I've also been reading my Tightwad Gazettes. I have book 1 and 2, and discovered there is a book 3 as well. Instead of buying The Complete Tightwad Gazette
, I think I'll spend $0.01 plus $3.99 shipping for just book 3. So, I'm motivated to see --how low we can go-- within reason. For example, I won't drink dry milk, nor can I do legumes (beans and such). I know legumes are cheap, but I can't do the texture.So, what did we spend... prepare yourself, its not pretty.
Sept 2011 -- $214.67
Oct 2011 -- $373.65
Nov 2011 -- $335.33
(no Dec 2011 numbers)
Jan 2012 -- $475.62 (ouch!)
Feb 2012 -- $323.90
Mar 2012 -- $344.05
Apr 2012 -- $772.65 (includes $410.13 for the quarter of a cow)
That averages out to $405.69 a month. Take out the cow... $347.11 a month.
I'd like to average less.
On the plus side, the quarter of a cow ended up being a tad over 118 lbs (estimated), so it came out to a tad less than $3.50/lb. Yes, I aim to spend less than $3.00/lb for meat, but we did get some really nice cuts which I would normally never buy.
So, here's my plan. I'm starting up my price book again. I will figure out the cheapest place to get the various items I buy. Then, I can really *know* when a sale is a good price.
And off I go to figure out some unit pricing on items I buy often.
And for pure enjoyment --
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| Post stir fry |
If you are buying whole food items and not too many 'boxed/convenient' foods, the investment in nutrition will be better health and you can't put a price tag on that. We used to spend $800 a month when buying whatever suited our fancy (I had a few more children at home too). Now for the three of us, $400 is a generous amount and includes buying farm fresh milk and eggs, 70% organic produce and making most of our food from scratch. I set aside extra for pastured farm meat too. Make sure to get some soup bones from your beef supplier (both meatless and with meat) to make beef stock.
ReplyDeleteYep, very few 'boxed' or 'convenience foods', I'm glad to say. I did get the bones from the butcher with the cow and made a boat load of beef stock. :::giggle::: I have even saved the fat/tallow -- plans for soap, winter suet bird feeders and now for seasoning my cast iron pan. I used the 'waste' from butchering for broth and 'waste' from broth for several other things!
ReplyDeletewe do have some convenience things, and I'm figuring out to simplify and make those in a cheaper way.