and years since we last spent this little on a monthly basis. Our kids were very small, and food was not so expensive, then. I'm not sure we can meet this goal, but I'm going to give it a shot. The one thing I have on my side with this, is the shopping for food is strictly my department. I'm not sure that I can recall the last time my husband did any grocery shopping. It's just not his area. But my doing all the shopping puts complete control in my hands.

Here are some of the ways that I plan on cutting this budget further:

Forage more. We've already begun our foraging for blackberries, about 2 weeks earlier than most years. Some of the berries are for immediate consumption, while others are for the freezer. I'd like to have about 15 quarts of blackberries in the freezer by the end of the season.

Use up as much as possible from the garden. An example, many years, we simply tire of kale or Swiss chard, and while we eat most of it, a fair amount just goes to seed. This summer, I am already freezing some for later consumption, and trying to make sure that right now, these veggies are featured in our meals more.

Use things from the garden that I don't always think of as vegetables, including squash blossoms. Some years, I remember to make sauteed squash blossoms. They are so yummy. Slice up the squash blossoms, and saute with butter, salt and pepper. My family also really enjoys squash blossom fritters. In another week, it will be too late for any pollinated pumpkin blossoms to become pumpkins. That's when I'll start harvesting the blossoms.

For the summer and early fall months, feature garden produce heavily in meals. Our dinner plates are heavily laden with vegetables these days. It's not unusual for dinner to contain 3 servings of veggies or fruit. A plate like this is supplemented with inexpensive grains and beans.

Eat more meals based on beans. One of the ways that I am making sure that I use beans often during the week, is to soak all the week's beans over the weekend, and keep them in the fridge. I soak a variety each Saturday, and can quickly cook and use them, throughout the week. Plus, I feel I have something of an "investment" in the beans already, by soaking them in advance. So I am more motivated to use them in meals.

Hold off on shopping for meat until November and December, and stock up on turkey and ham then (that is if the mystery pork virus hasn't driven ham prices sky high). Typically in our area, turkeys are at their lowest price of the year the weeks before Thanksgiving, and hams are at their lowest price of the year right around the Christmas and New Year's holiday. Last year I found whole turkeys for 39 cents/pound and whole hams for 99 cents/lb. There are usually "deals" with these prices, such as spend XX amount of money. But I discovered that many of the stores allow you to apply the cost of gift cards to your minimum spend. So, I purchased many gift cards to use as gifts for Christmas and birthdays, to meet that minimum spend amount.

I also find that during the fall and winter holidays, many of the items that I consider staples are at their rock-bottom price for the year, such as butter, baking supplies, cream cheese, canned veggies (including olives -- I only buy olives this time of year, and use them throughout the coming year) and fall-harvested, long-keeping vegetables.

When I do serve meat, I'll continue to fill our plates more with vegetables than meat. Many vegetables are far cheaper per pound than almost all types/cuts of meat. Even when I have to buy veggies, it will still be less expensive to fill most of a plate with vegetables, and a small piece of meat, than putting together the standard meat and potatoes dinner.

Put aside some money this month and the next, so that I can stock up in the fall. This month, we're only buying milk, eggs, canning supplies and any items on my staples list, that hit a rock-bottom price. I'm just making do with what we have. I'll take what's left of the budget and save it for November and December. I will also try to cut back on grocery spending in September, as well.

Make even more things from scratch. A for instance -- last weekend, we made s'mores. We were out of graham crackers, so my daughters made a small batch. We talked about me digging out my marshmallow recipe, for the next time we wish to make s'mores (as we'll then be out of marshmallows, too). And once the supply of bargain-purchased chocolate (clearance Valentine chocolates) is gone, we'll make cocoa frosting. Frosting makes quite tasty s'mores.

Use up every last drop. Save liquid from cooking veggies, for soups and sauces on another night.

Get every last bit out of bottles and jars. I used a rubber spatula at lunch time today, and scraped enough peanut butter from 2 "empty" jars to make myself a sandwich.

I've been using sweet pickle juice in faux BBQ sauce and faux ketchup. For BBQ sauce, some sweet pickle juice, tomato paste, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. For ketchup, tomato paste and sweet pickle juice, with minced onion and a pinch of salt.

I used dill pickle juice in a few batches of lentil and bean soup. I like the tang that the vinegar adds to soup.

I rinse "empty" milk jugs and yogurt jars with a bit of water and save for using as part of the liquid in muffins, pancakes and cornbread.

I save pasta-cooking water and olive brine, and use to flavor and enhance soups, chili and sauces.

Ration out expensive foods. Expensive foods, such as coffee, cheese, butter, chocolate and meat, can be budget busters. I've packaged all the shredded cheese for the freezer, with labels with such readings as, "cheddar--August".

Coffee grounds are being measured carefully for each pot. And when it's gone for the day, we switch to something like like tea or water.

We are down to 2 bags of chocolate chips. These have to last a while, so I am having to discipline myself not to eat *any* of them.  (The key for me is to freeze unopened bags. Once the bags are opened, well, that's the end of them. I have no self-control!) I'll save what I have for particular recipes, like toffee candy or some bar cookies that my mom always made for special occasions. When we're wanting something chocolatey, I'll use the more economical cocoa powder. And hopefully chocolate chips will go on sale for a good price again this fall.

Butter -- my daughters used an entire stick of butter in a batch of polenta the other week. I have since frozen the bulk of the butter, and leave just a few day's worth at a time in the fridge. And they understand, now, no more super buttery dishes, at least not until I find it on sale again.

Keeping snacks and treats made and ready to eat, for the family. Even if it's just a plate of carrot sticks and dip, or a large bowl of popcorn, the family will snack on this, before poking around in the pantry for something else.

Let nothing, I mean nothing, go to waste. This will require diligence on my part. I'll need to check supplies often, to look for produce about to expire, or bread that could develop mold. I have been only keeping out half a loaf of bread at a time, the rest is kept in the freezer. We had a bad run of moldy muffins, pancakes and bread last month.

Staying out of stores. Sure, I'll miss one or two great deals, but I think I'll save more in the long run by just shopping less. It seems every time I go into a store for one or two items, I come out with half a cart-full of stuff that while a good price for what it is, it wasn't totally necessary, or could have been made from scratch at home.

Revisiting the pricing on powdered milk. Years ago, we would buy 55 lb sacks of non-instant powdered milk from the Darigold distributor in Seattle. At that time, buying milk this way was less expensive than buying fresh milk. As the price of the powdered milk crept up, the price on fresh milk seemed to come down, so we went back to fresh milk. I'll be checking into the non-instant powdered again.

Planting a fall garden, and taking good care of it. I have some row-cover, season extenders that I'll put over some of the fall veggies, to prolong the season a couple of weeks into November. I've planted snap peas, kale, chard, and lettuce for the fall garden, and will add spinach and mustard greens in a week. I also started a pot of basil, a couple of weeks ago. It's on the deck right now, but I'll bring it indoors in early September, and keep it in a window. I plan on digging up a few chives, and 1 parsley plant, for my window herb garden, too.

Sticking to my personal price limits on certain foods. I have certain prices that I don't like to go over, on specific foods, like 70 cents/lb on whole chickens, or 40 cents/lb on oranges, or 35 cents/lb on carrots. I'm going to try and only buy these items at my own imposed limit. Of course, these limits are based on last year's availability, and could change for this year, as the market dictates. But I won't slide my limits up by too much. If anything, I'll find alternate foods, which satisfy the same nutritional need, such as whole turkeys provide protein, just like chicken, but at a less-expensive price.

When the money for the month is gone, it's gone. I'm going to try to stick to this, and not have a huge overage, going into the new year. I'll try to always set aside some of the budget for basics, like milk and fruits/veggies, for the end of each month, so that I won't have to spend into the next month's grocery money, to have the foods that I feel are important for my family to have daily.

And finally, really enjoy the foods that we have. There's this thing that I do. I call it "brownie shaving". I go into the kitchen and shave off part of a brownie and pop it into my mouth. 10 minutes later, I'm back in the kitchen and I shave off another little bit. A while later, I am back again at the brownie pan, shaving off "just a smidge". Before I know it, I have eaten 1 & 1/2 brownies, but never got any real pleasure from them. Compare this to when I cut myself a brownie, put it on a plate, step out to the sun, sit down and just really savor that brownie. I get so much more enjoyment from that one brownie, than I did from the shaved 1 & 1/2 brownies. If we really put effort into preparing good food, and then take the time to savor it, we won't feel the deprivation of a tighter budget. Food was intended to be enjoyed and shared, not wolfed down so that we could get on to the next activity.


To be really honest, I'm not sure we can cut our grocery budget this much (the plan is to reduce it by $40), and still maintain the quality of our diet. It's very important to me that we eat many servings of fruits and vegetables each day. I know the campaign is 5 A Day, but we try for more. Once the garden is no longer producing (or even producing less), I'll be buying produce again, and that gets expensive. If we can't meet this goal, I certainly won't beat myself up over it. Groceries and heat are the two areas that I'm not willing to go overboard to save money. I'd rather cut back someplace else.

Help me out, if you can. What are some ways that we could cut back on grocery spending, and still eat well?

Freezing Eggs, Now, to Use in Baking and Cooking, Later

Oops! It looks like I put all my eggs into one basket!

When I find a deal on eggs, I make my best guess as to how many eggs our family can use before they go on sale again. This can be several dozen, as many as 20 dozen or so. I know -- that does sound like a crazy amount of eggs to buy. However, there are two very compelling reasons why buying this many eggs isn't wasteful.

First, did you know that the sell-by date doesn't mean the eggs will suddenly go rancid on that date? In fact, unlike milk, with eggs you have more than just a couple of days past their sell-by date. (Milk is usually is still good for 1 week past the sell-by date.)

Eggs, if stored properly, will be safe to eat several weeks past the sell-by date, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. (All kinds of helpful egg tips at this site.) Several weeks, not a couple, but several. I take that to mean that a I have 4 to 5 weeks to use those eggs. Evidently, the sell-by date on eggs is more about freshness than safety. Though, it's still a good idea to break eggs one at a time into a small dish before adding to other ingredients.

The second reason stocking up on eggs isn't wasteful is this -- eggs freeze well!

About 1 to 2 weeks past the sell-by date,  I freeze whatever amount of eggs that I am sure we won't use within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

I use frozen eggs in baking, for scrambled eggs, and in entrees like quiches, frittatas, and stratas. 

I discovered freezing eggs many years ago, when I made a bargain-hunting blunder. At the wholesaler, they had 15-dozen cases of eggs on sale for about $4. I jumped on that bargain! My thinking at the time -- even if I had to throw most of them out, I would have still come out ahead.

But we don't need to throw out excess eggs. At that time, my kids were all young and not overly large eaters. I discovered my folly, oh, about 4 dozen eggs into the case. What to do? WHAT TO DO?

That's when I got out my trusty old copy of Joy of Cooking and read up on freezing raw eggs.

Whole eggs and egg yolks need the addition of either sugar or salt to stabilize the texture of the yolk. Egg whites can be frozen, as is, nothing extra added.

If freezing eggs for baking, where a little sweetness is fine, you can use sugar as your stabilizing agent. For most of my cooking, though, I prefer to use salt. I mark my freezer container or bag, indicating whether I've used sugar or salt as the stabilizer for each batch. In my experience, eggs with salt added can be used in most applications.

Joy of Cooking gives instructions for freezing eggs measured by pints, suggesting 2 tablespoons of sugar per pint of beaten eggs or 1 teaspoon of salt per pint of beaten eggs.

Using sugar, the ratio is just over 1/2 teaspoon (rounded 1/2 teaspoon) of granulated sugar for each large egg.

Using salt, the ratio is just under 1/8 teaspoon (scant 1/8 teaspoon) of salt per large egg.

My method for freezing eggs:

• I freeze eggs in 1-egg, 3-egg, 4-egg and 6-egg portions.
• I freeze as individual eggs in muffin tins (then store in ziploc bags), or as multiples of eggs in ziploc bags, or as multiples of eggs in freezer containers.
• I use my blender to beat the 6 eggs at a time, adding just over 1/2 teaspoon salt for the 6 eggs (or 3  1/3 teaspoons of sugar per 6 eggs). 
• I then pour the combined beaten egg and salt/sugar into a freezer container, plastic ziploc bag, or a section of a muffin tin. 
• If freezing eggs as 1-egg portions, I use a muffin tin. Sometimes I line the muffin cups with plastic wrap. Other times I pour the beaten egg directly into the tin.
• A large egg is equal to about 3 tablespoons of beaten egg. When pouring beaten eggs into muffin tins, I measure 3 tablespoons for the first egg, then "eyeball" the remaining amounts for subsequent eggs.
• If freezing in larger amounts, I measure 3 tablespoons per egg. So, a 3-egg portion would be 9 tablespoons or 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon. A 4-egg portion would be 3/4 cup of beaten eggs. And a 6-egg portion would be 18 tablespoons or 1  1/8 cup of beaten eggs

Freezing eggs in a muffin tin

You can line each muffin hole with a small piece of plastic wrap to remove eggs from tin more easily. You can also just pour the beaten egg into bare muffin pans.

• If freezing a dozen eggs in a muffin tin, I place the filled muffin tin in a flat spot in the freezer. Once frozen solid (about 3-4 hours), I set the muffin tin on the counter for about 3-5 minutes. 

• I use a table knife to wedge the egg disks out of each muffin section and place these in ziploc bags to store in the freezer.

• To use, I thaw the number of eggs I need for a recipe in the fridge overnight or, in a pinch, on the counter for about 30 minutes. 
• Use thawed eggs within 2 to 3 days of thawing. So, if you thaw a 6-egg ziploc portion of eggs, you can bake with an amount equal to an egg or two, make scrambled eggs with the amount equal to another egg or two, and maybe throw together a quiche with the remaining eggs over the course of 2 or 3 days. Just remember, 1 large egg is about 3 tablespoons of beaten egg.

FYI on storing fresh eggs

There is a "best" method for storing eggs. According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, store your eggs at about 40 degrees in the carton that they were originally packed. Don't store in the door of the fridge or in a decorative egg holder. Keeping them in the carton provides you with the sell-by date printed on the carton itself. Eggs stored at this temperature will keep for several weeks past the sell-by date.


You'll find this post, and many others like it, just a click away on this page -- a compilation of my recipes, shopping lists, and menu plans that illustrates how I feed my family of 4 adults on $125 to $135 per month.