Comments on: My $50 Grocery Bill

By: Middle Way

Middle Way — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:23:45 +0000

Thank so much Dave, for the recipe. We are going to attempt it our next opportunity!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:23:57 +0000

@ Middle Way – I use a whole wheat recipe from Robin Hood Flour that I modified a little bit:

LARGE LOAF (1 1/2 lb/3 cup or 2 lb/4 cup machine)

1 cup water
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp butter or margarine (I use olive oil)
2 tbsp honey
3 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast (or any kind of prepared yeast – I’ve found that I need a little bit more yeast when I need no-name vs. robin hood flour)

- It works for me, good luck with that.

By: Middle Way

Middle Way — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:31:47 +0000

If you would be willing to share your bread maker recipe, that would be great. We don’t make use of our breadmaker as much as we would like as we haven’t been able to make a loaf that is a great substitute for sandwich bread. We seem to only be able to make the softer french bread.

We too have reduced our meat consumption over 50% and not only feel better but have saved significant money. Our monthly grocery budget is $150 and we cook most meals as well. It just tastes better.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:28:12 +0000

@ Jacqjolie – Commercial bread is very scary, there’s something about it not going bad that freaks me out a little bit

I’m going to try to freeze fruits that I eat in my smoothies this year, like berries, peaches, etc. We’ll see how that goes though.

@ Mama Zen – I used to eat a ton more meat then I do now – I generally feel better on a daily basis, but I do miss having a huge steak for the taste.

I’m not exactly sure when the food industry got to the point where they thought that adding chemicals to food was a good idea. I read somewhere on the internet that a good rule of thumb is if a kid in grade 3 can’t read the ingrediant, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.

@ Traciatim – I had a version of that for dinner last night

@ Jon Snow – Good luck!

@ Financial Student – I found the best way for me to try stuff is to find something I really like at a restaurant and try to make a version of it at home. I really love pad thai, and have been able to make a reasonable facsimile of what I get at the restaurant – there are a ton of resources on the ‘net. Whenever I get stuck there’s some you-tube video out there that will walk me through what I’m doing – that’s how I learned to make French bread on the weekend.

By: Financial Student

Financial Student — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:03:21 +0000

This year I’m working on cutting down on eating out. We were spending about $300 per month on groceries and $300 on eating out. So far last month we cut the eating out to $50/month, but the grocery bill went up to $375.

So I’ll have to look into some of these tips. Although I’m not that adventuresome with food. Maybe some cooking classes after I’m done the CGA.

By: Jon Snow

Jon Snow — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:35:53 +0000

My wife and I have been unable to get by on less than $400 a month.

This month, we are determined to do better.

By: Traciatim

Traciatim — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:57:32 +0000

“Chicken breasts, rice and brussel sprouts”

One of my favourite meals is Rice, Chicken, Broccoli, and cheese.

You just take a large chicken breast for 2 people, cut it up in bits and fry it up with some Mrs. Dash or something, steam some broccoli, cook some rice. Put down a bed of rice, put some broccoli and chicken on top and sprinkle with cheese. Fantastic.

By: Mama Zen

Mama Zen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:22:12 +0000

I forgot… we were great fans of Sidekicks bags and this kind of stuff… drinking a lot of pepsi too. We drasticly changed on that point. I try to eat as much local as I can, buy season food. And we feel much better now after meal. Now I read all ingredients on boxes and avoid trans fats, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavours/colors and words I can barely pronounce

By: Mama Zen

Mama Zen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:17:34 +0000

As a family of 4, my grocery budget is between 125$ to 150$ per week, which is about 5$ per person per day. I have the bread machine… and yeah it would cost us less if I was doing my bread and tortillas all the time. I’ll try this for the next month What is the most expensive in my grocery bill… meat, yeah. I was almost vegetarian when I met my husband. I was eating eggs, beans and sometimes fish. And he was… carnivore! So it was hard at the beginning. I do eat more meat now, and he eats less. But there still some room for improvement

By: jacqjolie

jacqjolie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:34:20 +0000

We’re running around $350/month for 3 of us plus a big dog and cat so your amounts look very reasonable. We don’t stint on the meat at all though, only because I lift weights and put on fat easily when I eat too many grain carbs. The meat really helps me control portion sizes.

The other thing I like about making your own bread – or cooking in general – is that you can slip other stuff in there like flax in bread or green things in spaghetti sauce and nobody knows.

What always scares me with commercial bread, if you leave it out on the counter it takes a week or more to get moldy. With homemade bread, it’s moldy after a few days. What’s in it to give the long shelf life and should we be eating it?

My main problem with trying to cut back on food expenses is that fruits and veggies are so much more expensive in the winter. I set a threshold of about $1/pound for fruit. We eat seasonally, but you get kind of tired of oranges, apples and bananas for 6 months straight.