A question for those who buy for one or two adults, only

I didn't get to the grocery store until today. Now, that doesn't mean I've been eating horrible food all week. I haven't. A friend treated me to lunch one day (Tex Mex) but I controlled myself, difficult as it was. It does mean that I've eaten breakfast a lot this week and I finally got tired of it and went grocery shopping today.

I went to two groceries, Albertson's and Brookshire's, a local chain that is higher than a cat's back. I go to the latter store strictly for sale items and even that's rare.

Since I moved into this place three months ago I've done little shopping..you know, run to the store and get a few things then go again a few days later. It's taken me this long to get my basics so today I did 'big shopping', which probably is nothing compared to those of you who have large families (at one
time I shopped and cooked for a large family so I know how that goes) but was pretty big for me.

At Albertson's I spent $126.52 and got:

Green tea, diet pepsi, chicken and beef broth, Rotel tomaotes, vegetable stock, some spices, a whole chicken, two beef roasts, mucho breakfast meat, eggs, a lot of half and half, cottage and sharp cheddar cheeses, a lot of frozen vegetables (10/$10), two packages of John Soule's cooked fajita beef (not cheap but still cheaper than eating out after a long shift at work), fixins to make pico de gallo which I eat at least once a day, two jars of Claussen kosher dills, a couple of limes, mushrooms, and raw peanuts. I did remember to take my canvas bags with me and got a $.50 bag discount. Wooot! ;)

I spent $23.96 at Brookshire's and got seven packages of raw skirt steak and three avocados (10/$10) and one gala apple, my treat for this week.

So I spent almost $151.00 today on food for one person. That's the most I've spent grocery shopping in these three months but taking into account that I eat low carb most of the time, making cheaper things like rice, beans, and pasta not part of my regular diet, it wasn't too bad. Honestly, I live on meat, vegetables, and eggs. The food I got will last at least a month with the addition of a couple of runs for eggs and fresh produce.

Even though I think I did fairly well I feel like I spent too much. Damn those grocery prices! ;)

If you're in a household of one or two adults, how much do you generally spend for a month's worth of groceries? Really, I'd like to know.

Nice shopping deals

On the way home from Louisiana today we stopped at the HEB in Carthage, Texas. HEB has been one of my favorite stores since I lived down by Houston but as there isn't one in our area the only time I get to shop them is when I go to Austin. So, when I saw the HEB store beckoning to me from the side of the road, I called out to my man person, "Oh look! There's HEB!" He asked if I wanted to stop and I said yes so we did. The three teens with us weren't too impressed but they were at our mercy...

When we walked in I grabbed a sales flier and immediately saw two things I wanted; boneless beef ribs and beef shoulder roast, both for $1.97 a pound. Before we got to the meat department, we'd found other good deals, including large bags of store brand Sucralose for $2.80 each. Yes, less than $3 a bag! They're normally $5.90 but were marked 'blow out' and I'd surely call $2.80 a blow out. We normally buy the Great Value brand for almost $6 for the same amount. Ten bags of that went in the cart. DH found store brand decaf instant coffee, which he prefers, for less than $3.50 a jar so three of those went in the cart, also.

I finally made it to the meat department and discovered they were out of the beef ribs but did have the shoulder roast so I chose two of those, both for under $5 each. While meandering around in that department, I found beef short ribs for $1.77 a lb. I haven't seen those at that low of a price for at least two years so six packages of those went into the cart. I absolutely love those boiled with a bay leaf and eaten with sauerkraut. DH isn't wild about them but will eat them broiled and barbecued. They also had large packages of turkey cotto salami for less than $3 so we got a couple of those. They even had HEB Glycemic Health Bread, something I haven't found in local stores, for $2.38 so I got a loaf of that to try. If it doesn't spike my blood sugar I might be able to have a real sandwich now and then! I'm not sure how I'll like it since its white bread (gasp!) and I haven't eaten been a white bread eater in ohhhh, over 40 years.

Anyway, we spent about $106 there, most of it on meat for the freezer. It's about 40 miles from us so we're talking about taking a trip there once a month or so in the hopes of finding more 'blow out' type deals. One of their employees said we could call weekly to find out what those blow out deals are so we might do that. It would be worth 80 miles if we can find deals like the ones we found today.

The Cost of Food in September 2008

DH and I are spending a little more on groceries than we have in the past but I'm not sure if the cause is that prices have gone up or we're buying more expensive food and trying to eat healthier or perhaps a little of all. Regardless, we manage to eat well for quite a bit less than the USDA Thrifty Plan and a lot less than Trent over at The Simple Dollar. (Of course, we only feed two!) But his recent article on what's an appropriate food budget for a family of four got a lot of comments and seems to have kicked up some dust! Personally, I think $770 a month for two adults and two children is outrageous (I fed two adults and four children four years ago for less than $250 most months) but what do I know? Anyway, we aren't the only Americans paying more for food, apparently.

According to the USDA Food Plans, for the month of September 2008 the "Thrifty Plan" cost for a month of food for a man my husband's age was $160.60 and for a woman my age it was $155.60. That totals a little over $316 for a month. In April, the cost was right at $300 and that $16 increase took place over only five months.

One of the things I'm doing to help keep the grocery spending under control is trying new recipes. Yep, trying new recipes! I don't try the ones with weird, hard to find or expensive ingredients but I search for those using tried and true, inexpensive, on hand staples from our pantry. So far it's working out very well. We've had a few new to us dishes lately that were tasty and thrifty.

There are a lot of great sites with inexpensive recipes but a few of my favorites are: Cheap Cooking, Cheap Eats, Eating Well, and The USDA's Recipe Finder. The recipe finder has a nice collection of nutritious and inexpensive recipes. The Broccoli Potato Soup is very good and with Autumn upon us it's definitely a featured item on some of our upcoming menus. I use fewer potatoes and add cauliflower so it's lower in carbs and a little more nutritious.

Are you spending more for food now than you were earlier this year or are you spending about the same? And what measures do you take to help keep your food budget under control?

Enquiring minds want to know!

How to eat on the cheap!

I've spent some time this morning perusing sites looking for advice on cutting grocery expenses. I do pretty well as it is but it's good to keep abreast of such things and I get email fairly often from people new to budgeting and frugality asking if I'll post more "how to" entries on those topics. Not only that, who knows when and where some miraculous suggestion will appear?? It could happen! And I don't want to miss it when it does! Most of the sites say the same things - do this, do that, etc. But some of the advice is so good (and so overlooked) that it really does bear repeating.

One of the spots with such advice is About.com's Frugal Living's hints for cutting grocery expenses. The guide's advice is sound and thorough. Make sure you check out the additional resources toward the bottom of the pages. There are some golden nuggets there!

By the way, the article on recession proofing your finances is very good, also. Mmmm, maybe the Fed needs to read that!

Grocery shopping.. ouch!

We went grocery shopping this morning, the first time in awhile. We've been eating what we have on hand and only going for milk and bread and fresh vegetables. Wow, it hurt to see the prices! We spent $89.23 and got:

3 bags of frozen vegetables
1 pound baby carrots
3 bananas
2 containers of Wholly Guacamole (buy 1 get 1 free)
1 package of pico de gallo
1 pound of turkey pastrami
3 beef roasts
2 packages of beef brats
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground turkey
1 package turkey franks
5 turkey pot pies (the man person likes these for lunch when I'm at work)
1/2 gallon of milk
1 small package of sharp cheddar cheese
1 package of Lavash bread
1 loaf of whole wheat bread
1 large container of coffee creamer
2 containers of the man person's instant decaf (had a coupon for $1 off one)
2 cans chili with no beans (for chili dogs)
2 gallons of distilled water for drinking
4 rolls of toilet paper
2 12 packs of diet soda

At any rate, the prices were a little unsettling but we shouldn't need to do 'big shopping' again for at least three weeks. I almost fear what the prices will be then!

One of the roasts is going to be in the pressure cooker later today so that changes the menu for the rest of this week. We still have some of the browned carne picada to eat and will have that tomorrow night but tonight we'll feast on beef roast, gravy, red potatoes, onions, and baby carrots with a nice tossed salad on the side. We'll have leftovers so I'll turn those into something else, more than likely a lower carb pot pie made with Lavash bread.

I'm looking for more ideas to use the leftover roast so if you have any, please share them with me.

Stretching the grocery budget dollars

According to experts, food prices are higher than they were in March of 2007. Umm, I think most of us know that, though we're not 'experts'. But do you know how much higher? A loaf of white bread has increased 16%, milk has increased 23%, and eggs have climbed 35%. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Americans spent an average of $1,926 per person on groceries in 2007, up 4.2% from 2006 and they project another 4.5% increase in 2008, to $2,013.

Obviously, food prices are an issue here as in many other places around the world. Food shortages are a worrisome possibility (probability?) and many U.S. food banks are struggling with rising costs and plummeting donations. But is it time for those of us in the U.S. to panic? I think not. I do think, however, we need to take stock of what we have, what we need, and what we might need in the near future, and maximize our purchases.

I already do those things but am in the process of creating a plan to enable us to stretch our grocery dollars even more. I'll hammer out my thoughts on that here and will post the final plan.

As a side note, I peruse the USDA's food plans regularly and for April of this year, their "Thrifty Plan" figure for a household of two adults the ages of DH and I is $300. We spent less than $200 on food in April and the only times we've gone over their "Thrifty Plan" amount is when we did huge stocking up two or three weeks in one month. The figures in the USDA charts aren't representative of our household but they seem to be a good average for the typical American family.

Where does your family fall in those averages? If you're above the average, why do you think that's so and what could you do to change it? And if you're below, what things do you do or not do that put you there?