Stretching the Food Budget

Good luck, you are going to need it going to the grocery store these days. The grocery store is second only to the gas station as a sore point for the old wallet recently. Much like gas, groceries have been going up, up, and up in price with no end in sight. Of course, my paycheck has not gone up at all in along time. What are we going to do?

Well, one answer is to start raising your own food. I live in a suburban setting with a small yard but I do have the some flower beds around the house. This year, the decorative flowers are coming out and vegetables are going in. Hey, every tomato I raise is one less I have to buy.

I am also looking to buy two fifty-five gallon, blue plastic drums. As long as I know they are clean, that is they did not contain anything toxic or contaminated, I can place a layer of dirt in them and plant potatoes in the dirt. When the potato plants poke up out of the dirt, I add another layer of dirt. I keep doing this until the barrels are full. Then I plant beans on top. One barrel will have Russet potatoes and the other will have Yukon gold. At the end of the season I simply pick the beans and dump the barrels out. This way I raise a lot of potatoes in a small space. Again, each potato I raise, I don't have to buy.

I can store the potatoes in a bin and place an apple in with them. I do not know why but potatoes stored with one apple will not sprout. It always sounded like an old wives tale to me but it works. I have found it wise to change out the apple from time to time.

You can also raise herbs in window boxes and flower pots even if you do not have a yard. As expensive as herbs are, this can be a big help. You can do this even in a small apartment. Also inside an apartment you can raise a tomato plant in a pot. One plant will produce several tomatoes.

As far as saving money on store bought groceries goes, there are several options open to you. You just have to use you head for something other than a hat rack.

Go through your Sunday paper and clip coupons. I do this religiously. In fact, I only subscribe to the Sunday paper and I just get it for the coupons, well, ok, maybe the funny paper too. I take it to work with me Monday morning and, at lunch, I carefully comb it for coupons. I then file them in one of those plastic, pocket file pockets, the small ones with the fold over flap and the elastic closure. It has a pocket with each month of the year in it. I put the coupons in the pocket of the month in which they expire. The last day of each month I empty that pocket out, throwing away any unused coupons, so the file is always up to day.

I combine these coupons with store discount cards such as the Foodlions "MVP" card, or the "Kroger" card (which I like because every $100 spent saves me 10 cent a gallon on gas). I have a card for every grocery store in my area. I also go over every grocery store sale paper during the week and plan my grocery shopping carefully. I do NOT shop at one store. Coupons used to not be able to "be combined with any other deal" but most of them have dropped this wording. Now I watch for sales, especially the ones using the discount cards which I can combine with coupons. I carefully list A) what I need and B) what is on sale and where. Then I plan my grocery shopping.

Friday evening, on my way home from work I usually end up hitting three stores. Kroger always seems to be one of them and I love the look on the clerks face when she rings up say $89.23 worth of groceries then I hand her my Kroger card and a handful of coupons and watch the total drop to say $28.17. (I am not making that up, that is what I did last week). Then I go to Foodlion and do the same thing. One of my co-workers was with me once when I did this, they don't think I am crazy anymore.

I also keep membership at two of those big wholesale warehouse clubs, Costco and Sam's Club. They can be big helps to your budget but I warn you do NOT run in there thinking everything is a deal. Most things in these clubs are NOT deals. I go in them with my calculator in my hand, actually I go in all stores with my calculator in my hand but especially these wholesale clubs.

You have to be familiar with the prices of stuff in regular grocery stores. Take the regular stores sale papers with you. Remember, the secret is buying in bulk. If the wholesale club is selling A DVD movie, I can almost guarantee you that you can get it cheaper somewhere else. I don't even look at stuff like that. I stick to bulk groceries and cleaning supplies and even these I check carefully. If I am looking at a case of canned goods, let us say beans, I break it down to the cost per can. Then I compare that to how much a can of like beans would cost me at the cheapest regular store. If I am not getting a better deal wholesale, I move on. Why would I want to store a ton of beans that I got ripped off on? Milk, eggs and cheese are almost always cheaper at the wholesale store unless a regular store is running a good sale. Watch the sale papers.

The problem with some things from the wholesale clubs is the quantity. If you have a family of four and like oranges, they may have a very good deal on a huge crate. In fact, it may be cheaper to buy a crate of them at the wholesale club than it is to buy a bag at the grocery store but is your family going to eat all of those before they go bad? My solution is to find another family and split the costs and the crate of oranges. Then you are getting an even better deal. If you can match up with a neighbor or good friend on a regular basis then this plan can work well for fruits and vegetables from the wholesale clubs. Another benefit from the match up idea is that only one member of the group has to pay membership dues. The others can contribute a little bit, I would not recommend equal portions since they do not actually have the membership, and in return the card holder can agree to take them in every now and then. I do say this should be with good friends or family.

Well, I hope some of these ideas will help you stretch your grocery dollar a bit. Good luck and I hope and pray we shall see an end to all of this one day. Somehow I doubt it though.