Feeding a Family of 10 on $700 a Month

by Mary

In a comment on my recent money post over at Largerfamilies.com, Sheryl asked me to talk about how we manage to get by on $700 a month for groceries.

I’ve been trying to think of the best way to do this and decided that the simplest way is to take you on a trip to the grocery store with me. You see, to tell the story, I have to show you what I do not buy, as well as what I do buy.

So grab your coffee or tea and come along with me!

My favorite store, and the most affordable in our area, is Winco. It’s a basic chain grocery store with a good bulk food dept and a ‘bag your own groceries’ policy. That policy was a little hassle when I only had little kids, but now I have teenagers and rarely shop without at least one kid big enough to bag.

Straight inside the doors at Winco, customers are funneled down an aisle of ’special deals’. Things in this aisle are placed randomly, so there’s no comparing prices to other brands of the same item. I grab only things I’m certain are great deals, like 99 cent corn flakes. When I see them at this price, I buy 6 boxes or so.

At the end of this aisle isPRODUCE Staples I always keep around include bananas, carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, ginger root, and cabbage. These items are almost always a good value. Things I buy occasionally for specific recipes or when on sale include mushrooms, bagged lettuce, broccoli slaw, grapes (if $1/lb), broccoli, egg roll wrappers, green peppers (if 3 for $1), green onions, limes, and cilantro. Things I buy only in season include strawberries, peaches, watermelon, oranges, and canteloupe.

Things I don’t buy: pretty much everything else. And keep in mind that because of our garden and greenhouse and extensive canning, we almost always have some form of tomatoes, apples, lettuce, and corn on hand.

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From produce I move on to BULK FOOD. Here I always buy chocolate chips, coconut, barley, cornmeal, lentils. Cinnamon and other spices are MUCH cheaper than the expensive jarred spices in the baking aisle, and for 25 cents or so you can even buy little containers for the spices. Also here they sell 25 lb. bags of oatmeal and rice. Very occasionally, I also buy gummy bears here, but I really try to steer clear of the other candy.
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Next is MEAT.
This is a make or break department as far as the budget goes, in my opinion. First I get cheese–anything that is $2/lb or less is fair game- usually Winco offers 2 or 3 kinds of block cheese for that price, as well as 5 lb bags of grated cheddar. All else I pass up. (And actually, whenever possible I buy my cheese at Costco– as they consistently have the best prices - 5lb of grated mozzerella for $8!) And people, did you know you can freeze grated cheese? Works great. There’s no excuse to buy those expensive weensie bags- not if you’re on a budget, anyway.

Next I look for hamburger. I try to stock up when it is $1.50/lb or less. Recently I found 5 lb ‘logs’ of hamburger for $1/lb. I bought 40 lbs, thus saving me from higher prices for weeks. I don’t buy the more expensive lean burger– I just drain off the obvious fat and call it good. We use meat more as a condiment than a main dish anyway. A pound and a half is enough in a stirfry along with a ton of veggies for everyone.

I sometimes buy thin-cut top round steak when it is $1.75/lb or less- I use this in stirfries. I also buy a couple meals worth of hot dogs each month. I’m picky about my hot dogs– they’ve gotta be Falls Brand Beef– and that brand is expensive enough that I don’t serve them super often. Sometimes I get those ‘little sizzler’ boxed sausages to go with eggs for breakfast.

Going over to chicken, I buy whatever is less than $1/lb. Sometimes I buy the fryer leg quarters in 10 lb bags for 49 cents/lb. I freeze thighs in packets big enough for a meal (14 or so) and then boil the legs and freeze the meat for casseroles. Lately I have seen some really good prices on chicken breasts- 89 cents a pound recently for bone-in breasts, and yeah, I bought a bunch. It really helps to stock up when the price is right. Several times each winter I buy a whole turkey when they are on great sales, and do a turkey dinner just for us.

Let’s see, what else in the meat dept? Always cream cheese, generic brand. Formed hamburger patties– these are about $1.60/lb but we always BBQ them and I really like the uniform sizes for BBQ-ing. When I form them by hand, they are uneven in size and it is harder to make sure they get cooked right. Sometimes I get generic-brand thin sliced ham in family packs, and less often, bacon– maybe a pound every month or two. Sometimes I’ll buy a roast. Sometimes, if I’m planning to make meatloaf, I’ll buy ground turkey to mix half and half with the hamburger to make it lower fat.

I never buy steak, or any other meat that is more than $2/lb. Thankfully I have a hubby who is fine with skipping steak. If he wanted it, we’d buy it, but I’d probably serve him steak and give the kids hamburgers. I’m just cheap like that…
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From meat I move on to dairy. Usually I buy eggs at Walmart. You can get mediums for 50 cents a dozen there– a great deal, though you have to look for the mediums. They don’t stock many, and they DON’T put the price on the shelf- sneaky people! We go through at least 4 dozen eggs a week. A dozen is enough for one meal– you can’t beat 50 cents for a whole meals’ worth of protein.

Several in our family drink soy milk instead of regular milk, which thanks to our soy milk machine is cheaper anyway. But we go through a couple gallons a week of regular milk. We also always buy real butter for baking, light sour cream, and margarine. Sometimes we buy yogurt or cottage cheese.
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Next to dairy is frozen stuff. We always buy ice cream ($5/gallon or less-NOT Ben and Jerry’s!!) and calcium-fortified OJ- (88 cents a can for concentrateWe drink probably 4 gallons a week.)

Sometimes I buy Asian-style frozen veggies for stir-fry or generic cool whip to top pumpkin pie. Once a month or so I buy fish sticks or corn dogs or frozen salmon. I love salmon, but I am such a tightwad I just can’t stand to spend $10 JUST for the meat for a meal…

In the frozen department, my NEVER-BUY list offer me pretty significant savings. I never buy TV dinners or burritos or chicken nuggets or steak fries or Lean Cuisine or fancy brands of juice or mini-pizza-whatchamacallits (well, OK, twice a year or so I’ll buy those 2/$4 pizzas at Walmart. But really, it is extremely, extremely rarely.) Premade ‘convenience’ food will put your grocery bill thru the roof in nothing flat.

PAPER PRODUCTS I buy mostly generic–paper towels at 60 cents/roll, big packs of paper napkins $2/300, and til recently I bought the cheapest generic TP. A couple weeks ago, though, I discovered that a local grocery store does double coupons and I had a coupon for Scott TP–one ply, in big rolls. Those rolls last forever! I may be a convert even though the per-roll price is higher.

I also buy generic facial tissue- $1/box. I look for the cheapest unit price on plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and I buy store-brand sandwich size ziplocks. Usually I have at least some gallon-size ziplocks around too, but we wash these at least a time or two and reuse them, as long as they didn’t have raw meat in them. I also save and reuse bread bags. As much as possible I try to cover pots with the lids in the fridge (as opposed to foil) and I try to put left-overs in plastic containers with sealing lids, which minimizes the plastic wrap we use.

CLEANING SUPPLIES.
Windex is cheapest at the dollar store. Y’all aready know I love Barkeepers Friend, though Ajax is OK too. Bleach is another essential cleaning agent at my house. I get the cheapest brand of liquid dish soap and liquid hand soap in big bottles, and refill little squirt dispensers in both the kitchen and in all the bathrooms over and over with one big bottle. I buy ‘SunSations’ powdered dishwasher detergent in a plastic tub, and ‘Sun’ laundry detergent with bleach. Both work great, and are bunches cheaper than the fancy name brands.

PET FOOD
We use Attaboy and Atta Cat dry dog & cat food. We have tried generic brands but pets did not seems as healthy. Walmart sells the cheapest guinea pig food. Pine shaving bedding for the guinea pig is bought at the feed store. and yeah, these are added into the grocery bill.

DRINKS AISLE
When we are camping in the summertime I buy water bottles and Shasta cola. For birthdays I buy either Koolaid or 2 liter bottles of cola. But we rarely have pop/soda any other time. We do iced tea in summer and sometimes koolaid. Our dentist says cavities are mostly related to pop/soda consumption these days, so I figure we are saving money at the grocery store AND at the dentists office.

ETHNIC FOOD

I buy big bags of Calrose rice at Costco -50 lb/$10. (Uncle Ben’s/instant gives me the heebie jeebies, sorry). I buy kim (dried seaweed squares), sesame oil, soy sauce, and bean thread noodles at the Asian market for my Korean cooking. We also love Mexican food. I usually keep flour tortillas and taco chips around for enchiladas or taco salad. I make my own salsa. Cook my own beans for refried beans. I buy teff flour for Ethiopian cooking locally from the farmer in 50 lb bags.

BREAD
I usually get bread at the bread store for 89 cents a loaf– always whole grain. Also hot dog and hamburger buns. Occasionally splurge on bagels, which I serve with cream cheese for some breakfasts. Donuts, cake & cookies we make ourselves. Sometimes we also make our own bread, but we go through so much bread we’d be making it every day if I wanted it all to be homemade.

CEREAL AISLE
We buy generic raisin bran, cheeries, corn flakes, rice crispies, occasionally corn chex. Nothing more expensive than $2/box, and most is only $1.50/box. Sometimes I buy cocoa puffs or capn crunch (generic in sacks) but it goes so fast that I usually just buy the healthier varieties of cereal. We eat cold cereal 1-2 breakfasts a week. I also cook grits (cheaper than cream of wheat -bought at Walmart) , oatmeal (from 50 lb sacks, jazzed up with butter, apples, sugar, cinnamon), and polenta(from cornmeal) for breakfast–all non-instant, nothing in the little single servings unless we are camping. No pop tarts. No instant breakfast stuff. Hot cocoa only when camping.

BAKING AISLE
The usual stuff here: flour, sugar, raisins, oil, shortening, syrup(by the gallon)–we check all unit prices. I can regularly be heard saying to my kids as we scan the shelves, “Here’s 7.5 cents/oz– can anyone beat that?” Sometimes I’ll buy a cake mix, rarely pudding or jello. Occasionally I’ll spring for Costco brownie mix (mmmmmm) but usually we bake from scratch. We don’t buy pancake mix or muffin mix or anything like that…

CANNED GOODS/MISC
I am having a hard time being really specific, because this is a huge category. But in general if it is INGREDIENTS for cooking, we probably buy it, but if it is something ready-made in a can we probably do not buy it. Yes to spaghetti noodles, no to spaghetti-o’s. Yes to dry chili beans, no to already-made chili. Yes to ramen noodle packs (I add my own chicken and veggies), no to chicken noodle soup. Yes to tuna, no to the little packets with tuna and crackers all together.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these items. If you are only feeding a person or two, those ready-made cans seem pretty OK and probably do not impact your budget in a huge way. But in my case, it would often take 4 or 5 cans of chili or whatever to a meal for a big family like mine. And ready-made food simply is not the cheapest way to go. So if you really want your budget to be the lowest possible, it’s best to avoid prepackaged stuff the majority of the time.

We buy generic peanut butter, checking for unit prices. Sometimes the tiny jars are better prices than the big ones. Salad dressing is generic or homemade (vinegar & oil).

We buy lots of noodles of different types. I do lots of homemade mac and cheese and spaghetti, so I be sure to keep these noodles in stock. Be sure to check to dollar store– often you can find excellent prices on fancy types of pasta there, like bow ties and other fun shapes that I usually am too cheap to buy elsewhere.

SNACK AISLE
We mostly avoid this aisle. About the only thing we buy here regularly is saltine crackers and taco chips. (And the mexican food aisle is often the cheapest place for taco chips, not the chip aisle). In summer when camping we buy pretzels and potato chips to eat in the car. But we don’t keep chips or pretzels or nuts around otherwise.

TOILETRIES
We do mostly Suave shampoo/conditioner/hairspray–or whatever else you can buy for $1 a bottle. Oh, and here’s a tip: conditioner makes awesome shaving cream, both for faces and legs. The conditioner makes the razor glide beautifully, and the razor is WAY easier to clean out afterwards too. My husband tends towards breakouts if his skin gets too greasy, but he hasn’t had a bit of trouble with breakouts from the conditioner. I love Suave 2-minute conditioner on my Ethiopian daughters’ hair. I use it as a leave-in detangler/ conditioner. It makes their hair really manageable– and it’s a bargain at $1.50 a bottle.

Toothpaste can sometimes be found at the $1 store, or on sale at the store with double coupons. Often I buy toothbrushes at the dollar store.

I have gone back and forth between cloth and disposable diapers, depending on how behind the laundry is. But when I am using disposable, I usually buy them at Costco or with double coupons. Wipes are NOT as good a price at Costco– I buy the cheapest brand of them at Walmart. If you use the disposable bottle liners for baby bottles, Walmart is the best place for those.

I think a big key is really paying attention to where you can buy things cheapest. I will sometimes buy thngs at a more expensive store for convenience, but as much as possible, I try to buy things where I can get them cheapest. if it is a place I don’t go often, I’ll stock up so I don’t run out before I can get there next.

I’m aware I may be coming off as a bit obsessive. I want to make it clear I’m not making value judgments against people who DO buy things I don’t. I am simply (and apparently very long-windedly) explaining how we keep our budget low. I’m used to shopping this way– I like the challenge. We eat lots of variety, we’re all healthy and it works for us! Hopefully it might offer insight for others trying to work within a budget as well.

Mary has been married to her high school sweetheart for twenty years.  They have eight children ages two through nineteen.  Four of their children were adopted, from Korea and Ethiopia. Mary is in the process of writing a book about motherhood, and blogs regularly at Owlhaven , at Largerfamilies.com and at her Ethiopia Adoption Blog 

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