Makeover My Grocery Budget Please!

Jenny/ June 6, 2019/ Thrifty Homeschool Mama Tips & Tricks

So, I sat down the other day and looked at what we are actually spending on grocery budget and I’ll be honest. I kinda freaked out! We’re a family of 6 but we were spending about $900/month for our groceries!! I decided we needed to cut it down to $600/month. That’s alot to cut but I’m determined. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

First Step…

Signed up for Mint.com I decided this would be a great way to keep track of our spending all in one place. It’s free and has loads of options.

2nd Step, Grocery Budget Makeover…

Next, I sat down and tried to determine what I was spending so much on and what I could do without. Right off, I saw that a high protein diet based on meat protein is extremely expensive. I decided that would have to go for me. My breakfast usually consisted of expensive nitrate free turkey bacon, a low carb whole grain wrap with loads of cheese, spinach and or stir fry vegetables. My replacement is going to be home made granola, a loaded baked potato, leftovers or oat waffles. Since my bacon was costing $8/40 ounces I’ll save quite a bit.

I noticed we were also eating a lot of expensive sliced meats. Yes, they were healthy ones, nitrate free, hormone free ECT but the kids love sandwiches and can easily eat 3-4 each a day. Whew! That adds up big time! I’m cutting them down to one sandwich a day and eating more solid meals. They might not like that so much at first but they’ll get used to it. I also am going to make things like waffles, muffins, and biscuits as store bought bread replacements. They’re really quick and cheap to make, I’ve just gotten out of the habit.

Make some changes…

We eat really healthy at our home and I don’t want to change that but I am definitely going to be substituting plant protein like beans and brown rice for meat in dishes. I just bought 10 pounds of ground beef on sale and repackaged it into 1/2 pound packages. That will work perfectly for Mexican dishes such as chili, taco soup and Mexican gumbo. It also works well for soups. Of course if we want cheeseburgers or meatloaf I’ll have to use more than one package.

How it works…

Yesterday was grocery shopping day and the total we spent was $250 which is for 2 weeks. We may have to order a few more things in the next few days but I think with this I can keep to a budget of $300/2 weeks. To some of you that probably sounds high/low. Remember, we get no public assistance, no WIC, no food pantry ECT… This is all from our pocket and for 450 meals/month for our 5 people. Baby Daisy just drinks homemade milk right now, lol (and it’s free!). Another great reason to breastfeed!
I’m hoping to just get better and better at this and I’ll update how I’m doing each month. I also plan on growing as much as I can in the future which will help tremendously!

How is your grocery budget? Are you happy with it or could you improve on it?  Read my other posts on Grocery Budget #2 & Grocery series #3!

Side note:. My husband read this article and said, “you don’t have to do this.”. I said, “It will save us a minimum of $3,600/year!”. Him, “Wow!! Ok, let’s do it!!”