I’ve been asked several times how I can possibly feed a family of five on only $50 per week ($57, if you include my weekly diaper budget). If you are like most people and spending $150 per week for a family of 4 (although from talking to people, I think that amount may be low), the idea of cutting your bill by 66-75% may seem like a pipe dream.
So how do I do it?
To be honest, there are two things without which I would be unable to spend so little: my extra freezer and my pantry. Without these, I couldn’t stockpile as well as I do. Take away my stockpile and I would be spending so much more each week!
The extra freezer has been wonderful and has allowed me to stock up on all sorts of things that I couldn’t without it. I can take 15 $.50 coupons to the store when veggies are on sale for $1 and walk out with 15 bags for free without worrying where to store them. When Acme had the best price I had seen in a year on cheese, I bought 20 bags and threw them in the freezer. And when Superfresh had chicken for $1.68/lb I bought 15 pounds, divided it in to 1-pound Ziplocs, labeled them and put them in the freezer. If I had to rely on the freezer in my kitchen, I wouldn’t be able to buy 1/4 of what I do. By having my extra freezer, I can stock up on items at their rock-bottom prices and have enough of a stash to hold me until the next time prices dip that low. Check out this guest post from November full of great tips on how a freezer can save you money (thanks again Marcy!)
If you don’t have an extra freezer (we keep ours in the garage), you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get one. Check out Lowes and Home Depot. They always have returned items, scratch & dent or floor models that they will sell you at a discount. It may take a few trips to the store to get one at the right price, but it shouldn’t take long! (Edited to add: don’t forget to check out Craigs List and FreeCycle as well! Thanks for reminding me!)
I highly recommend either getting a chest freezer or an extra “top & bottom” refrigerator. You want something that gives you room to stock up on larger items (like a turkey or ham) or even to stack up homemade lasagna & casseroles!
As for the pantry…
I was lucky enough that my husband built me a pantry when we were finishing the basement, but a pantry doesn’t have to be a separate room. It could be something as simple as a metal shelving unit in the basement or even a bunch of Rubbermaid tubs stacked up in the garage. You just need somewhere to catch the overflow from the cabinets. With my pantry I can stock up on cereal when I get it for $.80 per box, Muir Glen Tomatoes at $.29 per can and so much more! It even goes beyond food! If you have the room to “clean up” on these kinds of deals, you will get to the point where you think “Wait – you want me to PAY for toothpaste? Are you kidding?”. Did you find a deal where you can get a year’s worth of toothpaste and shampoo for free (like at SuperFresh when they are having Triples or a CVS ECB deal or a great deal at Wags)? Have no fear! You’ve got somewhere to store it and can replenish your stockpile as you need to!
So how does the freezer and pantry help in the Grand Scheme of Things?
By having my own little store, I am able to plan my meals around what I have, not based on what is on sale that week, rounding out with fresh fruit and veggies, dairy products and bread (although I do buy bread when I can get it super-cheap and freeze that as well!)
Each weekend, I simply think of and double check what I have in my freezer and pantry and with the help of the millions of online recipes out there, I can plan varied menus for the week with a minimum amount of money. I can even go to the Weight Watchers website or FoodNetwork.com, plug in a few ingredients and a list of recipes that use those ingredients will pop up!
I can even stock up on certain items with the idea of a Once A Month Cooking Day in mind. For instance, I now have a bunch of mozzarella, organic crushed tomatoes and pasta that I got dirt cheap. As soon as I hit a good price on ricotta I’m making a bunch of baked zitis and lasagnas with homemade tomato sauce and freezing them!
If you haven’t yet created a pantry, look around your house and see where you can create one. Once you have that, you can really start to maximize your savings!
(click here for part 2 of this series)
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I’ve only been stockpiling since this summer and I am keeping all of my extras on shelves in the attic. I noticed though, now that it’s cold, everything is freezing. Do you know if it hurts toothpaste, shampoo, etc. for it to freeze. What about canned goods? Any advice?
Hi Bonnie!
I think that I would try to find another place for those things, as any extreme temperatures (hot or cold) probably can’t be good. Things like cereal, pastas, etc are probably fine in the winter, but not anything in a glass jar that would run the risk of freezing and bursting the jar.
Perhaps someone else will chime in? is it ok if toothpaste freezes?
Don’t forget Craigslist or Freecycle for freezers!
I would say that it might be okay in the winter (except the glass jar problem), but maybe not the summer. Most things say to keep in a cool dry place and attics are not cool. The heat would cause the ingredients to separate or possibly break down.
HI there,
Thanks for your post. I have a question though. What do you think your budget would need to be if you lived in an area that didn’t double coupons?
Great question Kathleen, I’d like to know that too.
grumbles non-double couponing stores grumble, grumble, grumble
As far as freezing goes – depends on just how deep of a freeze we are talking and how many times it freezes and defrosts.
For us, it has gotten to -50 here with the wind (-25 without it). So, things literally exploded in our garage that we have never had a problem with.
In the spring and fall, it will continually freeze and thaw daily (if not hourly ;) ).
Summertime it swelters to over 100 with 90% humidity, so again a garage or attic would be out unless we were willing to pay to make it temperature controlled.
…wonders LOUDLY why we still live here.
i am right on track with my budget, we have family of five also, this week i spent $96 for food to last us two weeks so not too bad. that isn’t including dog food, cat food and diapers, but i got all that stuff free last month so we should be good for few more weeks.
and i wouldn’t know what to do with out a freezer chest, we got it when we married and it was best thing ever. i wish i had more storage for my panty, i have small kitchen and all the stockpiled stuff gets piled on top of the cabinets really nice so i can see it all. once the kids get older i can take thier toy shelfs and turn into pantry shelf maybe. also i have my hall closet nicely organized like a store shelf so i can see all my HBA items
Thank you for all your help. You have truly saved us so much money with all your suggestions! Mary
Hi,
I loved this post, I’ll have to save up for a deep freezer. I have lots of questions. I’ve never heard of freezing bread or cheese. Do you just thaw it in the fridge? Doesn’t the bread get all soggy? Can you freeze veggies such as fresh bell peppers, tomatoes, onions?
Thanks for all your tips, I love them!
yes you can freeze fresh veggies. What I do with bell peppers & onions is dice them up, lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet, then once frozen, put them in quart sized freezer bags, label & date them then toss in the freezer. I do the same with onions. fresh green beans I do the same way. With fruit like apples, I make a big pot of applesauce and put it in the quart sized freezer bags, label & date them then toss in the freezer. I also just slice them up toss with some lemon juice and bag them up for the freezer so that I can make fresh apple pies and such all year long. hope this helps some.
Hi Mindi
thanks for your thoughts, this is great…we have a freezer and a pantry that I am stockpiling…I find planning out a meal plan helps me to not buy those unnecessaries too, but I need to work on matching things up with sales and coupons….
there is one thing that we know about that is helpful it is a ministry called Angel Food Ministries. With how times are economically we have found this very helpful for our family.
Here is the link
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
looking forward to reading more suggestions…
Susy, we freeze onions – 2-3 bags at a time. Chop them all up, lay them on a cookie sheet til they are part or all the way frozen, then put them in baggies and lay flat.
I can tomatoes.
Green peppers don’t do so well frozen, at least I can’t figure out how to make them work.
I buy green peppers at the local produce stands/farmer’s markets in the summer, then chop them up into about 1/2 cup portions and freeze them in the baby bottle liners/meant for freezing breast milk. I then put these into larger gallon size freezer bags to keep them all together. The green peppers work great, I just add them to foods, I am baking, or soups or sauces. However, I don’t use the frozen green peppers as I would a fresh one such as in a salad. I also slice the tops off on some, remove the seeds and membranes, and freeze them whole. These are perfect to use for stuffed green peppers in the winter months when peppers are so expensive.
I have small kitchen and all the stockpiled stuff gets piled on top of the cabinets really nice so i can see it all. once the kids get older i can take thier toy shelfs and turn into pantry shelf maybe. also i have my hall closet nicely organized like a store shelf so i can see all my HBA items.
Suzy-
My grandmother has been freezing breads and cheeses for years! When I was a kid, I used to hate when she’d pull out the frozen bread because I always thought it was going to be soggy and stale, but grandma’s eat that kind of stuff, right? Well, I’ve eaten PLENTY of those frozen breads without knowing it a bit! All you have to do is let it thaw out mostly in the fridge, then put it in a breadbox or a drawer close to the floor until it’s back to room temp. You’d never know the difference!
Same for the cheese. Just let it thaw in the fridge!
One last thing:
It is WELL worth the investment if you can afford to buy a machine that vacuum seals plastic baggies. It may seem like a waste of money to buy the machine and all the baggies. In the long run, though, it will save you many freezer burned meats and veggies, and we all know that can add up to quite a bit of $$$!
Watch Craig’s List for freezers. You can find some great deals.
Another good way to start is to get back to the basics in your cooking. How to make bread, stocks, etc. Its a win win situation it costs a fraction of the price and is always better tasting.
If you want to discuss more foodstuff I personnally invite you to join our network http://www.amortlamalbouffe.org.
Cheers
For people wondering how to store bell peppers and other foods without freezing or canning. Have you tried to dehydrate them? Many fruits and veggies dehydrate well. I have done this to all kinds of peppers, squashes, beans, and even fruit & meats… though I have a store it away book for beginners to help me through the ones that you have to do more than cut/dice for them to turn out ok. But it was well worth the effort & money saved!
Since we started to shop at Aldi’s for some of our food last year, we’ve reduced our food bill by 25%. We also rejoined BJs and are going with store brands more than ever before.
May I mention your series and link back to it on my site?
Hi Joy!
Of course you are welcome to link back!
For future reference, you usually don’t need to ask any blogger if you want to link to their posts. We LOVE the Linky Love! ;-)
Of course, copying & pasting to your site is another story….(not that I think you would….just mentioning it in case anyone else was wondering)
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions (especially with the freezer stuff)!
Nikki: I have a FoodSaver (that I just HAD to have when they were new and “hot”), but I haven’t pulled it out for quite some time. I had a problem with the canisters cracking after extended use (and I wasn’t treating them roughly…I think just the process of sucking air out of them wore them down) and I am out of bags.
I want to get one of those Ziploc sealers (or is it Hefty?), but I just haven’t got around to it….
If you’re thinking of buying a deep freezer, just make sure that the added energy cost is in your budget so you aren’t surprised when you’re hit with a bigger energy bill!
Mindi, how much do you think your freezer costs you a month, in energy, to give everyone an idea of this expected cost?
Thanks!
UPDATE – I just heard from someone who told me that while the old chest freezers are big energy drains, the new ones are so energy efficient that you won’t even notice the difference. In fact, a friend of ours buys his beef by the side!
For all of you looking on craigslist, make sure you still buy one that is new and energy-efficient! Otherwise you will more than pay for the initial savings from buying an older, cheaper model.
Hi Saver!
Thanks for the update!
Our freezer is about 5 years old and when we bought it we bought the most energy-efficient one within our budget. It’s been a while, but I think our electric bill went up by about $10 per month.
But then we bought a High Efficiency washing machine the next month and our water bill went down by about the same amount…so it all evened out ;-)
Awesome post and lots of great comments in the comments. Great series! Thanks :)
Thanks Mindi! Wow, $10 is not bad – totally worth it when you consider the big savings from your efficient shopping.
Thanks! I have accumulated quite a stockpile.
http://tupelodeals.blogspot.com
You don’t just want to store food in the garage. It needs to be kept at 45-70 degrees for a long shelf life. That said, you can still build an insulated room in your garage and install a window a/c unit if you live in a mild climate where it doesn’t freeze. My “pantry” is just that, as I live in a warm desert climate.
If you live somewhere with some land, in even a colder climate, a root cellar might be something for you to consider, or a root cellar in the basement.
Try the Angel Food Ministries that are sponsored by many churches. You pay $30 to get misc. food such as pasta, meat, milk and canned goods worth up to $65. These products are not 2nd hand. There are additional meat and fresh produce boxes you can buy. This program has no criteria. You just pay when you order from an order form. Try it!!
thank you so much for this site! Being “Loyal” has cost me a lot and I’m done with that! I went to Save A Lot yesterday and was amazed at the prices! I am now a loyal follower to YOU- not the grocery store chains!!
thanks for your insite. as far as storing cans and glass jars – forget anyplace with extreme temp changes, it ruins your food. extra space under beds or even the sofa that you can pull out in sweater bins. with a little organization it works. just a thought
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