The Top 10 Ways I Keep My Grocery Budget Low

I love to see how other people keep their grocery budgets low, so I am excited to welcome Michelle from Simplify, Live, Love to TheNorthForty! Here she shares her top money-saving strategies:

It might surprise you to learn that I feed (and keep clean) my family for between $250-$300 a month. We eat mostly whole foods prepared from scratch. I am quite picky when it comes to food I prepare. My family consists of six very hungry people: my husband, myself, and four kids: 7, 6, 4, and 1 ½.

Here are the Top 10 Ways I keep my grocery budget low:

10. Formula – I know breastfeeding doesn’t work for some people, and some people need formula for personal or employment reasons, but I personally can’t fathom shelling out tons of money on processed food for my baby. Instead, I have always worked through whatever issues there may have been and have exclusively breastfed all of my babies for one year and beyond. That alone saves me a ton of money. Did you know that one year of feeding a baby just the basic formula can cost over $1,500? Wow!

9. Cleaning supplies – Instead of buying a lot of chemically laden cleaning supplies, I mostly use vinegar, water, and baking soda. Sometimes I add an essential oil to make it smell nice or add another cleaning element, but mostly I just use plain old water and vinegar. Now, there are exceptions to this rule – such as cleaning a NASTY toilet at a rental house. In that instance, I go for the chemicals, and those chemicals do not come out of my monthly budget.

8. Paper products (towels, Kleenex, TP) – I know this might be a radical concept, but we rarely use paper towels. I do have one or two rolls for cleaning up pooh spots from animals or a toddler accident, but for the most part I use rags and then wash them. I also do not use any Swiffer type disposable products. My mop has a washable microfiber pad and I use dusting rags. We do use tissues and toilet paper, but like most things I buy, I wait until they are on sale and buy them with coupons. One of my goals for 2012 is to ditch the tissues, too! I’ll be blogging about my progress this year.

7. Laundry detergent – I used to buy a safe, non-toxic, and biodegradable laundry soap called Charlie’s Soap. It cost a lot up front (~$100 for a 4.5 gallon bucket), but it lasted me over three years. When I ran out in the spring of 2011, I needed a cheaper option and found a recipe to make my own. For the last 8 months, I have been using homemade laundry soap. All it takes is a bar of soap, borax, and washing soda. I’ve been very happy with it and I do a ton of laundry! It’s even cheaper than the Charlie’s Soap. Score!!

6. Pre-made bread – If I didn’t lose you with the first four, I might lose you here. I grind my own flour and make my own bread. I buy wheat berries from an Amish grocery store for around $20 for 50 pounds of berries. My bread costs me pennies compared to the whole grain bread at the grocery store. Plus, it is jam packed with fresh, whole grain goodness and you can’t beat the taste! Depending on the “twigs” and nuts I put in my bread, the cost per loaf can vary significantly, with some loaves being much more frugal than others. When I need to cut costs, I make Artisan bread, which requires only flour, water, salt, and yeast. Super cheap, very healthy, and quite tasty!

5. Cereal – My kids love cereal and I do buy it occasionally, but only when it is essentially free. And as I get pickier about ingredients there are fewer types of cereal I am willing to buy. I watch out for artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial colors. You might be surprised how many cereals contain horrible ingredients. Instead of cereals which don’t fill us up anyway, I make most of our breakfasts from scratch – eggs, waffles, homemade granola, and German pancakes are a few of our favorite breakfasts.

4. All toiletries –Walgreens and CVS are great places for bargain hunters to shop. I haven’t paid real money for toothpaste in over three years. And the same goes for deodorant, shaving cream, razors, body wash, soap, over the counter medicines, etc. Sales, combined with store rewards and coupons, can be very worthwhile for the discriminating shopper. My house is stocked with toiletries that I sometimes get for free and I like it that way!

3. Veggies – I have a large organic garden and grow as much food as I can each year. Fall meets me with a flurry of activities as we work to put food-by our harvest to enjoy in the winter. It gives me such satisfaction to grow my own food and even more satisfaction to eat it in the middle of the winter! When I need fresh produce in the winter, I watch the sale ads and price match for the best prices. I also watch the Environmental Working Group’s Clean 15 List and try to maximize what I buy from that list to minimize exposure to pesticides.

2. Meat – I’m pretty picky about meat. I buy beef by the quarter cow once a year from a local farmer. The price averages out to around $2.50 per pound – a great price for high quality ground beef, roasts, steaks, and soup bones! While I’m happy with my source of beef, I’m not so happy with my chicken and pork. I do buy it from a quality meat counter when it’s on sale, but another goal for 2012 is to find local, healthier sources for those meats as well.

1. Diapers – I have used cloth diapers for seven years. I love my cloth diapers! Not only are they frugal, they are also a green choice. My youngest daughter was diagnosed with hip dysplasia in August 2011, and had surgery in November. Because of the spica cast she is in, I am not able to use the cloth diapers right now so I have had to temporarily add disposable diapers to my shopping list. I am pairing sales with coupons and using Swagbucks to get them as cheaply as possible on Amazon. It’s doable, but I’ll be glad come February when she is out of her cast and I can go back to cloth!

We do other things too, to keep our budget down, but these are the biggies. How do you keep your grocery budget low?

Interested in writing a guest post for TheNorthForty? Please check out my Guest Posting Policy and send submissions to tykesmom@the-north-forty.com.

For more great homemaking tips, check out: Growing Home, Life As Mom and Learning the Frugal Life.