So I did our budget for April.
We’re Dave Ramsey people, so we try to do a written budget.
We haven’t since the arrival of Little Man.
Oops.
In an effort to save some grocery money this month (because formula is EXPENSIVE!), I’ve gone through my freezer & pantry and made a list of everything we have. I skipped the fridge, because we tend to go through milk, bread, eggs & cheese fairly regularly.
My goal: eat everything in our freezer & pantry before we have to buy more of that type of stuff.
So now I’m off to plan creative meals 🙂
Wish me luck! And if you have any tips on frugal living, spill ’em!
danielthree18 
I just did that and saved a TON on groceries. I am now trying to shop from my pantry, freezer, and fridge everyweek. I also try to save money on food by buying what's in season, eliminating processed food and cooking from scratch, and planning a few vegetarian meals each week. I also started a vegetable garden this year! I'm pretty excited about that!
Good luck.
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No advice for you… but I like your idea of writing down everything you have… we need to do that too!
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Taking time to do what you just did (check the pantry and freezer) can make a HUGE difference in the grocery budget week to week… it may not make a big dent at the end of the year, but taking stock of what you already have instead of shopping blindly can be the difference between, say, a $100 trip and a $175 trip for that week. Also, have you tried menu planning? That also helps you keep from buying more than you need, because you can pretty much stick to buying only what you need for meal for that week or two. Again, this helps week to week… not sure about the big picture.
Lunch meat is cheap. Grilled sandwiches make a nice dinner… they seem fancier than the cold variety. We don't do this often, but it's always yummy when we do! (I usually slap some cheese and coleslaw on top of mine.)
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We've still never managed to follow the Dave Ramsey plan to its completion but we're working on it.
Living with a baby on a tight budget is certainly challenging.
I'm just thinking of the little things we do–there are many. For example, I water down my fabric softener three times before I'm done with it. Granted, the clothes aren't as soft by round three as they were when the bottle was new but they're still pretty good. Another simple thing we did was to get rid of plastic baggies. That's not necessarily baby related but we were using a lot of them for lunches, etc. Now we have reusable “wrap & mats.”
If I think of other tidbits I'll pass them along!
Melba
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Women either love or hate Dave Ramsey, and I usually do both. I mean, I love it when we see the debts go bye-bye, but I hate that I can't buy what I want when I want it, you know? And the envelopes drive me mad. But I love the results.
See? Totally confusing. But I can relate to your cupboard challenge. We do the same thing during the months I have thrown a dinner party or special thing and the cash runs short. Then we do the cupboard challenge and try to make meals that way. You can do it!
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Amen sister!!! Good luck!! We do 99% of our grocery shopping at Aldi's, we save a ton of money and it's a personal game for me to see how many items I can get for $130 (that's almost always the amount I end up spending).
We also used generic formula for Aliya, Target makes a great sub for Enfamil and WalMart's Parent's choice is (I believe) made by the same makers of Simlac and they are both like 1/2 the cost of the name brand. Target brand diapers baby wipes are great too!!! (again much cheaper than name brand)
We cut our cell phone minutes plan to the next level down and saved over $20 a month… and for the longest time we had “poverty cable” (basic package) for $9 a month. Road Runner internet offers Road Runner Lite for almost 1/2 the price of High Speed, it's a bit slower, but worth it for the savings.
Let me know what else you come up with, I'm always looking for savings and ways to cut spending!! Good luck!
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I agree with the generic formula! That's what we used. B researched it and found that it's even made at the same facilities as the name brand stuff and has almost identical nutritional content. We used the Meijer brand because it was more like Similac and less like sand. lol
There's a book called 1/2 Price Living: Secrets to Living Well on One Income. Even skimming through it I got really helpful tips. Imagine if I'd read the whole thing! lol But that might be a good one to peruse. Get it from the library, of course!
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Hello Rachel,
I found your blog yesterday and I am reading it from start to finish and REALLY loving it! several things strike me as a bit pointless about commenting here – the post is old, things might have changed now, I live in the UK so groceries are different, I have cancer and not a baby but budget restrictions are the same. So I just thought I would share a couple of things I do to save money.
1. When buying over the counter medication, read the ingredients. Store brand products have the same ingredients as branded products with fancy packaging but are MUCH cheaper.
2. Our shops here all have their own 'value range' of own brand products. You have to try and test them as some are awful (ketchup) but some, like baby wipes are great. In fact I prefer the baby wipes that cost 31p to those that cost £2.
3. Use leftovers! I never used to do this, and if I cooked 4 pieces of chicken and bf only ate 3 I would throw the other away (I'm vegetarian). Now, I use it for his lunch sandwiches the next day.
4. My cat is SPOILT. but I have found that he prefers the store brand cat food, or the super expensive premium stuff. He's not into the mid range food like whiskas or felix. Check the meat content of the food you're feeding them. You may find a cheaper brand with the same meat content in it.
5. Shop online. No impulse purchases.
6. Buy one bottle of really cheap laundry liquid. Use it for bulky items like towels, sheets, pillows – anything that needs to be clean but not necessarily smell (cheap laundry liquid here is usually unscented)
I hope to helps a tiny bit!
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