Feeding Four on $40 a Week: How We Do It

by Crystal Paine from MoneySavingMom.com
If you have spent any time on my blog, MoneySavingMom.com, you'll likely know that my husband and I, along with our two young daughters subsist on a $40/week grocery budget.

Our $40/week grocery budget includes toiletries, laundry soap, cleaners, diapers, medicine, and all other household supplies and it covers breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all four of us for a week, other than the one meal a week we normally eat out. We could actually eat for less, but $40 gives us enough room to be able to purchase more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, some organic food, and farm-fresh hormone-free milk and eggs.

How do we do this? Well, here are a few things that help us accomplish this:

1. Plan a menu around what you have on hand and the store sales and stick to it.
The most important step in lowering your grocery budget is having a plan and keeping it. Second of all, don't just plan a menu, go through your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and use those as the basis for your menu. Start with what you have and creatively use that before you buy anything extra. Thirdly, check your store fliers (you can usually do this online) and see what is on a good sale and plan your menu around that, as well.

2. Shop at more than one store.
Unless you live somewhere where you only have one store to shop at, don't do all your shopping in one location. I try to hit two to three stores each week buying just the best deals from each. I almost always hit Kroger as I have found them to consistently have the best loss-leaders and I love their double-coupon policy. Plus, they often have Catalina deals (where when you buy 2 or 4 of a certain item, you get $x off your next shopping order). I usually always go to CVS, as well (more on that in a minute), and then, if I have a few staple ingredients I need to get or the deals are rather weak or my cupboard is rather bare, I'll hit Aldi. It varies from week-to-week depending upon what the sales are.

3. When something is on a good sale (for me, that means combining the sale with coupons it is free, close to free, or something we use often and the price is considerably cheaper than the Aldi price), stock up.
To give you an example of how this works, this past week, combining coupons with store sales, I got the Cottonelle for Kids toilet paper for $0.50 per 4-pack. This is half the Aldi price, and the rolls are twice the size. Obviously, since toilet paper is something we use around here on a regular basis, I stocked up and bought eight 4-packs. The deal will still be good this next week and each package has a coupon inside, so I'll probably get at least eight more on my next shopping trip. I'm guessing this will last us for the next 6-8 months, at least--probably longer. Instead of buying the cheap Aldi toilet paper when we were almost out and spending $1 each time, I bought higher quality toilet paper with twice as much on the roll, for half the price. So, in essence, I got it for 75% off the Aldi price. By stocking up ahead of time, you stretch your grocery dollars much farther.

4. If you have a CVS nearby, become a regular customer.
By regularly shopping the ECB deals there and using their store coupons, $4 off $20 or similar coupons which often print, and stacking these with manufacturer's coupons, I rarely ever pay for toiletries or household items. This is how we pay for almost all of our disposable diapers--using the overage earned from the ECB deals. Check out my CVS 101 post for more information to get you started.

5. Use a calculator and pay with cash.
I bring $40 a week in cash to the store with me and no extra. No checkbook, no debit card, nothing else. This is one of the most helpful ways I guarantee that I stay within budget. As I add items off my list to my cart, I add them to my running total on my calculator. By adding it up as I shop, I'm able to know exactly how much I've spent so far and whether or not I have extra to buy some items which are reduced for quick sale.

6. Cook from scratch.
Eliminating processed foods and boxed mixes from your diet is not only more healthful for you, it will also save you a lot of money. Make your own baked oatmeal or granola instead of buying boxed cereal. Keep homemade cookies and muffins made up and in the freezer for snacks instead of store bought cookies or chips. Bake your own bread, cookies, cakes, and pancakes. You can even make up your own mixes to have on hand when you are short on time! Remember to keep it simple, too. Stick to recipes with fewer, inexpensive ingredients.

7. Most of all, enjoy the journey!
I have so much fun saving money on groceries and seeing God bless and multiply our little budget to feed, not only our family, but to have extras to give away!

Crystal Paine is a wife to Jesse and mommy to Kathrynne (3) and Kaitlynn (1) who enjoys inventing new recipes, bargain-shopping, and blogging in her "spare" time. Visit her blog, http://www.moneysavingmom.com/, to learn how to stretch your hard-earned dollars farther and live on less than you make so you can save more and give more!

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