New budget

[tortoise]

I'd always lived in poverty, but that last 5 years I got really spoiled. No budget. Put it on my fiancé's credit card, he pays off the balance every month.

Now we're moving to the country (in May) and will be carrying 2 mortgages - 1 for the farm and another on the city ranch house until it sells. Enter budget!

After all the big stuff, he wants me to stay within $800 per month. Gas, groceries (2 adults, 1 child), household, clothing, personal items, etc. Jeez, it's not unusual for us to spend that much just in gas in a month. I know it's a very generous budget, but I'm feeling nervous.

Going out to eat is not going to be an option anymore, so meal planning is in. My fiancé tends to buy everything on sale whether we need it or not. So I'll be doing ALL of the grocery shopping now. Bummer.

I am interested what the frugal pros are doing? Especially tips on meal planning. Seems like we already have 5 go-to meals and not much variety. Any simple favorites?

 

[moolie]

Just off the top of my head, hope these help, you are probably already doing some of these:

Stretch ground meat in dishes like lasagne, shepherd's pie, tacos, chili, etc. with lentils--you can go up to half meat/half lentils and no one can really tell if the lentils are cooked soft. Ups the fibre content of dishes too, bonus!

Eat fewer meat meals, tons of vegetarian recipes out there that taste great but are way cheaper to make. Work with your family likes/dislikes and try to re-work fave recipes to be meatless.

Make soup out of anything you can think of, serve with home-made bread. Keep a bag in your freezer to pop in leftover bits and pieces for soup.

Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, bacon & eggs--whatever you family likes). Be creative, we ate some weird cheap dinners when I was growing up and I didn't think anything of it--and do the same now with my family.

Make your own cleaning products if you don't already--a huge budget saver. My faves are liquid laundry soap (1 bar grated Sunlight laundry soap, 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 5 gallons hot water) and tub/tile cleaner (1 part Sunlight dish soap, 1 part vinegar, 1 part hot water in a squirt bottle--spray on, leave for 5 minutes, wipe off and rinse--super for hard water/soap scum).

Curtains? Make a pocket hem at both ends of an old flat sheet, run curtain rod through one pocket, then twist sheet over once and run rod through pocket on the other end--pretty upside-down curved rainbow shaped valance that will cover most windows. (Hope that makes sense!) Or cut it in half, make a pocket hem with the cut end, and slide onto curtain rod--two instant curtains if your window is short enough. Sheets are usually cheap cheap cheap at thrift stores if you don't have any old ones to do this with. Or check the "bargain wall" at your big box fabric store--usually some super deals on pretty fabrics there. Or IKEA often has some super cheap curtains that are easily customized, check their website.

Entertainment--instead of going out for dinner, have a family night. Make a special dinner, doesn't have to be expensive just something special to your family. Follow up with a family games or movie night--Netflix, a fave video--my library has a great (free!) DVD collection. Use your library for books and magazines as well! Make not going out for dinner special--go on a picnic to a special place, have a "family cooking night" for dinner from time to time where everyone helps make dinner together, pack lunches for work/school and add in surprise home-made extras like squares/cookies/pudding/pie/canned fruit/yogurt etc.--way cheaper than buying.

 

[baymule]

I got hungry reading Baymule's list.

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Thanks @FarmerJamie!!! We eat darn good around here! My DH is always amazed how I can walk in the kitchen and make supper out of whatever we have.

 

[baymule]

Ham. 1st meal-baked. 2nd meal-leftover warmed up. 3rd meal-sliced and fried. 4th meal-cubed up in ham omlettes along with diced onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and cheese. 5th meal-tired of ham yet? slice it up, package and put in the freezer. 5th meal-hambone and beans! Keep all the juices in the pot, add water and beans (I use pinto beans). Can probably get a couple of meals out of this. Serve with flour tortillas or cornbread.

Sides: mac n' cheese, vegetables, baked potatoes (can serve baked potatoes stuffed with ham) sweet potatoes

Whole chicken. 1st meal-baked. Buy McCormicks jerk seasoning and sprinkle all over the chicken, inside and out. That's all you do to it. Bake until meat is falling off bone. Serve with sides ya'll like. 2nd meal-warm up leftovers. 3rd meal-chicken tacos or fry whole corn tortillas and top with chicken, jalepenos (if you like them) cheese and heat until cheese is hot and melted. Serve with salad. Chicken should be pretty much gone, so move on to 4th meal-Soup! The broth is already seasoned, add water and simmer awhile. Remove bones, add chopped onion, celery, bell pepper, pasta or rice or whatever you like.

Lasagna. Make in 2 or 3 pans. Eat one, freeze the other one.

Pancake supper.

Stir fry. Buy meat on sale in family packs, repackage in singles. Keep one out and freeze the rest. Cube meat, marinate overnight in soy sauce, or cooking sherry or whatever you like. Drain. Cook meat in hot oil in skillet, remove to small bowl. Add chopped vegetables and sauté. Vegetables can be anything you like, cabbage, onion, broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, anything. Add meat back in, serve over rice.

Grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon in them. Serve with chips or French fries.

Do you have chickens or will you be getting any? Will you be planting a garden? Both of those will help with the grocery bill.

Budget. Stop going to the store. Really. Just stop. It's so much easier to not have to talk yourself out of buying something if you are not even in the darn store to begin with. Just stop.

Gas. You just stopped going to the store, so that cuts put a lot of trips. Buy your groceries and run your errands ONE DAY out of the week. The rest of the time, STAY HOME. This is (I suppose) your dream home, what ya'll have wanted, so stay home and make it your home. Plant that garden, make curtains for the windows, enjoy your new home.

Personal items. Do you really NEED that? Can you live without it? Can you make do with what you already have? When you buy a lot of little crap, it all adds up and keeps you from buying a big item that you really want.

We are not poor, but I have been there, done that and got the T-shirt. I am frugal by nature. I like being able to get what is important to me when I want it. Buying a farm means that a roll of wire and T-posts look a lot more attractive than that mall shopping trip.

 

[baymule]

Several weeks ago, I fried onions. I sliced them very thin, dredged through flour and fried them crispy. I was left with a skillet of browned flour and oil and a bowl of flour. I dumped the flour in the skillet and browned it too. I made a roux (pronounced roo) which is the base for gumbo. Why waste the flour and oil? I put it in the freezer. Took it out last night and made shrimp gumbo.

 

[tortoise]

hmmm.... I could make chili tonight and reheat tomorrow, right? I won't want to cook after a long day at work. And getting in the kitchen would warm up my cold toes tonight!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Dang good idea, Bay....especially the part about making Gumbo!

 

[Denim Deb]

We try to get those pork loins on sale as well. Then, we'll cut them up into either chops or smaller roasts.

 

[baymule]

What all goes into gumbo that makes it different than soup? (honest question here)

Roux and gravy are different. Roux is browned more than gravy base. I call it "just before it burns." And how do you know just before it burns? Easy-burn a batch and next time you'll know. Gravy, even brown gravy is not that dark. Usually brown gravy is meat based from pan drippings, roux is not, just flour and oil.

Oil or bacon grease melted in a heavy iron skillet and flour added to make it thick, but not too thick. Medium high heat, stir and stir and stir. Smoke rising, and just before it burns, add water to make the roux. Put in a big pot, add more water to thin it down. The "soup" will have a real dark color.

I make a lot of smoke when I cook........

 

[Britesea]

I've been living on a household/gas budget of $800 for years now. When I find a good sale on something we use, I buy as much as I can afford at the time. If it isn't shelf stable and I don't have room in the freezer I either dehydrate it or can it. Even in off season like now, whole frozen turkeys are among the cheapest meats available. I thaw it just enough to be able to cut off the drumsticks and wings and cook them for use in a couple of dinners, and either debone the carcass and can the meat as dice or ground, or sometimes I boil it and canned the pulled meat. I can the extra stock from that too, for soups, beans, etc. I only go shopping once a week (every two weeks if my garden is giving me enough produce). If I don't have enough beef for a recipe, I will substitute pork or turkey rather than buy the beef at regular prices.
I also try to cook EVERYTHING from scratch. If you are buying frozen cookie dough, you are paying for someone else's labor; yours is free.