Monthly Shopping update plus WOW prices are going up

A couple of you have written to me that you also do once a month shopping. I have started doing this and have a budget of $285 which includes 4 people's food, toiletries, household products plus dog and cat food. I have a seperate budget for livestock feed which we buy at the local co-op. So, today is March 6th and I'm just now getting around to doing my March shopping. I still had some wonderful stuff left from February so my March shopping trip today came in at $129.xx! For the whole month! So, I'm pretty excited about that. I do have a few notes though about this shopping trip, hopefully someone will find them useful.

1.) If you have got eggs, USE THEM!
Our hens are finally starting to lay consistantly since it is getting warmer. We have 10 hens and are getting 8 eggs a day. If you are getting eggs, you really have to be creative in your meal plan in order to utlize them. Of course I use them in normal baking and such but I've found that it really helps to stretch our budget if I use the in main courses as well. Here are a few examples:
- at the first of the week I normally hardboil about a couple dozen eggs and I go ahead and peel them and refridgerate them. My 5 year old LOVES them as snacks, I like them in salads and sandwiches and so does my husband. Egg salad sandwich on freshly made bread is DELISH.
- make scrambled egg burritos, just scramble the eggs, then I put them in a tortilla and put salsa, cheese, sour cream and black beans in it and it makes a great dinner. Very easy, and a great way to turn your eggs into a dinner.
-scrambled egg sandwiches
-Quiches, I have found lots of great recipes in magazines as well as by searching online.

2.)WOW stuff is getting expensive. Although I normally buy my milk from a local farmer, I do try to keep up with prices at the grocery store. Normally a gallon of Horizon white milk is $4.99, today it was $6.79!!!! Wow, I was shocked. A few other things that I normally buy like Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, a store brand of quinoa, and the store brand of molassas has also gone up in price. I guess I say that to say that I really think that the crisis in the Middle East among other factors are really going to drive not just our gas prices up but all of our grocery prices up tremendously. I'm not going to get political here, ( because it would take waaaaayyyy too long) but I'm convinced that the problems over there are going to effect us here in America more than any of us would like to think. So my solution is two fold: first of all every time I go to the store I buy 5 things for my "stockpile". These are mainly things like dried beans, rice, pasta etc. but also things like medical supplies, bandages, matches , bottled water etc. This will be helpful not only in a time of extreme crisis, but also in the case when food prices go up so high that people can't afford them.
Second, I'm certainly planting more in our garden this year than years past. I also plan on putting up more foods than normal for my stockpile. I urge you all to do the same also!

January Shopping- Mission Accomplished

So I just got back from the grocery store and I'm pretty excited I must say. I got everything from my list ( which should be enough for the ENTIRE month of January for ......$153.xx!!!!! I must say I am pretty excited. I even got several things that were not on my list but were good deals. I got several non food items also that we need like an air filter, toilet paper and a really cute Christmas candle that was 75% off!

A few observations:
- we eat a lot of recipes that include tortillas, I really must leran to make these. I've made a few before, but I need to start making them in bulk. We eat a ton of tortillas, and that ate up about $12 of my grocery budget for the month.
- I'm ready for spring and summer when we can actually grow more ourselves, I spent probably $20 this month on fresh produce. I really wanted the fresh parsley, but I have so much that we dried ourselves that I had to pass....
- It's been so long that I've bought that much at the grocery store at one time, and $153 really fills up a cart
- My husband insists on vitamins for the girls since they don't eat meat. I can't argue with him, so that was about $10 of my monthly budget. They had a Buy one get one sale on the vitamins we like, and I had coupons, so it worked out nicely.

I still have about $120 left for the month!!! I know I'll have to pick up maybe another gallon of milk in a few weeks but that honestly should be all. Any money left over will go directly into savings for something special.

Once a month shopping???

A new year is upon us and I'm really going to try to do my grocery shopping once a month. There are several reasons I want to try this....
1) I have a monthly grocery budget and just going once per month should really help to detour "extras".
2) We don't live in town, it takes a while for us to get to town, go the grocery store and get home. We should save on gas also, if we just go once per month.
3) This will FORCE me to stick to my monthly meal planning lists.
4) More family time at home on the weekends which typically would be my "trip to town" day.

Also, before I divulge my Monthly shopping list and my monthly budget I think it is fair to tell you a few things about my deep freeze and pantry.
1) We only eat deer meat ( or venison as some people call it) and  fish ( Crappie and catfish are our faves), we will eat canned tuna occasionally as my 5 year old adores it. VERY VERY occasionaly , like if we go to the Gulf , we will bring home shrimp. The freezer is full of deer meat, but most days we are strictly vegetarians.
2) I coupon, and I have a very nice stockpile of rice, whole grain pasta,oats and a few other things. So you may notice that even though I may list oatmeal for breakfast, that I don't buy oatmeal that month, it's because I've got a TON of it already. Same with pasta. I have boxes and boxes of whole grain pasta I caught on sale and had coupons for. I will not buy pasta for a very long time, and actually will probably make it before I pay more than a few cents a box for it.
3) We can a LOT of our garden each year. You may notice things in my menu, especially things that are tomato based like salsa,diced tomatoes, tomato soup etc. that I never buy at the grocery store, it's because we can them. Same thing with pesto, jelly, jam, jalepenos etc. If you notice that it's not on my grocery list it's probably because I can it, ( or freeze it, like corn).
4) My girls stay with my mother in law part time and a private babysitter part time, so I don't buy food for them for breakfast or lunch during the week ( unless it's a special snack).

So.....
I have Staples that I will need to stock up on , and I have a list of Health and Beauty Aides that our family needs, but I should be stocked up on the majority of that also due to my couponing.

I will post my monthly budget ( which should help hold me accountable), tomorrow, and will also post my staples list and my menu soon. I plan to go grocery shopping this coming Friday, so we will see what happens.

I would love to hear stories of you all and your adventures in once a month shopping.