Our family lives in Alberta and we average $1000 a month on groceries. This has gone up by $200 since the pandemic 😱 I’m curious how much your grocery budget is 👇 share in the comments 🤗
Just found your channel. I have always lived "no spend-low spend" day to day since I was 21yrs old. So never had debts (except now house mortgage) and I always saved to travel (it was my passion backpacking around the world on a budget, and travel still is, but I do less due to kids and confined to school holidays. But we love travelling, so my kids are happy to save day-to-day so that we can traveland have experiences). I have also had a "Zero waste" kitchen for over 10yrs now. Some tips for the future: You can freeze eggs to. I cook ingredients when I get home from buying them eg mincemeat in microwave.. cooks in 10mins while unpacking rest of shopping, cool, then freeze. Chopped chicken in microwave in milk, oven bake batches of chicken best, cool, then freeze. Steam veg in microwave, cool, freeze. Cut up and freeze all fresh garlic, spring onions. Freeze fried bacon. Batch chop and cook onions, mushrooms, bell peppers etc. Then freeze. Freeze cooked rice and cooked pasta.. defrost in microwave steamer. Having prepared frozen pre-cooked "ingredients" is great because it makes meal prep quicker and I can adapted the meal according to schedules, illness and people's preferences. In the week meals take on average 15mins to cook from scratch ie individual ingredients. (Tired, Single working mum). I have a list of all things I cook off the top of my head that we eat all the time and always have the ingredients for those in the house. I do a fridge shop 1x fortnight, freezer shop 1x month and dry goods and household stuff 1x a quarter year. ..this keeps our food budget low because no "impulse buying." 1x quarter year I do a eat up 90% of the cupboard content with "only buying added ingredients for the meals I can make from my cupboards" (similar to what you are doing now). We all take lunches to work/school except 2 days my youngest is in "late cover" at school and so he is required to have a warm school dinner for lunch. The best way to save is ... 1) do NOT shop so often, 2) stick to meals you can cook easily (I have around 30 on my meal plan list), 3) always eat according to "use-by-date." 4) always cook basics for 2 meals eg pasta, rice and freeze. 5) loose/flexible meal prep.. so adaptable to cook something else (and not have the urge to get take out) 6) have "ingredients" prepared in freezer so ready to just throw in whatever dish your family feel like eatting (ie due to no 4). 7) have a number of different meals that take different times to make.. I have several
I do have some frozen vegetables that we will be using up as well. I was mostly thinking about our already fresh veggies I wanted to help last. Thanks for watching and commenting 😊
@@jeriheggie I don't know what "fresh veg" you have... but eat the ones you can not cook and go bad quickest first ie salad. If you keep lettice, raddishes etc in ikea freezer bags with 1 piece of kitchen roll and only 70% seal top... they last 3 weeks. But first washing fresh veg (except lettuce) and fruit in vinegar water (to destroy bacteria) and dry before storing. Then store in bags or glass jars (soft berry fruits). Veg that can be cooked.. cook and freeze in ikea bags as "ingredients." Celery cut fresh base, stand in water in fridge. Change water daily. If carrots go floppy.. peal and leave to soak in cold water..they become hydrated and hard again, then cut, grate, eat raw or cook. Keep root veg and potatoes in dark, cool, dry (not fridge) space... they can last a month or more. Hope that helps.
Hi 🙂 My grocery budget is $650 Cdn per month for 3 people. My oldest daughter moved out last year. We live in MB, and I shop primarily at Superstore. I will pick up sale items from other grocery stores on occasion. During previous years, I included personal care, cleaning supplies and cat food/litter in my grocery budget. This year, it is strictly $650 for food only. I've drastically reduced the purchases of bulk snacks from Costco. They were always eaten just a quickly as the smaller sized boxes from Superstore. Therefore, it is not saving me money. I overspent in Jan by $75. So I reduced my Feb budget to $575. Fingers crossed! It's the stock up sales that get me! I don't use cardboard in my freezer. What I do use are the black fabric tote bags that Superstore used to sell years back. I separate by type of protein, veggies, and fruits. Not sure how I came across your video. It just popped up and I'm glad it did. Will watch your other videos in the days ahead. Good luck with your low buy year!
You are so sweet for sharing! I have lumped our food and household items together in one budget. It’s usually purchases from Walmart or Superstore so I haven’t yet gotten into the nitty gritty of what is actually food stuff and what is house or personal care stuff. That would be interesting to see! I’ll do that in the coming weeks. Black fabric boxes! Great idea! And probably relatively inexpensive 😉
I'm surprised by how small your channel is. Felt like something like this would fit in with all the other channels who do similar things. All those spreadsheets and and clips of your home make me think the video will be just as good!
Hey there From Australia! Our family is doing something similar and doing a Freezer Challenge so i can defrost and save a lil of course. Cant wait to see how this goes for you
Our family lives in Alberta and we average $1000 a month on groceries. This has gone up by $200 since the pandemic 😱 I’m curious how much your grocery budget is 👇 share in the comments 🤗
I wish everything turns out great for you! It's inspiring to see how you make plans and think in such organized way!😊
Thank you for your kind words 🤗
Just subscribed
Thanks for watching! Have a great week 🤗
Just found your channel. I have always lived "no spend-low spend" day to day since I was 21yrs old. So never had debts (except now house mortgage) and I always saved to travel (it was my passion backpacking around the world on a budget, and travel still is, but I do less due to kids and confined to school holidays. But we love travelling, so my kids are happy to save day-to-day so that we can traveland have experiences). I have also had a "Zero waste" kitchen for over 10yrs now.
Some tips for the future:
You can freeze eggs to.
I cook ingredients when I get home from buying them eg mincemeat in microwave.. cooks in 10mins while unpacking rest of shopping, cool, then freeze. Chopped chicken in microwave in milk, oven bake batches of chicken best, cool, then freeze. Steam veg in microwave, cool, freeze. Cut up and freeze all fresh garlic, spring onions. Freeze fried bacon. Batch chop and cook onions, mushrooms, bell peppers etc. Then freeze. Freeze cooked rice and cooked pasta.. defrost in microwave steamer. Having prepared frozen pre-cooked "ingredients" is great because it makes meal prep quicker and I can adapted the meal according to schedules, illness and people's preferences. In the week meals take on average 15mins to cook from scratch ie individual ingredients. (Tired, Single working mum).
I have a list of all things I cook off the top of my head that we eat all the time and always have the ingredients for those in the house. I do a fridge shop 1x fortnight, freezer shop 1x month and dry goods and household stuff 1x a quarter year. ..this keeps our food budget low because no "impulse buying." 1x quarter year I do a eat up 90% of the cupboard content with "only buying added ingredients for the meals I can make from my cupboards" (similar to what you are doing now). We all take lunches to work/school except 2 days my youngest is in "late cover" at school and so he is required to have a warm school dinner for lunch.
The best way to save is ...
1) do NOT shop so often,
2) stick to meals you can cook easily (I have around 30 on my meal plan list),
3) always eat according to "use-by-date."
4) always cook basics for 2 meals eg pasta, rice and freeze.
5) loose/flexible meal prep.. so adaptable to cook something else (and not have the urge to get take out)
6) have "ingredients" prepared in freezer so ready to just throw in whatever dish your family feel like eatting (ie due to no 4).
7) have a number of different meals that take different times to make.. I have several
You are so generous for sharing your ideas and experiences. Thank you!
Just wondering why you don't just buy already frozen vegetables?
I do have some frozen vegetables that we will be using up as well. I was mostly thinking about our already fresh veggies I wanted to help last. Thanks for watching and commenting 😊
@@jeriheggie I don't know what "fresh veg" you have... but eat the ones you can not cook and go bad quickest first ie salad. If you keep lettice, raddishes etc in ikea freezer bags with 1 piece of kitchen roll and only 70% seal top... they last 3 weeks. But first washing fresh veg (except lettuce) and fruit in vinegar water (to destroy bacteria) and dry before storing. Then store in bags or glass jars (soft berry fruits). Veg that can be cooked.. cook and freeze in ikea bags as "ingredients."
Celery cut fresh base, stand in water in fridge. Change water daily. If carrots go floppy.. peal and leave to soak in cold water..they become hydrated and hard again, then cut, grate, eat raw or cook. Keep root veg and potatoes in dark, cool, dry (not fridge) space... they can last a month or more.
Hope that helps.
Hi 🙂 My grocery budget is $650 Cdn per month for 3 people. My oldest daughter moved out last year. We live in MB, and I shop primarily at Superstore. I will pick up sale items from other grocery stores on occasion.
During previous years, I included personal care, cleaning supplies and cat food/litter in my grocery budget. This year, it is strictly $650 for food only. I've drastically reduced the purchases of bulk snacks from Costco. They were always eaten just a quickly as the smaller sized boxes from Superstore. Therefore, it is not saving me money.
I overspent in Jan by $75. So I reduced my Feb budget to $575. Fingers crossed! It's the stock up sales that get me!
I don't use cardboard in my freezer. What I do use are the black fabric tote bags that Superstore used to sell years back. I separate by type of protein, veggies, and fruits.
Not sure how I came across your video. It just popped up and I'm glad it did. Will watch your other videos in the days ahead.
Good luck with your low buy year!
You are so sweet for sharing!
I have lumped our food and household items together in one budget. It’s usually purchases from Walmart or Superstore so I haven’t yet gotten into the nitty gritty of what is actually food stuff and what is house or personal care stuff. That would be interesting to see! I’ll do that in the coming weeks.
Black fabric boxes! Great idea! And probably relatively inexpensive 😉
I am gonna attempt to do a low buy february aswell and if i can stick to it then i will do march aswell😃 great video❤
Starting small is a great idea! Even just trying to limit one or two categories makes a difference. You got this! 🤗
I'm surprised by how small your channel is. Felt like something like this would fit in with all the other channels who do similar things. All those spreadsheets and and clips of your home make me think the video will be just as good!
Thank you so much for your kind words 🤗 I’m just starting out so I can only go up from here 😅 have a great weekend!
Hey there From Australia! Our family is doing something similar and doing a Freezer Challenge so i can defrost and save a lil of course. Cant wait to see how this goes for you
Hello 👋 wish I was in Australia today 😅 it’s snowing here! I’ll be sure to keep you updated 😉