Cost of food rant

You won't find any 'tips' here - just agreement. Yes!!!! You are CORRECT! Food is too expensive. These fools are smoking the crack pipe when they are pricing this stuff! :smokin: Five bucks for a box of cereal? Ten bucks for balsamic vinegar? SERIOUSLY??? Grrr! :explode:

I come upon this right after thinking maybe I should increase my grocery budget, which is difficult because as a single mom there isn't a lot of wiggle room in my budget. I was actually going to post asking for feedback on what people's grocery budget is. I made a list of some cheap dinners like sandwiches or eggs and biscuits. We don't have a Trader Joe's or even a health food store at all in my town. I buy a lot of stuff from Publix when it is BOGO. Especially cereal because I can get it for under $2 a box. Check out some of the coupon blogs. moneysavingmom.com, southernsavers.com, and crazycouponlady.com. Honestly 90% of my budget and healthy eating gets blown by buying fast food since we are always on the go. I'm committed to going the next 5 weeks without any eating out just to see how much better my food budget is at the end of the month.

If you haven't already, invest in a crockpot. In combination with meal planning, it's been a huge time and money saver for me. There's only three of us at home but I work full time and am going to school part time. There are so many days where I just don't want to cook after a 10 hour day especially when I know I have homework or a paper due. Planning my meals out for the week, and using the crockpot as much as possible, has been huge. I'll make a double batch of chili or whatever and it's ready when I get home. We'll eat it for dinner and then each of us can take leftovers for lunch the next couple of days. I can prep the food in the crockpot and throw the ceramic insert in the fridge until the next morning. I put it in the heating unit and turn it on before I leave. I come home to a house that smells great, make a salad or a side dish, if needed, and set the table.