When Your Budget Can’t Change, Keeping The Spending In Check
The price of everything is going up. This is an inevitable fact of life, but it seems lately, things are going up faster than pay increases can keep up with it. Sometimes, even when we’re buying the exact same things we bought the month or year before, they cost significantly more.
So what can you do when the price of everything is more, but you can’t afford to spend more? Like my post yesterday, I am going to use our grocery budget as my example of ways to control spending. I, in fact, did increase our grocery budget. However, I limited the increase to 5%, while the increased consumption from my kids coupled with the increased prices indicated a 20% increase would have made more sense from the data I collected. I used many of the following strategies to help bridge the gap between rising costs and not enough money to go around.
1. Identify wants versus needs. When looking at my grocery spending, I would put purchases into categories based on being on my list versus being an impulsive purchase. But with the belt-tightening in face of rising costs, I had to go further. I started analyzing the list itself and determining what we truly needed versus what we just preferred to enhance our quality of life. Then I had a better idea of what I could start cutting or coming up with alternatives for.
2. Meal plan. Having an actual set 7 day meal plan gave me a much better grasp on what we were actually spending each week on our meals. I could calculate the per serving cost of each meal, and get a realistic idea of what I was spending per person and per day. Then I could look at which meals were beyond our budget.
3. Shop for staples vs shopping for meals. This might sound contrary to #2, but really it is not. Limiting your meals to just what is on sale can be a good short term strategy, but what happens when the circulars don’t have any meal combinations you can afford? Being able to be flexible and stock up on staples when they are on sale, and use them over time, will yield more long-term savings than being tied to only buying what you need in a particular week. Then, going forward, you can combine these staples you have with what is on sale and come up with inexpensive meals.
4. Know the unit prices of everything. The only way to really recognize good deals is to know what a good price is. Every box has a different amount in it lately. Calculate your per unit prices, and then you can compare across brands and stores.
5. Find substitutions. Sometimes something you need just gets too expensive. Be open to trying different brands, different stores, different options. Try a different type of meat. Try a meat-free meal. Look at what you can substitute without losing health value.
6. Become more self-reliant. As far as shopping goes, our very first step in becoming self-reliant was to plant two tomato plants this year. Next year, we plan a full-blown garden. This is something I have only started to explore but could yield significant cost savings on produce as well as provide an enjoyable hobby for my family.
A combination of yesterday’s tips and today’s helped me understand my spending, know where I could be flexible, and ultimately keep the increase to a minimum. And if I had to keep it from increasing at all, I think I could have done that (but with more sacrifice on our part than I was willing to make at this time).
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September 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
With grocery prices increasing weekly, I realize I cannot “stock up” on basics anymore. When my staples like baking supplies run low, they remain that way until I can pull together the extra money to replenish them. I mainly only buy ingredients for meals now and have become a whiz at cooking gourmet bean dishes with ingredients from the fridge and pantry. Grocery money only doesn’t stretch as far as it did even a few weeks ago.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
I actually spend less shopping for staples vs shopping for basics. I don’t mean buying tons and tons of what is on sale, but for example if chicken is on sale one week, I may buy two weeks worth for the normal price of one week’s worth, and then the next week I don’t buy chicken at all, I buy something else.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
I put in a small garden this year and it was tough to keep up with the produce. I’m ambivalent about it next year. I am good gardener–but I’m thinking I need to make more money more, which means work more hours. So I may just go back to the 2 tomatoes.
Opposite strategy I guess. So I can work more.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
PaidTwice this is very well said, and a critical topic for most of us!
The concept of stockpiling does presuppose you have some spare $ up front to purchase the extras. Reading some of the various books about stockpiling and monthly cooking plans, etc, address this issue. If you are really strapped, I would think a combination of Jinger’s and your approach might work. Buy some, BUT go without USING it for a while to allow the stockpile to grow. Another drastic approach which I don’t think is a good idea for young children, would be to really go without–skip a meal once a week, or go vegetarian at least one day a week. Obviously many people in our country have to do this already.
The final key in a budget squeeze focused on groceries is finding recipes, cooking methods which truly stretch your foodstuffs while still being healthy and satisfying. Amy Dacyczyn’s works and a wonderful book titled “More With Less Cookbook” are my favorites. The companion book, written first, is also wonderful: “Living More With Less”. Most libraries could get hold of any of these.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
i don’t know if i said this yet, but your blog has inspired me i so many ways!
i snowflake!
im growing a tomato plant!
and im watching my debt shrink!
thanks so much for sharing your life with us
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
another great set of tips, just like yesterday. i fall into this category, as i’m trying to reduce our grocery budget even more (trying to do $30 or less per week for 2 people). thanks
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
If you can grow a garden, do it!
Here’s the easiest things to grow, least maintenance (I think) and most bang for the buck or space….
1. Potatoes: Plant them, water occassionally. When the tops turn brown, dig them up and wash them. They produce more pounds of usable food per plant than anything else I can think of (except maybe big squashes) Very easy to grow!
2. Nasturtiums: Flowers and leaves edible, as are seedpods later. Plant them and water. THey grow like a weed and will be all over. Give them something to grow up on. The leaves can be used like any other green - slight peppery taste. I use them in place of spinach, salad greens, cabbage, in stir frys, etc. They are super abundant! Easy! And very versatile.
3. Spaghetti squash. Plant in a heavy manure/compost and water regularly. They will send vines all over the place. The squashes will be huge and can be used as a squash, or as a spaghetti pasta. Versatile! 100 lbs of squash off one vine would not be rare at all. I have had October squash keep until the next May - so these usually store well in the house. If you are getting too many squashes, the blossoms can be eaten in stir fry or stuffed or battered and fried.
4. Scarlet Runner beans: These produce regular green beans if picked young and small. If allowed to grow to full size, they are sometimes over a foot long. They can still be eaten at that size, or allow the beans to dry and have large red dried beans. Give them something to climb on as they can grow over 6 ft high. There is maintenance with these as you have to keep picking the beans so that more beans will grow. These also have a pretty red flower that looks good in the garden.
5. Chives: They grow like a weed and come back year after year. I find them easier to grow than onions.
If my garden only had 5 things in it (instead of 40-50!), those are the easiest to grow and the most productive, in my opinion. (My climate is not very garden friendly here - being a pacific maritime rainy climate - so these are what do best for me!)
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Just an added note…I have 19 year old college student living at home and she has adopted my thrifty ways…instead of buying fast food at school, she takes sandwiches and makes her own iced chai with vanilla soy milk to take with her in her reusable mug. She is a dance major and has a huge appetite! I don’t have her contributing to our food expenses yet as she works only a minimal hours per week, but I may have to soon.
Aside from cans of beans and pasta, I shop around the edges of the store for dairy and produce. I don’t buy meat anymore. All my grocery shopping now is done at WalMart.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am
If you do a full garden next year, a wise investment would be a pressure canner, jars and lids. My tomato plants did HORRIBLY this year, but a friend of mine’s overproduced, and I put up about a dozen pints of diced tomatoes. Not much, compared to how many pints go in a pot of marinara sauce, but it’s something in the pantry. If your tomato plants do go nuts, you could end up with a LOT. Jars are reusable, lids are not, but lids are pretty cheap.
Your blog is inspiring. My husband and I don’t have a mortgage or a car payment, but my student loans are bad, we owe on the rent (we have a very understanding landlord) and the credit cards just aren’t going away. Your progress, out of more debt than I can imagine, makes me more confident that we’ll also be debt free someday.