Friday, June 05, 2009
Food Budget
| By Lynn Forgy Lately, I've noticed that the amount of money I spend on groceries each week is steadily increasing. So I'm on a quest to break this cycle. While searching the internet, I found a link to U.S. Department of Agriculture website with a recipe database. You can search by cost per serving, meal type, etc. The results show the recipe, nutritional information, as well as cost per serving. Of course, with summer just around the corner I don't really want to use the oven. I love cooking in the crockpot because not only do I not have to use the oven (which makes the A/C run longer which increases my electric bill), I don't have to "cook" as much. Several months ago, I spent hours searching the internet for cheap, frugal recipes. I printed these out and put them in a 3 ring binder. I refer back to this when I'm feeling my grocery budget getting out of hand. This week's menu includes the following: 1) Homemade pizza (cost about $6.00 total) 2) Stuffing with vegetables in the crockpot (approximately $2.00) 3) Squash, mashed potatoes, and broccoli (approximately $5.00) 4) Baked potatoes ($2-$4 depending on toppings) 5) Homemade Macaroni and cheese and baked beans (approximately $4.00) 6) Cheese sandwiches and chips (approximately $5.00, depending on type of chips purchased) While the total of the above menu is around $26, this doesn't include personal hygiene items, paper products, etc. which I include in my grocery budget. I suppose if I were honest the reason I spend more than I intend during my visits to the grocery is that I purchase lotions, etc. Also not included above is my daughter's lunch items (she likes Lean Pockets and other frozen meals that are convenient to pop in the microwave). A good idea for keeping the non-food items in the grocery costs low, I could use coupons and only by those products that are on sale. One of my favorite resources for coupons is HotCouponWorld.com. Not only does this site have coupons, but lots of freebie offers too! Labels: food budget, grocery costs |
posted by Krista at 9:26 AM
