I'm new to this too and would love to know more. I average about $600 a month for a family of 3. I need to find ways to reduce that by half and stop waisting food as well. I have a finiky child as well so that doesnt help. All ideas are welcome

Hey everyone....... wanted to introduce myself and say 'hello'. I'm Barbara from the Jersey Shore. I'm a nurse that's been a very frugal person/single mom for many years. I'm married now and my sons are away in college, so my menus have scaled down to just 2.

I've been reading all your posts and they are awesome! I really need to learn how to plan meals from my pantry/freezer. I do rotate what's in there, but would really love to learn to be more creative and use up what's there. Maybe taking inventory would help? Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 Barbara at the sunny, hot shore!  :)

If anyone here is interested, I started a new food budget challenge to help us to watch what we spend with the goal of lowering those expenses. Join us in July's Track and Slash.  

 Morning Barbara and welcome. : )  I just start by posting what I am using today from my stores and what I am prepping for the future.  I am an inventory freak so that helps me tremendously, for instance we went shopping at a crash 'n dent store last weekend and they had Smithfield boneless 15 pound hams for $8, I knew we had ham slices from my inventory list so we bought 2 hams for the freezer.  I will cut them into meal sized portions, some I will dehydrate, some I will dice for casseroles and quiches, some we will slice for the grill, some we will shave for premade freezer sandwiches, some I will make into small steaks for breakfast, I will leave a couple of small pieces for baking a nice dinner for the two of us, and the rest I will make ham 'n bean soup and split pea soup to can for winter.  For $16 we will have enough ham for over a year for us and company should the ocassion arise.

So for today I packed hubby's brunch from the freezer(5 french toast sticks, 1 banana nut muffin, 5 mini coconut cream donuts, 1 pulled pork bbq on ww bun, cajun pickle slices, blueberry yogurt,  snack package of crackers, 1 cut fresh pear, 1 large banana, 2 pickled eggs, celery sticks)today is a 14 hour shift.   So this will cover breakfast, lunch and a late afternoon snack.  I had the last 2 pieces of ww bakery bread toasted and some cajun roast beef from the deli for breakfast with water.

Lunch for me is up in the air but will be something from the freezer, I found 2 packages of breaded chicken nuggets that need to be eaten and I have one more box of au gratin potatoes on the shelf.  I will make up the potatoes with the last of the carton of soy milk(have 3 more in the freezer so will bring one out to thaw)and a nub of butter in the dish(will bring another pound of butter from the freezer), and steam the last of the fresh cauliflower and brocolli heads.  I will make a casserole of the vegetables and au gratin potatoes and layer the nuggets over the top.  I will eat it for my lunch and freeze the rest in meal sized portions for my lunch freezer shelf.  : )  I have 3 bakery hot dog buns and no hot dogs left, so I will spread them with garlic butter and freeze for another day.  And I have 2 bananas that hubby will not eat as they are spotted, so I will mash and freeze those for cake or muffins.

Dinner will be chicken and dumplin's by request.  I will boil the last 6 chicken drums in the freezer, use 3 cubes of chicken bouillion, one onion, a few celery sticks from the fresh veggie tray, a carrot or two and some salt.  I can pull the cooked meat from the 3 drums for dinner.  The other 3 I will bbq for the lunch freezer shelf for another day.  I will use the last of the homemade bisquick mix for dumplin's, and add a bit of fresh parsley and dill from the garden to the gravy mix.  I will replenish my home made mixes as I empty the gallon containers.

I have 9 small apples in the fridge, so I can either make a nice pie or cobbler with them for dessert, again using the rest of the streusel mix I have home made and a dab or two of frozen whipped cream in the bottom of the freezer bag or one of the 2 pie crusts I froze the last time I made pies.

Our garden is producing really well this last week, so today hubby picked 4 large tomatoes and 19 cucumbers.  I will can the cukes this morning and as we will have more tomatoes tomorrow I will set those aside and can those tomorrow morning.  I also have 4 pounds of carrots that hubby was given at work yesterday from a coworkers garden I have a terrific recipe for canned oj and brown sugar glazed carrots, so I will can those this morning also.  This will use the carrots, the last of the brown sugar and the last can of frozen concentrated oj.

So today I have used quite a bit from my stores, some I will have to replace next shopping trip, some can wait for good deals on the items or ingredients. I will update my inventory lists as I go and rotate my stock where it needs to be done.  I am trying to use all the boxed, bagged and canned items on our shelves and replacing with homemade, canned or deydrated.  So far so good!  : ) 

I made vegetable soup last night from a can of spaghetti sauce and a bag of veggies. I added a salad and some crackers to that. The soup was bought month before last at the scratch and dent for .79 and the veggies were from Angel Food. The lettuce sadly was $1.39 for the head but the celery was bought for .99 on sale last week. The crackers were part of my staple run last month.

Tonight's menu calls for chicken, pasta salad and a veggie. I am going with grilled chicken, herb pasta, carrots and a plain salad of lettuce and croutons. I bought boneless chicken on sale last month, the herb pasta was on sale for $1 a box at the beginning of the month and the carrots are Angel Food.

I love this idea. I have been working with a pantry principal for many year now. I stock pile groceries when things go on sale. We own our business and we have slow times in the year that I have to get through. I see to it before winter our freezers are full and so is the pantry. For us we would be in a bad situation if I didn't do this.Yesterday  I put some stew meat in the crock pot to cook all day. At supper time I put cream of mushroom soup and some of the beef stock in a pan with egg noodles and seasonings. I call it beef strogenoff. We love it.

Yesterday I purchased milk, yogurt & a 69-cent 2-liter soda to use with items-on-hand for 1 1/2 - 2 weeks.  Our menu is:

• Turkey wraps w/whole wheat tortillas, sliced tomatoes & carrots
• Tuna wraps w/whole wheat tortillas & sliced tomatoes
• Beans/Corn/Rice homemade w/brown rice, tomato & canned black beans, corn & tomato paste
• Cream of Mushroom Goullash w/canned mush, frozen hamburger, wheat pasta & homemade cream soup mix
• Vegetable Fried Rice w/frozen vegies, brown rice & eggs
• Frozen homemade Chili w/leftover Beans/Corn/Rice
• Frozen homemade Split Pea Soup w/bread maker wheat bread
• Hamburgers w/tomatoes & frozen buns & fries
• Homemade pancake mix w/eggs
• Banana Bread (bananas getty brown)
• Elephant Ears w/bread maker wheat dough (garage sale maker)
• Chocolate Cookies
• Homemade applesauce (apples getting mushy)

I will still have these leftover in addition to some normal staples (wheat flour, wheat bread flour, sugar, bsugar, oats, cornmeal, cocoa...):

• Cream Cheese
• Evaporated Milk
• Frozen Spinach
• Frozen Blueberries
• Frozen Mixed Vegies
• Canned Water Chestnuts

Any suggestions?  or Does anyone know a good items-on-hand recipe search link?  Thanks! 

 These are excellent..

Blueberry Cream Muffins ... Need I say more!?!
4 eggs
2 C. sugar
1 C. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla extract
4 C. flour
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
2 C. (16 oz. ) sour cream
2 C. fresh blueberries
In a large bowl, beat eggs. Gradually add sugar. While beating, slowly pour in oil; add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; add alternately with the sour cream and egg mixture. Gently fold in blueberries. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400* for 20 minutes. Yield: 24 muffins.

Crispy Water Chestnuts


8 oz. peeled water chestnuts (fresh if possible, otherwise use canned)
1/2 cup tapioca starch/tapioca flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
pinch of salt
1/2 coconut cream
1 cup ice cubes

Cut each peeled water chestnut into a square by trimming the edges.

Heat a large saucepan of water to boiling. Roll the water chestnuts in the tapioca starch and drop them into the boiling water. Boil until they float to the top, or for 4-5 min. Canned water chestnuts will not require boiling. Remove them with a strainer and drop immediately into a large pan of water. Hold at this stage until ready to serve.

Dissolve the sugar in the cup of water and heat to boiling. Allow to cool.

Mix the salt with coconut cream and set aside. When ready to serve, drain the water chestnuts and place in a glass bowl with the sugar water, and add the ice cubes. Each guest is served a portion of the chilled water chestnuts in a smaller glass bowl and this is then topped with coconut cream mixture.

Homemade Coconut Cream
Ingredients
1 medium-size coconut
Liquid from coconut plus enough milk or light cream to total 1 quart


Instructions
Open coconut, reserving liquid; grate meat moderately find and place in a large, heavy saucepan with liquid mixture. Heat slowly, stirring constantly, just until mixture boils. Remove from heat, cover, and cool to room temperature. Press through a double thickness of cheesecloth or a fine sieve, forcing out as much liquid as possible. Discard coconut pulp. Use milk in making curries, confections, desserts, and beverages. Store in refrigerator.

Yield: 1 quart

To make with Canned or Flaked Coconut:
Prepare as directed, substituting 3 (4-ounce) cans flaked or shredded coconut for the fresh and using 1 quart milk or light cream. (Note: If your Scottish nature rebels at discarding the coconut, spread out in a large shallow baking pan, drizzle lightly with melted butter, and toast, stirring often, 3/4 to 1 hour until crisp and golden. Flavor will be bland, but coconut can be used to garnish candies and fruit desserts or as a condiment for curry.)

I fell off the wagon on Monday- dh said he would make spaghetti for dinner, he said he needed tomato paste, I had worked and dropped the kids at the library- at 3:30 I picked them up- it was hot, I had seven kids in the car, I hadn't eaten that day except for coffee and a cookie- so left the kids in the car with the air on, ran through my favorite organic store across the street from the library, in three minutes had gathered 3 tomato paste from my old philosophy, if you need it now, you'll need it again, organic mushrooms, a can of olives for sauce, basil french bread, yogurt for kids, coconut and raspberry frozen bars, coffee ice cream for dh, two more ice creams, butter toffee peanuts, two yogurt, and two vegan cookies- for not even a full grocery bag it was about $45!  It was delicious, though- we all ate lots of favorite things, and had a very good dinner, and healthy treats- oldest dd just had a raspberry bar, and said it was delicious- the double chocolate vegan cookies were split into fourths, everyone loved them-

So now back on the wagon, with good treats in the freezer!  Today dd made buttermilk biscuits for breakfast, we had spaghetti leftovers for lunch, I made pasta with four cheese sauce and three bean salad for dinner- we used up leftovers,  1 lb of pasta, 1 1/2 gallons of milk, two containers of juice, for snacks used up a box of granola bars and the yogurt from the spurge!  

Ready to look at the July challenge, and also looking forward to comparing my June food cost with the regular budget-

Tracy 

 I think I can close out my June food budget-

My average bill is around $400-$500 for food and things like diapers, cleaning supplies, etc.  Last year was about $500, this year it's been closer to $400.  We also get WIC checks, value around $100 for three of us, and one gets a MAC box worth about $40.  

May I spent about $390.

June I spent $295, so saved almost $100 from using food from the cupboards.  I had been at $250, but spent that $ yesterday.  My goal for July is $350, I'm thinking of getting it out in CASH and using an old-fashioned envelope on the bulletin board- I could do this, partly from saving the almost $100 last month, at the beginning of the month- I think then we would be more aware of where we were- any recommendations?  Also think then we could do snacks out of this easier, with cash on hand- I never have cash.

I am very comfortable with this budget- looking forward to good produce, Farmer's Market, a trip out for ice cream-

Tracy