how to shop when you're broke and have a family

For getting the crock pot going at odd times. I use a Christmas tree timer. Have the crock pot with all the ingredients when I leave for work, the timer turns it on and off at the appropriate time.

ShelliesTrying wrote: »

I just, say, put a cup of baking soda in the sink drain and pour in vinegar and use a sponge to scrub the sink walls etc.

The pH of baking soda is basic (> 7.0) while vinegar is acidic. Mixing the two neutralizes both to varying degrees.

Mentioned in the spirit of more with less.

diannethegeek wrote: »

It sounds like you need to go back and reconsider how you're defining "healthy." The middle of my grocery store has a lot of my cheap essentials. Rice, beans, frozen fruits & veggies, canned veggies, canned tuna, oatmeal, peanut butter, etc. Don't get trapped into thinking that all of those cheaper packaged items are unhealthy. Many of them can be included in a balanced diet.

that.

also, dollar stores also carried canned items (and some carry more). If there is an Aldis near you, they are cheaper than walmart on a LOT of things.

Make large batches of food and freeze for later

check with churches to see if they have food banks or assistance programs

The only reason you would not be able to claim the 3 year old for WIC/SNAP etc is if mom is claiming her. And if mom is claiming her... mom should be helping you. It's not that you're looking for a pay day, its taking care of her child.

Aside, ideas I had reading through your post and the responses are:
1 - with the crock pot, you said you have a 13 year old. Potentially, this child could turn the crock on/off? I have 13 year old step twins that we have full custody of, I often leave them notes or call them from work with instructions and they do well. You said your daughter made bread bowls - she should be ok. That being said, before we got custody of the twins, I only crocked things I knew could stand being on for as long as I needed to leave them, and I always cooked on low. We eat so much pulled pork. Its freaking ridiculous. Cheap pork shoulder, toss in on low all day with some water, brown sugar, and garlic. Pull it apart when I get home, toss in whatever bbq sauce I got on sale, back in the crock for 30 more minutes.

2 - Maybe this isn't nice of me, but I absolutely would not allow 6 gallons of milk a week. My family is myself, DH, the twins, and half the week my 3 kids. We go through 2 gallons a week. We have milk with breakfast, I occasionally cook with it, and you drink water. Some times, I buy $1 containers of Welch's I think? Juice concentrate. 6 gallons for $1 and it gives the kids a change of pace.

3 - Meal plan. Meal plan. My grocery budget for my family comes out to about $100 a week. During the summer... it's rough I'm not gonna lie. When I don't meal plan, I'm usually way over. When I do plan, I can usually under shoot my budget by a fair amount. I take stock of what we have, and go from there. I don't really look at the sales, which I should, but we have Winco, and really... when I do look at the sales, they don't have anything on Winco.

4 - We eat a ton of spaghetti, and I make my own basic sauce so it's not too bad. A small can of tomato paste, a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of sauce and presto! I usually get the seasoned tomatoes, and I get a decent sauce this way for probably $1.25. For meat, its always sausage, turkey, ground beef, chicken breast, whatever was cheaper.

5 - DH eats lefties for lunch at work. My lunch is almost always 4oz ground turkey (tube at winco $2.30), 1/4 can black beans, and half of a Birds Eye Steamer veggie. It ends up costing me around $5 to eat lunch for the week.

6 - We eat a lot of brown rice. And white potatoes don't have the best reputation, but when money is tight they go far and do a lot for filling.

Power to you mama! You can do it. I get angry at all the advice saying get a new job, grow a garden, or get all the great assistance programs we offer in the US for hard working individuals (notice sarcasm). Anyways, your kitchen is your best friend in this battle. You already know how to make a dollar stretch, so now you'll have to get creative and stretch that food. As many have said scratch cooking although time consuming will be so beneficial. Not sure the area you live in but I often find that when I go into areas of an ethnic minority that the prices are cheaper. I loved shopping at the local fruteria I could load up on a ton of fruits and veggies for less than $20. Wal-Mart everyone bashes it but when you are hurting financially you cant beat the prices. Lots of bulk foods. Do you have a decent sized freezer? Enlist the kids in the help too they can help you chop and process food they are old enough. Also, to see Mom make miracles on a little budget is inspiring.

You've got this you and your babies will be healthy and kicking azz in no time!

http://www.simplyscratch.com/recipes

Ninkyou wrote: »

Coupons.

You can find blog websites that do sale & coupon matchups every week with the new ads that come out. Just google your grocery store's name with ad matchups... for example, I shop at Shoprite, so if I google Shoprite ad matchups I get http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/shoprite-coupons-2 which has everything that's on sale, listed with the coupons you can clip from which newspaper or printable coupon, etc and the final cost after coupons. Dead handy. When I went grocery shopping on Sunday (I shop every week, btw) I took $45.15 off my grocery bill. Totally worth the half an hour I spend every sunday writing up my grocery list and clipping/printing coupons.

For meat, I look for manager's specials or "expiring" meat that has a sell by date within 2 days because those are always marked down. Then I either use it within the 2 days or freeze it.

You can also join things like Ibotta and SavingStar that give you rebates on items you're buying. I do savingstar and you get rebates everytime your account hits $5.

And... kind of unrelated to saving money but sign up for Upromise and when you use your credit/debit/grocery cards on participating products a percentage of money is deposited into an account that you can then transfer into a 529 account for your kid's college funds.

Great suggestions! I never have luck with coupons as far as I never buy those products. I've yet to see one for fresh produce or protein. Any more advice or sites you frequent?

Do you have a microwave? You can buy regular oatmeal (NOT instant) and make it in the microwave. It's really fast. That's a super cheap and easy way to feed kids breakfast. Peanut butter and jelly or banana sandwiches provide protein and are cheap and filling too.

Go for cheap fresh veggies like carrots, onions, green peppers, and cucumbers that are always available, and use frozen as well.

Have meatless or less meat meals - pinterest has lots of recipes for healthy soups and stews.

If your kids qualify for reduced or free lunches at school, take advantage of that for sure, and don't be too proud to take advantage of WIC if your kids qualify, and food pantries.

I know that it is a challenge to make healthy, low cost and low calorie meals when you have kids and are on such a tight budget. Sounds like you are making some great choices already with what you have.

ShelliesTrying wrote: »

I thought rice wasn't really all that good for you. I buy rice but don't make it often, I will look into that more and try to add it in more often. We eat A LOT of peanut butter sandwiches! Esp me and my 3yo, haha.

Nothing wrong with rice. Combine it with beans and you have a complete protein. Get a big bag of rice and a dried beans, and with a few other additions you can make some tasty, nutritious meals.

ldrosophila wrote: »

Ninkyou wrote: »

Coupons.

You can find blog websites that do sale & coupon matchups every week with the new ads that come out. Just google your grocery store's name with ad matchups... for example, I shop at Shoprite, so if I google Shoprite ad matchups I get http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/shoprite-coupons-2 which has everything that's on sale, listed with the coupons you can clip from which newspaper or printable coupon, etc and the final cost after coupons. Dead handy. When I went grocery shopping on Sunday (I shop every week, btw) I took $45.15 off my grocery bill. Totally worth the half an hour I spend every sunday writing up my grocery list and clipping/printing coupons.

For meat, I look for manager's specials or "expiring" meat that has a sell by date within 2 days because those are always marked down. Then I either use it within the 2 days or freeze it.

You can also join things like Ibotta and SavingStar that give you rebates on items you're buying. I do savingstar and you get rebates everytime your account hits $5.

And... kind of unrelated to saving money but sign up for Upromise and when you use your credit/debit/grocery cards on participating products a percentage of money is deposited into an account that you can then transfer into a 529 account for your kid's college funds.

Great suggestions! I never have luck with coupons as far as I never buy those products. I've yet to see one for fresh produce or protein. Any more advice or sites you frequent?

I actually get fresh produce coupons semi-regularly. Like Dole Salad kits, etc. I don't know about other grocery stores, but my grocery store (Shoprite) has ecoupons you can load directly to your club card. I have a coupon for potatoes and baby carrots on there right now. Earthbound Organics gets coupons every so often too. The site I mentioned above, SavingStar.com had 20% back on bananas last week and 20% back off tomatoes the week before. This week it's 20% back on oranges.

If you have Acme in your area, they sometimes do a "buck a bag" sale where they have things like mushrooms, green onions, steamable potatoes, avacodos and more for $1. I usually stock up during that.

Other good sites I use are Hip2Save.com and TotallyTarget.com
Totally Target is another coupon matchup blog for weekly ads, and if you download Target's Cartwheel App you can get even more savings at Target. Combine Cartwheel with sales and coupons and there's alot of good deals to be had. I've gotten good deals on produce at my Target with Cartwheel when they have things like 5% off, and sometimes they even have Cartwheel coupons on meat. And on that topic, Typically I can get 93% ground beef for 3.99/lbs when they're marked down for expiration (which is usually still 2-3 days out). I usually buy a whole lot when I can get them like that and freeze them. Sometimes they do a sale where you buy 1 and get the 2nd one for like 15 or 20% off. Combine that with the $2 expiration mark downs and you've got some cheap meat. http://cartwheel.target.com/c/food/-/9999977 is a list of current cartwheel coupons for grocery... berries, grapes, milk, yogurt, chicken, etc. Every little bit helps.

Hip2Save does other kinds of deal alerts like Amazon, Target, BabiesRus, OldNavy, etc. And she also does store deals like Walgreens, RiteAid, etc... stores that are more national than regional.