Well, it's happened again. I am taking an email course on how to save
money grocery shopping. The author is so jazzed; her family got
completely out of debt in 9 months by following these tips! Wow!
She ONLY spends $160 a week on groceries for her family of four. That's $40 per person.
Meh. I do that every week and have for a year or more.
I spend around $550 a week. This is food, clothes, allowances (except Hubby's), minor house repairs, cleaning, hygiene, and school supplies (we do most of our shopping at a Walmart supercenter, so if we need, say, a can of paint or a new storage box, that goes in the grocery budget.)
There are 11 of us.
So, if you remove all the stuff you wouldn't buy at a grocery store (allowances, clothes, house repairs, printer ink, etc) we come out at about $40 per person per week,maybe a bit less.
So, I'm not expecting a lot of help from this course. Sigh.
I do add a trip to Salvation Army once in a while to top off what the other thrift store has, and I buy shoes and undies and things we just can't find at the thrift stores at walmart, but still I'm spending less than $50 a month to clothe us. That's about $600 a year. For 10 people (plus Hubby's undies. He takes care of the rest of his clothes out of his money). That's about half what I was spending before I found out about the thrift store sales and I can allow the girls to shop for the fun of buying clothes instead of just the bare necessities. I mean, really, $5 isn't much for the entertainment value.
And while I'm at the thrift store anyway, I pick up whatever else I'm needing that is a good price (those who price things at thrift stores aren't always up on what is really reasonable. $100 for a used bike, for example, is no deal when you can buy a brand new one at walmart for $150). With flatware at $.10 each, napkins at 4/$1, sheet sets at $2 each, we are keeping our house nicely supplied for what is American pocket change (we're spoiled that way).
With bus fees, lab fees, gym fees, book fees, fund raisers ad infinitum, special gym clothes, fashionable enough clothes to keep kids from getting beat up, etc, "free" government school actually costs MORE than homeschooling. That's with me buying 100% of their curriculum. Of course, by focusing on non-consumable books for my oldest kids' whole education, I now have enough books on hand the little ones cost nearly nothing. We're talking, I expect to spend about $700 this year to cover EVERYONE. Even if you add in that I need to buy a new computer (math drills, Spanish, typing, and part of our composition are all computer based), that is still less than $1000 to educate 6 school aged kids, 1 toddler, and 3 adults (including me:-)
Due to allergies, I make as many of my cleaners from scratch as possible (still haven't found a good dish soap recipe). We also make as much of our food from scratch so I can control allergens and blood-sugar triggers. Just so happens, scratch is cheaper.
For the price of one month's cheapy laundry soap, I can make three months worth of soap that doesn't make Hubby break out in rashes (and by "make" I mean I mix four different dry ingredients together in a jar and shake.)
For the price of one meal's worth of boxed mac N cheese (about 6 boxes for our family) I can make 2-3 meals of homemade mac n cheese and since I don't add florescent yellow food coloring to mine, I'm not setting my 10yo's ADD off while I'm doing it.
We do try to grow a garden each year, but since we live in the desert we would probably save more money by not even trying.
I do watch sales and coupons. There isn't often much we can use (coupons are generally for things someone in the house is allergic to), but I get the guy's razors for free (once in a while Bic runs a $3 off coupon at the same time Walmart runs a 3/$2.94 rollback. This means 2-3 times a year I take home 6 razors [2 coupons since Hubby buys 2 newspapers each week] plus Bic pays $.12 more off my total bill [Walmart just takes the amount of the coupon off the bill without adjusting it down to the price of the item]. Since all my men have full beards, that is more than enough razors for our household).
Hubby likes to have a glass of KoolAid every night. This adds up to a bit more than one container of his favorite brand a week. The normal price at the local grocery store is $2-2.50 each (that's $100-125.00 a year). Not bad, really. Walmart occasionally rolls that back to $2. BUT twice a year (Early May and Late June) the local grocery store has some equivalent of a $1-each sale! I now sacrifice to find the money to buy 55 cans of his KoolAid once a year. That's less than half price! And if I catch the coupon the manufacture usually runs juuussst before the sales, it's even cheaper:-)
I'm looking for other things I can use to save this way.
Walmart has the Savings Catcher program now. Take your receipt and go to savingscatcher.com. Enter the TC# at the bottom of the receipt into the website. After a 2-3 day processing time, Walmart will give you the difference on anything you bought from them that a local store has advertised for cheaper. Then if you have a Walmart Bluebird card (pre-loaded American Express) you can transfer that money to the BB card and AmEX will double it! (until the end of February, anyway). Not much in actual dollars, but every little bit counts!
She ONLY spends $160 a week on groceries for her family of four. That's $40 per person.
Meh. I do that every week and have for a year or more.
I spend around $550 a week. This is food, clothes, allowances (except Hubby's), minor house repairs, cleaning, hygiene, and school supplies (we do most of our shopping at a Walmart supercenter, so if we need, say, a can of paint or a new storage box, that goes in the grocery budget.)
There are 11 of us.
So, if you remove all the stuff you wouldn't buy at a grocery store (allowances, clothes, house repairs, printer ink, etc) we come out at about $40 per person per week,maybe a bit less.
So, I'm not expecting a lot of help from this course. Sigh.
How do I do this all?
Our local thrift store that benefits the local woman's shelter has a "$5 a basket" sale the first Friday of each month. This means all the clothes (and only clothes) I can fit in that little shopping basket for $5. You would be surprised at how many men's pants (for my older boys; 5'10"-6'2"), women's clothes (daughters range from my 7yo to my 5'7" oldest) and baby clothes you can fit in one basket! And since a shirt or skirt for me adds no money to the bill, I am freshening up my wardrobe too:-)I do add a trip to Salvation Army once in a while to top off what the other thrift store has, and I buy shoes and undies and things we just can't find at the thrift stores at walmart, but still I'm spending less than $50 a month to clothe us. That's about $600 a year. For 10 people (plus Hubby's undies. He takes care of the rest of his clothes out of his money). That's about half what I was spending before I found out about the thrift store sales and I can allow the girls to shop for the fun of buying clothes instead of just the bare necessities. I mean, really, $5 isn't much for the entertainment value.
And while I'm at the thrift store anyway, I pick up whatever else I'm needing that is a good price (those who price things at thrift stores aren't always up on what is really reasonable. $100 for a used bike, for example, is no deal when you can buy a brand new one at walmart for $150). With flatware at $.10 each, napkins at 4/$1, sheet sets at $2 each, we are keeping our house nicely supplied for what is American pocket change (we're spoiled that way).
With bus fees, lab fees, gym fees, book fees, fund raisers ad infinitum, special gym clothes, fashionable enough clothes to keep kids from getting beat up, etc, "free" government school actually costs MORE than homeschooling. That's with me buying 100% of their curriculum. Of course, by focusing on non-consumable books for my oldest kids' whole education, I now have enough books on hand the little ones cost nearly nothing. We're talking, I expect to spend about $700 this year to cover EVERYONE. Even if you add in that I need to buy a new computer (math drills, Spanish, typing, and part of our composition are all computer based), that is still less than $1000 to educate 6 school aged kids, 1 toddler, and 3 adults (including me:-)
Due to allergies, I make as many of my cleaners from scratch as possible (still haven't found a good dish soap recipe). We also make as much of our food from scratch so I can control allergens and blood-sugar triggers. Just so happens, scratch is cheaper.
For the price of one month's cheapy laundry soap, I can make three months worth of soap that doesn't make Hubby break out in rashes (and by "make" I mean I mix four different dry ingredients together in a jar and shake.)
For the price of one meal's worth of boxed mac N cheese (about 6 boxes for our family) I can make 2-3 meals of homemade mac n cheese and since I don't add florescent yellow food coloring to mine, I'm not setting my 10yo's ADD off while I'm doing it.
We do try to grow a garden each year, but since we live in the desert we would probably save more money by not even trying.
I do watch sales and coupons. There isn't often much we can use (coupons are generally for things someone in the house is allergic to), but I get the guy's razors for free (once in a while Bic runs a $3 off coupon at the same time Walmart runs a 3/$2.94 rollback. This means 2-3 times a year I take home 6 razors [2 coupons since Hubby buys 2 newspapers each week] plus Bic pays $.12 more off my total bill [Walmart just takes the amount of the coupon off the bill without adjusting it down to the price of the item]. Since all my men have full beards, that is more than enough razors for our household).
Hubby likes to have a glass of KoolAid every night. This adds up to a bit more than one container of his favorite brand a week. The normal price at the local grocery store is $2-2.50 each (that's $100-125.00 a year). Not bad, really. Walmart occasionally rolls that back to $2. BUT twice a year (Early May and Late June) the local grocery store has some equivalent of a $1-each sale! I now sacrifice to find the money to buy 55 cans of his KoolAid once a year. That's less than half price! And if I catch the coupon the manufacture usually runs juuussst before the sales, it's even cheaper:-)
I'm looking for other things I can use to save this way.
Walmart has the Savings Catcher program now. Take your receipt and go to savingscatcher.com. Enter the TC# at the bottom of the receipt into the website. After a 2-3 day processing time, Walmart will give you the difference on anything you bought from them that a local store has advertised for cheaper. Then if you have a Walmart Bluebird card (pre-loaded American Express) you can transfer that money to the BB card and AmEX will double it! (until the end of February, anyway). Not much in actual dollars, but every little bit counts!
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