buying on a budget

I shop around and look for good sales in the local flyers. I buy fruit that is in season and on sale. During the summer I have a garden in my back yard and during the winter I buy frozen veggies. I try to stay away from canned veggies because most of them are very high in sodium.

I think what you need to do most of all is watch your portion sizes. I have lost almost 40 pounds by just cutting my portion sizes down to a "normal suggested serving" and not cutting any foods out. If you have a good food scale and stick to the portion sizes you can make any budget work with any food items.

I spend an average of $120-150 a month (including non food) for two adults and toddler (I'm EBF so baby doesn't count). I shop at Aldi's and Hannaford. Probably 50% of the food I buy is organic. Like mentioned above, we have a garden that we eat out of all Summer and in the fall, we store as much of the veggies as we can. We raise our own pigs so we eat a lot of pork. I cook from scratch which ends up being cheaper. When I buy chicken, I buy the whole chicken and cut it up myself, usually legs and wings is one dinner, breasts are another dinner and the rest I make stock with for soup that makes another 2 or 3 dinners (so one whole, natural chicken is spread over 4-5 dinners and cost me about $5 to $6).

I've found that learning how to freeze leftovers helps a lot. The problem in my house was waste. I've found that rice casseroles and soups freeze well. Below are a couple recipes I make then freeze often. I usually freeze 2-4 servings which is then my lunch for work or a quick meal for me if my family wants to eat something I don't like fast food. I also buy frozen veggies instead of fresh usually so that if I don't get to them right away they aren't wasted. Another thing that has helped me is a coupon/budget page on Facebook for my city. The lady who runs it posts all the best deals around town so I know each week which store has different things on sale. I put the link to her page below but there's probably one near you.

Enchilada Rice
http://damndelicious.net/2014/09/17/cheesy-enchilada-rice-skillet/

Corn & Potato Chowder
http://damndelicious.net/2014/09/12/slow-cooker-potato-corn-chowder/

freezer meals:
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/top-rated-recipes/best-freezable-recipes


San Antonio Budget Examiner:
http://spendlessshopmore.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SABudgetGrocery?ref=br_tf

**Buy meats when they are on sale and freeze. I can find boneless skinless chicken breast fairly often on sale for $1.99 a pound (I live in Texas).

**Buy your produce at Aldi if you have one near. I bought grape tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli, baby carrots, peppers, spinach, and romaine all for less than $10 last week. It's enough fresh salad veggies to last my family of 5 a week. I also bought 2 pineapples, bag of grapes, 4 apples, bunch of bananas, carton of blackberries, and 2 grapefruit for about $12.

**Use rice, pasta, beans, and potatoes to fill out your meals. Rice and pasta are incredibly cheap and aren't really that calorie heavy per serving for as filling and satisfying as they are, it's the sauces that people put on top that are usually calorie filled so go easy on those. Beans are a great source of fiber and protein. Potatoes are so yummy, versatile, have tons of nutrients, and are ridiculously cheap. If you've never had baked sweet potato fries you are missing out!

**Learn to cook and meal plan if you don't already. Eating out can cause you to blow through your budget really quickly. Planning your meals out ahead of time and eating at home can make a huge difference. Check out http://www.budgetbytes.com/ for inspiration. Her food is amazing and she breaks down the cost per serving for you.