Sharing recipes, crafts and frugal living, the challenges and triumphs of parenting a neurotypical child and a child on the Autism Spectrum. Yoga Instructor said goodbye to her nightly glass of Chardonnay to give up habits that were not serving her purpose in life! The CocktailMom name remains, however with a new focus on healthy and authentic living.

6/23/2008

The Food Budget

The cost of food is reaching all time highs paired with the cost of gas. What are you doing to off set the amount of money you have to budget for food? I've been thinking of ways that my family can keep the food budget we are on while still eating 3 meals a day with snacks for 4 people. Here are some of the things I'm doing.
  1. Breakfast for dinner. Pancakes with eggs or oatmeal with fresh berries, both make great alternatives to traditional dinners.
  2. Goodbye Cereal! Homemade scones, muffins or breads for breakfast cost much less than cereal, even if you get it on sale. The added bonus is that homemade muffins produce a lot less waste too.
  3. "I be jammin!" I started making my own jam and canning it for the year. Logan is on the GF/CF diet and can't have sugar or artificial sweeteners. Finding a jam that is only sweetened with fruit juice costs around 5 bucks for a 10 oz jar. Now I make my own and the jars can be reused every year so the overall cost will be very low year after year.
  4. PB &J. If no one is allergic in your house, start packing your lunch with the school time favorite instead of lunch meat and cheese. It's lower in fat and peanut butter is a great source of protein.
Share your tips, I'd love to hear what you are doing to keep the food budget at a reasonable amount.

6 comments:

Sharon Andy Holderman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sharon Andy Holderman said...

I'd love to see your fave jam/jelly recipe on here. I've never made any and would like to try without getting into the bulk canning aspect of it?!

Jane said...

We have changed some of our meat habits. For one we are now eating turkey bacon. I love BLT's and they can be an affordable heat wave dinner. Also, one strip of bacon goes a long way on homemade pizza for less than pepperoni.

Anonymous said...

When Allison and were in the groove, we planned out all of our weekly meals (and listed their ingredients) before going to the grocery store. Doing it that way we bought only what we would use for the week and reduced a lot of waste. When we strayed from doing that, we noticed a lot more food ending up in the trash at the end of the week because it was forgotten at the back of the fridge and went bad!

-Jen

Anonymous said...

I am going to start experimenting more with cabbage as a base for a salad. I had a WONDERFUL ginger salad with shredded cabbage at a Burmese restaurant in my neighborhood and it is prompting me to experiment using shredded cabbage instead of lettuce- which goes bad and is used up more quickly. My first experiment will be shredded cabbage with tofu, sesame seeds, and a miso/sesame dressing- fingers crossed!

Anonymous said...

Love this, really got me thinking. Also i started ordering my groceries online with free shipping. While the cost is the same, I only buy what;s on the list and have saved money each week for a month! Also I've made a point to only buy groceries weekly, and whatever was overlooked needs to wait til the next week. I know this isn't rocket science but it's sure made a big difference in our house in paying attention to our consumption and eliminating our impulse buys.

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