With a growing family of six, the days of a $250 grocery budget are gone. {Sigh} This month, I have set our budget at $400.
During a recent conversation in our Facebook community, some of our friends were asking me about what I buy to keep the budget so low. While I share all of my tips in Advanced Penny Pinching, I decided to type up my frugal pantry list so:
- I can have this list available to keep up with what is running low.
- You can have a printable as an example of what to buy.
In addition to this list, I bought some munchies for this month since it is football season and there were some amazing coupons for Cheez-Its, Bugles, and Chex Mix to match with the BOGO sale at Winn Dixie. However, since I am blessed to be a work-from-home wife, I make most of our snacks and breads from scratch. (Makes an excellent homeschooling lesson too.)
Another note: The printable does not include toiletries although I do include those in my monthly grocery budget.
Free printable for you ~
Psst ~ UPDATE…
I received a lot of questions about how I could keep our budget so low and purchase so much. So, I posted a list of frequently asked questions with the answers. I hope it helps clear any confusion.
The fact that you ever had a grocery budget of $250 (that was a month right) absolutely amazes me. I feed my husband and I with a $400 grocery budget a month. I feel like you either have mad skills or groceries in the US (I’m from Canada) are significantly cheaper…or a combo of both. Either way, I’m very jealous and i clearly need your skills.
Thank you, Sarah Marie. I promise you that I am not a genie, and yes, our budget used to be $250 a MONTH. At that time, we used a lot of coupons to get groceries for free but those items were heavily processed, and we have since moved towards more of a whole foods diet. I will be sharing some of the questions and answers about this list tomorrow. Hopefully that will give you some insight into how I make that happen. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your list Penny. :). (saying your name makes me giggle cause my 2yo is ‘Penny’.
You shop/cook pretty much like I do. I try to make everything from scratch. The only thing I haven’t gotten to yet to try is crackers such as CheezIts or Graham crackers. I make granola bars, fruit leather, or dehydrated fruit, bread, rolls, lots of muffins and cookies. 🙂 and try as best as I can to cook everything from scratch. I like knowing what’s in my food. Every now and again my hubby will bring home a box of something like Hamburger Helper. I make it cause he wants it, but it grosses me out! Lol
Happy cooking!