There’s a Recession in My Refrigerator
Let me be honest with you, unless it moves, it generally doesn’t get cleaned in my house. And even then, its not a guarantee. But a few weeks ago, I took on the extreme cleaning challenge of cleaning out my fridge. It wasn’t pretty. It was greasy and smelly and had a thick gooey film all over it.
And that was just me.
I hate being dirty. You may think this means that I like to keep things clean around me. But, surprisingly, no. No, I don’t mind living in filth at all. Its when the filth touches me that I tend to be grossed out.
But I had to clean out my fridge because of the economy. That’s right. The recession has reached my refrigerator. You see, to save money, I have started meal planning. And meal planning involves a LOT of eating at home. In fact, we ALWAYS eat at home now. And I figured if I was going to be using my fridge so much more, it better be a clean fridge. So, I cleaned. And when I was finished, it looked brand, spankin’ new!
With my newly cleaned fridge, I started my meal planning mission. I realized when I dug into the depths of my fridge and kitchen pantry that we bought a lot of junk that we never use. For example, I had about 10,000 Kool-Aid packets. We don’t even drink Kool-Aide. We had so many half used boxes of dried pasta that I could have fed Sherman’s army (who is Sherman, by the way? I always hear that saying that wonder who he was!). And I can’t tell you how many bottles of ketsup and BBQ sauce I had. Clearly, I was wasting money.
I start each week by planning out what meals we’ll have for dinner each night. I used to just open my fridge every night and try to throw something together. And when I couldn’t find anything to fix, we’d head out to a restaurant. But not anymore. Now, on Wednesday nights (that’s payday in our house!), I sit down with my Betty Crocker cookbook and pick out good, healthy meals for the week.
Then, I make my grocery list based on what I need for those specific meals. Snacks and lunch stuff is now only replenished as it runs out, instead of picking up things whenever we’re at the grocery store. Once I have my list ready, I go through my coupon book and pull out any coupons for items on my list. And finally, I’m off to the grocery store and (here’s the hard part) I ONLY BUY WHAT’S ON MY LIST. It took me a while to master this part, but it really is key.
When I get home, I put a list of all the meals we can have that week on our fridge so that Chris and I can pick out what we want every night. This way, it feels like we’re still making choices, even though…we’re not really.
I’m always curious as to what other people eat in their fridges, so let’s see what’s in mine:
We’ve always got Crystal Light Lemonade. And my Diet Cherry Pepsi. And yogurt. And spaghetti sauce. And salsa. And a GIANT tub of butter (I’m Southern, remember?). And Chris’ hazelnut creamer. And milk. And grapes. You get the idea.
I also always have fresh veggies – especially peppers. You can do so much with peppers. Like, this week we are having peppers and pepperoni homemade pizza. Yum! This time of year, fresh produce is really cheap, too. A good rule of thumb for saving at the grocery store is to buy 75% fresh produce and 25% processed. Not only is it cheaper when things are in season, but its healthier, too. I used to not be able to buy fresh because we never ate it all in time before it would go bad. But that’s another plus to meal planning. Nothing goes to waste. I buy enough for the week and I know I’ll use it if I stick to my menu. Nothing is wasted and your money stays in your pocket!
So, why am I spending so much time telling you about the findings in my fridge and my habits in the grocery store? Well, I’ll tell you. I have cut my grocery bill in HALF. That’s right. In half. I have perfected my grocery shopping so much that I can now feed our family breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week on about $60. Keep in mind that I don’t have kids yet to run up my food bill, but $60 for two people and about 30 meals is pretty darn good.
Like all families, we are having to tighten our belts because of this recession mess. And we’re having to do this while adding another person to our family. Daycare, formula, diapers – it ain’t cheap. But we’re able to do it because we’re learning to cut back in other areas, like our grocery bills. These days, every little savings helps.
So, get out there and clean your fridge. Make your list. Clip your coupons. Whether you’re married, single, with a family or without, I promise you’ll notice a difference in your bank account.
18 Comments
Chandra
Wow, $60 for two people is pretty good! Back in the lovely days before we both lost our jobs, I used to meal plan like you, only by shoppin at Aldi, I was able to feed both of us for $30 a week!
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
$60 a week brings a tear to MY eye. I think I spend that much on milk and cereal for the black holes that live in my house.
Good for you though! That was a major undertaking and lifestyle change and you did it instead of just talking about it like most do. 🙂 Congrats.
Kelly
When we first got married and went shopping, I spent around $100 a week for the two of us. Now, 2 years later, I spend around $50-$60 a week. We plan our meals and I take time to clip coupons. Now it’s like a game, a nerdy game but a game, to see how much we save. Our grocery store prints the weekly savings at the bottom of the receipt.
Sarah Hash
Katie, this is great 🙂 I also never spend over $60 a week at the grocery store for my husband and I. Isn’t it fun? We started doing this about a year ago. The only thing that’s different is that we use http://www.thegrocerygame.com because it tells us what’s on sale and what has coupons to clip, all for the specific grocery stores we use. But same idea. Good job! Oh and I just love DOUBLE or TRIPLE coupon days!!
Lisa
Awesome job! I live off the exact same cookbook, I love it so much I even brought it out to Dubai with me! Have you tried the candied sweet potatoes yet? They are awesome 🙂
deepa
I do exactly the same thing! Initially, it was more because i am insanely anal and a planner, but lately, with the cost of lunches downtown, we have been extended the weekly planning to lunches in addition to dinners.
The only bad thing about the weekly plan (we shop on Sundays) is that by Saturday morning (prime Food Network time), we have NO food in the house. Torture.
Laura
I really don’t appreciate this post….cause I REALLY don’t want to clean out my refrigerator. BUT, I agree. When things were REALLY tight Q and I whittled our grocery bill down to 30 a week! Now thankfully it is 50, but I had NO idea how many ways there were to save. We left the grocery store SO proud last night spending only $56.20! Go us! and go YOU!
Megan
I’m a long time reader – this is my first comment. Love your blog!
My husband and I also plan out our meals each week. We actually challenged ourselves to go for a whole month without eating out at all (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks). We saved a lot of money.
I have that same Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. If you’re using the Jambalaya recipe out of there, it’s awesome! Enjoy!
First Yr Wife
I do the exact same thing you do with planning the menu, shopping, and posting the week’s list! It’s made our lives sooo much easier too. Unfortunately, we’re not down to $60/week yet, mostly because I take hubby with to go shopping and he tends to throw a lot of extras in the cart! Maybe I should start leaving him at home!
Katie's Grandma
Katie, honey, Sherman burned down Atlanta – the home
of your birthplace! Diet Cherry Pepsi?? Why, Atlanta
is the home of Diet Cherry Coke. Switch? But I am
really proud of your gorcery-shopping budget. Keep up the
good work.
Ansley
Hey, Katie!
Enjoyed reading your post, as always. 🙂
Here’s another good blog with grocery savings tips:
http://www.faithfulprovisions.com/
You can also print or download coupons at http://www.couponmom.com
Happy shopping!
Meghan
Katie,
I’m now hooked on your website (spent a lot of time reading old posts last night and laughing)! I started planning meals for the week and doing some serious couponing about 6 months ago….it is amazing what a difference both can make in your grocery bills. A couple more tips for you: http://www.couponmom.com is like the “Grocery Game” (matching up store sales with coupons), except it is a free website and you have to pay for the other one. I use Coupon Mom every week. Also, you might try taking your stores’ sales flyers and using them to plan at least some of your meals. For example, if zucchini and pork chops are on sale this week, make a meal with zucchini and pork chops (and maybe buy some extra and put it in your freezer). It takes a little more work in the beginning, but you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly, and then you’re not only planning your meals but making them with whatever’s on sale as well. http://www.allrecipes.com is a GREAT website that lets you plug in whatever ingredients you have and find a recipe to match.
Finally, when Bean gets old enough to need baby food, you should definitely make your own. It is ridiculously easy, healthy, and cheap to do, even though I’m convinced the baby food companies plan their advertising to make it seem otherwise. I made all of Emmett’s food and plan on doing the same for Colin. When you get to that point, I’d be happy to share some tips.
Take care!
Meghan
Niki
I plan meals each week also. I spend between $100 and $120 (sometimes more) a week for a family of four people (our kids are 12 and 9) and four animals. Though I don’t have to buy food for our animals (three cats & one dog) that often.
Amanda
Right after our baby was born (6 months ago), I started meal planning too. I quit my job to stay home, so we have to stop eating out as well. I’ve got a great system going, but I’m still spening too much right now. I’d guess about $70-$80 per week. Still trying to get that down.
It’s so ironic that you cleaned your fridge today – I thought about cleaning mine too! Guess you had more motivation that I did. I did throw away old food, but no sponge ever entered my grasp. Maybe tomorrow.
Whitney
Amen sista. Amen.
Tina
Your fridge looks great!!!
Iv been menu planing and couponing (is that a word?) for a while now and it has become a huge budget saver in our household of 4. I also make sure to stock up on non perishable things when I can get them for super cheap or free and I find now I haven’t bought things like toothpaste or shampoo for months!
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Jen @ Life with Jen and Ronnie
Lovely! I used to be so good at meal plan and I have fallen off the wagon. I want back on! Maybe I will start…tomorrow!