how to shop when you're broke and have a family
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PS Bravo for taking charge of your family's finances and eating habits.0
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@youngmommy2 those are just such great ideas.
@ShelliesTrying , I suggest you stop worrying about certain foods being not so good like cereal and rice. The greater variety you add to your diet, the better it will be. The more home cooking you can squeeze in the more you will save, but it takes time and planning which I know is your limited resource.
Tinned tomatoes in all their forms are cheaper and last longer than their fresh counterparts. Tomatoes are the base for so many sauces and meals.
There were two cheap fast foods I kept in the house for my hungry teenagers. Those were canned baked beans and Chinese noodles. My children would snack on those after school instead of devouring the good stuff I had planned for dinner.
The two pieces of equipment that helped me save over the long run were my crock pot and my chest freezer. The crock pot for bulk cooking, and the freezer for bulk buying. Once I got going on those two I was able to save in other places.
I suggest you take the occasional money and use that to give yourself a leg up. Take a trip to that Big Lots! and stock up on the staples. Put aside a little of the money saved every week to buy on sale. This is how middle income families end up spending less money than the poor on food. It's having that little reserve to take advantage of sales.
Here's how a single chicken can make a few meals (depending on the size of your family!). Cook the whole chicken seasoned, in the crock pot resting on some potatoes. It comes out tender and tasty like Swiss Chalet chicken. You may save some chicken breast for sandwich meat later in the week if you like. After dinner, roast the chicken carcass in the oven for a few minutes, then put it back in the crock pot with some onion, spices, and celery. Let that simmer overnight. In the morning you have a lovely soup base that you can save for later or make a soup right there. Discard the bones and bits and save the liquid.
Dried beans and lentils are cheap and have that extra fiber and protein that is so good for us. Two great crock pot meals that children love are chilies and "sloppy joes". You can make a big batch and save the leftovers. These sorts of meals just taste better warmed up a second time.
I always had basic baking supplies like flour in my cupboard, powdered milk in case I ran out near the end of the month, and eggs. I never allowed myself to run out of eggs. With eggs I can make pancakes, muffins, omelet, scrambled, any number of delicious foods. I kept dehydrated onion and celery salt around in case I didn't have them on hand fresh.
I learned about this great link right here on MFP.
http://www.budgetbytes.com/
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »The cereal comes in to play bc it is easy school mornings and not time consuming. I have been planning on trying the over night crock pot oatmeal with steel cut oats but I haven't been able to yet. We learned how to use our waffle iron to make eggs for eggs sandwiches so that was exciting. It's just a habit I am working to break.
I will also do overnight oatmeal in jars or whatever other small container, and I just microwave it the next morning. The kids can add in their own extras to keep it from getting boring.0 -
You should try making a large batch of pancakes from scratch and freezing them. You can serve them with some frozen fruit. It'd be cheaper than cereal.
You also mentioned your kids like beans. Try cooking dry beans--they are cheaper than canned beans. You can make a big pot of chili using dry beans and use just a small amount of ground beef for flavor. My husband and I eat beans and rice (and vegetables) at least once a week. It's a very cheap and filling meal.
Not sure how much time you have, but you could also bake your own bread. Sometimes you can find used bread machines at garage sales or on craigslist. If you don't have a bread machine, you can bake bread the old fashioned way over the weekend.
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/
Don't follow recipes for meals. I normally cut up random vegetables, throw them in a skillet, season however I want, and eat. It's cheap and nutritious.
For fruit, I normally buy what's on sale.0 -
2/3 of my kids love oatmeal. I just need to get it in there more. I've only been able to concentrate on keeping us alive the last 3 months so it's been sandwiches, eggs and cereal pretty regularly. I catch those P3 things one sale 4/$5 and buy a lot of those. I have lived on those for 3 months and the kids also eat them for after school snacks as well. I had planned on just buying a block of cheese, ham and can of almonds and make our own.
It's been hard lately and I'm trying to do my best. But at the same time I want to make good choices. I don't want my kids surviving on pop-tarts or frozen pizza and chips bc they are cheap.
I really appreciate all of the tips and advice! You all have given me a lot of suggestions that I plan on incorporating. Part of this is also about setting a good example for my kids. I want them to know how to make healthy choices, not fast and cheap.0 -
I do make bread! I have a bread machine and have taught my 13yo how to make bread with it. We had a big pot of potato soup and she made bread bowls with the dough setting on the bread machine. We were stuffed!
And yes my kids love a pot of beans. I found 1lb bags at walmart last weekend that were cheaper than the bigger bags so I bought several.0 -
By the way, you are doing great. You are a survivor. You are planning a better future for your kids.0
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Do you have access to WIC for your littlest one? It wouldn't be much, but it would help.
Have you considered making your own bread? The cheap bread at the store is a barren nutritional wasteland. Buying a jar of yeast and a bag of whole wheat flour would make a ton of bread that is much more nutritionally dense and more filling. You can also switch up the ingredients for different nutritional needs or what you like. Add nuts, other grains, eggs, dried fruit, etc. You could also make your own breads for breakfast, such as banana with almost-bad bananas, zucchini, cinnamon. Make your own whole wheat pizza crust and use up your almost-old veggies. If you are adventurous, you can experiment with making other breads such as pita, tortillas, or crackers.
You can make a lot of things at home cheaper and more healthfully than at the store. I was a single mother on a very low income with NO child support for a long time. Roast a whole chicken for dinner one night. I used to use this as a "fancy" Sunday dinner. Use leftovers in something like enchiladas (make your own sauce!) on Tuesday, then boil the bones and any vegetable scraps (peels, onion skins, and ugly ends off carrots or other vegetables, celery leaves) for broth, skim off the fat, and make soup that is lower in sodium than the kind you get at the store on Wednesday. Use up your older or frozen veggies in the soup and make croutons with your homemade bread.
Put cheap seasonal produce in a freezer or deep freeze. This can save time if you, say, grab a handful of green peppers and throw them in some scrambled eggs or on a homemade pizza. Grab a cup of frozen cranberries (I bought some after the season for less than a dollar a bag at Wal-Mart!) and toss them into one of your homemade breads.
I make my own cheese with my bad milk. So easy!
Have you tried a food pantry at a local church? A garden in the summer? One of those pick-your-own-vegetable farms?
I flatter myself to say that I am good at food budgeting and avoiding waste (a professional cheapskate?). PM me if you need more ideas!0 -
crystalewhite wrote: »ShelliesTrying wrote: »The cereal comes in to play bc it is easy school mornings and not time consuming. I have been planning on trying the over night crock pot oatmeal with steel cut oats but I haven't been able to yet. We learned how to use our waffle iron to make eggs for eggs sandwiches so that was exciting. It's just a habit I am working to break.
I will also do overnight oatmeal in jars or whatever other small container, and I just microwave it the next morning. The kids can add in their own extras to keep it from getting boring.
@ShelliesTrying - Overnight Oatmeal uses rolled oats rather than steel cut. There are tons of recipes. Here are some: http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2015/05/13/overnight-oats-for-breakfast/
Making Overnight Oatmeal might be a fun family project as the kids can chose their own add-ins.
I love this as a bed time snack. (It has too many carbs and not enough protein or calories for me to have it for breakfast, but YMMV.) I let the yogurt "cook" the oats for about an hour before eating, but it could also go overnight. The oats will be mushier that way, which is fine.
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By the way, you are doing great. You are a survivor. You are planning a better future for your kids.
I appreciate this! I have been searching and it's really easy to find "cheap, quick and easy" meals that are horribly unhealthy and equally as easy to find information on eating healthy on a budget when you are one person. I want to continue my weight loss but most importantly keep them healthy. I have to figure out how to cut out some time for meal prep. I think that would make a huge difference.
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We NEVER have old milk in our house. We can go thru up to 6 gallons a week. Especially during the summer while the kids are out of school. 3 and 13yo drink lots and lots of milk. I don't buy any juices bc it's mostly sugars anyways.0
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This looks possibly helpful: http://www.leannebrown.com/
Free pdf cookbook focused on healthy low cost meals.0 -
http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Apple_Cinnamon_Oatmeal
This what I found to try.
Can anyone tell me if steel cut is genuinely better than regular oatmeal we've been eating for years, or is this just trendy?
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Check out sites : Hillbilly housewife and 5 dollar dinners. They both have helpful information.0
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I'm the queen of thrifty grocery shopping. I watch sales I NEVER buy any meat until it's on sale. Package it up, stick it in freezer in portions. Chicken breasts go on sale nearly every month. Pork tenderloin is a great lean meat, and it's fabulous cooked in a crock pot. It goes a long, long way. Again, it goes on sale regularly. I hardly ever buy ground meat of any type anymore, since it's just too expensive. I recommend frozen ravioli, too. My experience is that the Store brand is just as good as the more expensive brands, great on price and great on calories, too. I shop veggie spaghetti sauce on sale for the top. Another great meal are enchiladas. Simple to make.......chicken breast mixed with refried beans (very inexpensive), with even frozen corn inside, can of enchilada sauce and cheese on top? Use corn tortillas, and it's not only inexpensive but good on calories.
I buy pasta, rice, etc.....ONLY on sale. I never buy butter at full price. Wait for holidays and stock up. Then prices drop. Beef? Forget it unless it's a holiday. Then, stock up on roasts. Roasts can be cooked for nice special meal and use the leftovers in wonderful beef vegetable soup.
Vegetables can be pricey. I buy frozen alot, and they are nutritious and cheap. Even the onions and peppers can be cheaper if you buy frozen. They are the best deal around and not many people use it...so the price right now is great. I only buy fruit and vegetables fresh when they are in season.
My breakfast is inexpensive, too. I buy low-cal greek yogurts on sale.....my store has 10 for $10 often. Then I buy box bran cereal with some sugar junk stuff. Right now it's cinnamon and pecans. Anyway, one half cup of cereal with one yogurt is around 170 calories and it definitely keeps me going until snack time of fruit.
You start to know prices and what's really a good deal when you focus on savings awhile. I use the coupons and digital coupons for a lot of items. But I have to say, in 99% of the cases, the generic brands that are cheaper than even the brand-names with coupons taste identical to me.
Hope you glean a few good ideas. Great question!
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It has a different texture, so some (like me) like it better.
Beyond that, oats are oats. There may be minor differences in fiber or protein content. There are types of oats (that would likely be more expensive) with additives and I personally would avoid those and add what I wanted myself, but that isn't about style of oat (rolled vs. steel cut).0 -
I'm a pro at efficient bulk cooking now. But I also don't have little ones under foot any more. I'm always thinking ahead based on what's in my refrigerator (lots of turnips right now) and what I might make. I'll make three dinners in a row over an hour or two on the weekend, prepping one meal as I'm popping another in the oven. I'll soak dried mushrooms for one dish (I don't cook with mushrooms very often so the dried ones save me in the long run) then use the mushroom water for the soup base for another. This will go round and round until all the perishable things in my fridge are made up for meals through the week.
Soakables like beans are usually put to soak on a Friday evening for my cooking spree on Saturday.
I am working through the harvest from my community garden which is where the turnips came from. Turnips, onions, zucchini, kale, and scarlet runner beans. I was looking at my onions and I had a whole bunch of small ones. So I looked up a recipe for pickled onions and peeled all the baby onions for a jar.
I saw a neighbour's apples going to waste so I asked if I could take them in exchange for some home-made apple sauce. The neighbour was pleased and so was I. I found a crock pot applesauce recipe that was super easy. The most work was coring the apples. I didn't bother peeling.
You can take "cheap, quick and easy" and modify with healthier ingredients. Or reduce the fat. I find I can use up to a quarter less of the cheese called for when I buy the sharpest, oldest cheddar I can find, and grate fine.0 -
I really appreciate all of the realistic information everyone has shared.
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Thought of 1 other thing. For a cheap snack, buy popcorn kernels and pop your own popcorn either on the stove or in an air popper.0
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A couple have mentioned enchiladas. We have these from time to time and I do make my own sauce. I make a batch big enough for 2-3 dishes and freeze what I don't use for that dinner. I have done that for years. My former husbands gma gave me her recipe and I have never used anything else.0
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We use the air popper regularly!0
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I don't know if anyone has said this already but plan your meals in advance. It is okay to have a limited menu that you rotate.
A pot of soup is a good dollar stretcher. I try to have soup once a week. It freezes and reheats well. Bean based and lentil soups are cheap and filling.My dd's favorite soup is minestrone.
Cut up meat and put it in casseroles, stir fries, soups, on pizza, on sandwiches, etc. If you cook a whole chicken and take all the meat off that will probably be enough for several meals.
Use leftovers for breakfast or lunch.
Mix ground meat with beans or lentils to stretch it farther. I always mix beans with our taco meat.
Buy store/generic brands.
Buy things that are whole and skin, bone, shred, or divide the food yourself.
Spinach might give more nutrition than lettuce in salads, sandwiches, tacos.
Sometimes larger containers are cheaper per serving.
Oatmeal, dry beans, lentils, pasta, rice, onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, canned tomato, eggs, cream of wheat, bread, peanut butter are good basics for many dishes.
Tortillas and pita bread are not too hard to make.
My family has enjoyed recipes from http://www.budgetbytes.com/0 -
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Been there, done that. It sounds like you're getting great advise and doing a great job. Keep up the great work. Things will get better. On that note, I know you were asking for advise on the food and shopping end of things but I'm curious about work. You said you make only about $26K a year. Have you looked for anything better? Are you college educated to make it easier to get a higher wage? Can you look into certifications to get into another field that might be better for you? On that same note, you say your child support is sporadic. Have you pursued the courts to help fix that? You are free to not answer any of these questions. I know how personal they may be as I have been where you are and prospered (as I'm sure others here have also). I, too, was getting child support only periodically and had a very low paying job. I kept on applying until I found something better, and then better, and then even better, until I was comfy in my financial situation to be able to go back to school again to make myself even better for my children. Not here to push you down or brag, just food for though.
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Apple_Cinnamon_Oatmeal
This what I found to try.
Can anyone tell me if steel cut is genuinely better than regular oatmeal we've been eating for years, or is this just trendy?
Steel cut oats have a lower glycemic index than rolled oats, but since I'm not diabetic and don't like steel cut, it's not a better choice for me
Try steel cut but don't give up on oats if you don't care for them. My mom loves them.
http://www.prevention.com/content/whats-healthier-steel-cut-oats-or-rolled-oats0 -
I have a package to try. I will make that happen this weekend. I will probably stick to the regular bc they are cheaper and do the job! Thanks for this0
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madhatter2013 wrote: »You said you make only about $26K a year. Have you looked for anything better? Are you college educated to make it easier to get a higher wage? Can you look into certifications to get into another field that might be better for you? On that same note, you say your child support is sporadic. Have you pursued the courts to help fix that? You are free to not answer any of these questions. I know how personal they may be as I have been where you are and prospered (as I'm sure others here have also). I, too, was getting child support only periodically and had a very low paying job. I kept on applying until I found something better, and then better, and then even better, until I was comfy in my financial situation to be able to go back to school again to make myself even better for my children. Not here to push you down or brag, just food for though.
This. I thought of these things as well. I would like to kick my own butt for suggesting it, but is it possible to cut your hours in order to meet the income requirements for SNAP? I know it may be immoral, but I believe that there are situations in which immorality is justified, such as when kids are hungry. I apologize because this suggestion may be offensive to some...0 -
I don't really know how to address your comment @madhatter2013 . I love my job and it's more of a career than "just" a job. I do not have a degree, I want to go school but I just can't swing that right now. I have been applying for a second job but haven't gotten one yet. I am doing what I can.0
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ShelliesTrying wrote: »I do make bread! I have a bread machine and have taught my 13yo how to make bread with it. We had a big pot of potato soup and she made bread bowls with the dough setting on the bread machine. We were stuffed!
And yes my kids love a pot of beans. I found 1lb bags at walmart last weekend that were cheaper than the bigger bags so I bought several.
Crock pots are great way to cook beans and cheap cuts of meat. I like the MFP blog recipes because you can click to log them https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/?s=dried+beans but on allrecipes.com there are a ton of slow cooker recipes. I have previously subscribed for slow cooker recipes from there, but don't see the option ATM. http://allrecipes.com/recipes/17191/everyday-cooking/slow-cooker/
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@ChapinaGrande I can't really cut my hours. My job is m-f 8-5. I have actually been working extra at home to help. I am able to get maybe an extra 5 hours a week but that's about it.0
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