We are a family of 4 and have twins on the way.  At the grocery store we seem to spend whatever and there is no set list or amount.  How do I develope a plan to put into action?

Thanks,

Jenn

 Congrats on the twins!

First of all, lists are crucial in sticking to your guns on buying instead of just piling the cart. Plan your meals around what is on sale. Leave the kids home with your DH so you don't have help loading the cart.Follow the unwritten rules of don't shop while hungry or tired, which I know is a challenge! Sit down and figure how much you do have per week or per month, you learn to get creative then with meal plans. If you have a set amount, you know you can't go over it since you will know what you need and how much it will cost (go over old receipts for prices for normal items that you do buy) since you have the list. Look for coupons online (check to see if the store accepts them first) for major brands. Boodle.com and Smartsource.com are two good sources for those.

I honestly cannot write for a soon family of 6 but key points can never be spoken too often. Hope these help!

 Well for us it started by writing a menu or menu plan.  I listed every meal we liked to eat, oatmeal, cold cereal, spaghetti, tacos, salad, etc.  I took the next step and broke that list down to dairy, meats, vegetables, frozen foods, canned foods, boxed foods.   Then I combined them on a calendar. 

Monday ~ Breakfast ~ Oatmeal, canned peaches, milk, coffee
                Lunch ~ Mac 'n cheese, frozen brocolli, water, koolaid
                Dinner ~ Spaghetti, garlic bread, celery sticks, water, tea

And so on.  Now I started scanning the local store flyers.  Pat gave a great site for your local flyers:

http://www.mygrocerydeals.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.dspMemberLogin&sector=dspSpecials

I looked at all the sales and compared it to my menu plan or calendar meals.  If burger was on sale we had tacos, hamburger helper, spaghetti, goulash, rice dishes, etc.  If brocolli was on sale we would use that both cooked and fresh.  In your case with twins on the way and two at home already I would check to see what frozen meals you can buy that your family likes.  Maybe a few TV dinner type meals, frozen pasta meal, fish sticks, pot pies, ethnic foods, Stouffers meals.  Take Stouffers family pack of lasagna.  After serving your family you can cut it into servings size pieces and freeze it for lunches or even another meal, stretching your budget dollar and giving you some down time.  Think about breakfast for dinner, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs and sausage links.  Or pancakes, waffles and precooked bacon. 

Always add a fruit, fresh, canned or frozen to your table.  Adding things like a plate of pickles, bread and butter, jams, olives, sliced tomatoes, cheese slices, etc. to your table provides a nice choice and more food for little work, saving on the budget.  Condiments are a great way to get everyone to eat how they are supposed to and makes it look like you are serving a meal fit for a royal family with little effort.  : )

Think about casseroles, if you can make one you can make 3.  Serve one for dinner and freeze 2 for later.  Take some canned baked beans and add cut polish sausage or hot dogs, top with canned biscuits and bake till browned.  Add some breads, cornbread, crackers, bread sticks, etc. and you have nice fill~ins for little cost on the budget and in time.  Frozen pizza and calzones are cheaper at the grocery than having them delivered. For something different, cut the pizza into squares and add a new item, olives or maybe a pineapple chunk.   Make your deli your friend, for roasted whole chickens, serve with instant potatoes and jarred gravy.  Or buy sliced ham on sale and make hot ham sandwiches with instant potatoes and dry mix pork gravy.

Make one dessert a week, cookies, cakes, puddings.  Use your crockpot, electric frying pan and microwave all you can.

Now that you have a plan, or one I suggested, set a budget of how much you will spend for two weeks.  Grab your list, your coupons, your calculator and your wallet, leave the kids and hubby home.  Shop from your list not going over your alloted two week amount.  When you get home and unpack and relax, sit down and look over your receipt.  Mark the "extras" that were not on your list.  Were they truly needs or just wants.  Make sure next time you shop you elminate the wants, or at least trim them down.  Now look at your totals, one with the extras and add up the one without.  The one without is the target you are going to work towards. 

The following week again check the ads, see how much you have left over from last weeks shopping.  Only take that amount with you, plus $20 for stock up items(staples, TP, cereal deals, deli meat or cheeses, etc.), only buy needs.   After 3 or 4 shopping trips you should have a pretty good idea of what you will spend for your food budget, always trying dfferent strategies to reduce it as you move forward.

Remember always be flexible, and start small.  It takes a few shopping trips to get used to a budget and to learn the difference between wants and needs.  You need orange juice, so do you buy oranges also or do you just want them?  Could you leave one behind and get the same benefit out of the one you did choose?   Or, do you need individual yogurts at say 50 cents apiece or can you make do with a quart of vanilla yogurt and add your own fruit?  Can you make more cookies from a mix where you add eggs and oil than say buying a bag of animal crackers?

With twins on the way you are going to need alot of down time so make it easy on yourself, dont prepare complicated meals.  If you dont feel like making a fresh salad, serve frozen vegetables.  Soup and sandwiches make a great meal as does chili and crackers or cornbread from a mix.  Have some grilled pb & jelly sandwiches for breakfast, or hot rice and brown sugar w/butter.  Dont be afraid to make it simple and your grocery budget will soon reflect that.  : )

Anytime you have a question please just ask, we are all here learning as we go along and love to share!
 

 I can't really add to the good advice you were given but I do recommend these articles from The Dollar Stretcher

Your Grocery Budget 

Grocery Budgets 

Grocery Store Dollar Snatchers 

From my perspective of lowest-cost meals, I am uncomfortable with having you buy so many prepared or semi-prepared foods, as they are much more expensive than the basic goods.  For example, instead of buying Stouffer's lasagna, you could for the same amount of money prepare 2 or even 3 batches of home-made lasagna.  There are some exceptionally thrifty meal suggestions under the Food Stamps Living sub-forum in this Frugal Food forum.  If you were to make beans/legumes & peanut butter, & grains of all sorts, as your basic ingredients, & use dairy or meat just as condiments in your recipes, you would save much more. I do definitely understand that you will be too busy with the impending birth of your twins to use thiss from-scratch method, but  maybe you could use some foods like t hese yourself once you have time & energy to cook again.  Also, I recognize that your family may be used to meat-&-potatoes meals, so that you will have to slowly make the transition.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them!

Most things have been covered but to add...learn the sales cycles of the stores. Which items go on sale on a reg basis.  For example royale/scott/purex toilet paper is always on sale at Safeway for $6-7 for 12 dble rolls or 24 reg rolls so I know can usually get them on sale and just stock up on a few packages so I am not caught short. My safeway tends to have a reg flyer and a wed sales page in our local paper which is delivered free. I check because they often have milk coupons etc just for the thurs -sat period. $1.50 off per gallon etc. limit 2 quite often.   Also Safeway has reg extreme sales on basic items like cheese, cereal etc. The food you need. Now I live in Canada so I don't know if there is a difference.   Shop the seasonal sales: for example back to school...peanut butter etc tends to be on special so you can stock up. Choc chips for baking at xmas etc. Ham at easter etc.   I find reading the weekly flyers is the best money saving habit for me because maybe I won't go to a certain store often but I will make a special trip for a great deal if it is close by.

Jenn, congrats!

The only thing I would add is to always have something available for a snack or light meal that the kids can get/reach/do themselves.  You don't mention their ages, so what's reachable might be limited, but leftovers were always set out at our house.  I would rearrange them attractively on a plate, preferably paper, and by evening they'd be gone.  Be it leftover garlic bread, stuffed celery, or the last of a box of cereal put into an unbreakable cup, anything that they can do on their own that's portable can be a help to you. Set aside a part of the counter to put foods that are up for grabs.

Can they use the microwave yet?  Quesadillas is an easy, frugal and hot lunch even smaller kids can do on their own. Quickie hot chocolate is a good snack if they're old enough to do it safely.  P.b. mixed with o.j. makes a cheap and healthy dip for fruit or can be spread on graham crackers for a no-cook, thrifty breakfast. It'll save you cooking a complete meal if you know they've had healthy snacks throughout the day, plus leftovers aren't wasted.  Take care!  Liz

Thank You to everyone who has replied to my post.  I am starting to compile all my information together and will let you know how my food budget turns out and if it works.

Thanks,

Jenn

 When we first moved to this small town I was amazed at how expensive groceries seemed.  I had to totally come up with a new budget plan based on this area.  We also gave away our food storage when we moved and planned on just starting over with most things.  It took a while to know the sales cycle and find other thrifties to network with, share recipes, etc.  I would make a goal of say $50 a week for groceries. Tithe or dedicate 10% to stocking your pantry and definately watch the ads.   If you overspend at first working out the "bugs" in having a budget at least you'll be doing better than before.  You can adjust your budget and see how much extra you can "save" in your pantry fund.  As for quick meals and new babies; I make bread but use crackers when I run out.  I store things in cans as they tend to be cheaper than frozen; chili, canned milk, cheap soups, veggies.  I buy myself some healthy weird soups so they will be on the shelf for times that all I could manage was opening a can and heating something.  Soup plus crackers and cheese, some fruit and I'm ok.  Graham crackers make nice pb sandwiches in a pinch. I buy them for $1 a box.   Make a pot of rice and just dump on canned chili or a thick stew for a quick cheap dinner.  Applesauce is one of my mainstays and raisins and peanut butter.   Shop prices by the oz.  I love Winco foods.  You can get the report "How I Feed my family of ten on $100 a week at www.all-about-meat.com and just cut the volume in half.  It's got two weeks worth of menus that are kid friendly.  Instant potatoes can be a lifesaver.  Try a discount bread store.  Good luck on your plan and with your new additions! 

Joan of Ark