Since my last two posts have been about me not posting too often, I'm hoping I can try to change that, and offer something a little more interesting.
Last night I posted on my Facebook wall to my friends that I was up late price matching and coupon searching in prep for my grocery trip today. I mentioned that while there were other things I'd prefer to do, I had managed to keep my grocery bill below $200 for over a month now and I planned on keeping it that way. Since it was late and I was already tired, I didn't realize how it came out sounding and a couple of my friends actually asked how I managed to feed a family of 4 on only $200 a month. I wish, obviously I meant that my bill was less then $200 weekly, but their question got me thinking. Is it possible to get it even lower? How would I do that? Do I accept this challenge I've now presented myself with? In the words of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother), "Challenge accepted!".
But lets be realistic here, I've got a family of four, and things aren't exactly cheap. $50 a week while trying to not only feed my family, plus make sure they are getting healthy meals, while still picking up the extra stuff (shampoo, diapers, soap, OTC meds, ect), is not something I think I'll be able to do, at least not right now. But can I still cut my bill down even more while still keeping healthy meals on the table. I think it's possible, but it'll mean a lot more planning. Oy!
After thinking about it, I decided I need to separate my bill into 2 parts; meats, and everything else. If you've seen the cost of meat, you know why I decided meat had to be separate. Buying meat alone drives up my bill, and that includes any fish I purchase. I don't think I'm going to include the cost of eggs as meat (though some may disagree), and you'll understand why in a moment.
So, here's my plan, once a month, I'll spend $100 on meat alone and stock my freezer, one of the reasons I'm not including eggs in with the meat. I considered just buying meat as I go and trying to keep track of what is spent, but it's too easy for me to loose track or accidentally go over, so I figured a one-time bill is easier. This also allows me to start meal planning far in advance based on what I have on hand.
Since we have to obviously have the other food groups in there (not to mention normal other expenses such as TP), to start off, I'm giving myself $100 a week to spend on the rest of my groceries. I could try for lower, but, well, I'm nervous about even accomplishing this. I will obviously need to be good and start menu planning again, but even $100 a week for a family of 4 seems a little intimidating.
If I do this I could be lowering my monthly grocery costs from approximately $800 a month, to $500!
I'm not sure if I can do this, I might fail horribly, but I do plan on trying. I will admit something, I'm at a bit of an advantage here, I obviously have some things already frozen, and while my fridge doesn't have a freezer, I have a chest freezer hubby and I bought shortly after we were married, and during our last move, we inherited an upright freezer from the previous owners of our house. Both of these will work to my advantage when it comes to space needed to freeze the meat, and also any meals I make and freeze to eat at a later date, like my yummy chicken pot pies!!! Also, for those who follow the show Extreme Couponing, I can't do that. I live in Canada and our coupon laws are different, so while I do plan on continuing to use coupons to keep me in my limit, I'll be limited in what I can use.
Since I've already done my shopping for the week, I'll have to start my experiment next week. Looks like I've got some planning to do!
