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Old 08-10-2002, 06:17 PM   #15 (permalink)
hadalamb
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miltay, what part of the country do you live in? Maybe you could save your receipts and make a list of what you buy for the month and we could give you some tips? That may be a bad thing to do though... don't know if I could open myself up like that, lol!

I had a friend who spent that much for a family of 4 (although no WIC). She was curious why we spent so much less and we asked her if she bought a lot of prepared foods and name brand stuff. She said nope, not at all.

Weeellll... then I was there when she opened her cupboard one day. All Campbell's soups and namebrand stuff, lots of it prepared. Heard her talk about always having a Stouffer's Lasagna in the freezer "for those nights" when she didn't want to cook. Dh worked for her dh for a while, and he always had Yoplait yogurt and other prepared/name brand things to eat.

My point isn't that she was making bad choices, b/c they were her choices to make of course. But her perception of what she was buying was entirely different then what the reality of her grocery shopping.

So my suggestion would be to record for one month absolutely everything you buy, and each item amount. Then take a look at that, noting which things you could do without (mine would be the inordinate amt of $ I spend on ice cream, lol!) and which you could make from scratch easily (for example making pancakes from scratch only takes a few extra minutes).

Another thought is to look at what types of items you are buying. It's cheaper to make homemade stroganoff then Hamburger Helper for instance. My friend makes Minute Rice which is *insanely* more expensive then regular. It saves her only 10 minutes of prep time (which just sits there, not like you have to stir rice or anything). She knows and it's worth it to her.. not judging her choice, just some things to calculate.


Make small changes... switch from soda to Kool Aid if that's a temptation. Then go to water only etc. Make a thick white sauce rather then buying those nearly $1 cans of cream of ... soups. Buy oatmeal in bulk for breakfast rather then having eggs or cereal. Lots of the "little things" can really add up.

I used to be really great at frugal grocery shopping. Now I'm just on survival mode... as in: what can I buy that will help me survive my chaotic family lifestyle!! So not trying to dole out advice like you "should" follow it, just giving some ideas of things that have helped me (and will again when I choose to implement them).
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