Since moving to Agoura in July our grocery budget has suffered greatly. I don't have Super Walmart close by so we are shopping at regular grocery stores. Not that you all care but we were spending approximately $600.00 a month on groceries. This includes, cleaning and house hold products, Toiletries, diapers/baby, and our food. I would like to cut my spending back to no more then $400.00 a month. I tend to by name brand everything so I know just by switching to store brand I will save quite a bit of money. The main thing I am having problems with is finding budget friendly recipes that will make enough to freeze for later or have left overs. I know that buy in bulk is more cost effective, however it costs a lot of money up front which is hard for us to spend. I need ideas for that as well.
Don't take this post in the wrong way... Ryan and I are doing just fine and can make ends meet every month with our $600.00 budget. We just want to pull a head and buy a house someday. In order to meet our buy a house goal we need to save $200.00 more per month on top of what we are already saving. If you have any tips for how to cut back, or save money at the store, or have cheap recipes it would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help!
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Buy in bulk by shopping at Costco.
Ok, so I know you're feelings about trying to save for buying a house. We are in the same boat. Fortunately, I have a pretty cheap grocery store I shop at nearby but hardly buy things "name brand" except for some musts like peanut butter and such. I have a budget of $450 a month, and like you, that includes all household cleaning supplies, toiletries, diapers, wipes... I buy some things at Costco like milk, eggs, cheese, fruit snacks, diapers and wipes because they will save you a lot. Some things are actually more at Costco compared to buying name brand of somethings at a grocery store. Toilet paper for example. It's more at Costco than at my grocery store if I bought as much as Costco offers (this doesn't apply to all places so you just have to do the math, comparing your grocery stores nearby and Costco). But on some days that I go over budget, I cut back the next week and fix low cost meals. We eat spaghetti and homemade pizza a lot because it's so cheap. Hotdogs/ beans, casseroles, a breakfast dinner, burgers, chicken nuggets and fries, all these are cheap to do. If you'd like, I'll email a bunch of recipes I make that are cost efficient. I was doing a $400 budget including the diapers and wipes but now I upped it to $450. I usually only spend about $420 or less but at least on weeks where I have to buy both diapers and wipes, I know I'm not going "over budget." With what's left over, I put into our savings. One great thing to do is have an emergency savings account and then a separate savings account. You're emergency savings always stays at $1000 and if you have to dip into it for money, you're not touching your actual "savings account." Then, we fill the emergency savings back up, always to $1000. Another things is each time we get paid we pay not only 10% to the Lord, but to ourselves. 10% of what we made that pay period goes directly into savings, no matter what. Hope I've helped!
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