Sorry that the menu plan is late this week – I was feeling totally uninspired on Saturday night and then again Sunday night when I sat down to write it. But I know when I don’t make a menu plan for the week, we end up having unnecessary pressure around mealtimes, meals don’t get served on time, and the food isn’t as nice as when I plan it in advance. Somehow after coming home from doing my monthly shopping today it seemed much easier!
Shabbos – d – challah, chicken soup, meatballs and sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetable kugel, power bars, chocolate chip cookie bars; l – cholent, roast turkey, kishke, green bean mango salad, tomato olive salad, fresh coconut, dried fruit, nuts, power bars
Sunday – breakfast – pizza; l – chicken vegetable soup; d – beef stew, salads
Monday – b – banana bread; l – out doing monthly shopping, had snacks; d – falafel patties, carrot sticks, sour cream, milk
Tuesday – b – blueberry muffins (w/ coconut flour); l – cheesy cauliflower soup; d – vegetarian meatloaf, carrot fries
Wednesday- b – pecan burgers, eggs; l – vegetable lentil soup; d – baked fish, yams, salad
Thursday – b – raisin scones; l – leftovers; d – homemade buckwheat noodles, sauce, cottage cheese
Friday – b – quinoa pudding
In order to prepare for today’s shopping trip, I defrosted and then dehydrated all of the frozen vegetables in my full size freezer yesterday (except for the whole green beans). I always marvel at how small the quantities look once they’re dehydrated! It’s a good thing that last week I took out all the prepared food I had frozen and used them, as well as freeing up the space from the vegetables and some soft cheeses, since today I found a great buy on berries, and was able to buy 20 packages of blueberries (10 oz each) and eight packages of mixed berries (3 lb each). Oh, and six or eight pounds of frozen sliced peaches. And 12 lb of whiting fillets. 🙂 It was good I had room for them – last month I didn’t take the precautions before I went shopping and bought way more than I had room to store. Fortunately it was freezing outside so I was able to use my outdoor ‘stair pantry’ to keep things cold.
I found a new source to order my bulk food that I’m very happy about, since it’s making my shopping even less expensive! As I’ve said before, don’t be shy to ask store managers to work with you; just because they have never done it before for anyone else doesn’t mean they won’t do it for you! This is the second store that has gladly tacked my bulk order on top of theirs and put it to the side for me when it comes in.
So I bought another 25 lb of pecan meal, 30 lb of quinoa, and 25 lb of raisins – I’ve been using lots more nut and coconut flours for baking and have significantly cut down on oats and grains. Though grain flours tend to be cheap and nuts tend to be expensive, buying nuts/nut meals in bulk has made using them often workable within my budget – I pay between 1/2 – 1/4 of what the exact same items cost in the same store when sold in small packages. I also have been using raisins and dates to decrease the amount of sucanat or honey I use in baked goods. Quinoa is officially a seed and I think it’s more digestible than other grains, and that’s why I got more of that rather than a less expensive grain. But I’m not cutting out grains altogether since they are a frugal cook’s friend. 🙂
In addition to that, I got the usual 50 lb potatoes, a case of eggs (30 dozen), 80 lb yams (instead of my usual 40 – the baby loves them and eats our supply down quickly!); 50 lb onions, 27 lb carrots (peeled and packaged as carrot sticks- they were outrageously cheap; I should have gotten more but didn’t realize how few pounds were in each case until I got home), 10 gallons of raw milk (I knew I wouldn’t be able to find fridge space for more), 12 lb honey, and a bunch of canned goods. And all the other miscellany that aren’t worth mentioning. So I’m pretty well set for the coming month, except for the meat/poultry and cheese, which I’ll buy tomorrow, and vegetables, which I’ll shop for again in another couple of weeks. Nice to have it mostly out of the way and done for a while – who wants to be spending time in the store every few days if you don’t have to?!
Last month I bought 25 lb of raw sunflower seeds, and yesterday I finally took some out to soak overnight; they’re in the dehydrator right now and will be ready by morning. Sunflower seeds are the least expensive of the nuts/seeds, and they are a nice addition to various dishes, like salads and grainless granolas.
Avivah
I was thinking of you the other day when we changed our general weekly stock up to a major stock up on dried fruits and nuts, as we found them well discounted. (I presume in honour of Tu B’Shvat.) We’ve been using a lot of both to make muesli. Now I just have to find a supply of rolled oats more economical than 200g bags… (Although those are still cheaper per kilo than the 500g bags of quick oats that don’t work as well.) Unfortunately it won’t all fit in the cupboard!
It’s nice to be thought of, kaet! I don’t store large quantities of foods in my cupboard – I would run out of space in about five minutes! 🙂 I keep small amounts of each item in a plastic container in the kitchen, and the rest of it in an area outside of the kitchen. I refill them periodically as they get empty.
If you ever feel like it, I would love to hear more about what the specific prices are that you pay for for groceries. Sometimes you include this information, sometimes you don’t. Either way, it’s a great post, but I often wonder what your “buy” price is for various items. Do you have a price book, or do you rely mainly on memory? If you do have a price book or some kind of file you keep on “buy” prices, I would love to see it. Thanks!
I stopped sharing prices because I was concerned that people would feel discouraged and say that I’m just lucky that I can find things at good prices, but they don’t have that luck so they can’t be expected to stay on a budget. I want people to realize how many things they can do to bring their food costs down, not have them focus on my exact prices.
I don’t do a price book; I did a long, long time ago but for the most part I have a target range for just about everything in my head. Whenever I shop I look for what is a great price and that’s what I buy. It might seem like everything is so cheap, but there are plenty of more expensive choices that I simply don’t buy.
What I buy next month will probably be different from what I bought this month, since what I buy all depends on what the prices are. So don’t assume these are the prices I always pay. Having said all of that, here are yesterday’s prices off the top of my head (receipts are still in the car):
40 lb yams – $12
50 lb unclassified potatoes – 7.95
9 lb carrot sticks – $2
25 lb quinoa – $66
25 lb pecan meal – $54
50 lb baking soda – $22
50 lb onions – $14.50
30 lb raisins – $48
12 lb honey – $30.59
30 dozen eggs (not pastured) – $41
10 oz frozen blueberries – .99
3 lb frozen mixed berries – 1.89
1 lb frozen sliced peaches – .99
2 lb. whiting fillets – 4.49
lg can peaches – 1.19 or 1.29 each
medium size crushed tomatoes (about 14.5 oz)- 3 for a dollar
5 lb sour cream – 2.79
5 lb cottage cheese – 4
ground beef (David Elliot natural) – 7.99 lb
chicken quarters (David Elliot natural) – 3.39 lb
I hope this is helpful to you, Binah!
I am suprised you are paying 7.99 for ground beef. Is David Elliott natural purely grass-fed, b/c that seems high? The golden west glatt is $3.79lb and with $9.95 shipping seems like a better deal, unless it is 100% grass-fed. Wehavebeen very happy with their meats.
Hi, Avivah!
Your shopping list is pretty impressive in its simplicity. We’re working on budgeting for our family of 8, k”AH, and would love to hear some of your tricks of the trade. For example, where in the world do you find quinoa for such a great price?
Have a great Shabbos…
Wendy
Hi, Wendy! My list is simple because by buying in bulk, I only have to buy several large purchases a month and the odds and ends. I have everything else on hand. That means my shopping list varies a lot from month to month, as each month I stock up on whatever is a great price to fill in the gaps in my pantry (here’s a list of my basic pantry items from last year; there are some slight changes but still fairly accurate – http://oceansofjoy.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/the-frugal-pantry/).
To see some of my tips for frugal shopping, look in the ‘frugal strategies’ category. I’ve shared a number of different things that I do. I rarely pay full price for anything by using the various strategies (couponing isn’t one of them); there’s not one strategy that is more important than another (except cook from scratch and buy what’s cheap!), and not one particular store that the best prices are found in. If you integrate some of these ideas, you should be able to significantly cut your food bill down without compromising quality.
youre lucky you have so much storage space. I have a small fridge/freezer, and once I bake challah and have a few containers chicken soup, meatballs and fruit compote, there’s no room for anything else in the freezer. In theh fridge, frujits & veggies go bad after a few days so I buy those twice a week. I do twice weekly grocery shopping trips. I hate using frozen meat, it takes forever to defrost and I usueally remind myself way too late to take it out.
incidentally where do you leave your kids when you do all this shopping? do they all come along with you and behave?
third question, whereabouts do you actually live? (State is enough)
1) I actually don’t have much storage space at all, but I make the choices that make it possible and use my space as wisely as I can.
2) I don’t leave my kids when I do this big shopping trip, they all come along
except for my oldest son (16).
3) It’s not a secret but I’m not going to publicize it on the blogosphere, either.
Sorry, I initially overlooked the part of your question about if my children behave when I take them shopping. You bet they do! I’ve taught my kids what behavior I expect, and like all children, they behave within the parameters they know their parent will accept.
Do you have a chocolate chip cookie/bar recipe that doesn’t use margarine?
I use coconut oil or palm shortening. If you want the recipe, I can ask dd15 which one she used.
can you ask her what kind of flour she uses?
Dina – when I contacted Golden West Glatt several weeks ago, they didn’t have any ground meat in stock. So I was willing to pay more to buy at the store rather than buy the regular (cheaper) ground beef that I’ve bought until now; I was trying to vote for higher quality foods and change with my purchases (ie encourage store management to continue making higher quality products available). You’re right that Golden Glatt would have been a better deal. Just checked their site, and saw that not only do they have ground beef in, but it’s on sale and the shipping is negligible (sale shipping rate was supposed to end on Jan.1 and I was assuming I’d have to pay high shipping costs to order now that would have cancelled out my savings) – I’m sorry I didn’t see this before buying $60 of the other ground meat today, but I’ll order 30 lb tomorrow! (I’m also going to suggest to the local kosher supermarket they order and stock this meat.) Thanks!
We use white whole wheat flour for all baking.
Aviva, how do your veggies not go off? I just recently started going shopping for 2 weeks worth of stuff and by the end of those 2 weeks, most of the stuff is either wilted or soft. Unless you buy veggies more often than once a month or just use root veggies at the end of the month or rely on a lot of lactofermented or canned or frozen.
I just bought flour and oatmeal in bulk. First time buying in bulk and the price difference is amazing. Thank you for the inspiration.
While I’m trying to stick to my current budget, I’m not buying everything in bulk because then i’d be spending thousands all at once. For now I’m buying a little bit in bulk at a time so we can stick within our budget and not go insanely over while getting cheaper food.
I buy vegetables at the beginning of the month when I do my big shopping trip, and then once more two weeks later, so produce is purchased twice a month. I’ll try to post about how I deal with the vegetables separately; though I’ve mentioned in the past it’s been a while and someone else in the comments on this post commented on something similar.
I’m glad that you’ve found the suggestion to buy in bulk useful! Yes, you could go broke trying to buy everything in bulk at a time, and that’s why my bulk purchases are staggered; I buy different items in bulk each month on a rotating basis. It will take you some time to fully build up to this but you’ll begin to soon see it happening right away.