Planning Your Budget

This is the hardest part of frugal living. Looking in the grocery ads can cause a wave of despair and worry that you won't have enough money. Here are a few tips on planning your grocery budget that may help you stretch your dime into a dollar:

1. Calculations - Get a rough estimate of the cost to feed each person in your household. Throughout the years, I've found that it takes approximately $30 - $37 dollars a week to feed one person - it may be more or less, depending on how much your family eats and where you live. Here is a simple formula to figure out your weekly grocery budget:

(number of family members) x $34 (average) = (weekly grocery budget)

For instance, there are four people in my home; I have to have $136 allotted to groceries. With any luck I can bring this down with coupons and store sales.

2. Plan your meals in advance. Keep them simple: meat, vegetable, carbohydrates. If possible, plan to use the same type of meat twice in one week; you can buy in bulk, separate and freeze. Hamburger, for example, is a good meat to use twice. One day you can make hamburgers; two days later, you can make spaghetti with a meat sauce.

3. With your menus planned make a list and put the price next to each item. You can easily get this amount from the sales ads and estimate the other staples on your list. If you are like me and buy the same staples often then you probably have a good idea of the cost.

Round up. When you are figuring the cost of food go ahead and round up to the nearest dollar on everything. This will insure that you stay within your budget with extra to spare.

5. Add up the totals as you go along, keeping in mind your "have to have" amount. Once you have reached that total, stop and check your meal plan. If you're at your "have to have" amount and only have three meals covered, you need to reassess your meal plan; it may be too elaborate.

Although every household has a different level of how much they eat or how many people there are, this is a good start for budgeting groceries. You may have to fiddle with it a little to match your family's needs.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

A lot of people say that it is hard to feed your family healthy foods on a budget. Even if rice and pasta become your main staples it doesn't mean you can't round out the meal plan with healthy fruits and vegetables. The next time you make a list keep these things in mind:

Not all vegetables are created equally - Buy frozen if you can't afford fresh. The juice in canned vegetables is where most of your vitamins are. Not so with frozen vegetables; the vitamins are still in the food itself. Just like with meat, you can often save when you buy frozen vegetables in bulk. Purchase big, resealable bags of frozen veggies so that you can use what you need and put the rest back in the freezer.

Buy potatoes, noodles or rice, but use them sparingly. Give larger amounts of vegetables, with the starches as a sort of side dish.

Buy carrots as snack foods for the kids. You can buy a large bag for low cost, peel them and then cut them up. Not only do they get vitamins this way, but they're also low calorie. Most kids like carrots because they're sweet and this is a great way for them to get more vegetables in their diet.

Buy in Bulk

Whenever you can - and if you have the freezer room - buy your meats and vegetables in bulk. Though it's sometimes more expensive to buy this way, that's generally not the case. Meats, especially, tend to be cheaper in large amounts.

You can do many things to turn your dimes into dollars; this outline is just the tip of the iceberg. However, the biggest thing is to look at cost vs. amount. While generic foods may look like a better deal, the contents of the container may weigh much less than name brands. Do your research - though it may take more time, it will take less money.