I am disabled also, so money is tight. I get $123 a month in the EBT card I get social security, no disability, and child sapport. I sapport all of us, my BF sapports his farm and theres nothing left over, lol! I do have a car payment, but no house payment, life isn't cheap though.
I find it cheaper to eat LC, I never liked pasta, and sandwiches loose there appeal quickly. I make a menu for the week, then I make a grocery list and get my shopping done. If I follow my list and don't buy junk food, I can stay in my budget. $400 for a month for a family of 5, outragious isn't it?
I like to go with meat and a veggie, and usually some kind of fruit for the kids. I buy meat on sale, then I stock up, money wise that can get expensive, but it evens out over time. We buy more canned veggies than anything, BF prefers them. I do buy fresh fruit, only because I can binge easily on canned fruit.
Junk food adds up fast I don't buy it! I always go for sales, and my family pick things up for me when there is a sale in a town there going too, I do the same for them. I had to bake a cake for my sons birthday, I made it from the box, I wasn't going to buy a cute premade cake, way to expensive! I also bought the ice cream a week ago, it was on sale
I do get excited and happy to share ways to keep grocery costs down. My girlfriend spends $600 - $800 a month on groceries for a 4 person family, plus they go out to eat once a week! OMG, to have that kind of income, LOL! But they eat a lot of snacky type foods, she bakes a lot (not needed in anyones diet) and likes to buy pop, goodies and pre made stuff.
In the long run, I find it cheaper to eat the meat, veggies and a fruit if needed, sometimes we don't even get to the fruit. Oh, Aldis, a small chain, many foods is cheaper there. They had strawberries for $.99 for a box, I got 2 of them, and 1 box makes a side for the whole family. They love strawberries and my garden isn't producing them this year.
I'm trying to think about cost for last nights supper. Family sized pkg chicken thighs, $.89 a lb, 2 cans green beans, $.39 a can (on sale at hy vee) and the pkg of strawberries $.99 and of course the lard $1 (strained and reusable) to fry the chicken and the pork rinds I rolled the chicken in $.89
Looking at just under $10 for that meal for all 5 of us, plus BF took the remainder 2 chicken thighs to work today with an apple, small bag of cheap chips, a pop(cringe) and a bag of peanuts.
I know I'm carrying on, but I like the fact that I can sapport my family and keep everyone well fed on a reasonable budget. I'm sure many can't afford a butdget the size of mine but thats what I give myself. Oh, that budget includes any house hold items I may need, like a mop head, dish detergent, and shampoos. You get the idea.
I got back on track with my LC diet plan last Sunday (finally). I would have a good day, then fall hard in that bag of candy or watermellon
I'm finally back on and feeling good about it.
Something I can do, that many may not be able to, is that we eat a lot of wild game. BF hunts almost anything that he can get a tag for. He gives the deer away (he doesn't like to eat it) but squirrel, rabbit,turkey, pidgeon, turtle, fish, we eat wild game at least once evey 2 weeks. We just had a 3 day fishing expodition. Put out trout lines on Thursday evening, and checked them every 3 hours all night long, same on Friday night and Saturday night. Got 59 catfish all total, were having a very inexpensive fish fry tonight(mine will be rolled in pork rinds) and 14 family/meal sized packages of fish. I made them hold back fish they would normally throw out. I fillet them myself and plan on trying them, I hate to waste a perfectly good fish.
Don't let money get in the way of eating healthy, putting your mind to it, will solve your grocery problems, inginuity(sp) can be fun! I tried to cook up coon, we trap them in the winter ( I don't like trapping but I can't stop them) so the meat wouldn't go to waste. Ya, that didnt work, it was nasty and had a funny smell, people do eat it, but I obviousely didn't cook it right.
I'll let someone take over from here, there are always more tips that I didn't think of. Oh, we also butchar a calf and split it in 1/3 with family. It is cheaper than buying meat, but we did pay for that corn and hay it was fed all winter and if we had sold him with the rest of the calves, he would have brought us around $900. Its obviousely a healthier way to go than store boughten meat, but I dought very much if its much cheaper than store boughten.
Am I rambling again?
on catching yourself now. 
Linear Mode
