I'm sure we've all noticed the total at the checkout line steadily increasing. A year ago I moved here and I thought the grocery store here had pretty high prices. A year later and I laugh that I thought it was expensive last year! Mayonnaise is $9.99 for a small jar, butter is over $7/lb, milk is $5.99/gallon. Even though I try to stick to staple ingredients, even those have increased significantly. Just this last grocery shop I was going to get some enchilada sauce and a small can was $2.45 and I would have needed 3 of them for my recipe. I put it back and decided it was time to learn how to make my own! I found a delicious recipe that was super easy and I don't think I'll go back to store-bought.
Little wins like learning a new recipe that uses basic ingredients I have on hand to save money from a "staple" I would have normally bought brings me so much excitement. I love enlarging my repertoire of kitchen skills and things I can make from fewer ingredients. When we have fewer ingredients to buy but can make more and more things with them, our costs go down and our quality of life goes up or at least stays the same. I also love learning alternative recipes or meals to cook that are nutritious for my family but leave more room in the budget.
Doubling down on things I already know to do is helpful as well. Sticking to only sale items helps keep costs lower. If corn on the cob is on sale this week, I buy enough for 2 or 3 nights of that being the vegetable with dinner. If peaches are on sale, they may be the only fruit bought and every afternoon we can have a snack of peaches that week. Knowing what you need and how much you actually eat in a week is helpful to prevent buying unnecessary things. If you have pizza night every Friday night and know that a package of pepperoni will last you 2 pizza nights, you only need to buy pepperoni every other week. I use a half a cucumber per salad that I make so I know that every cucumber I buy will make 2 side salads for dinner.
Getting in a good rotation of staple ingredients helps, too. When buying sale items or items in bulk and stocking up on them, you need a little extra money to do that. I create that extra in my regular budget by purchasing one extra item each week/month. For example, this month I will need bulk baking soda, some spices, some raw sugar for canning, and butter from Azure. I can only order once a month but I will not need to replace any of those items for awhile except maybe the butter.
A 1 lb bag of beans will make two dinners in a week and if you buy in bigger bulk it is even cheaper. Make sure it is something you will use regularly before you invest in bulk purchases though, even if it is cheaper. We recently purchased a 1lb bag of lentils and I made two lentil recipes that week with the one bag. It definitely stretched our meat.
I have a very small grocery store (think the size of the main floor of a house) and we have very few options. It is the only grocery store in town and even it is 25mins from our house. I can order from Azure once a month and I have a Sam's membership that I can order shelf stable goods from as well. The next closest grocery stores are an hour and 10min away where there is a Walmart and two other grocery stores. It now costs us $45 round trip to make that drive so I haven't been in awhile. I have been making do between our little grocery store, Azure, and Sam's over the summer. I enjoy it that way, even if our grocery costs are harder to keep low. I'm learning my patchwork of supplies and monthly needs and am getting a better system down for what works here in my area.
I recently discovered that I can buy turkeys from my grocery store for $1.59/lb which is the cheapest meat I can find here. I plan on buying a turkey and having my husband smoke it and then slice some into lunch meat, some into meat for stews and such, and some larger chunks for eating as a main course. I stick to only sale meat and try to stay in that $1.99/lb range which I can usually do if I only purchase the weeks sale meat. That means I stock up on that type of meat that week and the next week I buy a different type of meat. Pork has been our mainstay for awhile as it typically runs cheaper than anything else here right now.
I revamped my grocery shopping process a little bit. While I always shopped sales and what was in season and had a list, I have doubled down on that. Our weekly add comes out on Sunday and my town day is Tuesday every week. I sit down and look over the add and pick out the main things we need or are on a good sale. So I figure out what meat is on sale and the sale price and then figure approximately how many lbs I want to buy and write the number by the item on my list. I do this for everything, even the non-sale items on my list that I buy every week like almond milk. This way I can total up my groceries before I ever go and have a good ballpark figure of what it will cost. Of course, meat and produce vary some on the weight but I've already determined approximately how many lbs of meat I want to buy, how many lbs of apples or bananas and the price per lb. This lessens the decisions needed to be made in the grocery store and gives me much more of a game plan than just items on a list. I also keep a running total on a calculator to make sure I am staying within the amount I want to spend.
I am a firm believer in focusing on what we CAN change and what is within our power to do and not complain or bemoan the things we have no control over. I cannot control inflation but I can be creative and find ways to revamp things to continue taking care of my family well while maintaining financial priorities. I believe that there is ALWAYS something to do, even in the situations that seem impossible. We just have to look and be willing to implement changes and make sacrifices. Here are some things that you can do:
You could raise your budget. I have a friend who decided to raise her budget the amount of inflation. So if inflation was 10% then she raised her grocery budget by 10%. If you have the money to do that, that may be something to look at instead of the frustration of trying to stuff last years amount of groceries into this years' prices.
I recently found that I can buy a bottle of cleaner that I can dilute into spray bottles for $3.50. I was paying $4.99 for a spray bottle of all purpose cleaner. My children are doing more cleaning and daily wiping down in the house which means that more cleaner gets used than it would if I were doing it. : ) I was looking for ways to save on cleaner and I came up with several options: I could make my own, I could use household items like baking soda and vinegar, or I could buy cleaner in bulk from Azure. Knowing that you have options and what they are is very helpful. I decided that I didn't want to invest the amount of money ($35) right now for the bulk cleaner from Azure even though I know it will last more than a year, I didn't want to use vinegar (don't like the smell in my home) but I do use baking soda some on tubs and sinks, and I didn't want to make my own cleaner right now. Maybe in the future but not right now. I was going to just purchase another bottle of cleaner this week when I came across a bottle of all purpose cleaner that can be heavily diluted. It was the perfect fit! It was quite a bit cheaper and it didn't cost a lot up front. I was reminded that there is always another option out there.
Bread. I don't know what bread is where you live but here it is $5/loaf for the cheap, basic bread and goes up from there. Again, there are options. You could make your own bread, pay whatever bread costs, or I love to buy the frozen loaves of dough to bake. Maybe you have a discount bread store or other places to source your bread from. We aren't big bread eaters but it is nice to have on hand for the occasional sandwich. I love the frozen loaves because they taste just like homemade bread but are so simple! At $5.29 for 4 loaves, I can't beat it. If you have a Walmart close by, it's even cheaper there. I have found that if I do need to buy bread pre-made that the bakery section of my store sells French bread for $2.99/loaf.
Always remember that usually meat is cheaper by the lb than cheese/dairy products are. So use your cheeses and dairy sparingly and buy your meat.
Stick to sales. It's ok to eat the same things a lot in one week. It's ok to only buy one or two varieties of fruits and let that be the fruit that you have for the week. It's ok to only eat one or two types of meat in a week. You can vary your meals while still using the same basic ingredients. I try to stick to only the sale produce and meats each week. I have basics that I buy every week that never go on sale (like milk, etc) but meat and produce I only buy what is on sale and get a lot of it. If I need produce that is not on sale in order to round out my meals, I stick to the basic things that are always lower priced like carrots (can be snacks, roasted, or shredded to top things) or radishes, or potatoes. Get your basic items that are multi-use.
Make snacks. Snacks and pre-made items eat up a grocery budget so quick! I have a wonderful recipe for snack crackers that I love to make, homemade granola or protein bars are easy to make, you can make your own cheez-its, cookies are easy as well as basic fruit and veggies like apple slices and carrot sticks or dried fruits and nuts. If you do buy pre-made snacks, try to stick with basics like ritz or saltine crackers, popcorn, etc. These can also be multi-use items that can be used in a lot of recipes so you get more bang for your buck.
Know your options. I touched on this before but it is so helpful to know and weigh your options. I know I could make my own tortillas but I don't because I prefer the store bought ones. There are some things that I feel are worth my time and others that aren't and those will probably be different for everyone. I recently started making my own yoghurt again as yoghurt is $6/24oz container here now. It's worth the little bit of time to make for the cost savings. I just made a gallon of yoghurt last week for $5.
Grow in knowledge and skills. The more you know and know how to do, the better off you will be in any economy. The ability to make a delicious dinner out of a few ingredients is an art form and it takes time and effort to cultivate but it pays dividends over time.
Remember, we do have control (to some extent) over the amount of money we choose to lay down at the grocery store. We may not like our crash course in economy and stretching our dollars, but it can develop good skills and attitudes if we let it. There are many people who have gone through much more difficult times than this inconvenience of inflation. We are still able to feed our families. There is food to be had at the store. We can practice thankfulness and thrift. Our children are watching our attitudes and our frugality or lack thereof. Let's set good examples and teach them the skills we are employing or learning. There is always a way, we just have to find it. Let's do this!