Eating Healthy on a Tiny Grocery Budget!

Ever since my grocery budget plummeted to $40 a week for my family of 4, it's been a real challenge for me to make sure we eat healthy. Unhealthy, processed foods are often a lot cheaper than healthy foods. I know people always say that healthy foods are cheaper, but I have really not found that to be the case! Here are some of the ways I try to make sure we eat healthy on a tiny budget.
One way I ensure we eat healthy food, is I only buy seasonal produce. In Summer I buy a lot of tomatoes, zucchini, melons, mangoes and corn, in Fall I buy apples, pumpkins and cabbage, in Winter I buy citrus, root vegetables and winter squash and in Spring I buy lettuce, berries and peas! If I want other fruits and vegetables that aren't in season, I buy frozen (with a coupon of course!:P)
Another way to eat healthy for cheap, is to eat a lot of beans and lentils! Everyone needs protein, but meat is an expensive and fatty way to get it. Beans have no fat, lots of protein and fiber AND best of all, they cost less than a dollar a pound! Eggs are also a good source of inexpensive protein and they cost about $.79 per dozen. We eat a lot of eggs at chez Frugal Liz! Here is a great bean soup recipe:
1lb beans, rinsed and soaked for at least 4 hours
1 onion, diced
1Tbsp paprika
1Tbsp dried thyme
1Tbsp dried rosemary
1C diced ham (optional)
1tsp salt
Drain the soaking water from the beans in a colander. Meanwhile, saute the onion in some oil or butter, in a large soup kettle for about 5 minutes. Add the beans and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Add the herbs, but NOT the salt. Add the optional ham, if using. Bring the beans to a boil, reduce the heat to low and partially cover the pot. Let the beans simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed. Add the salt after the beans have cooked for an hour. Re-cover the pot and let the beans simmer for another hour. Dish the bean soup up into bowls and serve with hot bread, slathered with butter and honey! I like to serve bean soup with homemade beer bread rolls.
One way that I really try to ensure that all of my $40 a week are spent wisely, is I never buy soda or chips, or other totally empty junk. Junk food can be a real budget drainer and all it does is harm you! I'm not saying I never buy less than perfectly nutritious items, but I always make sure I have all of the real food FIRST. If I have any money left over, I might buy some fruit snacks, or brownie mix.(Always with a coupon!) I look on those foods as an extra treat, though, not as a guaranteed part of my shopping trip. At least the brownies contain chocolate, which is good for you...Right?:P

Weekly Grocery and Menu Plan

This week I spent $41.38 on groceries, which is $1.38 over budget, but I'm not freaking out over it! I saved $14 this week with coupons and I stocked up on: juice, cereal and yogurt! Here is what we're eating this week.
Monday
Chicken tenders
Oven fries
Garlic green beans
Tuesday
Beef stew
Rice
Wednesday
Dinner at Applebees to celebrate my daughter, Bella's, piano recital!
Thursday
Waffles
Eggs
Friday
Chicken stir fry
Rice
Saturday
Frugal pizza!
Sunday
Leftovers!

For breakfast and lunch we will have: Granola bars, waffles, smoothies, leftovers and eggs. For dessert, I plan to make a batch of brownies that will hopefully last all week!

Investing in a Thermos!

Now that the weather has turned cold, I'm tempted every day to buy coffee on my way to school. Now one cup of coffee might not seem like a big deal, but at $1.20 a day, it adds up to $6 a week, or $24 a month! To avoid this budget pitfall, I started making hot tea in my thermos and taking that to school instead of buying coffee every day. I make tea, because I don't have a coffee maker...Yet. Tea is relatively inexpensive and soothing on a cold morning. I drink it during my first class of the day and it fortifies me for my second class.:P
A thermos can be useful in other ways, as well. You could heat up some soup to take to work, or pack some chicken salad for a sandwich. A thermos could also be used to bring a refreshing cold drink to work, or school during the Summer.
I find that a thermos really helps me stay on track as far as going out for lunch, or coffee. I really just can't afford to spend money on those kinds of things, but if I were hungry or cold, it would be only too easy to rationalize making a pit stop at dunkin doughnuts!

How Not to be TOO Frugal

Sometimes, I can cross over the line between frugal and the dreaded CHEAP. My budget is so tiny, that I get all panicked and think I can't afford things that I really can. One way I combat this, is I pay for all my weekly expenses in cash. Every Friday I go to the bank and I take out $150. That money breaks down into: $40 for gas, $40 for groceries, $40 for miscellaneous expenses and $30 for my sitter. When the money is gone...That's it, but if I manage to not spend it all, well that's a little extra in that envelope for next week. On the other hand, I can always spend all the money that's in an envelope.
Another way I stave off cheapness is to shop at Goodwill. If I try to shop for clothes or movies at a regular store, all around me is a sea of prices I can't afford. $10 for a kids shirt, $20 for a pair of jeans, $19.95 for a movie! It gets pretty discouraging, so I end up not getting anything...Even if I really should. Goodwill on the other hand, is filled with items that fall within my budget! I can buy really cute kids jeans for $3.75 and shirts for $2.75. Movies cost $1.01 for some and $4.04 for Disney movies that come in the plastic case. I can go into Goodwill with $20 and leave with complete outfits for each of my 3 kids! It's a great feeling to go into a store and know I can probably afford almost everything in there.
At the grocery store, it's easy to think about getting an item my kids would really like, but then not get it, because we don't really NEED it. When you only have $40 for groceries, it's hard NOT to be cheap! The way I beat that particular brand of cheapness: Coupons coupons coupons! I know I talk about coupons a lot, but it's because I really can't stress how useful they can be. Coupons allow me to get a lot of items I could never afford AND to stock up on items I CAN afford, so that I save some grocery money one week and have more to spend the next week! I use coupons to stock up on: Frozen vegetables, yogurt, dish soap, pasta, canned beans, frozen fries (Because they are free with the coupons!), sugar (for holiday baking!), canned tuna, canned tomatoes, canned "cream of" Campbell's condensed soups (for casseroles), juice, and ground turkey. Once I've stocked up on all of those staple items, it really frees up money in my budget to buy "extra" items, like refrigerated cookie dough, brownie mix and fruit snacks. In the past, I would've made my own cookie dough and brownies from scratch, but I get $1 off coupons for these items, so it's actually cheaper to buy them instead of making them myself! I make a batch of cookies or brownies on our pizza and movie night, so that's pretty much just a junk food day!:P We eat the fruit snacks at my daughter, Bella's piano lesson every week. It keeps my younger two quiet and I admit...I love fruit snacks too!
The last way that I ward off cheapness is: I try to remember that is IS only money. As long as I'm not going over budget or going into debt, if I have some extra money we SHOULD use it for something fun! My kids only get one childhood and I don't want them to remember it as a me constantly saying, "We can't afford it." My cheapness busting methods allow me to say, "Well we can't afford THAT, but how about we do THIS instead!" Maybe I'll even be able to teach them something about frugality and life along the way.

My Williamsburg Vacation!

This Thanksgiving, my kids and I are going to Colonial Williamsburg with my parents! We went to Williamsburg last April and it was really fun. Luckily, Williamsburg is a relatively frugal place to go on vacation, but there still are some costs involved. Here is a breakdown of the vacation costs and my plan to save up enough money for the trip!
Unfortunately, I found out that the economical hotel we stayed at last time is CLOSED, so we'll have to stay at a more expensive one. My total hotel cost for 5 nights will be: $609. This is kind of a blow, because I was anticipating it would be more like, $400!
Since we're staying in the hotel for 5 nights, admission into Williamsburg is free! We're going to be there for 4 days, so the savings is pretty significant. There's a lot of expensive and very tempting souvenirs to buy, but I have a certain budget and I'm going to stick to it.
Here is the money I've saved so far for the trip!
Pell Grant refund: $440
Friend paying me back what I loaned her: $100
So that's $540 saved so far for the hotel. I've got about $200 saved up for spending money, so I think I'm okay there. I plan to bring a cooler and a LOT of food from home, to minimize the cost of dining out! Here is how I plan to come up with the rest of the hotel money! I still need $70.
I won't have to pay my sitter for Thanksgiving week: $30
I plan to try really hard to not spend for the next 2 weeks! If I can pull this off and save grocery AND gas money, I think I can come up with the last $40. I'll have to be pretty disciplined, but I've already saved $20 in grocery money and $2 in gas money! Here's hoping my friend is actually going to pay me back...

Triple Coupons!

So I went to Food Lion to take advantage of the triple coupon week and I only spent $20 for a whole weeks groceries! This means I only spent half of my $40 a week budget, so I'm pretty thrilled. My total coupon savings added up to $42.63, which is just...Amazing. The best part was, I got a beautiful pot roast that was originally $13.77, but had been marked down to $5.48. I'm going to cook that pot roast in my crock pot tomorrow with some carrots, turnips and onions. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! Here is my menu plan for the week.

Monday
Pot roast with vegetables
mashed potatoes
chocolate chip cookies
Tuesday
The kids are eating dinner with their dad, so I'm just having cold cereal with dates cut up in it!
Wednesday
Bean soup with ham
French bread
Thursday
Waffles with peanut butter
Soymilk smoothies
Friday
Leftover pot roast
French fries
Saturday
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Peas
Sunday
Eggs
grits
turkey bacon

My Frugal Day!

Today is November 1st, which means 1/2 priced Halloween merchandise! The kids and I are going to Target today with $20 I saved from last week. I plan to stock up on Halloween candy and decorations for next year. Three days from now, there will be 90% off Halloween clothes that I will look at for the kids.
This morning, I was once again able to get free Sunday paper coupons at Dunkin Doughnuts! Someone had bought a Sunday paper and then left all of the coupon inserts on the table when they left. Those coupons went straight into my purse.
Best of all, Food Lion is doing triple coupons up to $.99 until Tuesday! I clipped all possible coupons out of my free inserts and I plan to go there later today and cash in. There's a limit to how many coupons can be used per transaction, so I might have to leave and go back a few times. Luckily, the Food Lion is only 1/2 mile from my house!:P I will post later about what I was able to get and how much I saved!