How often do you go to the supermarket? Could you get by making only one trip per month? What if it saved you money?
My wife and I are both reading America’s Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides. During his time as an ad salesman, Steve was “shocked to read in a food industry publication that grocers expect six of ten items consumers pick up in the store to be unplanned purchases.”
Steve and Annette discovered that scientific research backs up what grocers already knew. In their book, the Economides cite a study analyzing the decisions of 4,200 customers who made 30,000 purchases in fourteen different cities. Researchers found:
- “Shoppers making a ‘quick trip’ to the store to pick up a few specific items usually purchase 54 percent more than they planned.”
- “Forty-seven percent of shoppers go to the store three or four times each week.”
- “Consumers graze at the grocery store, with impulse buys making up between 50.8 and 67.7 percent of total purchase.”
When people shop more often, they buy more stuff.
What’s the solution? For the past 25 years, Steve and Annette, America’s cheapest family, have practiced once-a-month shopping. They only go grocery shopping 12 times a year. This boggles my mind; Kris and I shop every week. (Lately I’ve been making many supplementary grocery trips, and my food budget reflects that.)
Once-a-month shopping
How does shopping once a month work? First of all, it takes time. It also takes organization. Here’s how the Economides do it:
- They make a list of the things they need, which they update continually. They also use meal plans.
- They accumulate coupon and ads for the things they use and the stores they frequent. During the days before their monthly shopping trip, they match sales and discounts to the items on their list.
- They divide and conquer. Steve tackles the perimeter of the stores (meat, produce, dairy, and baked goods) while Annette scours the center (processed food, household goods, baking supplies).
- They leave younger children with a babysitter. The Economides have found that they save time and money by leaving younger children at home instead of letting them distract them from the task at hand. Older children, however, can actually help.
- They hit multiple stores. Different stores have different strengths. If you shop every week, it may not make sense to drive all over town to save a few pennies. By shopping just once a month, however, travel costs are diminished.
- When they have the food home, they prioritize perishables. Certain produce (grapes, bananas) need to be consumed earlier in the month. Other foods (milk, bread) may need to be frozen.
.jpg "There are a lot of bargains in the supermarket; you just have to know how to find them.")
The Economides admit that each monthly shopping trip takes longer than a weekly shopping trip. But overall the process saves time and money. For one thing, it cuts down on the number of opportunities for impulse purchases.
Once-a-month shopping has worked so well for them that they’ve been doing it since 1984!
Putting the plan into practice
“This would never work for you,” Kris said when she and I discussed this concept. “You shop all the time.”
She’s right. Since I started working from home, I find myself at the grocery store several times each week. For example, I might crave a rotisserie chicken for dinner, so I head to the store to indulge my whim. While this sounds nice, it’s actually costing me more money.
- I’m indulging my whims, which tend toward more expensive foods.
- Each time I go to the store, I tend to buy extras. That rotisserie chicken turns into chicken and a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread, for example.
- We’re wasting more food. I’m not eating leftovers, and sometimes (I’m ashamed to admit), I let other food expire.
Could Kris and I get by shopping just once a month? We’re willing to give it a try. She and I have agreed to start by cutting our trips to twice a month (with a supplemental weekly run for milk and eggs). If this works, we’ll make them even less often. The most difficult part, however, will be restraining myself from those quick trips for impulse meals.
Update: Many readers are concerned about how once-a-month shopping would affect their supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Here’s what Steve and Annette say in their book:
Limiting our trips to the store means that certain fruits and vegetables must be eaten earlier in the month because they are more perishable. Grapes and bananas usually last a week. Once they’re gone, we move on to other fruits. Pears, lettuce, cucumbers, and peppers can last two weeks. Apples, cabbage, radishes, oranges, and celery can last a month.
We are often asked about storing bread, cheese, and milk. How could we possibly make those last a month? Well, we carefully freeze all three.
You should do what works for you. Kris and I are going to try twice-a-month shopping; the key idea is to reduce the number of trips to the supermarket.
Related note: At AskMetafilter recently, nitsuj asked, What’s your secret tip for saving money at the grocery store?”
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By far, a calculator is the best tool for staying on budget no matter how often I shop.
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We’re on the evnelope budgeting plan, so every two weeks (payday) we do a major trip, leave aside $50 or so for fresh produce and dairy, etc. needed during the upcoming two weeks. Being on the envelope budget keeps us from making the imulse buys, we only take so much cash with us, and my 10 year old totals up each item on his calculator as we go.
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This does work. I hate food shopping so much that we’ve been doing once a month major grocery shopping + 2 or 3 x month quick trips for fresh produce since mid-2003. Even with prices going up our grocery spending is down by 37% of what we were paying in early 2003 for a family of 4 (now 5). I don’t normally use coupons or follow the ads but we do freeze milk and bread and buy in bulk when things we use are on sale.
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By the way, they’re really nice people, but not many people could live life like they do.
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@KC–reminds me of grocery shopping in Germany, coming home with a case of beer balanced on the seat of a bicycle. You really need two people, especially for getting the beer onto the bicycle.
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We solve the impulse buy problem by cutting down our trips to the grocery store as much as possible. For us, this means:
1. buying milk and eggs at a local dairy weekly
2. weekly veggies from CSA from June – November
3. public market once or twice a month for fruits, etc.
4. monthly trip to wholesale store for cereals, butter, baking supplies, etc.
5. monthly trip to butcher store for meat we then portion and freeze
This system has helped us a great deal. We still head to the grocery store, but we can focus on the specific items we need and eliminate the items we know we have or get from another type of store.
Lisa
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What about fresh fruits and vegetables? Maybe I’m missing something here, but this seems like a really unhealthy plan! I can see how one could go shopping once a month for some foods, and that might even be a good plan, but fresh fruits and veggies are just not going to last that long!!
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For everyone concerned about fruits and vegetables, here’s a quote from the book:
I’ve appended this to the original post.
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Fresh fruits and vegetables don’t last a month. Better to work on one’s self-control and stick to a list than to eat all processed foods.
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I think all of the Economides’ key points (make a list, use coupons, split up to take less time, hit multiple stores) could also be used for weekly trips. We tend to do a large run once a month where we buy any canned things or non-perishables we’re out of, and then weekly trips for what we’re missing for the meals planned that week. Meal planning weekly seems to make more sense for us, as well- there are times when last Thursday’s meal got bumped for takeout, so it’s now next Monday’s meal. We also hit different grocery stores, although usually not the same day, but say we go to SuperFresh the first Saturday we might go to Weis the next. Meal planning around the weekly flyers keeps prices low, and we never have to waste a full Saturday in the grocery store!
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I can see both the advantages and the disadvantages to this.
When I lived alone and on a strict budget, I did my grocery shopping once a week, on a Sunday morning. I had $20 in cash that I withdrew just before going to the store that I kept in an envelope.
Sales circulars came out on Saturday, and I would spend an hour or so perusing them, assessing my food situation, and making a careful and detailed list of what I needed, wanted, and how much it all cost. Usually, I would list about $15 worth of food.
On Sunday, I would buy exactly what was on my list and my rule was any impulse buy on top of that had to be under $2.
I usually had room for one big bulk purchase (on-sale chicken, for example), milk, eggs, and a few other staples. I froze almost everything to make it last longer. I also usually walked to the grocery store as the above poster suggested, so that I wasn’t tempted to buy as much: I’d have to carry it home.
In that way, I probably could have stretched to once a month, but one major problem I see with this is that you’re missing out on a lot of good sales in the meantime. Grocery stores, I learned in that time, are on a cyclical pattern in terms of their sales: I could count on chicken going down to $1.59 a pound every six weeks, and could make my chicken last accordingly. Ditto for other things I bought commonly.
It wasn’t easy, but I also didn’t have much of a choice. In retrospect, it taught me a lot about frugality and what I really *need* out of food and a grocery store trip.
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So it’s obvious on here that a lot of people don’t shop this way for the sake of fruits and veggies (although I find it amusing that I can’t recall ever being behind someone in line who was just buying produce…)
But for us, recently we have stopped getting a few things that we have considered ‘staples’ up till now. For instance, I used to always get cheese. Not fancy cheese – just cheddar cheese. But now that our bill is SO HIGH and one block can cost anywhere from $4 to $7 – I have suddenly found that it doesn’t make it into my cart as much.
Anyone else find anything that they couldn’t live without up until recently?
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This is one of the reasons I avoid the grocery store if at all possible (Mr. Sam normally does the shopping for us). Last night I stopped at the store to pick up some lunch items (6-8 Lean Cusine, PB, jam, bread, Kashi bars) dinner (frozen pizza) and some breakfast items (Kashi cereal and organic skim milk) and I spent $50. I couldn’t believe the cost and I really need to take a closer look at that receipt.
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Another tip is to not go the the actual grocery store when you just need milk or bread, go to the convenience store or corner store. While it may be a few cents more expensive you’re less likely to buy things you don’t need.
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Like a lot of the postings have mentioned, I also buy non-perishable food items in bulk the majority of the time to limits our trips to the grocery (Walmart). My wife and I also like the produce and dairy but realize it won’t last a month at a time, so we go every two weeks for just those items. We actually have a list of all the prices of the fruit, vegetables, and dairy items. When the next two weeks come around we decide what we need, estimate the price to buy the items, and then take a little extra cash into the store to get those items.
As for toiletry items, we purchase those online. Often you have to buy in bulk but its definitely worth it! For instance, I know that we don’t need to buy 6 tubes of toothpaste at once, but on Amazon.com it is the same price as about 3.5 to 4 tubes. My favorite price is probably razor blades. Last year I bought 30-Mach 3 blades for the price of about 20! Sure it cost about $30 at the time but in the long run I saved about $12-$15…And I still have about 10 or so left.
An unexhausted list of items that we generally buy online: paper towels, dish soap, hand soap, bath soap, shampoo/conditioner, toilet paper, razor blades, tampons (believe it or not), cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc. In case you are wondering, by using a rewards card we more than offset the cost of shipping.
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I agree with you Rachel, I have cut out some “nice to have items” such as coffee creamer, I love it but I really can not justify 3-5 dollars for a pint size bottle. I’m not sure if I could give up the cheese. I do buy it on sale but we definitely eat less of it. The same is true with breakfast cereals, I quit buying them, the boxes have become so small even with a coupon there is nothing there! Instead we buy hot cereal such as oatmeal, and cocoa wheats, it goes much farther than the ready to eat cereal.
The produce prices have gone crazy in our area, I only buy what is seasonal for produce, and like some one else mentioned a lot of the fruit and produce is not as fresh as you would like to think it is = not worth the price.
I own a home so I have planted apple and apricot trees which I do can and freeze. I can not justify apples a $3 a pound. I do have a garden and grow a lot of produce so we do have an over abundance throughout the summer and fall which I also freeze or can. I know it does not have additives and where it came from, I am not sure this saves any money, growing a garden and tending to it is not cheap either! Maybe next year I will keep track of what I spend and if there are any savings!
I also do grow some stuff in my house, I bought leaf lettuce (it was a round shaped disk with seeds in it that fit in a pot perfectly) so I am hoping to get some fresh lettuce and I also have grown peppers in pots throughout the winter months. They self pollinate and I have had good results with them.
I have a large family so I have to stretch out my dollars as much as I can and I try not to buy a whole lot of convenience items, like bagged lettuce versus a head of lettuce. But I also realize if there is a lack of time it is still cheaper to buy the “convenience packaged produce” if it keeps you from going out and eating.
http://downwithdebt.today.com/
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Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables are nutritionally equal to fresh – as long as there’s no added salt or sugar. Not everyone can eat fresh local produce all year – and shipping it from Brazil is neither healthy nor frugal.
We get fresh produce home-delivered twice a month, but we always have plenty of frozen veggies on hand for if we use up our box or if we don’t have time to prepare something fresh, which happens occasionally. Also in winter, the box is filled with root vegetables – if we’re going to get our greens, they’ll have to be the frozen kind.
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E,
Just a note. Actually, freezing a lot of fruits and vegetables does alter it’s nutritional content.
Granted, it’s not a lot. But it does happen. I’ll post a reference that will be available in the future.
Best,
Dr. Curt
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hm. once a month- i lack the freezer space! i might try what amy from my daily dollars says – grocery store every other week, farmer’s market every week. i agree that the less one shops the less one spends. right now we hit the grocery store and the farmer’s market once a week. we practice “doing without” – if something gets forgotten, we just go without for a week rather than go get it. unless we run out of coffee. NEVER run out of coffee!
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Jordan …yep. If you can walk to the store you save on gasoline.
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We go grocery shopping every two weeks – i look at the sale papers from the various local grocery stores for the week we’re shopping, make up a two-week meal plan based around what’s on sale or what we know is inexpensive, and then shop for what we need. We both always take lunch to work rather than going out for lunch, and we plan enough for each dinner so that we can take leftovers for lunch the next day. Breakfasts are almost always the same thing (she likes cereal and eggs, and i like oatmeal with milk and an egg). On the weekends, we have special breakfasts – usually pancakes or waffles.
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We’ve tried this tactic, but still struggle with things like produce and milk. I haven’t had much luck freezing milk, and most fruits don’t have a long shelf-life, even if kept in the refrigerator. If it weren’t for those couple items we could easily move to a once-a-month shopping trip.
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Interesting strategy. But I’d think you lose out on the weekly sales– if you buy 6 loaves of bread one week, and it goes on sale the next, I’d wouldn’t be too pleased with my shopping strategy.
While I think it’s a great point to stock up on items in bulk, the timing may need to be more flexible to make it work for most people.
Also, the “unplanned” purchases they refer to may also be a result of sales, which are quite an impulse draw for many consumers who don’t plan as thoroughly as the GRS community.
Tangentially– you also want to get good value for your money. I feel it’s important to have seafood with lower mercury content, hormone-free dairy, and organic/local produce if possible. A country of origin labeling law for certain foods was passed recently; I did a couple relevant posts here:
http://renaissancetrophywife.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/cool-nutrition/
http://renaissancetrophywife.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/label-icious/
http://renaissancetrophywife.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/label-conscious/
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I find this approach disgusting. The taste of stale frozen foods is not even close to the richness of fresh food.
From a nutritional standpoint, you may be saving pennies but I believe that eating frozen food and a minimal amount of fresh fruits and vegetables will have negative long term health ramifications. This could be more costly in the long run with regard to medical costs.
Try a hybrid approach instead. Shop once a month for your non-perisables (cereals, canned goods, etc). Then shop every few days for your fresh foods and stay disciplined! Don’t buy stuff you don’t need on your regular trips.
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Regarding fresh v. frozen vegetables: Rodale Institute’s book Preserving Summer’s Bounty has a great discussion about the nutritional values of fresh and frozen veggies. For many vegetables, quickly frozen foods retain vitamins better than fresh that having been sitting around for just a few days. It depends on how and when they’re frozen, but it’s worth taking a look at the information. Your library probably has a copy of the book.
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I agree with the Renaissance Trophy Wife…I like to shop every week so that I can get each week’s loss leaders. I’m fairly strict about not going any more than that though. I plan everything out very carefully and buy everything I need for all of our meals in that one trip.
I like to have bananas around all the time too.
I’d hate to only buy fresh produce once a month.
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Having to run to the grocery every other day seems like a result of poor planning. However, I think it’d be better to use tools and create habits that support willpower and reduce impulse purchasing (lists, eat before you go, etc.) than forgoing flexibility and freshness. Sure, you can shop once a month if you have to, but you don’t have to.
Here in Portland, I don’t find any of my produce lasting a month (apples and pumpkins maybe). It’s damp and stuff gets funky fast compared to Colorado or New Mexico. Oh, and for the record, frozen milk is vile. It’s NOT THE SAME.
Sure, we stock up on lots of stuff (we have a standing freezer for meat and frozen veggies when we aren’t having fresh) but this just seems like extremism for the sake of avoiding temptation.
Plan meals, shop logically, and go to the grocery store when necessary. Then just don’t buy a bunch of crap. Just don’t.
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I grew up in a family that lived this way. My parents lived in the country and shopped 1x per month, just picking up milk weekly. Back then we had a garden, and much of our veggies were home-canned. Remember that? Home canning?
I do love my fresh fruits and veggies, but remember, for years, people didn’t necessarily have the luxury of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round at the store.
also note that the family DOES eat fresh stuff…just by week 3 and 4, it’s apples, oranges, cabbage, and carrots. I have a pretty good repertoire of slaw and cooked cabbage recipes, and don’t forget beans, lentils, and canned tomatoes are nutritional powerhouses. And I’ve learned that fresh, local produce lasts MUCH longer in the fridge than the stuff from the store. I have a head of red leaf that is still crisp after a week and a half. Nutritionists even point out that frozen veggies are often better than their fresh (and sitting in the store for days/weeks) counterparts.
I tried to cut down my grocery shopping to once every two weeks. I was going 1-3 times per week. It was very nice – freed up a lot more time. I just got frustrated when I ran out of something, however.
I also kind of cheated. I belong to a weekly CSA. I got into trouble when I would run out of CSA veggies and fruit, but didn’t have enough frozen to make it through the two weeks. Even with a small extra freezer, we eat 5-9 servings of produce per day per person, and it goes really fast.
With my toddler, though, I like going to the farmer’s market or the produce stand. He is MUCH more likely to want to eat something if he sees where it comes from.
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This is a really interesting idea, and probably would be effective for lots of people. I can’t fathom it. I drop into the grocery store every couple days. But, I do make meal plans (while checking the sales) ahead of time, I always take a list, and I’ve been shopping for so long that I think I’ve developed grocery store blindness that enables me to avoid impulse purchases. I never leave with things that aren’t on my list. Shopping frequently gives me flexibility, and I don’t have to worry about buying perishables in advance and then not getting around to eating them.
If you guys try it, I’ll be interested to hear if it helps you.
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I just don’t get it. How is it a waste of money to impulse-buy at the grocery store? You’re still going to eat that food. I guess almost all our grocery items are “impulse” — we don’t have a meal plan or make a list other than our staples: frozen stir-fry veggies, cereal, and non-dairy “milk”. I think the best way we save money is by not buying many fresh vegetables — they just end up uneaten and then moldy. We’ve started making side-trips to the market for fresh fruit, since the fruit at Trader Joe’s is uninspiring.
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Once a month shopping works if you plan it out. I know of a couple families that are (were) on government assistance and their food stamps would come once a month. They would spend everything at the beginning of the month. They would plan but haphazardly. By the end of the month they would be scrapping together change for milk or bread.
Twice a month shopping works better for me. I can stock up and not go into the grocery stores to much. I dislike grocery shopping but my wife likes me to do the shopping as I know the trick the stores pull on you.
The stores know that people impulse shop and they know how to separate you from your money. I know I use to work for a grocery distributor (wholesaler). The merchandising that is done is well thought out. From the wall of value to end caps to what is by the register. Every square inch of shelf space it maximized to increase profit for the store.
I wrote 3 posts about them. You can start with the last one. It has links to the first two.
http://gettingaheadinlife.blogspot.com/2008/01/grocery-shopping-202-buying-in-bulk.html
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We go every two weeks and I have no problem with fruits and veggies going bad. In our grocery stores, there is usually a range of ripeness in the bananas or apples or nectarines. So we choose some to be eaten in the next few days and some to be eaten after the first ones are gone. A lot of my veggies last the whole two weeks, including lettuces. But I also know to plan meals with more perishable foods at the beginning of the period, instead of at the end.
We do this more out of necessity than anything else. We get paid every two weeks, and try as I might, I just can’t save anything from the grocery budget to make an in-between run. It takes about the same amount of time to do the two-week shop as the every week. Actually I save time, because now I am doing a meal plan where before it was “what do I feel like”. There is still some flexibility in when we have certain things. I rarely make it the whole two weeks without swapping some things. But as long as I plan a leftover night or a “pantry meal” night (where the food wont go bad from not being used), I don’t usually have a problem. As for milk- it lasts two weeks. Seriously. It’s fine. There is one brand here that we will not ever buy, because it goes bad in about a day, but all the others are fine. Just check the expiration date and don’t buy gallons that are too close to the date. We freeze most of our cheese and I bake my own bread, so that doesn’t affect us either. And we don’t eat a lot of processed foods. I rarely venture into the middle aisles of the grocery store. So it is doable. Would I want to go to a month long trip? No, not really. This works well for us.
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How odd. Traditionally, here in Japan, folks shop everyday and buy small amounts.
[Though this is changing a bit in recent years...]
And Japan is a notoriously frugal society with high savings percentages. So they manage to do both.
Cultural differences, I guess.
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I appreciate the advice on this blog for the most part. And I understand that a lot of it is about strategies to avoid bad habits. But it seems a bit overboard sometimes. I think a lot of addictions and extreme personalities end up being permanent things (the alcoholic becomes the manic teetotaler, the crazy reckless frat-boy becomes the born-again Christian, etc.). But it’s all part of the same whole. This particular post strikes me as the same thing. Some sort of wild swing between two ridiculous poles. The motivation behind this particular idea is OK, but for groceries, I think it’s laughable. Just the idea of freezing bread, milk and especially cheese… (!) God, just how shockingly disconnected have we become to sources of real food, slow food, local food. You can’t beat fresh bread. Milk should be fresh, from a local farm. You can’t freeze cheese because then it’s not cheese anymore. It’s a dead lump of fat — even refrigerating is anathema to some cheeses (though to be fair most anything that’s pasteurized is “dead” anyway). My suggestion: read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And join a CSA. Garden. And shop a few times a week at your local artisanal shops and farmers markets. And when you do, practice a little freakin’ restraint. Buy what you intend to. Shopping once a month at the chain grocery store down the street? What pleasure could possibly be taken in anything that you might be able to buy there (bananas shipped from a factory farm 4,000 miles away that’s destroying the rainforest and refirgerating within an inch of their life)?
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We are only two, but we shop from a list and use cash to shop, not even debit cards, because with debit it’s been shown (and with me, proven,) to buy more. We do shop almost daily – but We almost never lose food to spoilage. Today I made tomato soup from some leftover sauce with added water plus vegetables and chicken base and pasta.
Being broke helps in this way alot~!
And they can keep the rewards – they’re too expensive to accumulate. my debit card. goodbye.
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We go once each week, with a list. We only deviate from the list when: a) we realized we forgot to add something to it b) an item we normally buy is on sale, allowing us to stock up.
There’s no need for an elaborate once each month trip (nor a book purchase) if you have discipline.
Which I guess is the point here, if you don’t have discipline, only go once a month. But if that’s your only way of having discipline, you’re still going to buy stuff you don’t need.
About the produce, I have the largest non-industrial fridge you can buy and there’s no way I could fit a month’s worth of produce (veggies, fruits, etc.) in there. And there’s only two of us. I can only imagine that these people eat a lot more prepackaged foods than we do.
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I don’t find the once-a-month shopping extreme. I used to do it when I was a teacher, because I only got paid once a month. It was the easiest way to be sure we stayed within our budget. I would pick up milk and bread more often though, and occasionally make a special stop to stock up on loss leaders like chicken breasts. We always used up produce before it spoiled. Even now apples can keep for a month and I can keep iceberg lettuce for a month (my husband’s fave, not mine … just keep a wet paper towel in the hole after removing the core and wrap the head with foil and you are good to go). In the summer time, we took advantage of free produce from my IL’s garden and I did can and freeze excess. We used the freezer a lot, not just for produce, but also for loss leaders and subdividing bulk/economy packages. I still use the freezer a lot with a list of the contents on the front. I also freeze bread because I’ve gotten very frustrated with bread going bad. So I place the bread slices on large cookies sheets and pop them in the freezer for about 90 minutes. Once they are frozen, I put them back in the original bag. When we need bread, I just take out slices and toast them which thaws them. We also like venison and while we do not hunt, family members and friends do. We get about 40 lbs of free ground venison each year, plus roasts, and tenderloin. (We pay for processing, but that is far less than $1 a lb.) I used a lot of coupons then and we did eat more processed food then. (Eating less processed food is due to eating better in general, but also I found out I am gluten intolerant so many processed foods are out. I enjoy cooking simply anyway.)
Now I shop about once every two weeks, but not on a regular schedule. Sometimes I go longer, which doesn’t bother me. I am not a fan of grocery shopping. When grocery delivery comes to my area, I will take advantage of it if it meets our needs. Even with a shipping fee, I am convinced it will save me money.
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J.D.-I forgot to say that I think you are using grocery shopping as another way to interact with people since you are working at home. That’s understandable. Plus, it’s actually nice to go to the grocery store when the masses are not there. Shopping less often might save you money, but it might not save your sanity.
LOL
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I’m surprised you guys don’t have laying chickens yet, JD. I built a coop out of random lumber I found from a condo conversion on burnside last year. We’re getting about 10 eggs a week from 2 chickens. Although Portland law says you can only have 3 chickens, I’m going to break down and buy a 25-pack of chickens (already sexed as pullets, of course, since roosters are illegal in town) in the spring and keep maybe 3-4 of them for a total of about 6. I’m going to sell the rest of the chicks on craigslist for five bucks a pop but you can have 3 of them gratis if you’d like them. I’ll even throw in some coop plans.
Oh, and Josh R. is right with his comment: Freezing dairy or bread is just plain wrong. There is honestly no point in buying cheese if you’re just going to chemically alter it by freezing it.
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@Josh R (#83)
I can see how some of the ideas presented here might seem extreme to some people. They seem extreme to me sometimes. But please don’t confuse discussion of an idea with an actual recommendation.
There are many things published on GRS (especially from guest authors) that I don’t necessarily follow myself. Why then do I share them? Because others may find value in them. I recognize that what works for one person may not work for another.
There are people who find “extreme” methods useful. I’ve found some of them (not all of them) useful in my own life.
I view GRS as a forum for sharing and discussing ideas. I don’t view it as a definitive source for answers.
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Going shopping once a month is depressing and unrealistic for me. I love eating vegetables, and fresh cooked food. But to hoard like that is something I can never do, because I come from Ukraine, and there, like in most of Europe, people go by the market after work, pick up some food for the day or two days. You’d think this would get expensive, but actually, since you’re very aware of what you have and you buy in such small portions, you don’t waste much. Also, you have leftovers if you buy a bit too much and can skip shopping the next day.
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I have to admit that I am grossed out by frozen milk. It ruins the texture for me. We don’t really drink a lot of milk though so that is not an issue for me. I also don’t freeze cheese except in very rare instances and then I shred it and only use it in cooking (freezing changes the textrue). Really though…what in the world is wrong with freezing bread? It comes back out of the freezer and tastes just as good as it did before it was frozen (assuming you don’t freeze it for months). I make a point of buying bread without HFCS and often buy it from a vendor at the farmers market. I can’t make it there every week so I buy a couple of loaves at a time. If I did not freeze it then it would go bad before I could eat it.
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I do once a month grocery shopping and it works out pretty well for me. Granted I’m currently a college student so it’s a lot of just Hamburger Helper, and such for meals. But it defiantly saves me money.
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I think doing once-a-fortnight shopping is the best bet. We’ve always done that, though albeit with the weekly run to stock up on some items. We also usually resist most temptations–my weakness lies on insisting on stocking up on beer whenever my six-pack runs out.
Once a month shopping, though? If he is really eating month-old apples, he must have a stomach with more steel in it than that guy from Bizarre Foods. Freezing fresh produce is a no-go; I’ll continue with once-a-fortnight, because most produce can still be fresh that long if you just refrigerate it.
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I just love a good plan. The book sounds like a good read for the tough times ahead that the plunging stock market is predicting.
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We usually do one large shopping trip per month, on average, and one or two small trips just for milk, veggies and maybe bread.
We use a calendar and plan meals based on what is ready to eat in the freezer, what we have on hand in the closet, and what is fresh/getting ready to spoil. I have a list on the freezer of what I have in there for meals. We have been doing great on not wasting food.
We have a 2 person household. We usually will make a meal and freeze the leftovers in the 2 cup serving size Glad plastic containers. Then we take those to work for lunch (we usually fill them only half way which is plenty for lunch for one person) or we have a ready-made microwave dinner for another night. We label everything with masking tape and a sharpie with the food item and date.
I use the crock pot a lot. I also make a lot of homemade soup.
When we have veggies that are starting to get old, I throw them in the freezer in a freezer bag labeled “VEGGIE SOUP MIX.” When it gets full I make a veggie broth out of it. Throw it in a pot with a chopped onion, fill with water, boil and then simmer for only 45 min (too long and it gets icky) or so. Then strain and put the broth in a freezer container to use in your next homemade soup. Old bananas go in the freezer in a bag with bananas (peel first) to use for banana bread or smoothies.
I will buy milk usually two gallons at a time when it’s on sale and freeze one.
We make almost everything homemade. While I do buy prepared cereal occasionally, I make homemade granola cereal with store brand (CHEAP) whole oats. I make corn bread, pancakes, biscuits, etc from scratch. (I enjoy doing it and it saves money.) I stock up on loss leaders when they are on sale and always compare unit prices. I only use coupons for stuff I buy anyway. I shop at the commissary whenever possible, but when it’s not I watch the store flyers and buy what I use on sale. We only spend about $250-$300 per month on groceries on average, I think, if that.
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I agree with the posters who’ve said that the takeaway here is just watch the impulse buys at the store. With careful planning, you can go as often as you want. I go to the grocery 2-3 times a week, and I average about $20/wk (single) on food. I don’t bike or walk to the store as it’s just a little too far, but I don’t allow myself to get a cart unless I’m getting a tub of kitty litter. The rest of the time it’s a basket, and if I’ve only come for “one item” then not even that. It’s a lot harder to make an impulse buy when it simply won’t fit in your arms!
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We do two large costco runs each month. We also do a biweekly grocery trip (in between costco) for smaller meals and incidentals. We spend the lion’s share of the grocery budget during the costco trips and then as we get to the end of the month we’ll spend extra on treats if we have it.
We also try not to blow our eating out budget too early in the month. That way it can be used to supplement groceries if necessary. The price of basics is rising… we don’t have the patience to buy, cut and sort coupons. Eventually we may have to rethink that.
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Walk… ( do have three major chain stores within walking distance – Check the specials each week, make a list, grab the shopping bag and walk. Purchase control by weight, buy it carry it. Get some exercise and save on transport costs.
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I am not much of an impulse shopper at the grocery store. I stick to my list. The store is on my way home from work, so I find that if I stop frequently for fruits and veggies, I have better tasting produce and I throw out a lot less.
I am definitely going to check out the book though for other ideas.
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