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OT: Need ideas for my sister-in-law's meal budget
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Another thought….sometimes there are not enough leftovers to think it’s worth saving, but she has a toddler and a few bites of leftovers make great toddler lunches. You can even accumulate little bits of leftovers from several meals and an adult could have a smorgasbord meal.
I have about the same budget for food per week as your sister-in-law does; this last week it was only $45. But, we grow a garden and freeze and can a lot of our own food. We also buy our meat once or twice a year from a reliable butcher and we grew and butchered our own chickens this year. Obviously they can’t do that but my simplest and cheapest recommendation for them is soup. We make soup at least once a week in the winter. Chicken noodle, veggie, cheesy veggie, potato, wild rice and mushroom, zucchini sausage soup, etc. I make a double batch and serve some kind of bread with it. Herb, corn or just my home made bread. That lasts at least two meals and sometimes extra for our lunches to work.
It’s great that she’s beginning down this road when her children are so small; the transition will be easier and she’ll come along. She can eventually transition her son off of the formula and onto real food when the time comes. It’s great that she has you there to come alongside.
Are you going to teach her to can the stock or freeze?
Can she grow a garden? Her children would love to dig in the dirt and grow things. That would be a huge help.
Can she join a co-op? She can call UNFI and ask them if there are any buying co-ops local to her and if so, they will give her the coordinator contacts.
Buying beans and rice in bulk. Making her own bread products. I second soups and no more buying things in boxes (except pasta, unless she gets in bags from a co-op). I make soup 2-3 times a month that lasts for 2-4 meals/lunches; just adding in a muffin or cornbread on the side.
Definitely find her a raw milk source. Teach her to make her own butter and yogurt. She also needs a soy-free, free-range egg source.
Does her husband or a friend of the family hunt? It’d be great to access wild game.
Buy produce in season-it’s cheaper and has more nutrients.
Is her grocery price including paper goods and household items? I’d take a look at that list as well and see what can be lived without.
Make a monthly menu; plan as much as possible.
@Kristen, I’d love your recipe for mushroom and wild rice soup!
@Rachel, Yes, she has a source for reasonably priced pastured eggs. No one in the family hunts, that I’m aware of. I’m not sure about her parents or grandparents. She can get raw milk from the same farm I do, but she won’t put that in her budget. She’s currently paying about $4/gal for organic milk for her 2yo, and our raw milk is $9/gal. That’s at least $20/month increase. I wish they could swing it, but I’m not sure right now.
I haven’t asked her about gardening. They recently sold their home, and are in the process of trying to find something cheaper. We’ll see if gardening is in their future. I order my bulk items through Azure Standard. I’m not sure if Azure delivers to her town (2 hours away from me), but I’ve already told her she can order items through my account and I can get them to her as needed. I plan to teach her to freeze stock. I have never canned anything, so I’m not the person to be teaching her. She has a pretty empty freezer right now, so plenty of room for her stock. I may bring some of our beef bones with me and teach her to make both beef and chicken stock. I doubt any bones she finds at the local grocery stores are going to be full of many nutrients.
I’ll have to ask about paper products in her budget. They’ve been using paper since the baby was born, but it would save so much if they could go back to their dishes. We always use dishes and cloth napkins so I don’t the expense of paper plates and rarely have to restock our paper towels. Maybe I can get her to transition to that. Definitely going to teach her to meal plan. It’s one of the main things she’s asked help for.
I wonder if anyone here has heard of Dr. Denmark. I followed Dr. Denmark’s protocal with my youngest, now 6, and she has been the healthiest of all of my children. Never even one ear infection, well a minor ear ache one night which I treated with olive oil. Anyway, Dr. Denmark’s protocal begins putting baby on solids (real homemade foods prepared and pureed) at 3 months which drastically decreases formula need, eliminating the need for it altogether by 6 months. At my youngest’s year check-up I let it leak that she hadn’t been on formula or milk since 6 months and they freaked out, said I probably caused irreparable harm to my child’s brain and something else with her hemoglobin and they wanted to do a full blood panel on her. I let them because frankly, they scared me… They came back with the results, apologizing for what they said, and added that it is rare that they see such good results in their patients. I wish I could remember exactly what they tested for, but anyway, you get the picture. I made all of her baby food which was extremely inexpensive compared to formula and like I said she has been the healthiest child of all. Go figure.
I love the book Miserly Moms and think it could be helpful. The author quit her lucrative job to be home w/her kids and they stayed in their expensive neighborhood, etc. even though they lost 50% of their income. Just noticed she has a site: http://www.miserlymoms.com/default.htm. I have an old edition of the book, but some things she suggests (some already mentioned) are: weekly soup and bread or baked potato nights, cut meats by using beans and tips on that, cook several meals at once and freeze, inexpensive date ideas, waste nothing (veg. scraps can be frozen for soups, bananas can be frozen in skins), for breakfast monthly or so make a big batch of muffins, pancakes, etc. and freeze extra, for a snack make a big batch of cookie dough and freeze into baseball size to pull out and cook fresh as needed, don’t buy everything at the same store and tips on that, etc.
My copy has several recipes, and she also has a cookbook on healthy miserly meals. The success stories at the beg. of the book could also be encouraging…other moms who left their jobs and how worth it it was for them. Blessings to you and her…she’s lucky to have you!!
I could have written ServingforJoy’s ideas, so I won’t repost them all.
We have 6 children and are on a very tight budget for food. I no longer buy processed foods, but DH will bring home boxed cereal. He likes it as do a couple of our children. However, I have made the switch to plain oats for oatmeal rather easily. It does taste so much better with adding your own sweets like honey, 100% maple syrup, br. sugar, etc.
We have our own chidkens so always have eggs. One other suggestion in that vein is to make a super easy dish with eggs and spinach. I buy a HUGE container of organic spinach at Sam’s Wholesale for $3. It lasts and lasts and lasts. We put it in smoothies, use as a base for salads, on sandwiches, scramble with eggs. That is the recipe I’m getting too: it works even when the spinach is starting to look a little less fresh. Bag up the bulk of it and freeze for baking, smoothies, etc., but put some with eggs and scramble. You can add cheese or not, garlic if you have it, whatever you like really. It is delicious, makes the eggs go twice and far and adds some more nutrition. All of my kids, even the picky eaters, like it.
I make soup at least once a week. Rice and/or beans as the main dish another night. For meat, I buy whole stuff and cook it all. I don’t buy from a local meat seller yet, but we’re getting to that point hopefully soon.
I follow the list Lindsey mentioned for buying organic produce, though I have to say our local Sam’s has a TON of it and it is very affordable. Our local Wal*mart has a lot of it as well. Wal*Mart btw will match Aldi’s prices on produce, even for their organic variety. They don’t care. This helps a lot.
I don’t throw anything away if it isn’t spoiled. I either use it the next day for leftovers, use it the next day in another dish (thinking leftover meat) or I freeze it for later.
Spaghettic can be made very healthy, and my kids like it just as well with my homemade sauce and no meat. Add a spinach salad on the side with eggs for protein.
My goal is always to feed our family of 8 for $25 a day or less. I shop once every 10 days and spend around $230. We also switched to cash only. This really has greatly impacted our food spending. If we don’t need it, we don’t buy it. We don’t buy a lot of stock up, though we do keep some things (yes in a can) on hand in the event of a major event.
I do still use one type of canned beans–and that is green! Sorry but we like them. 🙂 I make every other bean from dried, and they are pennies on the dollar. We just can’t afford canned, and the dried are so much better! I also save any leftover beans for a soup the next day or two, or I freeze them.
When I make pancakes, we mix up a large batch of batter and I save the leftovers in the frig for a few days. If they aren’t eaten, then we freeze them for later (though often with 2 teenage boys and 1 tweenage boy and a 7YO boy who can almost keep up with them), we don’t often put those in the freezer.
If they like pizza, make sure they are making their own from scratch. SO MUCH cheaper and better.
This is all I can think of at the moment. Hope it goes well for them!
Oh one more thought on the formula, if it is an allergy and/or medical issue (@Tristan, maybe you could check on this or maybe you already have), but sometimes ins. will pay for it if it can be ordered through a pharmacy, and many of the speciailty ones can. Our oldest DS was on supplemental formula for a while and ins. paid for it for a time. They could also contact the manufacturer and just ask if they would help them with price reduction. Some do this as well.
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