Feeding My Family on A Budget

Feeding our family on a budget is something we have been doing since day one of our marriage.  We honeymooned locally where we rented a cabin and cooked most of our own meals.  Once we returned home from our honeymoon, we spent the first month of our married lives both out of work (I was job-hunting, and Stewart's boss was between carpentry jobs).  Since August 2009, I have been at home full-time and we have relied on Stewart's single income, except for when he was in school, when we relied upon Stewart's part-time income.  For eight months we lived in West Africa on the financial support of friends and family.  And now, Stewart is employed as a pastor in a small town (and we all know pastors don't exactly make buckets of money!).  So we've had lots of time to learn to prepare food frugally!

Eating frugally looks a little different for every family, so this isn't meant to be prescriptive, as much as descriptive.  These are things that we have done at various times in our married life to keep our grocery bill down (not necessarily at this moment, or even all at the same time).
 
Shop sale items.  I'm not really into couponing.  I don't really have the time to look for and save coupons, but I sure love a good sale!  When I find non-perishable items that we buy on sale for a good price, I make sure to stock up.  At one point recently, I bought four jugs of liquid laundry detergent on the same day, because I came across a good sale at two different stores!  I've found that I do need to be discerning and make sure I only buy the sale items that we already regularly use, and not get sucked into buying things we don't need just because of the good price.

Grow a garden.  Big or little, every little bit helps.  Of course the cheapest way is to start with seeds, but even seedlings are cheaper than purchasing full-grown plants (such as potted tomato plants).  And even buying a full-grown tomato plant that produces well is likely to be cheaper than buying the equivalent number of organic tomatoes.

Buy in bulk.  Costco is great for buying in bulk, but you can also buy items such as rice and dry beans in bulk at import grocery stores.

Minimize your meat.  Use meat to flavour your dish rather than as the main course.  We often eat meat in our meals (ground beef in our spaghetti sauce, for example) rather than having meat as our meal (chicken breast with a side dish, for example).

Buy bone-in meat and use the bones to make a broth.  Homemade broth is healthy and delicious, and easy to make!  By using bones from your meat (chickens, ham, roasts) and veggie scraps (carrot peels, celery ends, etc.) you can make your own broth for a fraction of the cost of buying it ready-made.  (Read this article for a basic how-to.)

Use dried beans and lentils instead of canned.  I used to be afraid of dried beans.  They seemed like so much work!  While you can soak them for several hours before cooking them (best-case scenario), I often just put them directly into the slow-cooker on high for a few hours until tender, depending what kind of bean I'm cooking (black beans cook faster than kidney, for instance).  I'll often cook up a full slow-cooker of beans at a time, then portion them into roughly the amount that comes in a can, and freeze them, so they are ready to thaw and use.  I also use these slow-cooked beans to make my own refried beans (I usually just mash them and add seasonings, but I've been wanting to try this Garlicky Refried Beans recipe which also uses dried beans).

Shop in the States for key items.  When we lived near the US border, I would buy our tortillas, refried beans, butter, and cheese in the States at a much lower price than I could find in Canada.  Tortillas freeze nicely and a thaw quickly in a warm oven.  There are some items that I refuse to buy across the border due to the difference in food production standards.  For instance, I personally do not buy meat or milk unless it's organic due to the hormones/antibiotics that can be used in the animals.

Freeze or can seasonal produce, especially if you can buy it in bulk for a good price.  Peaches, pears, tomatoes, applesauce, salsa, jalapenos, are all good items to can in the summer or early fall.  Blanched green beans, pureed cooked pumpkin, grated zucchini, and fresh berries are just some of the items I like to stock in my deep freezer for us to enjoy all year long.

Cook from scratch.  Of course this takes more work, but if your biggest concern is finances, it certainly helps to avoid buying prepared foods.  With enough time and effort, bread, buns, cookies, cakes, bagels, english muffins, tortillas, naan, etc, can all be made from scratch.

And finally, one of the biggest ways we've found to cut down our grocery budget is to stop eating out!  This seems so obvious, but it really does add up fast.  When we lived in the big city, we found it so tempting to grab lunch at a drive-thru on our way home, or order in Indian food when life got busy.  But now that we live in a small town where that just isn't an option, I've realized it's not that hard to live without!

What are some of the ways you've found to save money on groceries?