The Big Shop: The Frugal Edition

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I shop the first Tuesday of every month for all the meat and pantry items we need in a month. Grocery stores here offer consumers 10 % off the entire grocery bill. I've been making monthly menu plans and shopping this way for years. It's supposed to save us money.

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But for the past few months, this has been costing us money--not saving it.

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That's because I've been stupid and using my credit card to pay for them. If we're "a little short," it's no biggie, right? My husband gets paid on Thursday--every Thursday--so we'll just transfer the money right over.

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Except I forget.

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Or there isn't quite as much as I'd thought would be there.

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Or something.

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So, as part of this whole Dave Ramsey thing we're doing, we decided that though I would do up the menus and go shopping as usual, I would check my bank balance and not spend any more than we had available. (Novel concept.)

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I usually spend about $350.00 after the discount.

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Today, I had a little over $200.00 to work with.

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I came in under--far enough under, actually, that I could have purchased those two cans of coffee I left behind because I was a bit anxious. (I really wish I'd got them, actually. But, I do have enough to last until the next shopping trip on Sunday.)

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I also left behind the lovely hams: we usually have at least one in a month--and use the left overs for another meal--but I couldn't do it.

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I also found that I didn't pick up any extra. I bought one bottle of ketchup--not two. I got just one can of tomatoes even though they were on sale and "I can always use tomatoes." I have some in my pantry. I didn't buy the pre-shredded or the pre-sliced cheese.

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I have no idea how the rest of the month is going to go. But we seem to be off to a good start.

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The next thing I need to do is write up our budget for the month based on Ramsey's method.

5 cents and Milk

I loved your responses to my accidental post last week. Indeed, it is all about the conversation!

In my beginner's tentative steps to be frugal, I was computing the cost of liquid milk (the stuff that comes in the cartons) to the cost of powdered milk (the stuff that, here, comes in bags.) I was greatly confused. I measure the powdered stuff by volume, you see, and it is sold by weight.

So, these calculations only work if 1/3c (or 75 ml) equals 25 g.

Here we go:*

A 2.5 Kg. bag of powdered milk costs $24.49.
If 100 g makes up 1 litre
then, 1 litre = $1.02

A two litre carton of 1% milk costs $2.82
so, 1 litre costs $1.41

That's a significant savings! So, last week, I mixed a 4L jug with 2L of powdered milk and 2L of milk from the carton. My son never noticed and my daughter (who saw me do it) refused to drink milk all week.

Last night, however, I was in the grocery store--and lo and behold if I didn't notice that buying 4L of 1% milk costs $4.51. (Whole milk, marketed here as 3.25% is ten cents more) Holy cow, Batman, that's only $1.13 per litre! (Making last week's 4L mixed milk at $1.22/L way more expensive.)

However, I have learned my lesson. Indeed I have. In my fridge, I now have a 4L jug of mixed milk. Cost: $1.08/L (and I have 1/2 of a 4L jug of unmixed milk, too.)

Do nickles really add up?

*PS: A quart is slightly less than a litre.

Frugal? Cheapskate? Poor?

Image from this site which has a divine sounding recipe for H.C.


What will it be?

I grew up "poor." We could never afford anything.

I hated it with a passion. I had sandwiches made with Baloney--or Spam. (And we never fried the Spam--slicing it would be a "waste"--actually--we didn't even have "Spam"--we had some cheaper Spam knock-off called "Kam") It was mashed, mixed with relish and mayo, spread on brown bread (no butter) and wrapped in waxed paper. Add an apple (oranges were too expensive) and that was lunch. Oh--and I used the same paper bag over and over until I inevitably forgot to bring it home.

Supper, because my Mom had no time to cook (and doesn't cook anyway) was canned soup and sandwiches. I don't remember breakfast. Usually Mom wasn't home (working the early shift) or sleeping (from working the late shift).

I was reminded of all this one day when I recently read a recipe for hot chocolate in The Tightwad Gazette.

The recipe:
1 teaspoon cocoa,
1 teaspoon sugar,
1/3c skim milk powder
6 oz boiling water.

And I suddenly remembered--for years and years I had had skim milk and whatever was the bulk foods cheap equivalent of Nestle's Quick as my hot chocolate mix. I never knew how much of anything I was supposed to use--so for years I skimmed globs of undissolved skim milk from the top of my mug.

I was telling my Mom recently about finding this recipe and as I was thinking out loud about trying it on my kids (who have only ever had Carnation their whole spoiled lives) she quickly interjected, "Make sure you pick up the cocoa from the bulk food bin."

And all the old anger came back.

The Grocery Challenge!

In an effort to be more fiscally responsible and get serious about paying off our debt, we've decided to set a budget.

The most challenging area will be food. I don't tend to spend much on clothes, and when I'm not curing, I don't spend much on the house, either. I've given up scrapping--because the thrill was really in the shopping and participating on-line--the actual page building was fine but became somewhat unrewarding without those adjacent activities.

But food?
I love a well stocked pantry! And the freezer bursting with food is so satisfying. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel safe. And who can criticise spending money on food? (Not even my most parsimonious husband, that's who!)

However, it is time to get responsible about this area. Even according to our "pared-down" rock-bottom budget, food accounts for 24.5% of the husband's take home pay (before overtime). That's the figure I will try to meet (and beat?) this month. This is the first month I'll be trying to stick to a set amount. Then, in a few months, (or sooner) once I know better what I'm doing, I'll try and reduce it.

My goals for this month are:

1) meet the target

2) beat the target

3) shop weekly sales specifically

4) prepare meals in advance (and freeze) for those nights I can't stand the kitchen

5) not run out of everything the last few days of the month!

The budget will run from Nov 1 to Nov 31. There's one dog, two adults and two kids, an 11 year old ("Mommy I'm hungreeeeee!" boy) and an 8 year old ("what's in this?" girl)

A few things I want to do to meet these goals are:

1) make up a cost comparison book. This should help me figure out whether the simplest of money saving tricks--serving the kids 1/2 powdered milk mixed with 1/2 "regular" milk will really save money! Powdered milk can be expensive--especially at times when a lot of it is being shipped overseas for famine or disaster relief.

2) Make up substitutions as they are cost effective.

3) Bake more cookies and sweets. (No more buying them!)

4) Prepare one soup and one vegetarian meal a week.

5) Find ways to use a small amount of meat in dishes, instead of serving a chunk to each person.

6) Rejig lunch.

Note:
1) couponing here is not a great deal. Most coupons are available on a promotional basis only for expensive name-brand products I'd never buy anyway.

2) As the husband works for a grocery chain prominent here, he wants me to continue to purchase our groceries from that grocery store only and not the others.

3) I already make up my dinner plans for the month and generate a shopping list for what I'll need--I tend to buy all freezer and pantry items on the first Tuesday of the month (10% off) and then just pick up fresh stuff once or twice a week throughout the rest of the month.

This month, then, I'll keep track of my challenge here-and post substitute recipes (and cost worthiness) here, too.