Maine Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
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.
Money Saving on Groceries and Lunches
I think we have talked about this or something similar before.
How do you save money on groceries and lunches?
I get groceries weekly and spend between $50 and $80. I know this is on the lower end and it is because my husband is a wacky eater.
We do spend an ungodly amount on lunches a month...upwards of $200 including coffees (Seth.).
I would like to work toward saving money on both/either.
How do you save? Do you bring a lunch every day? Do you coupon?
Re: Money Saving on Groceries and Lunches
Our deal is we never go out to eat unless it's together. So we always bring our lunches.
We also only go to the grocery store every 3 weeks. Fresh fruits and veggies first week and a half and frozen the last week and a half (think soups with veggies and smoothies). I find the less I go to the grocery store, the less we spend.
Big batches are huge. I always double every batch and often freeze lunch size portions so DH can grab and go. I make all of our own bread, yogurt, snacks, etc...so that saves. Again, always in huge portions (like granola bars) and freeze. Same with
baby food..make a ton and freeze.
I'm doing a lot of these things. Seth won't eat leftovers but I do so I bring those. If something is on sale I buy a ton of it. We eat mostly store brand stuff. Baby is still on milk but we are doing BLW so he will eat what we eat in another month.
Maybe I could sell Boyd.
(nooooooooooooooo)
Aw, don't sell kitty face!
I bring lunch 99% of the time, and any time I go out is usually when my boss takes us out to eat, so it's on the company dime (score!). Most of my lunches are pretty boring- bagels, fruit, yogurt, almonds, sandwiches and leftovers. We also have a k-cup machine at work so I can grab a cup of decaf in the morning w/o having to shell out for it thankfully. Our office is somewhat remotely located, so it keeps the temptation to go out to eat at bay, which is nice.
Kyle and I are both huge leftover eaters, so that helps us with food costs too. Other than that, I'm totally with you on buying things in bulk and portioning it out.
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. -Henry Miller
http://cookthehumbletable.blogspot.com/
We've saved a lot of money since DH's been traveling since he gets money for lunch-- so that doesn't help. Otherwise, he always forgets leftovers that I leave for him when he's home.
I have been way too lazy lately to bring my lunch and have been wasting money in our cafeteria.... but I did pack food today. If DH ends up staying home more, we'll have to work out a plan to get him to remember his food.
I don't think I have any good tips, unless you consider get your DH a traveling job...
We buy in bulk at Sam's Club and freeze portions. So I can get 4 1.25lb packs out of a large one from Sam's Club.
We have a Keurig so coffee is at home and has been for a while and I buy bagels at SC too.
I use coupons but I haven't found any recently that I need to use and I buy Sam's Club brand formula (and I think we have just purchased our last container...I want to leave her on it til we talk to the pedi on the 18th).
This week is my first week working from home so I'm forced to eat here. I'd rather eat here than have to go out when I don't have too. And I can't justify ordering in every day. I usually eat leftovers for lunch, sometimes sandwiches, and many many times I eat cereal. Wednesdays are going to be different since I'll be in the office. Today I ate out since I had an errand to run but I presume it would be like before, coming home for lunch.
Groceries are around $75 a week. I buy store brand for about 25% (pasta, pasta sauce, frozen veggies, etc) but some things I just have to have brand name. I think I'm spoiled from living on base as a kid and not having generic available.
we spend about 120.00 on groceries every other week. We try to eat as organic as possible and tend to add trips to pick up fresh meat.
I usually bring a Kashi frozen meal to work three times a week. There are three that I really love. They are about 3.50 each but that is cheaper than going out to get something. When I am on the road for work I usually order out. MH is always away for work he buys lunch every day unless he's working close to home or my IL's then he'll go there for lunch.
I am no help.
If I still worked in town I"d probably spend that much on lunches and coffees too so it's a good thing I don't!! I pack lunch now - usually I'll put all my sandwich ingredients in my lunch bag and then make the sandwich at lunch time so it doesn't get soggy. I also do leftovers because I'm usually only cooking for one or two so I usually have a lunch's worth left over. I don't buy coffee anymore since I got the Keurig, and not having to stop for coffee makes me far less likely to eat breakfast on the way to work - usually it's cereal at home now.
On payday I let myself buy lunch at Bruce's or Clayton's which are both within walking distance of my office - yummmm!
Saving on groceries, though, that's a tough one. I have never had the patience or motivation to do coupons.
You must work about 2 minutes from my house :-)
I get emails from moneysavingmom.com, which has lots of really cool tips/ coupons/ tricks. The best part is you sign up for your grocery store, so I get hannaford, shaws, trader joes and whole foods and then they take the weekly sales and pair them with coupons to help you get a really great deal. I'm no couponer, but this site makes it easy and I'm not ashamed to say I've gotten some great deals!
This is what I've been doing as well using afullcup.com. We mainly shop at Shaw's and use the circulars plan our meals, and use the website to add savings. I think successful couponing takes a lot of patience, but you can really save a lot of money. We're not picky about brands and try to eat fairly healthy.
We usually spend between $75 - $100 weekly. We are big into fruit and salad. I plan all our meals out on Sunday and have found that saves us a lot of money. Pete likes leftovers and I work from home so we save a bunch on lunch.
A women from Maine is going to be on that new show Extreme Couponing. A friend of mine knows her and she is going to host a class for a few of us in a couple weeks, I'll report back after!
Nice! Small world
You know the building that burned down a year or so ago, by Rite Aid? I work in the rebuilt version of that building. For now anyway. We've moved 3 times in the 5 years I've been with this company - from Yarmouth to Freeport and back again.