• Living on a Budget: Groceries $40 for 4

    Another great week doing Groceries $40 for 4. It was another busy week but I managed to break away this past Saturday morning to go to the Sav Mor Box Sale with the family. If you haven’t been before and you live in the Greenville area it is worth the time to stock up on food items. It felt great saving some of the grocery shopping cash this week while stocking up on some items for our pantry. Below are my grocery shopping adventures for the week!

    Sav-Mor Sidewalk Box Sale - A Table Full for $16!

    We bought 107 items and paid $16.00 total which means we spent less than $0.15 per item!!!  You can often get some excellent deals at Sav Mor’s Box Sale.  I was hoping to stock up on snack items for our family since I will be traveling a little and I wanted to make sure there were plenty of easy snacks to take as well as  meals that could be made quickly for our family.  Our dining table was full once we unpacked the boxes!  We even got some Organic / Whole Wheat food items for the family.  We purchased two boxes at $7.00 each and the case of chips was $2.00 giving us our total of $16.00.

    Sav-Mor Groceries from the Saturday Sidewalk Box Sale:

    • 8 Bags – 18 oz Laura Lynn Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips (they sold these for $2.00 per case, we got 1 case)
    • 4 – 4 packs Vermont Organic Strawberry Banana Applesauce
    • 1 – 25 count Milkshake Straws
    • 1 – 4 oz Kettle Baked Potato Chips – BBQ Flavor
    • 2 – 26.5 oz Hunts Pasta Sauce
    • 1 – 14.5 oz Sliced Potatoes
    • 1 – 64 oz Laura Lynn Fruit Punch Juice
    • 1 – 3.5 oz Quaker Vanilla Creme Brulee Rice Snacks (Whole Wheat)
    • 2 – Annies Organic Alfredo Shells & Cheddar
    • 1 – 4 pack Gerber Yogurt Blends
    • 2 – Roasted Chicken Gravy Packs
    • 1 – Roasted Turkey Gravy Pack
    • 6 – Simply Organic Alfredo Packs
    • 2 – Molly McButter Fat Free Natural Sprinkles
    • 2 – Laura Lynn Woven Wheats
    • 6 – Hamburger Helper Lasagna
    • 6 – Brach’s Candy Hearts
    • 1 – Pasta Roni Chicken
    • 2 – Mrs. Fields Rainbow Chocolate Chip Packages
    • 2 – Mrs. Fields Snickerdoodle Packages
    • 1 – 15.4 oz General Mills Total Cinnamon Crunch
    • 3 – 15.25 oz General Mills Total Blueberry Pomegranate
    • 1 – 16 pack Betty Crocker Fruit Shapes, Gushers, Rollups, By the Foot, Fruit Stickerz
    • 3 – Betty Crocker Fruit Rollups
    • 4 – Betty Crocker Fruit Stackerz
    • 1 – 10.5 oz Kraft Marshmallows (4 flavors)
    • 1 – 8 pack Chi-Chi’s Flour Tortilla’s
    • 8 – Land O’ Lakes Caramel Hot Chocolate Packs
    • 1 – 9 oz Annie’s Natural Organic Dijon Mustard
    • 2 – 10 packs Propel Raspberry Lemonade
    • 13 – 4 packs Starkist Chunk Light Tuna (the sticker on the packages read $4.98 each and they didn’t expire until 2012, so that is a huge savings – it would normally cost us $64.74 to buy them)
    • 4 – 6 packs Quakers Simple Harvest Dark Chocolate Chunk (the sticker on the packages read $3.28 each – it would normally cost us $13.12 to buy them)
    • 5 – 6 packs Quakers Simple Harvest Trail Mix (the sticker on the packages read $3.28 each – it would normally cost us $16.40 to buy them)
    • 1 – Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers
    • 1 – 8 pack Ocean Spray Oatmeal with Cranberries
    • 2 – Nutritious Living Hi-Lo with Strawberries
    • 3 – 14 oz Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch
    • 1 – 16 oz Captain Crunch

    Sav Mor has been doing their Box Sale for several years now.  They will occasionally offer additional discounts as well.  For example, last Saturday you could get a case of Tortilla Chips for $2.00 which meant you were getting the chips for 25 cents per bag.   There is more information I want to share with you about how the sale works so  I will be going into more details about the Sav-Mor Sidewalk Box Sale in a later post.

    Groceries at CVS

    Groceries from CVS:

    • $2.85 at CVS for Kellogg’s Fruit Loops ($1.16 for the box), Kellogg’s, Rice Krispies ($1.16 for the box), and CVS Honey Wheat Pretzel Twists (of clearance for $0.49 cents)

    Groceries from Bi-Lo (I didn’t have a chance to take a picture this week, but wanted to include our milk purchase):

    • $6.04 at Bi-Lo for 2 gallons of Milk ($2.99 each)

    I am excited to see us doing better on our Groceries $40 for 4 budget.  This week we spent $24.89 on groceries so it was a pretty good week regarding saving extra grocery cash.  We did better this week because I a little extra time and went to the Sidewalk Box Sale at Sav-Mor.  I was able to stock up on a few extra items this week for the pantry.  I am still trying to work out all the details of how to make the budget most effective for our family and I think we need some weeks have been easier than others.  It was nice to share some of the items we picked up this week with some friends too!  Love being able to get a great deal and share with others.  We’ll see how next week goes, it should be interesting because my husband is in charge next week of the $40 grocery budget since I will be traveling!

    It is my goal to give you regular updates on this budget section so you can celebrate the good weeks with me and thump me on the bad weeks!  As always you are welcomed to join the journey with me.  I would love to hear your story and how you are doing too.  The purpose of our family doing this it to watch our grocery spending while allowing us to feed our family, enjoy life, share with others, and yet stay on track with our budget.

    Living on a Budget is a series of ways our family uses a budget to help keep us accountable with our finances.  Life doesn’t always go as planned.  We have used some of the ideas I will be sharing for years while others are ones we are just starting to implement as we continue finding ways to be creative and have fun with what we have been given.  Having a plan in place allows us the freedom to be smart with what we have been given, get more creative when it is a tight (week, month, year or a season) and when necessary live a much more simplified life.  A budget helps us stay on track so we have more opportunities to enjoy the many blessings we have been given as well as share what we have with others.  There is so much more to life than having all the stuff.  We may not have the newest or greatest items in our house, we drive used cars, and wear hand-me-down clothing…..however, if our family is taken care of and have love for each other and others we have more than all the riches in the world.

  • Fresh & Healthy: Community Supported Farms

    The past few weeks I have been reading about ways to eat healthier and along the way I discovered CSA’s (which stands for Community Supported Farms).  Although I have heard a little about them a couple times this was the first time I seriously considered joining one.  As I was researching more about the local farmers and various programs I decided to contact a couple in our area and find out more information.  It was interesting because some farms I never heard a word back from and others I have had several emails back and forth.  After much thought and research we decided as a family to try a CSA program this year and see how it goes.  I am VERY excited to participate and learn even more.  The girls are thrilled they get to go spend some time on a local farm and eat fresh veggies.  I am still growing some veggies in our garden at home, but I am really looking forward to getting fresh local produce from an area farm.

    What is a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture and has been around for about 20 years.  CSA allows consumers to buy local, seasonal and fresh produce directly from the farmer.  The farmer gives “shares” to the public (ie box, bag, or basket of vegetables, fruit, eggs, and a variety of other farm products).  Consumers prepays for shares or a partial shares for that years crops.  The consumers then receive a box of seasonal produce weekly throughout the season (usually around 20 weeks for the summer and 10 weeks for the winter season in our area).

    Why is it beneficial?

    • Fresh locally grown produce for your family
    • An adventure in trying new produce and recipes
    • The seasonal produce you receive will be fresh and ripe
    • The opportunity to visit the farm where you produce is grown
    • Fresh and healthy produce for your family to enjoy
    • Organic farming (if this is important to you please confirm with the farm you chose before committing, each farm is different)
    • Educational for the kids to see the produce being grown
    • Direct connection with a local farmer
    • More variety of produce on the menu and at the family table
    • Farmers can market and sell their crops before production
    • Increases the cash flow for the farm during planting season
    • Some farms include eggs, bread, meat, cheese, flowers, local honey, and more.
    • Most farms allow you the opportunity to pick what size of share you want (Whole Share, Half Share, Quarter Share, etc…)
    • Many farms have multiple drop off locations and times as well.
    • And more great benefits!

    The benefits really are mutual between the farmer and the consumer.  I hope to share more of the benefits of being involved in a CSA as we have the opportunity to experience more.  Right now our farm has several items planted and we are just waiting for them to grow so we can enjoy the delicious food!  One of the reasons we made the decision to join a CSA is we looked over a budget and realized that some weeks we were spending more than half of our grocery money on fruits and vegetables since we are trying to eat healthier.  When we spread the cost of a CSA over a season we would actually be saving money as a family.  This is our first year so we haven’t discovered exactly how everything works but we hope to share our experience with you!

    Are there any risks? It wouldn’t be fair to share the benefits without warning you of the risks as well.

    • Shared Risk – you are investing in a crop prior to the farmer raising it so there is a possibility that they could have drought, flood, hailstorm, or insect issues during the season, however, most farms plant a variety of crops so you’ll most likely just get more of another produce, but there is no “guarantees”  At the same time they could have a bountiful production year!
    • The farm will probably not raise every produce your family eats (ie. if your family likes mushrooms but the farm doesn’t grow mushrooms you’ll still have to purchase those items in the store)
    • Most farms are family run so if there is something unexpected in the family it could affect you as well.
    • Some of the produce may be “unique” or unlike the items you buy in the grocery store.  If you like trying new items this is a benefit but if you only like 5 different kinds of veggies or are really picky it may not be the best fit for you
    • When you get different types of produce you’ll have the opportunity to try out new recipes, this could be a huge benefit for some people but if you are not comfortable cooking or trying new recipes make sure to consider that as well.

    If you are interested in joining or learning more about a CSA in your areas you can learn more about it at Local Harvest and click on the CSA tab.  Under the map on the right side of the page you can enter your zip code and find local farms in your area.  Another wonderful feature that was beneficial for us in deciding which farm to consider was the reviews on the local farms participating.  It is always good to know that other customers have been satisfied before spending your money.

    We are excited about the local farm we picked to join.  If you are in Upstate, South Carolina area and are wanting to do this as well let me know which farm you chose in a comment below or send me an email and we may be able to coordinate pick up from week to week to save each other a little extra on gas.  Have you ever been part of a CSA program?  What did you like / dislike about the program?

    Photo by Nick Saltmarsh

  • Seasonal Clearance: Garden Items

    One of the best times to stock up of items for the next year is to buy them on clearance.  My favorite deals happen when they are 90% or more clearance.   The good news is you don’t even have to use a coupon to get a great deal.

    Here are my recent garden treasures from Dollar General at 90% off:

    • 2 – Topsy Turvy’s
    • 2 – Cultivators
    • 2 – Transplant Shovels
    • 2 – 2 pound bags of Organic Fertilizer
    • 4 –  packages of Jobes Plant Fertilizer Spikes (200 Spikes)
    • 2 – Bonide Mosquito Repellent
    • 1 – Fongonil Plant Spray
    • 1 – Luster Leaf Water Level (measures the moisture of the dirt & lets you know when it needs water)

    The total amount before savings was $59.89 and I paid $5.99 out of pocket (including tax) giving me a savings of $53.90 (over 90% in savings).  The best part is all the money was saved without using coupons and I will be able to use them in my home and garden.  Check out the local stores in your area for clearance gardening items if you plan to do one next season.  Now is a good time to get some garden supplies!