Family Feasts for $75 a week

I love to read.  A mom friend of mine always says she doesn’t have time to read.  I might not have time to do the dishes but I always have time to read.  When a book really makes an impression on me I have to tell everyone I know.  I recently picked up Family Feasts for $75 a week by Mary Ostyn from the library and was so inspired I bought it off amazon.com for $10 that night (side note Amazon is almost always cheaper than going to the book store, check prices before heading to the big name book stores).  Some reviews I read criticized the book because the author has a large vegetable garden, an orchard and a lot of freezer space.  The beauty of her book is that it is not asking you to do everything that she does, I have read books like that and returned them to the library before ever finishing.

My grocery spending one month this summer was $800.  outrageous for a family of 2.5 but we love food and convenence.  As two full-time working adults sometimes it’s easier to pay $7 for a rotisserie chicken than $4.00 for a roasting chicken you cook yourself.  When I saw that number I knew we had to change.  Here’s what helped me from Mary’s book:

1) List your goals.  Why do you want to cut costs?  Do you want to save some money for a vacation, stay home with your kids, pay off your car?  These are our 3 big goals.  Thinking about why we need to watch our food budget has helped keep us in line.  We slashed hundreds of dollars from our food budget last month just by paying better attention to what we were paying.

2) If you haven’t been tracking your spending I urge you to start.  We have been doing this since we got engaged years ago but didn’t do anything about it.  Just watched the numbers tick by.  I could kick myself for all the money we have squandered away.  Make yourself responsible for what you are doing.

3) The suggestion that helped me the most last month was to go to the store less.  I often went to the grocery store 3-4 days a week to pick up one item, and like anyone who walks into a Target, I never bought just one item.  Mary suggests keeping a running list on your fridge of items you are out of for the next big trip and do not go to the store until your planned trip.  Because I am creative in the kitchen this has worked well for us.  If you are working on becoming an organized cook make sure you stock your pantry well before committing to this technique (she also has a list of pantry items to get you started).

4) Develop a price book.  Gather any receipts or sale fliers you have and buy a small notebook that would fit in a purse.  On each page you will write at the top a food item such as milk, under that make a grid with the categories: date, store, brand name, total price, size, and unit cost/size.  As you get going you will start to see trends in what stores have the lowest prices for items you regularly buy and the rotation of items that are on sale.  Pick N Sav in our area will have the light yogurt on sale one week and then low-fat the next week.  

This book lists dozens of other tips on coupon clipping, meal planning, freezing and storing foods, and best of all recipes.  I’ve only tried one recipe so far but it was low-fat and delicious.  I strongly encourage you to check this book out from your local library and start some savvy saving of your own.