How to Save Money on Groceries

Food: we all need it to survive. Unfortunately, it's not cheap- especially to eat healthy and in our case, to eat mostly organic. For the last many months, we have only half way paid attention to how much we spend on food, and had an idea the we were over-spending, but were shocked by how much we were truly spending: $1500-2000 per month for our family of 4. I am almost embarrassed to write that number! However, what is allowing me to overcome my shame of careless spending and post this here for all to see is fact that I've since cut this amount down to $500 per month. You read that right: cut down to $500 total, per month.

How were we spending so much?

Easy. Poor/incomplete meal planning, impulse food purchases, expensive trips to Whole Foods (sorry WF, we love you but you're expensive!), occasional expensive fast food, etc.

What did we change to save so much on food?

Not as easy as the answer above. But very doable! You can make any/all of the following changes to see a reduction in grocery & food costs:

• Switch to once a month shopping. This has been critical for us, because we live 20 mins from town/the store, and were making very frequent (almost daily at times) trips to the store for things we've forgotten, impulse buys, etc. So, this has saved us money in gas, as well. I will cover this topic more extensively in another post. But even if you cut down to once a week, or bi-weekly, you will save money on both food and gas. Once a month will save you even more.
• Have a solid meal plan, and a meal-planning calendar to know what you are eating on any given day. Of course you can switch days here and there if you feel, or even just keep a list instead of a calendar and cross off dinners as you go. But don't forget to cross them off or things can become slightly more complicated/confusing if you don't.
• Have healthier fast food options at home, just a few, for the nights when you would normally run to the store to needlessly spend $50, or when you would consider (or more than just consider) eating out. This can include mac n cheese, frozen pizza, etc.
• Start looking at store ads. In our area, we have Fred Meyer and Safeway (we also have Winco Foods but we don't shop there due to their lack of organic choices). I also look at Whole Foods when we are going to be out that way (they are an hour away). We have a membership to Costco, and also order food from Azure Standard (not available in all states). We also find good deals at Grocery outlet and local liquidation stores from time to time. 
• First, I scan the front pages of all ads and choose the best organic deals. Sometimes there's at least 1  good organic deal at each store, and there is always a good non-organic/conventional food deal. You know, those great deals that lure you into the store in hopes you'll spend lots more money. We go to some stores just for these really good deals, and make sure not to browse/waste money while we are there, much to the store's dismay.
• Next I make a list of a month's worth of meals. We eat the same few things for breakfast, and usually eat leftovers or sandwiches for lunch. So I mostly work on dinners.
• Then, I make a shopping list based on our monthly meal plan.
• Last, we make a list of stores to hit up, grab our list and reusable bags, and hit the road.
• It takes a full day but then we don't have to worry about it for an entire month. SO. WORTH. IT.
• Use coupons when possible. I won't spend a lot of time printing coupons (and no time clipping them from the newspaper) but I do attempt to find at least a few before shopping trips. I also sign up for coupon mailing lists with my fave organic/natural/GMO-free companies, since coupons for most of the stuff we buy can be very hard to come by.
• Set a budget for each store by adding up costs for each item on your list. Estimates are fine- after a while you will likely get to know most if not all prices of items you regularly buy.
• Keep meals uncomplicated and cheap. Trying new recipes almost inevitably means buying new ingredients that you don't already have on hand, which inevitably means spending more money. Keep these types of meals to a minimum and make thrifty meals as much as possible throughout the month. Googling frugal dinners, cheap meals, easy meals, bean and rice dinners, etc. can give you some great ideas. Pinterest is always a place to check out for easy & cheap recipes, too.
• Stick to the plan, stay strong. Easier said than done, but easier done than thought. For us, anyway.

Some other tips

• Shop without children when/if possible. It's not possible for me, unless I go shopping alone and leave my little one with the Hubs... but I'd rather have my Husband there with me for his good company ;) It sure would be easier if our son wasn't with us though, at least for some of it. So if you have that luxury, my advice is to take advantage!
• Don't shop hungry. Ever.
• Stick to the list unless you remember something you need that's TRULY a necessity. You're almost out of toilet paper? True necessity. You're almost out of your favorite box of cookies? Not a true necessity. 
• Cook everything from scratch as much as possible. It's pretty much always cheaper, especially for those who eat organic. Ditch the expensive and/or unhealthy prepackaged, processed foods for your pocketbook & your health.
• Buy staples in bulk: flour, sugar, honey, pasta, etc.
• Stock up on items when we find them at rock-bottom prices.

Any or all of these can save you money. Implement them all and watch your grocery bill drop beyond what you probably ever thought it could!

How to Eat Organic on a Budget

A super quick background: we are a family of 4, living on a $500 (or less) per month grocery budget, and we eat mostly organic. We live a mostly chemical-free, natural lifestyle. In an effort to be healthy, we avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms in food), and avoid chemicals/dyes and we eat mostly organic foods. I'm going to share with you how we are afford organic & natural foods, on a budget.

As mentioned in a previous post, we shop once a month. This saves us a TON of money not only in food costs, but in gas costs also. I highly recommend checking out some online articles on once a month shopping. It's not for everyone, but is an awesome way to save a ton of money on groceries. You may also want to consider weekly or bi-weekly shopping and while the savings are usually not as much if you shop more than once a month (at least in my experience), they are still ways to save some money!

First, there are a few things we do compromise on, when it comes to eating organic. Here is a list of things we usually purchase which are not organic:

• Almond butter (the kind you freshly grind in the red machine)
• Cheese- Tillamook brand, which doesn't have added hormones. Yes I know the cows that the milk comes from might eat GMO feed, but this is a risk I am taking. It took me some time to be ok with this! For now, this is my option: Tillamook cheese  or no cheese. My tummy chooses Tillamook :)
• Some natural non-GMO fruit snacks from time to time (non-GMO is important to us here, since apples have a higher rate of being GMO and apple puree is in a lot of natural fruit snacks/leather)
• Some natural non-GMO crackers (a certain yummy kind I find at Grocery Outlet from time to time). This product being non-GMO is also important as they are gluten free/made from corn, and corn has something like a 90% chance of being GMO if it's not organic.

The cheese used to be non-negotiable with me. Actually, everything did. I used to purchase every single thing organic. But almond butter and cheese when purchased organic, are insanely expensive here in the Pacific Northwest- I'm talking $5 for a very small block of cheese and $15-$20 for a jar of almond butter!!!

Tips to save LOTS of money on organic/natural foods

Here we go. Ready?

• Call your favorite companies and simply ask for coupons to be mailed to you. Most of them will gladly send you coupons. Think more than food here- toilet paper, shampoo, etc! Call them all. Numbers can be found on the back of the product, or online with a quick Google search.
• Visit websites of your favorite companies and sign up for their mailing lists which usually send out exclusive coupons to anyone on the list.
• If you have any issue with a product, call and get a refund! Chips stale? Call. Shampoo bottle lid broke off? Call. Something not taste as it usually does? Call! Companies want to know about these things, to make reports and improve products. Besides, you paid your hard earned money for these products and it should be up to normal standards. Usually companies send you a free item coupon, or send out a replacement, unless you specifically ask for a refund in which case they mail out a check.
• Print some coupons. Check out this great post with links to printable organic/natural coupons here. You can also find coupons on Redplum.com and Coupons.com, but not usually for organic or natural.
• Don't forget liquidation and discount stores! These have great deals on organic/natural foods from time to time. I notice usually on canned and processed foods which we avoid, but sometimes on things we need too like milk, frozen veggies, etc. And sometimes when we are on the road, stopping by and grabbing some granola bars here for $1.50 is way cheaper than stopping somewhere to eat something unhealthy for $20+.
• Make a menu and shopping list and stick to it. This is true whether you choose once a month shopping, weekly shopping, or daily shopping! Straying from your list will cost you more money, period.
• Cut down/out processed foods. This can be hard, especially at first. But organic processed foods are way over-priced! If you cut out the crackers, cookies, granola bars, cereals, instant oatmeal, etc., you will have lots more to spend on fresh produce, dairy and meat. Better for you, too :) Try making some of those favorites at home from scratch! Anything you can buy processed, you can make from scratch!
• Check weekly ads. Visit multiple stores of possible, only to buy those really good deals on the front page of the ad ("loss leaders" which are items stores lose money on in order to bring you into the store to buy other items). Don't buy these just to buy them, make sure they are something you will consume and better yet, something in your meal plan. 
• Buy staples in bulk. Some places to consider are Costco, Sams Club, Azure Standard or another local-to-you bulk co-op delivery, Bountiful Baskets (another co-op), Amazon/Amazon subscribe and save, etc.
• Make a price guide. Have a small notebook filled with the best prices on items you buy- prices you don't want to go over, if at all possible. This way, you don't spend more than you want, know when to stock up on a deal, etc. Eventually, you will memorize this list. You will also need to adjust prices from time to time, and may want to have 2 price points for items like produce: 1 price for when in season, 1 price for when not in season. Which brings me to...
• Buy produce when in season. If you want something that's not in season, check out the price of that item frozen (or canned, if you must). However, you usually find better savings on frozen produce when that item is actually in season. This is because people will usually buy in season items fresh, so stores lower their prices on those items in the frozen section, in hopes to clear their frozen stock out. 
• If going to more than 1 store, map our the most gas efficient route. No need to waste gas while snagging all of those great money saving deals! That's counter-productive! :)

I hope these tips help someone out there. If anyone is reading, please feel free to leave a comment with more tips! I'm running out of alone time to write this post, so I am sure there are things I am forgetting.

Our Financial Goals: Saving Money, Budgeting, Being Frugal

I work on financial goals almost daily. This might sound like a bit much to some, but for me it's rather perfect. It keeps me on track and keeps all of those important financial aspects of our dreams right in the forefront of my mind, which is definitely where I need them, to stay on track!

"Working on financial goals", to me, means one of many things. I might be making one of my many lists, reading a financial advice book (my personal faves are books about being frugal and tips to save/stretch money), working on our budget (something we seem to constantly be updating), paying or going through/lowering bills, internet searching frugal living, etc... I finally have a hang of this money thing, instead of it having a hang of me!

Our Top 10 Financial Goals

What are you saving for? What are your goals to get there? We all have something we want or need- a trip, a gadget, a car... Our personal dream is family world travel. We want to simplify life and see the world. We've come up with the following list to help us reach our goal.

1. Creating and sticking to a budget. We only sort of recently started watching what we spend, and somewhat recently setting budget amounts to follow for certain household categories each month. But, we are getting better at this- quickly! We still have room to grow here though.
2. Stop spending on frivolous junk we don't truly need. This has been easier than I thought, so far. Whenever I want to thrift shop (one of my past times), I remind myself why I don't need household items, decor, books, and other accumulated junk. We are planning to sell everything we own soon, to travel abroad for a year (maybe more if we are lucky). I'm trying to purge things, not gather them. I also make it an almost daily habit to get rid of things, so bringing more in would defeat all of the work I've been doing on purging. 
3. Payoff all consumer debt. We have a relatively small amount of credit card debt. While it's been as high as $5,000 in past years, we've kept it down to about $1,500-2,000 for the past couple of years. Now I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it's better than we were once doing. And now, we are doing even better- we've paid off all but 1 card, have a balance of about $800 total on that card, and have stopped spending on these cards entirely. We plan to have this paid off in a few months.
4. Be approved for, and start using credit cards with airline miles. For those of you who don't need airline miles, maybe consider a card that pays you to use it... Of course I mean while paying off the balance each month! We have only been mildly irresponsible with credit in the past, and that was before we sat down and figured out how we were paying almost triple for most purchased items on these cards, after what the credit card companies were charging us for interest when we carried a balance! We will no longer carry a credit balance with interest. NEVER. AGAIN. 
5. Cut our grocery bill way, WAY down. The exact number on what we've been spending on food is rather embarrassing. However, I will swallow my pride and share it in a future post when talking more about how you, too can cut your grocery budget in half (or less). I have some amazing tips up my sleeve to share that have worked wonders for us.
6. Save, Save, Save! This is the hardest, yet most fun part of it all for me! I love seeing money go into savings, which I know will be used for our future travels. It's the visual aspect for me, of this whole thing coming together. It keeps my spirits high knowing we are truly working toward this dream. The money, while I don't like to base my existence around it or anything, is an important part of this journey. As much as I wish we didn't need money, we need money. So seeing it accumulated in a savings account which is designated purely for our future family travels, makes me amazingly satisfied to know we are on the right track.
7. Simplify and cut down all bills/expenses as much as humanly possible. This has included so far for us: getting rid of 1 car (yep! We are a 1 car family! Never thought that would happen...), canceling cable TV, switching auto/renters insurance, asking utilities for credits for a couple of late payments we had, getting our own Internet modem so we can stop paying the $8 monthly modem lease fee, reducing garbage can size for a lower rate, and more. We are even considering breaking our lease here and moving somewhere much smaller/cheaper, if we can find a place that will be worth it financially. 
8. Work and bring in as much extra income as we can. I sell goods online through Facebook (local sales), craigslist, and ebay. I do a small amount of drop-shipping. I'm constantly buying/reselling for profit. I am also looking for a part time telecommuting job, but haven't scored on that front just yet. I stay at home with our son, and need to work specific hours, hopefully from home because we live so far from civilization.
9. Always be working toward being super frugal. We are getting creative with saving money and keeping ourselves entertained for little to no money. I have fun pinching pennies- it's like a strategic game for me. My Husband, not so much. But he deals ;) We know it's for the greater good of our family dream to travel.
10. Sell all of our stuff and get on the road! If we are on track as I think/hope we will be, we plan to hold a series of garage sales this coming 2014 summer and keep only what we NEED from end of summer (Sept) to when we plan to leave (Dec), and sell the remaining on Facebook/Craigslist. This plan may change, but for now it's what we are hoping for and striving toward.

There's more that I can add here, but these are our main financial priorities right now. I feel many useful posts coming on down the road, where I explain in detail how we've cut our costs SO MUCH. Just about anyone can do these things, and they all add up to huge financial changes and savings. A little sacrifice goes a long way!