I guess the fact that I’ve titled this post the way I have means I’m planning to fail. Well, I think its going to be possible some times and maybe not so possible at others to do what I’m setting out to do. At least I’m going to give it a try and see what happens.
My goal is to limit our grocery/household spending to $35/ week- for a family of four. This means I’ll have to pay closer attention to Aldi’s, Save-A-Lot, and buying extra half-off Sunday papers on Mondays for the coupons to use at Giant Eagle (double coupons) and Walmart.
I’m not starting from scratch. I am a coupon user, bargain shopper, second-hand clothing buyer/wearer and I subscribe to a few money saving blogs who keep me in the “know”. I even wrote this Top 10 Tuesday post on ways to save money a post on 10 Baby Steps to Saving Big with Coupons. Oh and here’s another one, 10 ways to Save while Staying Warm in winter.
I will have to buckle down and do more menu planning and preparing. This one will hurt. I have picky eaters and if it “ain’t” pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs or pbj – I can expect a tough hill to climb on a nightly basis before my 6 yr old falls asleep. {He seems hungriest at night!}.
Fortunately, thanks to a Facebook friend, I learned about E-Mealz. This group of sisters do a variety of meal planning for you, saving you the time and effort.
- You’ll find Gluten Free, Low Carb, Low Fat, Point System, Vegetarian, and Regular plans made out per stores like Aldi’s, Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Ralph and “Any store”. Click the E-Mealz ad to see menu plan samples —->
- UNfortunately, I don’t think their plan will meet my $35 a week goal. But we’ll see.
Disclosure: I approached E-Mealz and they gave me a free month to try them out to review here on my blog. So, I just printed out last week and this week’s menu plan. I’ll give it a whirl and report back to you, okay? And E-Mealz comes “Dave Ramsey” approved 😉
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**I’m linking this post up with Works For Me Wednesday, though I don’t know if this will work for me, yet 😉
$35 a week? W.O.W. I’ll be watching for your thrifty tips b/c I just can’t seem to get that budget item to diminish. Thanks for visiting me at Stuff and Nonsense today! Psst…i clicked the ‘fence’ to give you a vote too.
Blessings,
Alison
Hmmm. I’ll be watching your blog to see how this goes. I definitely need to rein my grocery budget in this year.
You can TOTALLY do this. You may need to go over some weeks and under others, depending on sales, but you can still stay in budget for the month. I have a family of 8, with 2 in diapers, and where I live prices are higher, stores do NOT double coupons, and we don’t have Aldi’s. I fed my family for under $40 a week last year. We eat all meals at home; we don’t go out to eat, and all snacks at home, too.
If you want some ideas I have 4 months of seasonal mea plans on my site (plus 2 weeks of pantry-only ideas).
Another thing I do is I don’t shop in January. This is not really on purpose–we just haven’t had the income to go shopping for food at all in January and February for the last 4 years. However, I am usually able to do some extra shopping in November, and the sales are awesome then, which helps me eat for less over the year.
The most important thing is to figure out your least expensive meals, and make those more often. Don’t be afraid to have a baked potato bar one night a week, for example. I can feed my family for $1.50 to $8 a meal for all 8 of us. I try to make the $1.50 meals more often, which keeps my expenses down.
Good luck! I am certain that you can do this!
Best of luck to you!!! That does sound like it’s going to be tight! Can I suggest something else that might help you out? There’s a thing I found called Angel Food Ministries that buys food in bulk and takes orders for that food that is then distributed through local churches and they get some great stuff that you don’t usually find coupons for (like meats). Anyway, they’re website is http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ if you want to take a look. And no, I don’t work for them. I’m just a mom who loves a good deal when she finds it.
I can see $70 a week for a family of four, but $35 would be hard if you mean that for all three meals in the day. If you mean $35 for just the evening meal, I’d say you could do it.
I wish you luck.
I do know a few years back we did a family of three on $20 a week out of necessity for nearly a year, but I wouldn’t say we were getting our daily allotment of fruits and vegetables like we should have.
Hi Jess!
Yeah, the E-Mealz plan, I think, said their estimated cost was around $70/80 a week maybe? They do offer suggestions about coupons I believe too. I mainly need help “planning”. I just don’t like to do it and it feels like the impossible task to me. So I’m going to see if their plans and my budget can work together…for my family. Of course, I won’t be going strictly by their plan. I just took advantage of an Acme sale and stocked up on Campbell’s Tomato Soup and Starkist Tuna – all .50cent a can!
Thanks for commenting!
Tracy
Hi Tracy!
I love the idea of the $35 a week meal plan! Was that on ez meals or is that something you are creating on your own? The ez meals ones are interesting but they look like they cost a lot more. I already shop Aldis and spend about $75-$80 a week for our family of 4. I’d love to see how to cut that in half!
Thanks for sharing!