How To Save Money On Groceries
If I said I would give you $150 extra a month to help you pay off your credit cards, lose weight and help your family become healthier, would you accept it? Does it sound too good to be true? The average American family spends 1/4-1/3 of their monthly grocery bill on things to drink but can’t find any extra money to pay off their credit cards.
Do you buy sodas, coffee, tea, juice and milk, plus all the things that go into these drinks like creamer, flavorings and sugar? Do you grab a glass of soda, juice or milk instead of a cold glass of water? You may even argue that juice and milk are good for your children but fertilizer (food for you grass) is good for your lawn.
We all know that too much fertilizer will kill it and if you don’t water it, it will die. I’m beginning to wonder if most of us are more concerned about making sure our yards are watered then our children. Of course they need some milk but like everything else do it in moderation.
Here are few tips to cut the costs of the drinks in your home and find some extra money to pay of your credit cards:
Find out how much milk is actually needed for your child. The USDA recommends that children under 5 get three to four servings of dairy per day. That is 2 cups of milk OR one serving equals one slice of cheese OR ½ container of yogurt. Don’t forget milk added to cereal.
Juice is just sugar water. Eat the whole fruit instead and give one glass of juice as a treat for breakfast or snack.
Limit the number of glasses of milk or juice given a day. After the allotted amount they get nothing else but water. If they are used to drinking it for meals, either give them one glass (1/2 cup) and when it’s gone they drink water or have them drink water first and then milk after they finish their meal.
Use small juice glasses. They give the appearance of more.
Don’t fill their sippy cups with juice or milk. Give them water instead.
If you put some milk in a cup and they don’t drink it all, put it in the fridge until later.
Limit sodas to a treat once or twice a week.
Don’t dilute your juice with extra water. Not only does this not taste very well but by “stretching” the juice you teach your kids bad eating habits by giving into their demands for juice instead of giving them water.
Keep water in the fridge. After water has set, the chlorine evaporates and the water tastes better cold.
Add a small amount of lemon juice to your water if you don’t like the taste.
Be careful to shop wisely. Sometimes buying name brand flavored or specialty coffees on sale costs less than making your own.
Use powdered milk instead of creamer in coffee or tea or try mixing your creamer half and half with dry milk.
After making coffee save the coffee filter and the coffee grounds in the maker. Add your coffee for the next day on top of the old grounds. This way you can use each filter 2 or 3 times. Buy a reusable coffee filter. They last for years.
If you run out of coffee filters use a paper towel until you can get to the store to buy more.
You don’t always have to make a full pot of coffee. Just make one or 2 cups at time.
Save extra coffee in a thermos instead of making a new batch or buy a smaller coffee maker.
To make flavored tea, add a package of flavored drink mix to each pot of tea.
For leftover soda – Combine 2 cups of flat soda with 1 package of unflavored or same flavored gelatin to make a rich flavored gelatin. This is particularly good with root beer, orange and grape sodas.
Creamy Orange Shake (like Orange Julius)
1/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
5-6 ice cubes
1/4 cup sugar
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup water (optional)
Combine ingredients in blender until smooth. Can be kept in the refrigerator 1 day. Serves 4.
Cafe Vienna
1/2 cup instant coffee
2/3 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. dried orange peel
2/3 cup nonfat dry milk (optional)
Stir ingredients together. Process in a blender until powdered. Makes 1 1/3 cups mix.
*Attach this note to the jar if making a jar mix:
Use 2 teaspoons to 1 cup of hot water.
1/2 cup instant coffee
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup nonfat dry milk
Stir ingredients together. Process in a blender until powdered. Makes 2 cups mix.
*Attach this note to the jar if making a jar mix:
Use 1 cup of hot water and 2 tablespoons of coffee mix for each cup of coffee.
-Jill
From: Dig Out Of Debt and Dining On A Dime Cookbook
photo by: AMagill
I used to do the put half the amount of coffee needed on top of the old grounds thing. It worked for me with my old coffee pot. The coffee tasted fine. Things relaxed for us, so I stopped doing it. Things were tight and I was low on coffee, I tried again with a new coffee pot. Ack! the coffee over flowed the reusable filter into the basket and down into the pot bringing grounds with it. The grounds swell up just too much for the size of the filter basket when I make a 10-cup pot. It may work if I am only making 6-cups (which is really only about 4 “real” mugs of what we drink, and generally we are 3 cup-a-day, especially during allergy season).
My new pot came with a reusable filter. Before I was using paper filters. Apparently the “trick” doesn’t work with my new pot and its smallish reusable filter. It may work better with paper filters, but I think I like not messing with filters better.
I was told to try and dump out the old grinds into a flat dish, and let them dry over day or two. next time you make a pot of coffee, use about 5 REAL scoop, and 3-5 scoops of the “used” coffee grinds. if it’s not strong enough experiment with the ratio. after these grinds are done, I put them in my potted plants as “soil”. saves money as it “extends” the coffee yield you get from the LB of coffee, or the 10.5 oZ a pound is NOW? what’s up wit dat?
I poor used coffee grinds on a plate or in a bowl, then stir with a fork for a day or three. I live in a moist climate, so If I forget to stir it twice a day, it grows mold. When the grounds are dry, I put little bowls of it around my house, especially the bathroom, as an air freshener. Then I add it to my kitties litter box to save on litter.
Using a French Press Coffee Maker saves us TONS of money on coffee. We only make 2-4 cups at a time, there are no filters to wash, and it tastes amazing. We boil water so there isn’t any energy wasted by the coffee machine. We grind our own coffee in little bits at a time, so we can buy the coffee beans in the bulk bins.
Sometimes I fancy it up by adding a sorbet syrup (2:1 sugar/water/flavor extract) makes it taste about 20x better than coffeebucks coffee.
It takes no more time than getting a coffee pot ready. There is less waste.
We are a family of 5 (two teenagers and a kindergartener) with a grocery budget of $75/week. My best advice for saving money on your grocery budget is to take inventory of your pantry/fridge/freezer and see what meals you already have on hand or can make with a small purchase. We often have a month where we will only use what we have in the house and limit our grocery trips to produce and milk.
I also make a weekly menu…saves on my grocery bill because we don’t buy fast food.
We have a percolator, which comes with a reusable filter, so we don’t need to add that to the grocery list. Kinda nice. We make a full pot, then just reheat cups as we need. I LOVE coffee, but I also like to save money. This is a happy medium for us. My parents never threw away coffee just to make a new batch unless it was just way too far gone. When I was young I thought they were overly frugal, but now I realize they were just practical and saved where they could.
I can’t fathom spending THAT MUCH on soda and juice! Holy Moly! Great article and ideas, though!
The idea of putting orange slices or cucumber/rosemary into a jug of chilling water sounds great. I have rosemary plants, and also appreciate the idea to dry out coffee grounds for reuse since I too have a bad mold allergy. Another idea could be to immediately run another pot through and chill it for iced coffees later. I’m learning to sprout dried beans and lentils safely for added nutrition. Groceries are getting outrageously expensive.
I have a coffee pot that uses the cone shaped filters but I buy the large round ones. I get 200 for the same price as 40 of the cones. Then I fold one in half then in thirds, it will be the same shape as the cones. Since I am the only one in my home to drink coffee I can go a couple days on one filter. The idea of drying the used grounds and adding to cat litter is great, I am going to try that today!!
I was just struggling writing a blog post about the same topic. Your post is outstanding wish I had seen it before I wrote mine. Thanks for the great ideas.
Wow! I never even thought of this. I’ve been wanting to cut back my soda intake because it’s healthier not to drink soda, but I never even thought of the drain it could be putting on our grocery budget! I’ll also definitely remember this tip when I have kids.