groceries

loved11

Gay. Need help our grocery bill is $1000 a month. We have 10 kids. Produce is so high right now and fruit is to. Even with couponing, the sale, cheap food is not the healthiest. I have two kids with severe food allergies so I make most of his food from scratch. It is sooooo expensive cooking with the alternative flours. I really try my best. I am at a loss as how to change the whole family eating habits with out it breaking the bank. Any help would be great

joanneeee

grind your own alternative flour?? that could save you some money if you buy from bulk bins! i think bulk bins are your friend. co-op food shops with bulk bins of grains, take them home and grind them yourself.

MsLongWalker

Farmstands are great sources of cheap produce through the warmer months, might take some experimenting to figure out how to cook the stuff you don't usually buy. Depending on the space you have you can either start a garden, look into container gardening, or buy into a farming co-op to help supplement what you buy.

usmcmp

Frozen fruits and veggie are usually less expensive than fresh and almost always as healthy. Check with your local grocery store and ask the meat department when they put out the older discounted meats (the ones that have been sitting there a while). You can often get them for half price then take them home and freeze them. If you find a way to eliminate all junk food you'll find that healthy foods fill the kids up better and it costs less. I only have 2 kids but when I was feeding us junk it was almost $300 a month. I've cut it down to $150.

jsmith2377

Try something like a coop such as Bountiful Baskets. They are fantastic. For 15 bucks you get a large laundry basket of fruits of veggies. The food you get retails for about 50. The only downside to getting the Bountiful Baskets is that you don't get to pick what you get. But, you get so much and it's kind of a fun challenge to use everything in the basket. Today I got: a quart of strawberries, 4 bananas, 10 plums, 8 peaches, a pint of heirloom baby tomatoes, a cantalope, a bunch (is that what it's called?) of celery, two big head of romaine lettuce, 10 yams, 3 mangoes, and 2 onions. I also get the bread for $5 extra, for that you get five loaves of bread (whole wheat of course). I know you said some of your kiddos have allergies so I don't know if that would work. Google their website and see if they have one going in your area. All you have to do is sign up for a day and then go and pick it up when they tell you. Just take your own laundry basket to take it all home in. I LOVE IT!