Once a month shopping: one year later

 

 

Well folks! We have officially been on the once a month shopping/making everything from scratch switch for a FULL YEAR!!

And it has been a fabulous year. During this past year we have changed and “perfected” our shopping and cooking. We have tried lots of new recipes, found even better ways to shop and save that doesn’t involve clipping scads of coupons, we have lived stress free from weekly shopping trips and penny counting.

This year we were able to save enough money from our new shopping and eating habits to actually go on a week’s vacation! And we spend much more time together since we aren’t rushing off to the store to get this or that, or trying to hear one another over the table at a crowded (and expensive) restaurant. And the words “let’s just get take out” have not crossed our lips. Now our taste buds call out for nice home cooked meals.

And the icing on the cake: Hubs and I lost almost 100 pounds together by switching to mostly homemade foods!!!! Hubs lost 60 pounds and I’ve lost 35 pounds! NO EXERCISE ROUTINES. Simply eating what we wanted, in moderation, and making it homemade instead of pre-boxed meals with lots of salt, preservatives, and chemicals. And you have all heard that stress causes weight gain, right? Well, our new method of shopping and money saving has lessened the amount of stress, aiding in our weight loss too.

While the weight loss is fabulous, it was not the driving force to making this change in shopping and eating. It was for the money. Well, it was to save money. Or spending less money on food and still getting what we NEED. And we did just that. I don’t spend each day checking the bank account to see if I can get food items at the store because the money was already set aside, the food has already been purchased and I know there is left over money in the bank because we have all that we need. There is no reason to go back to the store.

During this year, I posted on social media sites to my friends and family about our triumphs along the way. Several people asked how we were going about once a month shopping and saving money and losing all that weight. After referring them to this very blog and other blogs I drew inspiration from, a handful of my friends tried the switch too. Some were very successful, some didn’t find it appealing, and some took bits and pieces of the idea and made it their own.

With their permission, and excluding names, I have decided to post what it was they liked or disliked about once a month shopping/ making everything homemade.  Let’s name them Friend A, B, C and D.

When asked, “How did once a month shopping work for you?”

Friend A:

“Shopping trips are much easier and faster and I don't have the question of ‘what's for supper?’ anymore! A major time and money saver. I will never go back to the old way again! I now know how to do it and can stick to a grocery budget!!”

Friend A is a full time working mom and has three small children. Her family lives on a full working farm. So added to her already busy work load, the farm requires A LOT of attention. Now, she has lots of time to spend with her family outside of her career and farm work since she doesn’t have to use that extra time to go grocery shopping.

Friend B:

“While I wasn't successful it did cause me to rethink my shopping habits. I actually make fewer trips to places like Target and Wal-Mart, too, because my week does not revolve around a shopping trip and errands.”

Friend B is a stay at home mom of two. She has dietary restrictions that call for lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. When stored correctly, most fruits and vegetables can last a whole month; however there are some that cannot, like some berries, and bananas. So a weekly visit to the store or farmer’s market is needed. But as you read it, Friend B changed her shopping habits in other areas.

Friend C:

 “Instead of a whole months worth of shopping, I take it two weeks at a time. I live in a small apartment and do not have to storage space for a month’s worth of food and household items. I spend one Sunday making up frozen meals for a few dinners, planning out menus for the rest of the nights and pre-packing a few lunch items for the week for my kids. We also just began making our own breads (loaf breads, tortillas, rolls) My kids love helping me make them! And it has saved me so much time and energy trying to make it to the store every week. We also eat out less because I am not so exhausted from working all day, going to the store and trying to make it home to cook dinner and help the kids with their homework. On nights like that I fell into the temptation of ordering pizzas or grabbing drive thru burgers. Now I just grab a meal out of the freezer that I premade and help the kids with homework while it cooks.”

Friend C is a full time working, single mom of 2. Space is a big factor to consider for once a month shopping, especially if you have a larger family or live in a smaller home. Friend C has also seen the impact of preplanning changing her eating habits. Think of the money saved from not buying fast food. And think of the health benefits!

Friend D:

“This has been a life saver for my family. And a money saver as well. Since I don’t make multiple trips to the store each week, I am not picking up extra items that we really don’t need and saving so much money. And I love impressing my friends by making homemade goodies that taste better than store bought.”

Friend D is a stay at home mom of 2. Her husband’s job has down time during the cold months, so saving money the rest of the year is very important when paychecks are thin. And speaking of thin, Friend D has lost 20 pounds since she made the switch to mostly homemade food as well.

 

When other friends or family members say “Well, I just don’t have time to sit down and plan a month’s worth of menus” or “I don’t have time to bake everything from scratch, it’s faster to buy the boxed version.” HERE YOU GO FOLKS!! Whether you are a stay at home mom (or dad even!) or you work 40 plus hours a week. It is possible to do. And even Friend B, who couldn’t work once a month shopping in to her strict dietary needs, changed her shopping habits in other areas of household needs.

So check it out y’all. Give it a try! And let me know what you think.

Check out the previous posts I wrote here:

 http://wherethewalnuttreesgrow.blogspot.com/2012/11/once-month-shopping.html

http://wherethewalnuttreesgrow.blogspot.com/2012/09/my-absence.html

We have changed a few things.

**We get bulk cooking items at Costco and get our regular food items at two stores; Aldi and Kroger. On occasion I will get things at Wal-mart instead of Kroger. Usually that happens only if I need an out of the ordinary item. (like the month we had to buy school supplies.)

**We make all our breads from scratch. Biscuits, tortillas, rolls, buns, sandwich bread.

**We also had a small garden this year and that cut down on our fresh vegetable costs. We also canned some of our overages before they spoiled.

**We will soon be trying our hand at making and drying our own pastas.

**We are also going to try to make homemade mozzarella and ricotta cheeses.

 

Do you have any ways of shopping or cooking mostly from scratch that you want to share? Did once a month shopping work for you?

 

God Bless!

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My absence

Well, where do I begin? I guess I should explain my absence (to whomever I am talking to…do I have any followers? Big smile if I do!) Hubs and I have been on a house fixing mission here on the farm. We took on the very labor intensive and tedious task of landscaping the two houses here; our house and my parent’s house. Nothing like 1000 brick pavers and 16 tons of river rock to make you jump up and scream for joy….

  

And did I mention we didn’t use a front end loader to scoop the rock?? That’s right, all shoveled by hand. I have some nice muscles though and feeling good as I am about 10 pounds lighter. But alas it is all done and the house has never looked prettier!

 

 

 

We decided since the outside of the house is getting a makeover, what about the inside? So, we decided to redo the floors. We went with hardwood (laminate) in the living room and carpeting in the bedrooms.

 

As if we hadn’t enough to do already, in the middle of both of these projects Hubs and I made the switch to once a month shopping and making normally store bought items from scratch.  And let me tell you now…. Best decision ever. I can’t believe for all these years my laziness has overcome me and I have bought it all readymade at the store. 

 

Now, this may not seem like a huge issue, but for us it was. I was a die-hard couponer. I would cringe if I missed the Sunday paper and be bored stiff on holiday weekends when there were no coupons. I clipped, cut, filed, and organized my way through savings…. Or so I thought. I was OCD about keeping track of my savings at first. We saved nearly $3000 one year. But I wasn’t really spending less…. Well, the second year of keeping track of my spending I noticed that again we weren’t saving much. So I started really paying better attention to my couponing habits. I had to make weekly store visits to catch these sales. And I was deviating from my list. So, I tried to stick to strictly to a coupon list. If I didn’t have a coupon I didn’t get the item. Well, it may have just been me, but that didn’t work either. I was still deviating.  We plan weekly menus, because I shopped weekly. So I went to two week menus. That helped a little. But in the mean time I was still purchasing a paper for the coupons. Then, for reasons I can’t even remember, I went a whole month without clipping coupons and going on “coupon adventures.” I hit a state of just-get-what-I-need-and-get-out-of-the-store-quick. I really got a slap in the face when I came across a pile of unclipped EXPIRED coupons. Nothing but wasted money. That was the kicker. So I stopped buying a paper and just printed coupons if there was one available. Then, sales were starting to…well, how do I put this nicely…. They just sucked. No coupons to match up and if there were, I’d have to buy 5 just to save a measly quarter. In the mean time, I kept running across “make this from scratch” links on Pinterest.
So Hubs and I had a mission… find a way to save on our food budget.

I planned a whole months worth of menus.  Some were things we always fixed, like tacos or hamburgers, and some were new recipes, like crock pot potato soup (Campbell’s condensed soup, you were a crutch to my laziness!). Then we went through all our saved pins, cut and pasted recipes for the made from scratch items into separate word documents. Then, I made a list of the amounts of “stuff” I needed. This was a super tedious task here. If you are reading and you know of a better way please tell!!! I made a word document and cut and pasted just the ingredients of all the stuff we wanted or needed to make. Regardless if there were repeats. Then I cut and pasted that list into another document and took off all the measurements. On this list I used the “sort” option to sort it alphabetically. Then I took of the repeat items. I printed that list out and went back to my list of measurements and added up the amounts I needed and wrote it next to the item. (Example- Flour: 37 cups) Then, and I am horrible at math but I managed to do it, I converted those amounts into pounds or ounces as needed per item. (I needed 17 pounds of flour)  Once I finished this task….two days later… I had my shopping list. I added the other items we needed that we were out of completely or running low on that we couldn’t make it a month without needing to purchase.

*****Let me stop here and say…invest in a big board or some chalkboard paint on a wall and make a divided list: one side says “OUT OF COMPLETELY” and the other says “RUNNING LOW ON.” Since doing this we have not made any unnecessary purchases. (That last bit of shampoo and conditioner really lasts a long time strangely enough….)****

Now that I had my list of items we hit the store. We did have quite a few items on hand, like certain meats, and spices so that shortened our list some. But we since we weren’t normally from scratch makers we had a ton of stuff in the baking isle to get and the start up on a few spices and ingredients brought our cost a little bit. I looked at it as an investment. I needed a teaspoon or tablespoon of this, but now I had it on hand and didn’t have to buy it the next month when we made the item again.

We spent $278 dollars for all the stuff we needed to get through the month. (I have learned to freeze milk! And it isn’t nasty nor does it change flavor or consistency at all!!!) We have been to the store twice since our first big shopping adventure on September 1st. Once was because my math was off and I didn’t get enough of an item and the other was for cold meds (can’t exactly plan when you are getting a cold). And, a round of applause here…we bought ONLY what we needed and nothing more! I didn’t use any coupons, and bought a bunch of store brand items.

The most comforting thing about this: that total included a month’s worth of diapers for our toddler and we didn’t go store brand on those.

Our testimony here is: Once a month shopping can be done!

Just to show off... here are the banana nut muffins we made... They were knock you down delicious!

 

I have never once in my life made them from scratch!! This is why I am so proud of us for making the switch.

So, keep an eye out for the posts giving all the info of the foods we made from scratch.

God Bless Y’all!

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