GROCERIES and GAS

Steps to keep the grocery budget low:

  • Take inventory of what you have on hand and what should be eaten soon.  This can keep you from wasting the food you have already bought.

  • Meal plan around the inventory you have on hand.

    SuperCook.com, MyFridgeFood.com, and Allrecipes.com are a few websites that let you search for recipes by what ingredients you have on hand.

    • Meal Planning Tips to Save Even More:

      • Stir fry recipes, casseroles, soups, and kabobs are all a great way to help stretch proteins, or you can add your proteins on top of salads.

      • Making your proteins the side dish to your meals instead of the main dish can also help stretch them to potentially save money.

      • Quinoa, lentils, and beans can be a great addition or substitute for proteins in meals as well.

  • Create a grocery list and STICK TO IT.

    Remember to eat before you go grocery shopping as it could also help cut down on impulse buys helping you to stick to your grocery list or budget easier.

  • Look at sales ads only after you know what inventory you have and what you need to eat soon. 

    If you plan your meals around sales ads, you might be more apt to have unused food that will go bad and must be thrown away.  Instead, plan your meals around what you have on hand, and then tack on a sale item such as a roast and save it for the next week’s meal plan. This could save you from having ingredients go bad costing you more money.

I love using Fetch Rewards where you can turn all your grocery (and other) receipts into gift cards. It’s free and super easy to use.
I’ve been using them for years. You can sign up with my referral code (6231W) or click the link below to get points for your first receipt.

https://fetchrewards.onelink.me/vvv3/referralemail?code=6231W

Averages spent on food per month:

Rachel Cruz - Stop Letting Food Eat Up Your Budget (2019)

1 person = $165 - $330 average per month

2 people = $388 - $769 average per month

4 people = $650 - $1294 average per month

Jordan Page, from FunCheaporFree

Jordan suggests trying to keep the grocery and supply budget at $100 per person in your family, per month, (starting at $300).  She says it doesn’t matter the age (a newborn, a teenager, or an adult), each living person in your house gets that same $100. 

Example: 1, 2, or 3 people living in your household, you would use $300 as your grocery & supply budget. Then you would add $100 for each person over 3 in your household. (4 people = $400 and 5 people would equal $500, and so on.)

With the inflation of 2022, Jordan suggests still trying to keep with this budget as much as possible since you will need your money for other things such as gas and energy, but she said if you need to bump this up, then you can try to bump it up to what they say the inflation is at to start with and then move up from there as needed. So, for example, if the CPI (consumer price index) says inflation is at 7%, then instead of $100 per person per week, you could do $107 per person per week. However, you should work hard to keep this as low as possible because inflation has hit almost everything and every sector, and you will need your extra dollars for other necessities like gas and energy expenses. Budgeting and sticking to a budget are more important than ever in times like this.


Jordan’s envelope method of tracking grocery expenses:

(Also discussed in the budgeting category)

Jordan’s envelope example for a family of 4.  Write the two categories on it, split up by weeks (with the dates written on the side), and whenever you spend money from that section, you write the amount on the envelope in the corresponding square and put your receipt in the envelope.

If you go over one week, Jordan suggests not borrowing from the week below, but instead borrowing from the other side category.  So, if you spent $120 on groceries for one week, that only leaves you with $80 for the “Other” category for that week.  She says you can only borrow from side to side, never down because that could lead you to take from your grocery budget over and over potentially leaving you with no grocery money at the end of the month.

Stock-ups can help you save

Having some stock-ups are not only great insurance but can be used as a way to save money as you can stock up on shelf-stable items you normally use when they go on sale.

A good way to do this is to split your pantry into different sections; a working pantry and an extended pantry.

  1. Working pantry - This is where you will have anywhere between one to two weeks or even one month's worth of food. This is usually kept in your kitchen as it is the food you use every day or will use immediately. After you have the amount you feel comfortable with here in your working pantry then move to the next step.

  2. Extended pantry (mid to long-term pantry) - This is where you will keep extras of the common, every day, shelf-stable items you use. This can be anywhere from one, three, six, or even twelve months’ worth, and is used as your personal warehouse where you will shop first to replace items in your working pantry before you go to the store shopping for more to replace your extended pantry items. Again, this can help you save money as you can stock up on things when they go on sale.

When deciding what to buy, think of your favorite recipes and see if any of them can be made with shelf-stable ingredients. This can help you start thinking of what you could use in your extended pantry or long-term storage. You can then, occasionally, work some of these recipes into your meal plans helping to ensure your items will get rotated preventing anything from expiring.

Stocking up and maintaining a stock up of food and supplies takes time and effort. It can seem like a constant chore of trying to think of what you might need, how you will fit it into your budget, how to store the items so they will last the longest, and then where you will store them. For me, I’ve been mostly focusing on the Buy One Get One method (when I need to buy one of an item, I will go ahead and buy two and store the extra). I feel this is a great way to slowly work on increasing your stock-ups as it ensures you are buying the items you will use.

The 5 Can Plan is another method that can help with stocking up. This is where you buy 5 extra cans (or other shelf-stable items) every time you go shopping for groceries and/or supplies. This could also be done with any other number that works best for you. If you want to do more (i.e., 10 Can Plan) you can, or if you need to decrease the amount because you had a lot of extra expenses that week or month, you can use a lower number. The goal is to not give up and continue to work on becoming more self-sufficient and/or work on saving money on your groceries and supplies, even if that is done more slowly.

Check out Shelf Stable/Pantry Meal Kit for recipe ideas along with printable recipe cards.

Check out Stocking Up / Preparing Lists and my Store for more worksheets that can help with building self-sufficiency, budgeting/wealth management, and cooking/meal planning.

For more ideas about becoming more self-sufficient, check out my Lessons of 2020 page, and let us know if you have any other recommendations or information to share.

For stock-up meal ideas and tips, visit She’s in Her Apron.

For more great information on becoming more self-sufficient, visit Appalachia’s Homestead with Patara.

Here are a few links that could be helpful if you are looking to store items for long term:

USDA – How long can you keep canned goods?

FoodKeeper App - Food and Beverage storage information for the best freshness and quality

US Emergency Supply – Storage Life Of Dry Foods

Freezer Cooking

Cooking from home can not only be better for your health, but it can also be the best way to save money on food. However, cooking has never been something I enjoy, especially when it came to working full-time, going to school, raising children, and/or homeschooling children. It was always added stress of deciding what to make, if I had everything on hand, and if I had time to get it made before dinner time. When I found freezer cooking, I quickly fell in love. I can spend a little time on a weekend preparing meals for the upcoming week or month freeing up more time to spend with my family. I have also found that the weekends can be a great time to get the family involved with this process as everyone is more rested. I will focus on a fun and easy lunch or dinner, and we can work together to help prepare the meals needed for the following week or month.

Below are a few sites I’ve found that have helped me do better at preparing home-cooked meals for my family.

  • The Family Freezer is one of my favorite places to get freezer cooking recipes as my family has enjoyed almost all of these recipes. Kelly from The Family Freezer has lots of videos and classes uploaded to YouTube that you can follow and get great tips on.

    The Family Freezer also offers a paid, one-time fee access to her website with all of her recipes and books. On her Freezer Meal Pro website, you can create your own customized meal plans and shopping lists. I love her YouTube videos and her website.

  • Six Sister’s Stuff is all about finding ways to get dinner on the table fast. Instant pot recipes are something they heavily focus on, and who doesn’t love their instant pot? They also have lots of slow cooker and freezer meal recipes with tips and tricks to make your recipes the best they can be.

    Six Sister’s Stuff also has a YouTube channel that offers lots of videos you can watch and follow along with great information and tips.

  • Once a Month Meals was one of the first websites I found with the freezer cooking concept. They offer a wide variety of recipes that you can get for free on their website, but they do offer a lot more recipes, customization, and printable shopping list and instructions with their paid membership.

  • Cook Once, Eat all Week is another great resource for recipes and ideas devoted to preparing meals ahead of time. With this plan, you focus on making a protein, a veggie, and a starch (or another veggie) in bulk, and then turn them into three totally different dinners to assemble throughout the week. This can cut down on time in the kitchen along with saving money because you're cooking fewer things.

  • MOMables was another recipe and meal planning site I’ve used in the past. I love Laura’s recipes, and how she focuses on clean, healthy meals, easy to follow meal plans, and tips for age-appropriate cooking tasks to help get children involved in the process.

    Laura also offers a paid subscription to weekly meal plans with shopping lists and prepping instructions so you can free up more of your time during the week.

Another site I love to use is Prepear.com. You can not only search and save new recipe ideas, but you can add your own favorite recipes, create your own online cookbooks, and print your customized meal plans and shopping lists. This is where I love to save all my favorite recipes for easy access, and if needed, I can easily pull them up on any device or print them off in an easy-to-read format.

Methods of Freezer Cooking

Once-a-Month Cooking - This is when you plan and prepare meals for a month in advance. This can definitely save you money, but this method is not suggested if you are new to freezer cooking as it takes lots of planning and devotion for an entire day or weekend of preparing meals. This can easily burn someone out on freezer cooking altogether. It will also require more free space in the freezer to accommodate all these meals. However, if this is something you can do, it can save you a lot of time and money in the long run. This method is not something I’ve been able to get to yet.

Cooking once a week or twice a month - This has been a little more my speed. I usually try to prepare 2-3 meals ahead of time per week or prepare 4-6 meals for a two-week period. This allows me to have ready-to-go meals on hand as well as allow for a couple of days of leftovers and account for evenings when we are eating elsewhere. Sometimes, I will also double some of these freezer meals, so it can make more than the 2-3 or 4-6 meals, but that depends if it is a tried-and-true recipe I know my family likes and if I have room in the freezer for the extra meals.

“Freeze 1 - Eat 1” or “Freeze 2 - Eat 1” - This is a slow, less stressful way to build a freezer meal inventory. Sometimes, it can be more cost effective to make more servings of a meal that you are already preparing and then freeze the extras. With this method, you will double or triple the serving amount you need and freeze what you are not eating now. For example, if you are making chili for four people, you will buy ingredients to make enough chili for 8 or 12 people, and then you can freeze the extra servings to enjoy later in the month or the following month.

With all of these methods, they can save you trips to the grocery store, have fewer days preparing meals, potentially have fewer dishes to clean, and have less temptation to rely on fast foods. This could save on your gas and grocery budget, eating out budget, water bill, and potentially give you more of your time back. This is why I fell in love with freezer cooking.

Freezer cooking is easier than you might think to accomplish, but remember the biggest and most important step for a successful freezer cooking session is to plan.

It’s best to start by making a list of your favorite meals. You will probably be more pleased if you start with meals you know you like, instead of trying all new recipes and potentially being disappointed for the entire month, or however long you chose to cook for. Try familiar recipes for you and your family that would be freezer-friendly, and then you can add a few new recipes to the mix. This way, if you do get disappointed, you’ll have a familiar dinner you can look forward to the following night.

Decide on your menu and plan your meals on a calendar to help ensure you do not have duplicate or similar meals back-to-back.

After you plan what you will make, gather recipes for those meals, and READ through each recipe deciding a stopping point on each recipe for your bulk cooking day. This is important as some items do not freeze well. You can prepare your meals up to or skip over some of those ingredients and add them later when you’re ready to cook your meal. Be sure to highlight or make a note of these ingredients for when you actually make the meal. Several of the links above will already have these notes listed on their recipes for you.

Create a grocery list with any needed supplies you might need for your cooking day to include freezer containers, a sharpie for writing instructions on containers, and cleaning supplies needed to clean up from your freezer cooking day.

Freezer Cooking Day Tips

Day Before

  • Prep your freezer by getting rid of old or out-of-date items.

    This can help ensure you will have the room needed for the meals you are going to make.

  • Turn down your freezer temperature by 10 degrees.

    If you will be putting lots of new meals in your freezer, this could help ensure your freezer stays at a safe temperature when you start filling it with your prepared meals. Once your freezer meals are fully frozen, you can then return your freezer temperature back to the normal range.

Morning of or Right Before Cooking

  • Prep your kitchen by getting out any supplies you will use.

  • Fill your sink with warm soapy water ready for dirty dishes.

  • Be sure your trash is emptied and easily accessible.

Other Tips

  • Be sure to label freezer bags before you start filling them with your ingredients

    It can sometimes be hard to write or get labels to stick to your bags once they have cold ingredients inside as condensation will start to build up on the bags.

  • Chop vegetables first.

  • Prepare all your bags or dishes with all other ingredients first before adding any of the meats.

    This can help keep cross-contamination down and prevent your meats from being out for longer periods of time. After you have all other ingredients divided into your meal-prepping containers, then you can take out your meats, cut them, and divide them into the containers.

I am always interested in learning more, so please let me know if you have any other suggestions for freezer cooking and/or meal preparing, or even if you have a favorite go-to easy recipe that you would like to share.

Intermittent Fasting

This is a concept several people have talked about (some friends, family members, and financial personalities I’ve followed) that say they have used or are using this for health reasons and/or to try to curb their food budgets to save money.

I am not a nutritionist, nor have I heard this suggested by a nutritionist, so make sure you do what is needed for your health, however, if this is something you can do, you might be able to save a little on your food budget.

I suggest doing your research and speaking with your physician about what could be right for you if you are interested in this approach.

Other great content for food-saving tips.

 

  • Frugal Fit Mom has video on all things, food, finance, and fitness related. She offers great recipes and food-saving tips to help your budget.

  • Rachel Cruz (Dave Ramsey’s daughter) offers a lot of content on all things finance related including great tips on how to keep your grocery budget low and how to stick to it.

 

There are a lot of things out of our control, so the best thing you can do for your budget is to learn what you can do with things you can control. Learn how to keep your gas budget as low as possible as every little bit you do now could help your future self and family. Small steps could add up to a big difference.

Driving Routines

  • Plan your trips and combine errands.

    • If possible, try to combine your errands with other trips. Are there grocery stores, banks, or gas stations along your route to work? If you can knock out some of these errands before or after work, you could avoid making separate trips that would use more fuel.

  • Plan your fill-ups.

    • Studies show that gas prices tend to be lowest on Mondays and Tuesdays, and they will steadily climb as the weekend approaches. Try to fuel up earlier in the week and avoid filling up on weekends.

    • Avoid filling up in the heat of the day. Fuel expands with an increase in temperatures, so to get the best bang for your buck, fill your tank up when the temperatures are cooler. In the summertime when temperatures get high, try to go earlier in the morning, or later in the evening when it might be a little cooler.

  • Double-check your route.

    • Check to make sure you are taking the shortest route.

    • Check Google Maps to get real-time traffic to avoid any slowdowns as that could eat up more of your fuel.

Driving habits

  • Drive with patience.

    • Hard braking and excessive acceleration can not only be harder on the wear and tear of your vehicle, but it also uses more fuel. Try slower braking or even coasting to a stop whenever possible and try slower acceleration. This is better for your vehicle, and it can help you get the most miles per gallon with your fuel.

  • Use cruise control.

    • Maintaining a steady pace can help ensure you get the best fuel economy with your vehicle.

  • Avoid idling.

    • They say idling for longer than 30 seconds can waste more fuel than restarting the engine. It is also harder on your engine which can lead to higher maintenance costs over time.

  • Use eco mode (economy mode) while driving in town, if your vehicle has this feature.

    • This will electronically change how your vehicle operates to provide better fuel efficiency. This can differ from vehicle to vehicle but can include reducing throttle response, shifting earlier, reducing air conditioning, and/or stopping the engine automatically when the vehicle is stopped and then starting the engine when the brake pedal is released.

Vehicle Maintenance

Do not skip routine maintenance. Your vehicle’s maintenance schedule is there for a reason, so follow what your vehicle needs to keep it running as smoothly as possible.

  • Check tire pressure.

    • Check tire pressure when the tires are cold. Tires can be warm after the vehicle has been driven, and that can mean the air inside the tires could be warm as well. Since warm air expands, this will increase the pressure in the tires. To get the most accurate reading, try to check them when they are cooler.

    • Check your tire pressure at least once per month and always before a long trip. Also, be sure to check the spare tire as well.

    • Make sure you have the correct tire size for your vehicle. Incorrect tire size can affect rolling resistance and the performance of the vehicle.

  • Remove any extra weight in the vehicle and make sure your vehicle is aerodynamic.

    • Do you have a lot of unnecessary items in your trunk? Do you have a roof rack or anything else attached to your vehicle? This can all add extra weight and/or affect the wind resistance on your vehicle potentially causing it to work harder.

  • Make sure your air filter is clean.

    • A clogged air filter will not allow enough air to enter the engine which can cause your engine to work harder becoming less efficient. This can lead to poorer gas mileage and faster wear on your engine.

  • Change oil on schedule and make sure to use the correct oil for your car.

  • Stop buying premium gas if your car doesn’t require it, however, be sure to check your owner’s manual on this.

Rewards/Memberships/Cash Backs

  • Join gas reward programs.

    • Some gas stations offer reward programs or loyalty programs that could help you save a little when fueling up.

  • Join a warehouse membership.

    • Some warehouse stores like Sam’s Club and Costco will offer lower gas prices for members, however, be sure to do the math weighing the pros and cons of the added membership cost. How far is one of these stores to you? Would you shop for food and supplies there as well? Would you take advantage of any other services they offer (i.e. pharmacy, optical, or the tire center, along with other third-party savings)? Could this save you money, or would it potentially cost you more in unnecessary shopping?

  • Use apps like Upside, GasBuddy, or Gas Guru.

    • These are apps that let you search for gas prices by city, state, and zip code, and some offer cashback rewards for fueling at certain gas stations.

  • Use a mileage and expense tracker app.

    • These can help you track the miles per gallon, track your oil changes, and track any maintenance your vehicle required helping you to calculate the true cost of your vehicle.

  • Some credit cards offer cash back for gas purchases; however, this option will not save you money if you cannot handle credit cards responsibly. Letting any balance carry over till the next month will allow the credit card company to become a loan shark to you costing you more money in interest. This will negate any savings you are trying to accomplish.

Other Tips

  • Do not let your fuel tank go below half a tank, or at least not below a quarter tank, especially right now.

    • With all the supply chain issues we’ve been experiencing; you do not want to end up out of gas only to find the gas stations nearby do not have any fuel or are unable to sell any of it due to unforeseen circumstances.

  • Be sure to keep a little extra cash, hidden well, in your vehicle for emergencies.

    • Companies are a constant target for hackers, and this seems to be happening more and more. Being able to pay cash at a gas station can be a huge asset if you are in need and the gas station’s credit card system is down for one reason or another.

Gas Savings Tips