Money Matters
Knottie2388932
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Is it possible to spend only $100 per week on groceries for the two of us?
My to-be hubby and I enjoy eating healthy, organic foods, but those tend to be the most expensive. And a lot of healthy recipes call for a ton of ingredients. We are hoping to spend no more than $100 each week on groceries for the both of us. What are some helpful tips (or cheap and healthy recipes) that will help us stay on budget? What tricks have you discovered to keep your grocery bill low?
Thanks!
Re: Is it possible to spend only $100 per week on groceries for the two of us?
Another thing to do is a cheap meal night. Some people do meatless meals, or pasta or salads, waft ever one of two nights a week because they can be really cheap dinners.
I stockpile, so when things like cereal are super cheap, I buy enough boxes to get us through to the next sale.
-We eat very little meat. Just my H eats meat at all, and only 1-2 times a week.
-We are in a veggie CSA that supplies our veggies May-November and build our meals around that.
-We meal plan and shop with a list. Lots of pasta and rice-based meals.
-We only buy fresh produce in season.
-If the price of any given organic item is crazy, we don't buy it that day. We buy conventional or make another choice.
-We buy what we can local from farmers' markets, but keep in mind that the organic certification isn't everything. In our state, many farmers are using great sustainable practices but skip the certification because it's very expensive to obtain for small growers.
-We know our price points. In our area, organic anything is actually cheaper at WF than other stores. From what I've heard, however, this isn't true everywhere.
Hope that's helpful! I love to talk about food :-) From what I've heard here, it sounds like the new chain Sprouts is a great option if they have it in your area (we do not).
Do you have room for a freezer? If so, check out receipes for slow cookers. For example there is a site called organize yourself skinny. Lots of great receipes for make ahead slow cooker receipes to put into the freezer. Then you can buy the veggies when they are in season and make ahead meals.
Also check into your local farmers if you have any and what their farming practices are. Many of them practice organic farming (which I define as no chemicals or hormones) but don't advertise it organic because of the cost that comes with being certified organic. It's very very costly for farmers to be certified organic which is why the food is so expensive. But I've found many farmers in my area who practice "natural" farming.
Food production is really interesting to me. The more I learn the less I know. I used to think organic was a magic bullet, but now I see it as one of many good approaches-when done properly. Some organic farms fudge the rules, and some have labor/human rights issues. If you're not spraying for weeds, it takes a lot of hands to pick them.
We are trying a garden for the first time this year. So far we have spent a ton, but if the tomatoes keep chugging along as planned we should have a good haul. I'm hoping to can lots of pasta sauce for the winter. Our biggest expense was soil, which should be lessened next year since we'll just have to add compost. I haven't done the math but I bet the break-even point is around 3 years.
We do keep a few emergency items on hand so we don't have to run to the store or feel the need to get take out.
We try to keep snacks healthy - fruits, veggies, hummus, etc. I try to make big batches of cookies, etc and freeze them. Less baking and healthier and cheaper than store bought. I do the same with pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, muffins, etc.