During this time last year our family of four was gearing up for our “100 Days of Real Food on a Budget” pledge. But once the pledge ended (in January 2011) I stopped sticking
to our strict food budget of $125/week, and I often wonder how I even managed to do it. Just the other day I was reading some of my old budget blog posts, and on one shopping excursion I somehow left my favorite grocery store (Earth Fare) after only spending $67. If you want to know what I spent at Earth Fare earlier this week….well, just add about $100 – yikes! It is amazing how much more you spend when you don’t have a specific budget in place to help you keep it cheap. The scary thing is though, I sort of was “trying” not to spend a lot the other day. Now my effort didn’t go beyond a conscious thought in my head, but I should know by now that just thinking about being on a budget never really works. 
As some of you know, my husband and I were fortunate enough to go on a very adventurous – and expensive! – trip to Asia earlier this month. So, for us, there is no better time than now to get back on the food budget bandwagon. I won’t be doing another official budget “pledge,” but since I’ve already proved this could be done I don’t really have any good excuses to convince my husband to let me off the hook (darn!). So for all of us – me included – here are some budget tips that I could never be reminded of enough. And if you have any advice I left out please share in the comments below…
- Set a specific budget. This tip may sound basic, but as I just said simply thinking about “not spending a lot of money” DOES NOT work! Here’s how to structure a budget…
- Pick a realistic budget amount that you will adhere to each week or month. I personally think a weekly budget is easier to follow because you can’t go too far over budget before you realize you are in trouble.
- Consider using cash in an envelope so going “over budget” isn’t even possible. (For those who’ve heard of Dave Ramsey, yes, we’ve both read his book!) Also, no matter what, make a commitment that if you do for some reason go over budget you will deduct that amount from the following week or month.
- Define what will and will not be included in the budget. Will it just be for food or for household items too? What about alcohol, entertaining, and going out to eat?
- Keep track of all your expenses on paper whether you use cash or not. It is important to see where your money goes.
- Share and discuss the running budget total with the other adults in your household…accountability is what it’s all about!
- Be organized and plan out your meals for the week. Last minute purchases that you haven’t put a lot of thought into can add up fast.
- Minimize waste by saving all uneaten food instead of throwing anything away.
- Know and use what you have on hand especially if it’s perishable. Even consider keeping an inventory list of food on your fridge or freezer so different family members can check off items as they use them. I know my husband is more likely to eat something in the fridge if I leave a note telling him it is there (don’t ask me why)!
- Make substitutions in recipes to reduce how many things you have to buy…or even leave out a small ingredient all together.
- Maximize “cheap” foods like bananas, beans, and pasta. Here are some of our favorite super cheap recipes:
- Easy Slow Cooker Refried Beans
- Banana Ice Cream
- Sweet Potatoes and Apples
- Split Pea Soup
- Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- When making inexpensive meals like soups and pasta dishes double the recipe and freeze the leftovers for when you have one of those days where you just don’t have time to plan out a good dinner.
- Make sacrifices like drinking water instead of milk and skipping juice and other flavored beverages all together. If you really have trouble kicking the juice habit at least water it down a little so the juice lasts longer.
- Reduce your consumption of meat and desserts. Meat can be a big-ticket item and while dessert is certainly a “nice to have” it is by no means a regular necessity (sorry)! Also experiment with “stretching” your meat dishes by mixing in veggies and/or beans.
- Buy produce that’s in-season and if you like to frequent your local farmers’ market try going just before closing time to get some great deals on items the vendors won’t want to haul back to the farm.
- If you can’t afford the organic version of everything consult the dirty dozen list.
- Check your receipt after you get home to make sure your money was spent wisely (most grocery stores accept returns!).
I am soooo freakin excited about this website/blog!!!! Seriously, you have taken the work out of finding all of this awesome info! I (and my family…my husband and 2 kiddos) have just starting diving deep into this real food eating. I have known this stuff before but never cared enough until this site. It’s very easy to navigate and I LOVE the recipes!!! (I LOVE IT ALL)
So, thanks so MUCH!!!
I have really been looking into going “whole” and this site is great. My husband and I talked about it and we are going for it. We have two children ages 5 and 18 months and think they will adjust fine if we don’t go cold turkey. thanks for the tips and i will be back again!
We have used Dave Ramsey’s tips and have become debt free because of them. We have a grocery budget, but every tip of advice helps. Thanks so much for your hard work!
Oh, and learning how to make your own bread is a money saver! It is so much cheaper, and healthier, to make it yourself. My family no longer likes the conventional bread, so if I don’t have time to make it myself, Great Harvest Bread Co is my go to bakery.
Awsome info. I am really inspired by your website.
Thanks!
I know I’m late to the party on the comment here, but I have a co-op that delivers a bushel every other week. It is just me and the boyfriend, so that goes a long way. I wanted to mention the “green bags”. You drop the produce in them before you put in the fridge and they seem to halt the decomposition process! Apples will be good, lettuce, etc.for weeks longer than expected!
I also garden herbs year-round (live in ga, so that works here) so fresh her
bs always liven up salads,veggie roasts, etc. For cheap!!
I have been eating clean on a very small for about 2 months now & it is very doable. I always plan my meals first and then make a very specific list of what I need. When I got to the store I always start with meat (beacause it’s the most expensive), then I get my produce, then dairy, and I finish with the few staples that are in the aisles. I also bring a calculator with me to make sure I know how much I’m spending. When I get to my budget’s limit, I just stop and evaluate what is really needed and what I can go without. Sometimes my budget is only $75 for the week! It can be done!
Great tips. You inspired our family to attemp living off the amount a family using foodstamps would use. We’re gearing up for January. Thanks for the good ideas.
Love all your tips!! I have a post that is similar on my website:http://www.unconventionalkitchen.com/whole-foods-101/eating-healthy-on-a-budget
I also LOVE the pick your own website. Taking my kids to the different farms is a lot of fun, and they are more excited to eat the veggies they picked for dinner than they would normally be.
Great tips! I no longer use coupons, since I no longer eat those processed foods. I am always looking for new recipes and ways to save. We had homemade pizzas tonight.
these are the best tips i ever got
I’m with Dana. I hardly ever use coupons because it’s usually for processed food. I was at the grocery last night and spent $33 for myself(I’m single and live by myself) and bought what I needed for this week and beyond. Spent the morning today making meals to freeze. I cannot wait until spring and summer when the farmers markets open up here where I live. I find I save way more money buying fresh, non processed foods. Thank God for you Lisa, because finding info can be so overwhelming. You make it easier and so does everyone else here who offer their ideas and tips!!!!!
There are bloggers who post the store sales and coupon matchups to your favorite stores like Trader joes, Earth Fare and Whole Foods. They list the current ad with any coupons that will match to that sale item, and many times the coupons are internet printable coupons! If you see something you need, you can print a list plus the coupon times two from your home computer. I follow a site called
organicdeals.com and southernsavers.com. I also love ebfarms.com (earthbound farms) which posts new coupons every tuesday for their brand of produce. It is ususally for .75 cents off of 1 item, which doubles at most grocery stores here in Charlotte to $1.50 off an Earthbound Farms produce product. I also love Stonyfield.com for organic yogurt coupons. Following a coupon blogger takes the guesswork out of whats on sale and if their is a great coupon matchup.
These tips are good, but it seems a little…incongruent, maybe?…that you are both giving budgeting tips, and stating that you yourself don’t really need a budget in the same post. It makes your advice ring a little hollow to those of us who ARE on a shoestring budget with no wiggle room.
I’m trying to feed a family of 6 (all the kids are boys!) on $100/week. I aim for as many absolutely clean/whole foods as I can, but in the end, my priority is getting food in their bellies. I’m not sure if you ever do guest posts, but I’d love to see a post like this from someone who has figured out how to eat this way on a really tight budget.
I am not sure if you actually read the entire post, but this is what I learned after abiding by a strict food budget for 100 days (with no wiggle room).
A few other tips would be buy meat that has a coupon attached or is on sale. Buy meat in bulk family packs … Wegman’s AND Costco sells meat in huge packages. I divide it up in freezer bags. Make at least one vegetarian dish a week and that will save you $700 a year. We do it and no one is starving.
Eating whole foods also saves the planet … think about all the packaging in processed food not to mention the chemicals. We have reduced our garbage by more than half by eating whole foods! We recycle a lot more. We have 2 garbage bags a week now instead of a whole can full.
My husband and I recently started using You Need A Budget (YNAB). This is a great budgeting tool that we have on our home computer and our iPhones so that we can keep track of our budget everywhere we go. My favorite reason for having this is so that I can keep myself on a budget at the grocery store. It’s so easy to use that I can input my purchases as I’m leaving the store! I highly recommend it to anyone trying to budget…especially on groceries!!!
I do a lot of what you suggest plus I keep a spreadsheet of everything we have ever bought at our favorite grocery stores along with the price. I have a column for the quantity, the regular price, sale price, coupon, and total. The total column has a formula set in it to automatically take into account all the of variables. This helps a lot so we don’t go over budget. Although, having a future husband who insists on just grabbing stuff while shopping does not help no matter how much I tell him it is making us go over budget.
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I have a sweet tooth.. So it helps me to have fresh fruit that is in season around that I can just grab and eat. It is way healthier and keeps me from going after sweets. It is cheaper than cookies and ice cream for sure. Persimmons, berries, pears and apples are delicious alternatives.
I just started reading your blog and find it very interesting. We have a family rule that every meal has to have a raw item and that must be eaten first. I also make my own dog food and all left overs (except onions and grapes) are tossed into a “dog bowl” to be added to the next batch of dog food. This is a great way to not waste food and if you read and learn what is really in dog food – our left overs look awesome.
I love your site and am majorly considering doing one of the pledges! Thank you for all the information you have been posting. Could you help me with the link to the “dirty dozen” foods? I think it is expired maybe? :S
Hi Lindsay. Here ya go: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php. ~Amy