A Better Way

I have been a stay at home Mom since September 2010, but have only been a one income family since January 2011.  We were rolling along merrily when my husband and I looked at eachother in March and asked "Where is all our money going?".

I have flirted off and on with PearBudget, and with monthly meal planning.  My first step in figuring out where our money was disappearing to, was signing back up on PearBudget  (great site & free for the first month as a trial.  After that it's a cheap monthly fee of only $4.95).  Taking all of  our expenditures from March and inputting them into PearBudget, I was shocked to see we had spent over $1000 on groceries.  For a family that consits of four people, two of whom are quite wee, that number was my "a-ha" moment. 

The following is a note I posted on Facebook a few days ago about ways that I went about reducing that number over the month of April.  We are now a week away from the end of the month, and I'm proud to report that we have saved around $350.  I hope to reduce those numbers even furthur in May. 

Changes I've Made

1. At the beginning of the month, I made a meal plan for the entire month.  I doubled each recipe I made at the beginning of the month, and then at the end of the month, for the most part I don't have any food prep.  I just re-heat and serve.  I particularly like that I don't have to think about what to make for dinner.  If for some reason a meal doesn't work out for that particular day, I take a meal from a few days later and switch them.  Because the "repeat" meal is so much later in the month, it doesn't feel like we are always eating the same thing.
2. I am making my bread from scratch.  It is a multigrain whole wheat loaf.  Most bread at the store averages close to $5.  I buy my multigrain cereal from Amaranth and $2 worth makes about 5 loaves.  I make 2 loaves once a week and can usually get it done while my daughter is in school.  It doesn't take as much time as you'd think!
3. We are storing all our grocery receipts so that at the end of the month, we can see exactly what type of food we were buying, how much, and how much we saved.

Grocery Shopping

1. I now shop at Costco, Safeway & Superstore.  I shopped once at Walmart, but only found a few items to be cheaper.  I will be buying our Lil'Ones Yogourt there however.  Superstore doesn't carry it, it is $5.77 at Safeway, and only $5.09 at Wally World.  I'm lucky that I live in the middle of all these stores so I'm not driving out of my way to get to any of them.
2. Other than a few items, it is generally cheaper to buy items at Safeway when they are on sale.  BUT, you need to watch the sales.  Sometimes items on sale are actually the same as the regular price at Superstore.  Which brings me to...
3. Pay attention to flyers.  I now look at the Safeway and Costco flyer each Sunday to see what that weeks deal is.  For instance this week at SF, you can get 3 boxes of crackers for $6.  Superstore you would still pay over $2.  This is a steal.
4. I stock up on when something is a great price.  I now have about 9 boxes of cereal stored, 9 boxes of crackers, toilet paper, Ketchup, Onions, pasta etc.  No sense buying these things at full price if I can store them and get them for cheap.
5. I also (eek) use coupons.  Websaver.ca is a great source, as well as save.ca  I have found it difficult to use save.ca but have had no issues with websaver.ca
6. Don't forget to use rainchecks.  They were out of my husbands Soy Milk at SF on the 10% Tuesday (1st Tuesday of the month).  I got a raincheck and said I would have bought 8.  I now use that raincheck and buy 2 each time.  I get the savings for the entire month now.

These are just some of the changes I've made.  I'll be updating this blog frequently.  Keep checking back in and please share your own tips!  If you'd like to also post on this site as an author, please let me know.  Thanks!