wow Amanda, the more I watch your videos the more I love you and the values your family stands by. You have completely changed the way my family shops for groceries , saving us hundreds of dollars a month. My husband and 11 year old son are also watching your videos. We admire how you have involved your daughter into the process and are already teaching her the value of money while spending quality time together. I'm going to heavily promote you on my channel as my form of paying you back for what you have taught me. Please do more of these types of hauls and food videos.
It kind of sticks in my craw that people are on you about buying organic, non-GMO, etc. When you have a family and need to save money you buy what you can and what people in the family will or can eat. I think you do a great job.
I am SO impressed with your grocery shopping! And what a blessing that all your stores are so close together! Saves you time, gas money and grocery budget money! YAY! I am also impressed with all your healthy choices for such an amazing budget! You are a great example. I have been amazed at how using the crockpot to cook chicken and then shred it for recipes requires so much LESS chicken and we still get plenty of chicken. I think in the US we are used to eating way more meat at a meal than the "palm of your hand/ deck of playing cards" serving size and shredding it helps us eat the proper portion and really stretches a pack of chicken. You could crockpot your chicken and shred it then add that cream cheese and salsa and serve it over rice with some of that cilantro chopped on top! Can't wait to see more of your videos. Blessings on you!
I'm a new sub here & truly admire you! I need to get on a budget, look at what I have in my pantry, refrigerator, freezer, put weekly meal plans together, write out my needed grocery list & stick to it!! Thank you for inspiring me.
we are a family of five and we spend about 500 a month sometimes even a little more ... this definitely makes me think I could save money!!!! I'm inspired to try!
Omg I just watched your last 2 videos came at a great time for me!! We are currently trying to do Dave Ramsey's program and budget our finances to be debt free and your blog post and Videos are a blessing!! Thank you!!
I recently added up what my family spends on groceries each month and it’s somewhere between $700-$1100 a month for two adults and two children. And we run out of food a lot! The other day I had $50 to buy groceries for a week and instead of getting the usual processed food that doesn’t fill them up that my daughter and their father normally eat, I got stuff to make real food. I got enough for three separate recipes and two of the recipes last us two or more days. I had complaints but we haven’t run out of food and my daughter stopped complaining the second she tasted my homemade no-chicken noodle soup (I’m vegan). She ate a bunch and hasn’t asked for junk food since. So now I’m here trying to get ideas on how to save even more money because having more food that is better quality and more tasty while spending far less money is definitely something I want to get used to.
Faylyn Hillier Wow, being vegan, it should be easy to keep food handy because that is usually pretty cheap. Beans, rice, spaghetti, oatmeal, grits, frozen vegetables, Peanut butter. All of this is pretty cheap and lasting. A bag of apples is pretty cheap and you can bake them with a little brown sugar (or not, LOL) and cinnamon, great and CHEAP.
My kids like when I make a pot of fresh beans with fried okra, and cornbread. The bonus is if I make a large pot, I can use the leftover beans for other meals. I use mine for burritos, tostadas, chili...etc. you can make a meatless chili, I do it all the time because beef is expensive here.
Your daughter is so cute. Smiling in the background and then all of a sudden she starts listing things off! This is what "unschooling" and/or homeschooling looks like, people! Confident, happy, articulate children learning real-world skills in addition to all the subjects they would take at school; well, everything except petty gossiping, how to be a bully or be bullied; how to be cliquish, how to be disrespectful to adults, peers and self, how to be pressured to be promiscuous and to feel like a freak and be an outcast if you have strong ethics and morals... I could go on. Good job, Mom and Dad! She's a lovely young woman.
I actually watched one of your hauls just last night for the first time ever. Lucky me that this new video was placed on my feed when I opened youtube again today so I could subscribe! I don't have a family to feed but I am still spending more money than you are to feed less people! You've inspired me to cut back and be an organized planner rather than just buying what I see at the store. Thank you!
That's great. here in Puerto Rico food is expensive. We pay 11.5 tax. We had to find a way to cut the budget. So I became a gardener, we buy in the military base and there's 2 community stores that are trying to sell at a low price. You are a great mom. Some moms think about buying new clothes, or getting their hair done but others are thinking of budgeting to make ends meet. Great job.
nery colon 1 you may want to look into fishing home aquariums as well as lobster and crab trapping. You have the beauty and bounty of the Caribbean around you use it. If you can raise some chickens or other animals for food.
You are awesome! I watched your video and just read the related blog post. I feel informed and inspired to menu plan and cook more consistently. I love the idea (from the blog) to create a menu list of what we eat. I can't wait to do my inventory and some meal prep. I love the idea of rice cooked and ready to go. My challenge is no snacks, we are moving towards less snacks and the idea of healthy snacking that increases our veggie intake. Great video!
Thank you! I hope you will check out the more recent hauls- and don't forget to join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group! We have the best time there, sharing frugal meal ideas!
I love all your grocery hauls. I shop at a few different places too and lately our cost has been going down with shopping bulk and farmers markets. I dont eat much meat so I made a HUGE dish of multiple beans, rice, veggies and nutritional yeast and it has lasted me a week! 😁 keep up the great work and God bless!
Found your channel today and am Sooooooooo inspired by you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your story and wisdom with us. We are also a family of 5, 4 of which are adults and 1 in High School. I've really been trying hard to watch what I spend and cook real food. Your channel is definitely helpful even if we do not have the same type of stores in our area. It's all about being the best steward we can with what we've been given.
so glad I found your channel. I am a full time care giver to my Grandma, a single mom of two kids, I homeschool and I'm 27 and disabled. Mt dad is also living with us so we are also a family of five. I love all the tips. Need all I can get. God bless
I hope you are able to learn some tips and tricks to save on your grocery budget. Be sure to check out my blog for more detailed information- thefundamentalhome.com
Maybe you could do a video of the food after it is cooked and prepared. Also, showing dishes with portion and serving sizes. Thanks, I've enjoyed watching your videos.
thank you for sharing your ideas. My husband works and I stay home with the kids and home school as well, and I am amazed that you can feed 5 people every day for a hundred a month. In our area it is VERY expensive to live/eat/shop, but again thank you for your ideas because I will be checking out even more less expensive food shopping options for our family (soon to be 5 people as well.) Blessings to you and your family.
I just found a new grocery discount store 2 minutes from my house. Got a lot of bargains! Can't wait to see what I'll find next time. Thanks for your grocery tips! You do great things with your budget!
your lunch & breakfast planning makes so much sense. you were able to get fantastic deals at the stores! excellent! I love the deals I find at Grocery Outlet! Thank you for sharing!
Brilliant! Some good menu planning being done and plenty of basic ingredients. I'm impressed that at least you admitted to a few manufactured bargains too! Congratulations on your good kitchen management.
Wow! You're my hero! $100 a month is seriously impressive! I also watched your original video on this subject a few months back. Both are good. I love your attitude and how you go about your shopping. I'm in Canada, and I have a very hard time trying to keep our grocery budget down to $800/mo! Yes there is a difference in our cost of food. (gallon milk-$5, dozen eggs $3, 1lb cheese-$6.) But not 8 fold that's for sure lol! We are a family of 7. 5 Kids - ages 19-down to 6. Great tips and ideas! Thanks a bunch :)
Wow! It seems like folks from Canada are really struggling to eat well and keep their budget low. I hear from them all the time. I hope the tips and techniques help you to continue to save as much as possible. Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate it :)
I didn't think we had any discount grocery stores nearby, but I just searched 'salvage' based on your suggestion in the comments and I see one within about half an hour drive. Score! Not something I would hit every shopping trip, but I think I might make a trip out there tomorrow and see what they have. I am normally a dedicated Aldi girl, with hits at Kroger or Walmart for non Aldi items. But I would love to pick off better deals. I used to be able to get a lot of manager specials at our Aldi, but we live in the outskirts of Columbus OH and the Aldi has so much traffic here that is rare to find anything marked down. Anyway...thanks for the tip to search 'salvage' grocery store.
I'm so happy that we just got an Aldi about a week ago and it's such a blessing! our family budget is so tight that we've been a month without grocery shopping because we simply didn't have the money. I went to aldi for the first time this morning and I fully stocked our pantry and fridge for 55! we got so much produce.. I was so happy!
That is wonderful! I am SO happy! Some folks don't understand what it is like when you simply HAVE to make do with what you have, but I totally get it! I am glad you are filled up with lots of good stuff now. Aldi is a blessing!
I am so impressed with this! You rocked the budget...man, do I wish we had a discount grocery store here! I do most of my shopping at Aldi and fill in the gaps at Kroger or WalMart. For our family of three my budget is currently around $350 a month and I'm working to bring it down more. It's tricky but I so love saving money!
You can do it! Just cut things down little by little, and you can make it happen. Right now, you are at about 87.50 a week. Try to get rid of 12.50 a week and that will give you 50 extra dollars a month :)
im really impressed you can do all this :) im 25, live by myself as my boyfriend and i dont live together yet and i spend maybe double that amount on just food for me a month plus around your weekly budget eating out. i could stand to learn a few things from you :)
Her life is possible. We lived on alot less a month an only saw the store every 4 to 6 months to restock on flour, sugar, baking soda and yeast. We grew and raised everything we ate. We'd buy a whole cow from a neighbor and pay another to process it. 1 cow gave our family 2 years of meat. I still live this way just a tad bit modern now.
So inspirational. my husband and I have been trying to lower our budget (not just food)for a couple months now to save money for holidays, and out our sons birthday. To see that it is possible is encouraging. I've been lost these past few month. Just freaking out about how were going too do this. So thank you so much for taking you're time to film this, and make you're blog.
You can do it. No worries. It just takes a little planning and determination. :) You should join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group. It's a great place for encouragement. Here's a link- facebook.com/groups/1171483046225309/
just came across this video and I have to share that this week I am trying to challenge my self to use everything I have in my fridge and cabinets and not go to shop since we are low in funds... I want to video about it but I have to see if I can really stick to it... i have 3 boys that are here all day LOL and one is a baby.. so right now I have 8 eggs to work in some recipes for the whole week... hope I can do this !
You can do it. Pinterest is my best friend. I am always looking for things to try. Are you a part of the Frugal Family Food Facebook group? If not, you should join! You can ask questions there! Let me know how it goes!
I am currently spending $100.00 a week (I do not have to buy beef or pork as we have that butchered and I do not factor that in my weekly grocery budget.) As of tomorrow I am on my 3rd week of the cash envelope system and so far it's working! Im hoping to cut my grocery budget down even further come summer since I will be able to can and store alot from my garden. I am taking my first chunk of my savings to purchase a gas stove so my hubby, kids and I dont have to haul our goods to Grandma Betty's to can! Lol Great video! I look forward to watching more!!!
Amanda, your video is awesome . I'm motivated to try this too, thanks for the super ideas you give. I want to know what do you do for kids lunches ? Please make videos on meal prep too.
My kids are homeschooled, so they eat at home- except for my oldest, who works full-time. You can find more details about how we eat breakfast on the blog post. Here's a link- www.thefundamentalhome.com/how-i-feed-my-family-of-5-for-under-100-every-month-part-2/
I wish you would talk more about the time spent. Trying to get a realistic idea what to expect. I stopped shopping multiple stores after having kids. Is that the only way to shop so frugally? Or do you think a lot of it is creative meal planning.
We can't eat on a 100 a month for a family of 5, but we do have some crazy food allergies. We do a lot of creative meal planning and have to buy special food items. We spend about 300 a month, primarily at Costco. I am so very amazed they can eat for 2 weeks on what she just bought
It is a lot of time and potentially gas, which aren’t being factored in. So it depends on the route. I’ve chosen circuits (short and short-plus). Top grocery store, mid range, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi. I focus on the last two and keep all my expenditures to under $50 for me and did, no matter what. Sometimes the actual bill is $35 to $40, which I either keep n play till the end of the month or spend on stocking up. Next month I add the balance to my budget, putting the difference into (1) another budget category, as needed or (2) into savings.
This is the way that I shop usually, though I kind of just pick one place a week. I have a set amount for discretionary for the week and then figure out my meal plan when I get home. I have found that having a month (or three) worth of bulk foods in the cupboard and freezer helps lower my costs as well. In this way, I only have to buy things on sale. Also, it is almost a hedge against a bad week or unexpected purchases. Kind of like a food insurance, so if I have a slow week freelancing, I don't have to worry about purchasing anything. Gardening helps a lot as well in the summer time. Thanks for the video. Many will take encouragement that they can do it as well, lowering a discretionary bill when needed. While others are only looking for why it won't work for them.
Thank you so much for your videos! I am a single mom and usually I have a hard time staying within budget. You have inspired me. I'm going to try doing planned meals, which it's hard for me to do because I work a lot to cover all our expenses.
You can do it. Consider joining our Frugal Family Food Facebook group if you need some encouragement. Here's a link- facebook.com/groups/1171483046225309/
Im not going to be able to stop watching these videos now that i found them ... Its amazing the coupons and discounts in america ... here in Ireland we never get good coupons 😞
Really cool you can definitely tell that you put a lot of effort into this and it pays off because this is great I'm defiantly going to take some tips from this 🌸
A bit of both. I make a partial plan based on what I have on hand. Then, I buy what I can at the cheapest prices and finish out my menu with those items.
Another good option for gluten free flor is blending up dry oats into a powder and using that for flour. That is mainly what I use and I love it, I pretty much use the same measurements as I would for wheat flour. Also, cream of chicken soup (and all other cream soups) usually contain wheat, so be careful eating/READ THE LABEL if you have a gluten intolerance.
You know, I am still getting used to the gluten free thing, so I slip up every once it a while. I did forget about that Cream of Chicken soup. Thankfully, we didn't have any issues, but I will learn to make it myself for next time.
Love your food shopping and menu planning! I don't know where you live but your food prices are very low! Yes now a days you have to shop around (go to many food stores) keep up the good work! 😄
It's a local shop. I don't usually mention the name for privacy reasons. However, if you ask around, most areas have discounted grocery stores. When we lived in MD, we visited one run by the Amish :)
Ah. Thanks. I've been to several in our area but they're all chains and nothing with deals that great. I'll have to do some research to see if I'm missing out on a local one.
Oh my gosh, watched this again today. You’re both so cute and you’ve come a long way in terms of production and camera presence. But your deals are still awesome. Girl, we all buy processed food. 💖
Hello Amanda, I was sent over to view your blog by Frugal, Simple & Less. Your blog looks so helpful and would please like to add on to it. Thank you so much.
Where's the milk, eggs, cheese, bread etc? Also what do you eat for breakfast, I saw the little instant oatmeal box - but that's not enough to last. I know you said you had another thing of oatmeal, but you hadn't bought that this trip for the week so it's not included.. also what do you typically do for lunches? Do you typically spend $50 every two weeks, or just some weeks (I'm asking since you were using surplus you already had)
We spend $50 every two weeks on a regular basis. If you check out all the videos, you will see there are times we go over a bit and times we are under. You can read all the details about how we shop on thefundamentalhome.com I also made some videos about common questions like these. If you want to check them out, here is a link to the playlist- ua-cam.com/play/PLobf9qkSmQIVOzT6KtmJbFJ85po-sr9h0.html
wow I'm in awe for my family of 6 is spent anywere from $200- $350 a week! We eat mainly fresh fruit and vegetables. Those prices are amazing where you live!
Great video! I really enjoyed this. My husband and I are expecting our first baby in May, so we're learning how to better budget our money now - especially with food! We do shop at Aldi, and we find that in our area the produce prices are best at our local Korean supermarket, HMart. I'm curious about the Discount Grocery Store. Do you have any recommendations for how to locate one? In our area, north Texas near Dallas, there are "salvage" grocery stores, but my limited experience with them is that they sell a lot of "expired but still edible" food.
I know this video is a few months old, but just so you know cream of ____ soup is not gluten free. It has wheat as a thickening agent. You can make your own by melting 1 Tbsp butter, and adding 1 Tbsp of GF flour. Add 1c. milk and then a gluten free chicken, or beef, stock. W-M has it. It's about $3 for a jar, but it lasts forever.
I completely understand the struggle. We're 100% GF here (I'm highly allergic and so is one of my children, and make all the meals, so I'm not cooking 2 different things!) so things like normal soy sauce, cream soups, anything that makes your life easier is out the window. Good luck to your family!
Have you tried chicken breast and Kraft Italian dressing? We love it! Especially over rice. We get our dressing at the dollar tree. Cutt your chicken breast into small pieces and cook them in the salad dressing until the sauce becomes thick. Serve over rice. Its delicious.
I don't know where you live but the stores in your town have 80's prices! When i was a kid, i used to work a garden for my mother. Because of arthritis, she was able to do so much so; she said what to plant, i planted it, watered and maintained it, and we ate like high royalty all year, every year! People at school and church thought that my family own a few oil rigs in Arabia or something! People thought we were wealthy because we had so much fruit and vegetables! That garden provided food for us because we couldn't afford what we needed. We had so much that some of it went bad, because noone would take it most of the time when we offered it to them FOR FREE.
I love you and your daughter shopping together...it makes me think of myself and my baby girl. :) I hope once we move and get settled we can try this ourselves and see if it will work for us. :) Thanks for sharing this with us, it is so interesting how you do. :)
Not everything is in an ad. Jumping costs about 19 cents in gas (I have calculated it) and doesn't take much time since the stores are right near each other.
My truck gets 25 miles per gallon, and gas is 2.19 a gallon. The stores are less than three miles apart. I spent approximately 19 cents going to them all. That is worth it to me to save the amount of money I save on the different products I was able to purchase. I would not drive a distance that did not make sense.
That's true. It takes me about two hours every two weeks, but that isn't much to me. Although, I know when I was a working mom it would have been a lot.
The Fundamental Home You are doing really well with the two hours every two weeks. Where I live, it takes about an hour to leave the house, drive to the store, go in the store, buy a few items, checkout, and drive home. About the only way you could get around that is if you went to WalMart in the middle of the night. Otherwise, just traffic time, checkout time, etc. gets up there. You can do a little better if you hit multiple stores on the same trip. Either way what you are doing is pretty impressive, mainly the incredible bargains you seem to find.
Thanks. We are pretty lucky to have the stores so close together and about 10 minutes from our house. When we lived in MD, even though it was a more urban area, we had to travel further, and there was much more to deal with in terms of traffic and lines.
Fyi you can save yourself the 79 cents and make your own cream of chicken (cream of whatever actually) AND you can make it gluten free since regular cream of - - - usually has gluten in it. There is a recipe on Pinterest on how to make it. Love your videos!
You and others are So fortunate to have such amazing discount grocers near you. We have nothing like that anywhere near us. Not within a hundred miles. Even the nearest Aldi is closed down for renovations until almost the end of October. We do have Walmart and Dollar Tree though. In our town there is just One place to buy food and they take full advantage of that fact.
I must say that I am pretty impressed that you feed five people for $100 a month. We are a family of four, but my mother also has an at-home daycare with nine children and our total per month is always around $1000 unfortunately since we end up feeding thirteen people, not four... The prices are also much higher here in Canada and it's insane just how quickly the total goes up, and we also do not have discount grocery stores or coupons here--if they did, my mother and I would jump at the opportunity. This is why whenever we go on our monthly grocery shopping trip in the States, I truly enjoy hunting for coupons online and using them in stores in order to save some money!
BTW, what are your thoughts on bulk shopping? Do you ever buy in bulk? Or shop wholesale? I know initially you have to fork out more $ but you can also save exponentially in the end.
Do you budget this way to save for retirement? Or are you trying to pay off debt? Or is your income too high to qualify for SNAP benefits but too low to spend more? if we had a budget grocery store I'd make that my #1 shopping place lol
We have many long term financial goals. So far, all of our children have debt free college educations, and our only debt is our mortgage. I hope to be mortgage free in the next few years. Then, we hope to build our financial positions to provide for our future. The discount store is definitely my #1 shopping place.
Great haul for the money, Amanda! By the way, I planted cilantro in a pot this spring... got it for $2.86 from Walmart. That thing has gone wild! It is growing like crazy and no matter how much I use, it keeps sprouting up. Normally it will survive the winter, especially if its strong in summer. So you might think about growing you an herb pot! Great price on the squash...we have it growing now in our garden. We had squash casserole a couple times last week...and today we cut it up with butter and garlic salt and put it in a foil packet on the grill. Do you have a garden this year? Thanks for the video :)
Alas, our garden is not doing well. Only some onions. I am not giving up, though. Planning a fall attempt. One day I will look back and laugh at how hard it was to get it together. I want to build an herb spiral :)
We had such a bad garden last year, our first year in our new home. It was thoroughly discouraging. But everyone said, "Try try again." And we have successfully grown gardens at other locations so we felt like we could do it. But so much of the garden growth is out of your control...like temperatures and late freezes and soil conditions and rain fall. Anyway, this year our garden has done beautifully. So yes, keep going! I have never heard of an herb spiral so I will have to look that up. I have grown herbs for years...but even that flopped last summer. Over half my herbs died. But my rosemary and oregano survived all winter long. This year we added cilantro and it is doing great too...so praying it will continue.
I live in Texas we don't have a Aldi's but we have an H.E.B. but what is the name of the discount store you shop at? or do you know any like this in Texas?
I consider myself to be a good budgeter - I shop at Aldi and the regular grocery store, take advantage of coupons, but I cannot get below $350/month for my husband and me (this includes pet food and toiletries, however). I'm going to definitely use some of your tips. I've never shopped at a "discount" grocery store though, maybe I'll add that to my grocery trip. Glad I found your channel!
Thanks so much! Make sure you join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group if you are on FB. You can ask in the group about discount stores in your area :)
Wow $50 every two weeks that's impressive! We're also a family of 5 but I can't ever seem to get under $80 a week. That's for all three meals for the 5 of us. We do live in NY so maybe it's just more expensive here I don't know. But I must say aldi is a life saver for me I do the bulk of my shopping there and then I got to other stores for their sales.
We don't really drink milk. It doesn't settle well with everyone. We do eat cheese and yogurt for dairy. As to eggs, I have several dozen. We do eat them rather frequently.
@thefundamentalhome what store is the discount grocery store you use? How did you find it and any tips about finding one in my area?😀😀I'm always striving to stay on budget, but have fallen off recently- finding your videos are such inspiration!!
You can google discount, thrift, or salvage grocery store to see if there is one in your area. You can also ask your most frugal friends because many times they do not advertise.
I could live off of 200 dollars each month. That would be everything though. Including soaps, personal care items etc. Have you tried making your own laundry soap? Lots of great how to videos out there. I'm going to try that soon also. I hate paying so much for a small container.
michelle bright I made my own for about 2 years and it just never cleaned our clothes. Also, it has been said that it's bad for your washer & it's not really got any detergents in it. We've been using Arm&Hammer for about a year and love it! Plus it's only $11 for a ginormous tub at Sam's and lasts is a very long time.
I used to make my own detergent and it left a weird film on the clothes and they looked dingy. It also didn't get out grease stains, so went back to good old Tide. I still make my own window cleaner and Goo-Gone.
I have a family of 4 adults and live on a very budgeted income....what store is it that you're referring to when you say "discount store"?? We do have an Aldi's just around the corner from us and I love that place.
I started budgeting that way, but I would always end up spending more because I would plan to use things that weren't on sale. By shopping first to get the best deals, THEN making a meal plan, I spend less.
The Fundamental Home I eat before I shop #1, but I've always found that meal planning works for me. Stick to the meal plan and save money. I don't buy processed foods except tomato sauce and never get fast foods 'cause I cook better. I noticed those things called Lunchables I think they were called but those are loaded with sodium. My mother never bought chips or cookies (homemade when we had them) and sodas she purchase once a year. I didn't have my 1st potato chip until high school when a boy brought them over. She had 5 kids and only her paycheck. We ate very little meat (meat maybe 2-3 x's a month) but ate fish and vegetables and lots of salads with everything but the kitchen sink in them. For snacks we had bags of oranges, apples and pears and grapefruit and carrot sticks and celery sticks and other kids would leave on the run! lollol We didn't get colds and flu like everyone else did either and it was attributed to the way we ate. I'm 66 now and have had flu maybe 5-6 x's during my life and about the same with colds. Good luck young lady!
I know this is a very old post but I shop Kroger a lot for mark down meat two weeks ago I got 8 one pd packages of Laura's 93% lean 4 pk ground beef patties for $.99 each regular price $6.99 this was at 10:30( most of the deals are gone by then) I won't pay more then $1.99 .I've gotten Kroger premium 8oz ribeye steaks $3.99 and 10oz sirloin for $4.99. Recently I got two 32 oz package of bare chicken which is just boneless skinless chicken breasts regular price $14.29 for $.99 two days later they had some marked $1.99 I didn't buy any that day. I have three grocery stores that are in three different directions less than a mile from my house that I shop at but mostly I shop at Kroger for the markdown meat produce bakery deli & dairy in the summer I keep a foam cooler in my car. I plan my shopping trips around my other errands
I think that's a given we nag or so they say haha. That's the joy of motherhood not knowing from one child to the next how they are going to be. I love your videos and really enjoy watching them. thanks
I'm new to your channal and I've only watched a handful of your videos. Do you do a large pantry stock up every quarter? Do you grow vegtables and can at all?
I do can, but in the past it has been things they we bought or were given from local farmers. We are working to try to grow our food, but so far, we haven't been that successful. I am going to keep trying until we get there. No large pantry stock up.
i love your grocery hauls and others too and hence i am your subscriber I have just one suggestion.. try to focus the camera on the products when you talk about them.. as we cannot see the table where the things are placed only when you hold them out for us.. and one cannot focus on the products as you pick them up and keep them back. I am from India and am not familiar with the products and so I love to watch grocery hauls to know whats available in other countries. I love the way you smile through your videos it looks really cheerful to watch.
I have never heard anyone get so excited about groceries and bargains! I love it.
Oh my soul! I am ALL about groceries :)
wow Amanda, the more I watch your videos the more I love you and the values your family stands by. You have completely changed the way my family shops for groceries , saving us hundreds of dollars a month. My husband and 11 year old son are also watching your videos. We admire how you have involved your daughter into the process and are already teaching her the value of money while spending quality time together. I'm going to heavily promote you on my channel as my form of paying you back for what you have taught me. Please do more of these types of hauls and food videos.
I am so happy that I have been able to help you! Thanks so much for the encouragement. I will try to get some more out there :)
It kind of sticks in my craw that people are on you about buying organic, non-GMO, etc. When you have a family and need to save money you buy what you can and what people in the family will or can eat. I think you do a great job.
Thank you so much!
me to I don't worry about what people say
Seriously! I prefer organic but I am just not going to pay $4 for ketchup! I buy it when it's available and affordable.
FYI Kroger has a simple Truth Organic Ketchup for @1.99 (it goes on sale several times a year).
I am SO impressed with your grocery shopping! And what a blessing that all your stores are so close together! Saves you time, gas money and grocery budget money! YAY! I am also impressed with all your healthy choices for such an amazing budget! You are a great example. I have been amazed at how using the crockpot to cook chicken and then shred it for recipes requires so much LESS chicken and we still get plenty of chicken. I think in the US we are used to eating way more meat at a meal than the "palm of your hand/ deck of playing cards" serving size and shredding it helps us eat the proper portion and really stretches a pack of chicken. You could crockpot your chicken and shred it then add that cream cheese and salsa and serve it over rice with some of that cilantro chopped on top! Can't wait to see more of your videos. Blessings on you!
Thank you so much! I try very hard to make healthful foods on my tight budget. It's a challenge, but it's worthwhile.
I'm a new sub here & truly admire you! I need to get on a budget, look at what I have in my pantry, refrigerator, freezer, put weekly meal plans together, write out my needed grocery list & stick to it!! Thank you for inspiring me.
Thank you! If you need some encouragement, don't forget to join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group.
we are a family of five and we spend about 500 a month sometimes even a little more ... this definitely makes me think I could save money!!!! I'm inspired to try!
That's great! Join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group for more tips! You will love it!
Omg I just watched your last 2 videos came at a great time for me!! We are currently trying to do Dave Ramsey's program and budget our finances to be debt free and your blog post and Videos are a blessing!! Thank you!!
I am glad! Good luck on the Ramsey program. It's a great one!
I recently added up what my family spends on groceries each month and it’s somewhere between $700-$1100 a month for two adults and two children. And we run out of food a lot! The other day I had $50 to buy groceries for a week and instead of getting the usual processed food that doesn’t fill them up that my daughter and their father normally eat, I got stuff to make real food. I got enough for three separate recipes and two of the recipes last us two or more days. I had complaints but we haven’t run out of food and my daughter stopped complaining the second she tasted my homemade no-chicken noodle soup (I’m vegan). She ate a bunch and hasn’t asked for junk food since. So now I’m here trying to get ideas on how to save even more money because having more food that is better quality and more tasty while spending far less money is definitely something I want to get used to.
I hope you find some good ideas to help you save!
Faylyn Hillier Wow, being vegan, it should be easy to keep food handy because that is usually pretty cheap. Beans, rice, spaghetti, oatmeal, grits, frozen vegetables, Peanut butter. All of this is pretty cheap and lasting. A bag of apples is pretty cheap and you can bake them with a little brown sugar (or not, LOL) and cinnamon, great and CHEAP.
My kids like when I make a pot of fresh beans with fried okra, and cornbread. The bonus is if I make a large pot, I can use the leftover beans for other meals. I use mine for burritos, tostadas, chili...etc. you can make a meatless chili, I do it all the time because beef is expensive here.
These videos really help me and my family out. We are small family of 3 and on very small buget. Thank you for giving me some good ideas.
I am so glad they could be a help to you and your family!
Your daughter is so cute. Smiling in the background and then all of a sudden she starts listing things off! This is what "unschooling" and/or homeschooling looks like, people! Confident, happy, articulate children learning real-world skills in addition to all the subjects they would take at school; well, everything except petty gossiping, how to be a bully or be bullied; how to be cliquish, how to be disrespectful to adults, peers and self, how to be pressured to be promiscuous and to feel like a freak and be an outcast if you have strong ethics and morals... I could go on.
Good job, Mom and Dad!
She's a lovely young woman.
Thanks! I think she's pretty special, too :)
worst part is some of them never grow up. 50 years old and still a catty bully
so many people ask the most ridiculous questions just the fact that you only spend $100 a month of food is amazing good job keep up the great work !!!
Thanks so much!
I actually watched one of your hauls just last night for the first time ever. Lucky me that this new video was placed on my feed when I opened youtube again today so I could subscribe! I don't have a family to feed but I am still spending more money than you are to feed less people! You've inspired me to cut back and be an organized planner rather than just buying what I see at the store. Thank you!
That's wonderful! Keep me posted! I would love to hear how your financial situation improves :)
That's great. here in Puerto Rico food is expensive. We pay 11.5 tax. We had to find a way to cut the budget. So I became a gardener, we buy in the military base and there's 2 community stores that are trying to sell at a low price. You are a great mom. Some moms think about buying new clothes, or getting their hair done but others are thinking of budgeting to make ends meet. Great job.
Thank you! That is a really high tax. It's good that you are finding ways to make it work.
nery colon 1 you may want to look into fishing home aquariums as well as lobster and crab trapping. You have the beauty and bounty of the Caribbean around you use it.
If you can raise some chickens or other animals for food.
You are awesome! I watched your video and just read the related blog post. I feel informed and inspired to menu plan and cook more consistently. I love the idea (from the blog) to create a menu list of what we eat. I can't wait to do my inventory and some meal prep. I love the idea of rice cooked and ready to go. My challenge is no snacks, we are moving towards less snacks and the idea of healthy snacking that increases our veggie intake. Great video!
Thank you! I hope you will check out the more recent hauls- and don't forget to join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group! We have the best time there, sharing frugal meal ideas!
I love all your grocery hauls. I shop at a few different places too and lately our cost has been going down with shopping bulk and farmers markets. I dont eat much meat so I made a HUGE dish of multiple beans, rice, veggies and nutritional yeast and it has lasted me a week! 😁 keep up the great work and God bless!
Found your channel today and am Sooooooooo inspired by you! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your story and wisdom with us. We are also a family of 5, 4 of which are adults and 1 in High School. I've really been trying hard to watch what I spend and cook real food. Your channel is definitely helpful even if we do not have the same type of stores in our area. It's all about being the best steward we can with what we've been given.
Exactly! Thank you for commenting! :)
so glad I found your channel. I am a full time care giver to my Grandma, a single mom of two kids, I homeschool and I'm 27 and disabled. Mt dad is also living with us so we are also a family of five. I love all the tips. Need all I can get. God bless
I hope you are able to learn some tips and tricks to save on your grocery budget. Be sure to check out my blog for more detailed information- thefundamentalhome.com
Maybe you could do a video of the food after it is cooked and prepared. Also, showing dishes with portion and serving sizes. Thanks, I've enjoyed watching your videos.
That's a good idea! Thanks for the suggestion!
I was going to say the same thing! Would definitely like to see what your meals look like prepared. ☺
I have posted pictures on Facebook and our Frugal Family Food page if you are interested.
i am single but lately always thinking about budget.... this vid inspire me..... thank :)
Thank you!
u r welcome :)
thank you for sharing your ideas. My husband works and I stay home with the kids and home school as well, and I am amazed that you can feed 5 people every day for a hundred a month. In our area it is VERY expensive to live/eat/shop, but again thank you for your ideas because I will be checking out even more less expensive food shopping options for our family (soon to be 5 people as well.) Blessings to you and your family.
I just found a new grocery discount store 2 minutes from my house. Got a lot of bargains! Can't wait to see what I'll find next time. Thanks for your grocery tips! You do great things with your budget!
your lunch & breakfast planning makes so much sense.
you were able to get fantastic deals at the stores! excellent! I love the deals I find at Grocery Outlet! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! If I am ever traveling I am going to look for a Grocery Outlet. I hear so much about them!
Brilliant! Some good menu planning being done and plenty of basic ingredients. I'm impressed that at least you admitted to a few manufactured bargains too! Congratulations on your good kitchen management.
Why thank you :) I certainly try to do my best and keep it real. Very few people live without any convenience food.
Wow! You're my hero! $100 a month is seriously impressive! I also watched your original video on this subject a few months back. Both are good. I love your attitude and how you go about your shopping. I'm in Canada, and I have a very hard time trying to keep our grocery budget down to $800/mo! Yes there is a difference in our cost of food. (gallon milk-$5, dozen eggs $3, 1lb cheese-$6.) But not 8 fold that's for sure lol! We are a family of 7. 5 Kids - ages 19-down to 6. Great tips and ideas! Thanks a bunch :)
Wow! It seems like folks from Canada are really struggling to eat well and keep their budget low. I hear from them all the time. I hope the tips and techniques help you to continue to save as much as possible. Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate it :)
I'm a student who needs to live on quite a tight budget and this video was good inspiration. Thank you!
I am glad this was a help to you!
I didn't think we had any discount grocery stores nearby, but I just searched 'salvage' based on your suggestion in the comments and I see one within about half an hour drive. Score! Not something I would hit every shopping trip, but I think I might make a trip out there tomorrow and see what they have. I am normally a dedicated Aldi girl, with hits at Kroger or Walmart for non Aldi items. But I would love to pick off better deals. I used to be able to get a lot of manager specials at our Aldi, but we live in the outskirts of Columbus OH and the Aldi has so much traffic here that is rare to find anything marked down. Anyway...thanks for the tip to search 'salvage' grocery store.
That's great! I hope you find some amazing bargains!
I'm so happy that we just got an Aldi about a week ago and it's such a blessing! our family budget is so tight that we've been a month without grocery shopping because we simply didn't have the money. I went to aldi for the first time this morning and I fully stocked our pantry and fridge for 55! we got so much produce.. I was so happy!
That is wonderful! I am SO happy! Some folks don't understand what it is like when you simply HAVE to make do with what you have, but I totally get it! I am glad you are filled up with lots of good stuff now. Aldi is a blessing!
I hate that people give you a hard time about processed food! We all use it from time to time!
It's OK. People just don't always understand.
I am so impressed with this! You rocked the budget...man, do I wish we had a discount grocery store here! I do most of my shopping at Aldi and fill in the gaps at Kroger or WalMart. For our family of three my budget is currently around $350 a month and I'm working to bring it down more. It's tricky but I so love saving money!
You can do it! Just cut things down little by little, and you can make it happen. Right now, you are at about 87.50 a week. Try to get rid of 12.50 a week and that will give you 50 extra dollars a month :)
im really impressed you can do all this :) im 25, live by myself as my boyfriend and i dont live together yet and i spend maybe double that amount on just food for me a month plus around your weekly budget eating out. i could stand to learn a few things from you :)
Well, welcome aboard :) The more the merrier!
Her life is possible. We lived on alot less a month an only saw the store every 4 to 6 months to restock on flour, sugar, baking soda and yeast. We grew and raised everything we ate. We'd buy a whole cow from a neighbor and pay another to process it. 1 cow gave our family 2 years of meat. I still live this way just a tad bit modern now.
O' my . I should of said videos and not blogs. I have been viewing your videos and enjoy them. Thank you for having them.
you do such an amazing job! after watching this I went and cleaned out my freezer and planned my menu. Thanks!
That's wonderful! I hope you enjoy the extra money you save!
So inspirational. my husband and I have been trying to lower our budget (not just food)for a couple months now to save money for holidays, and out our sons birthday. To see that it is possible is encouraging. I've been lost these past few month. Just freaking out about how were going too do this. So thank you so much for taking you're time to film this, and make you're blog.
You can do it. No worries. It just takes a little planning and determination. :) You should join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group. It's a great place for encouragement. Here's a link- facebook.com/groups/1171483046225309/
Thank you. Will go check it out now :).
just came across this video and I have to share that this week I am trying to challenge my self to use everything I have in my fridge and cabinets and not go to shop since we are low in funds... I want to video about it but I have to see if I can really stick to it... i have 3 boys that are here all day LOL and one is a baby.. so right now I have 8 eggs to work in some recipes for the whole week... hope I can do this !
You can do it. Pinterest is my best friend. I am always looking for things to try. Are you a part of the Frugal Family Food Facebook group? If not, you should join! You can ask questions there! Let me know how it goes!
The Fundamental Home oh I will check it out ... thank you ! I will 👍🏻
Natural peanut butter at Aldi is about $1.60. How many miles did you have to drive to get the free peanut butter?
poepoe47 Exactly. And how much time? Time is money. Seems like a waste of effort.
I am currently spending $100.00 a week (I do not have to buy beef or pork as we have that butchered and I do not factor that in my weekly grocery budget.) As of tomorrow I am on my 3rd week of the cash envelope system and so far it's working! Im hoping to cut my grocery budget down even further come summer since I will be able to can and store alot from my garden. I am taking my first chunk of my savings to purchase a gas stove so my hubby, kids and I dont have to haul our goods to Grandma Betty's to can! Lol Great video! I look forward to watching more!!!
That's wonderful! We started with an envelope system and it worked beautifully.
Amanda, your video is awesome . I'm motivated to try this too, thanks for the super ideas you give.
I want to know what do you do for kids lunches ? Please make videos on meal prep too.
My kids are homeschooled, so they eat at home- except for my oldest, who works full-time. You can find more details about how we eat breakfast on the blog post. Here's a link- www.thefundamentalhome.com/how-i-feed-my-family-of-5-for-under-100-every-month-part-2/
I wish you would talk more about the time spent. Trying to get a realistic idea what to expect. I stopped shopping multiple stores after having kids. Is that the only way to shop so frugally? Or do you think a lot of it is creative meal planning.
We can't eat on a 100 a month for a family of 5, but we do have some crazy food allergies. We do a lot of creative meal planning and have to buy special food items. We spend about 300 a month, primarily at Costco. I am so very amazed they can eat for 2 weeks on what she just bought
It is a lot of time and potentially gas, which aren’t being factored in. So it depends on the route. I’ve chosen circuits (short and short-plus). Top grocery store, mid range, Trader Joe’s, and Aldi. I focus on the last two and keep all my expenditures to under $50 for me and did, no matter what. Sometimes the actual bill is $35 to $40, which I either keep n play till the end of the month or spend on stocking up. Next month I add the balance to my budget, putting the difference into (1) another budget category, as needed or (2) into savings.
Dog, I meant.
This is the way that I shop usually, though I kind of just pick one place a week. I have a set amount for discretionary for the week and then figure out my meal plan when I get home. I have found that having a month (or three) worth of bulk foods in the cupboard and freezer helps lower my costs as well. In this way, I only have to buy things on sale. Also, it is almost a hedge against a bad week or unexpected purchases. Kind of like a food insurance, so if I have a slow week freelancing, I don't have to worry about purchasing anything. Gardening helps a lot as well in the summer time. Thanks for the video. Many will take encouragement that they can do it as well, lowering a discretionary bill when needed. While others are only looking for why it won't work for them.
That's it! You totally get it :) I love hearing from folks who understand. I am hoping to add garden grown food soon!
Thank you so much for your videos! I am a single mom and usually I have a hard time staying within budget. You have inspired me. I'm going to try doing planned meals, which it's hard for me to do because I work a lot to cover all our expenses.
You can do it. Consider joining our Frugal Family Food Facebook group if you need some encouragement. Here's a link- facebook.com/groups/1171483046225309/
Im not going to be able to stop watching these videos now that i found them ... Its amazing the coupons and discounts in america ... here in Ireland we never get good coupons 😞
Well, I am glad you are here. Prices do vary across the globe.
Really cool you can definitely tell that you put a lot of effort into this and it pays off because this is great I'm defiantly going to take some tips from this 🌸
Thanks so much!
Love your videos and your daughter is precious!
Thank you!
Do you shop with coupons? I use them a lot. Very helpful👍🏿
Not usually. I don't have a good way to get them.
Do you plan your meals as your shopping and finding things on sale? Or do you plan them before hand?
A bit of both. I make a partial plan based on what I have on hand. Then, I buy what I can at the cheapest prices and finish out my menu with those items.
Another good option for gluten free flor is blending up dry oats into a powder and using that for flour. That is mainly what I use and I love it, I pretty much use the same measurements as I would for wheat flour. Also, cream of chicken soup (and all other cream soups) usually contain wheat, so be careful eating/READ THE LABEL if you have a gluten intolerance.
You know, I am still getting used to the gluten free thing, so I slip up every once it a while. I did forget about that Cream of Chicken soup. Thankfully, we didn't have any issues, but I will learn to make it myself for next time.
Love your food shopping and menu planning! I don't know where you live but your food prices are very low! Yes now a days you have to shop around (go to many food stores) keep up the good work! 😄
Thank you! We live in North Carolina. The prices are low here.
We use them smoke sausages for fried rice for a cheap pork fried rice. It end up costing about 1 dollar a serving. Very large servings.
Sounds yummy!
I'd love to know what discount grocery store you go to. Is it a Grocery Outlet?
It's a local shop. I don't usually mention the name for privacy reasons. However, if you ask around, most areas have discounted grocery stores. When we lived in MD, we visited one run by the Amish :)
Ah. Thanks. I've been to several in our area but they're all chains and nothing with deals that great. I'll have to do some research to see if I'm missing out on a local one.
Oh my gosh, watched this again today. You’re both so cute and you’ve come a long way in terms of production and camera presence. But your deals are still awesome. Girl, we all buy processed food. 💖
Do u have menus for your month that low of a budget?
There are loads of them on my blog and on the videos :) I also have some weekly food diaries on a playlist if you want to check them out
It would be helpful if you shared what meals you made with these ingredients.
I have a playlist of food diaries where I share a week's worth of meals. Here is a link- ua-cam.com/play/PLobf9qkSmQIV8yQwuwH-OU93J8KWkBo2W.html
Hello Amanda, I was sent over to view your blog by Frugal, Simple & Less. Your blog looks so helpful and would please like to add on to it. Thank you so much.
I know. I have been so busy with videos that I haven't had much time to blog, but I am working on it!
Where's the milk, eggs, cheese, bread etc? Also what do you eat for breakfast, I saw the little instant oatmeal box - but that's not enough to last. I know you said you had another thing of oatmeal, but you hadn't bought that this trip for the week so it's not included.. also what do you typically do for lunches? Do you typically spend $50 every two weeks, or just some weeks (I'm asking since you were using surplus you already had)
We spend $50 every two weeks on a regular basis. If you check out all the videos, you will see there are times we go over a bit and times we are under. You can read all the details about how we shop on thefundamentalhome.com I also made some videos about common questions like these. If you want to check them out, here is a link to the playlist- ua-cam.com/play/PLobf9qkSmQIVOzT6KtmJbFJ85po-sr9h0.html
wow I'm in awe for my family of 6 is spent anywere from $200- $350 a week! We eat mainly fresh fruit and vegetables. Those prices are amazing where you live!
The prices are very low here, but we do what we can to keep our shopping in check.
I wish there was an Aldis where I live. You do an amazing job with your budget, very inspiring.
Thank you! It is a great store!
Thats pretty amazing! We have a family of 4 and spend double that at least! I am a new sub by the way. :)
Thanks for joining me!
Great video! I really enjoyed this. My husband and I are expecting our first baby in May, so we're learning how to better budget our money now - especially with food! We do shop at Aldi, and we find that in our area the produce prices are best at our local Korean supermarket, HMart. I'm curious about the Discount Grocery Store. Do you have any recommendations for how to locate one? In our area, north Texas near Dallas, there are "salvage" grocery stores, but my limited experience with them is that they sell a lot of "expired but still edible" food.
My store is a salvage grocery store. You do have to search through the expired stuff to find the few good things, but it is worth it for us. :)
I am impressed and inspired! Thank You for sharing
Thank you for watching!
I know this video is a few months old, but just so you know cream of ____ soup is not gluten free. It has wheat as a thickening agent. You can make your own by melting 1 Tbsp butter, and adding 1 Tbsp of GF flour. Add 1c. milk and then a gluten free chicken, or beef, stock. W-M has it. It's about $3 for a jar, but it lasts forever.
I know now. It was a challenge trying to figure out what all was GF. We have gotten the hang of it but we still find it hiding in foods sometimes.
I completely understand the struggle. We're 100% GF here (I'm highly allergic and so is one of my children, and make all the meals, so I'm not cooking 2 different things!) so things like normal soy sauce, cream soups, anything that makes your life easier is out the window. Good luck to your family!
Have you tried chicken breast and Kraft Italian dressing? We love it! Especially over rice. We get our dressing at the dollar tree. Cutt your chicken breast into small pieces and cook them in the salad dressing until the sauce becomes thick. Serve over rice. Its delicious.
We have used the Italian before. Right now, our favorite is the ginger sesame dressing with steak. Oh my soul! That is heaven!
+BewareofFlatteries Yummy...I'll have to try it!
+The Fundamental Home With steak? Oh my that does sound good! I'll have to try it. Thanx!
I just joined your FB group. I met a lotof sceptical people but I budget $100 a month for my family of 4. Thank you for the inspiration ❤
People can be skeptical, but that's OK. Focus on those who are encouraged. They are the ones who you are there for :) Thanks for joining!
I didn't know she had a FB group, I'm joining right now!
I need to do this.
Yes! :)
I don't know where you live but the stores in your town have 80's prices! When i was a kid, i used to work a garden for my mother. Because of arthritis, she was able to do so much so; she said what to plant, i planted it, watered and maintained it, and we ate like high royalty all year, every year! People at school and church thought that my family own a few oil rigs in Arabia or something! People thought we were wealthy because we had so much fruit and vegetables! That garden provided food for us because we couldn't afford what we needed. We had so much that some of it went bad, because noone would take it most of the time when we offered it to them FOR FREE.
Wow! Great info! I will have to check out our discount grocery store this week.
Yes! Let me know how it goes!
I love you and your daughter shopping together...it makes me think of myself and my baby girl. :) I hope once we move and get settled we can try this ourselves and see if it will work for us. :) Thanks for sharing this with us, it is so interesting how you do. :)
She and I do pretty much everything together :) Love my girl! Let me know how it goes!
Us too!!! That's so awesome!!! I sure will. :)
You can match price everything at Wal-Mart as long as you have your store ads. That way you don't have to jump around from store to store 👍
Not everything is in an ad. Jumping costs about 19 cents in gas (I have calculated it) and doesn't take much time since the stores are right near each other.
Also curious, do you bake bread?
Yes. When I have time.
where can I get your recipes?
Check out my Pinterest page. Links in the description box. I really do make most of those recipes.
How much do you spend on gas? you went to more then one store i just wonder if it all worked out budget wise with all the driving?
I did a video on that :) ua-cam.com/video/nPgP6L0VfJE/v-deo.html For the record, it cost me about 19 cents to go to the extra stores.
Thank you
Thank you so much! Just finished reading your blog 1-5 Say what you mean definitely works with the kids, thanks for the reminder. ☺💕
Do you ever go to farmers markets?
Sometimes.
Have you tried growing your own vegetables - tomatoes, cukes...etc?
We are working on that. It is a high priority. You can see details of my failures so far on the channel, but I am going to keep trying!
I'm curious how much you spend on gas, driving around to all these stores.
My truck gets 25 miles per gallon, and gas is 2.19 a gallon. The stores are less than three miles apart. I spent approximately 19 cents going to them all. That is worth it to me to save the amount of money I save on the different products I was able to purchase. I would not drive a distance that did not make sense.
and TIME. Even if gas is free, the time factor is something that would be a problem for many.
That's true. It takes me about two hours every two weeks, but that isn't much to me. Although, I know when I was a working mom it would have been a lot.
The Fundamental Home You are doing really well with the two hours every two weeks. Where I live, it takes about an hour to leave the house, drive to the store, go in the store, buy a few items, checkout, and drive home. About the only way you could get around that is if you went to WalMart in the middle of the night. Otherwise, just traffic time, checkout time, etc. gets up there. You can do a little better if you hit multiple stores on the same trip. Either way what you are doing is pretty impressive, mainly the incredible bargains you seem to find.
Thanks. We are pretty lucky to have the stores so close together and about 10 minutes from our house. When we lived in MD, even though it was a more urban area, we had to travel further, and there was much more to deal with in terms of traffic and lines.
Fyi you can save yourself the 79 cents and make your own cream of chicken (cream of whatever actually) AND you can make it gluten free since regular cream of - - - usually has gluten in it. There is a recipe on Pinterest on how to make it. Love your videos!
Yep. We found out about that after this video was made.
You and others are So fortunate to have such amazing discount grocers near you. We have nothing like that anywhere near us. Not within a hundred miles. Even the nearest Aldi is closed down for renovations until almost the end of October. We do have Walmart and Dollar Tree though. In our town there is just One place to buy food and they take full advantage of that fact.
Those are some amazing deals. Love your channel! :)
Thank you so much!
Thanks for making this video straight forward and brief !
I must say that I am pretty impressed that you feed five people for $100 a month. We are a family of four, but my mother also has an at-home daycare with nine children and our total per month is always around $1000 unfortunately since we end up feeding thirteen people, not four... The prices are also much higher here in Canada and it's insane just how quickly the total goes up, and we also do not have discount grocery stores or coupons here--if they did, my mother and I would jump at the opportunity. This is why whenever we go on our monthly grocery shopping trip in the States, I truly enjoy hunting for coupons online and using them in stores in order to save some money!
It's a good thing you have an income to balance the extra expense of 9 children. What a challenge it must be to shop for so many little ones!
BTW, what are your thoughts on bulk shopping? Do you ever buy in bulk? Or shop wholesale? I know initially you have to fork out more $ but you can also save exponentially in the end.
Bulk shopping is great is you are able to do it.
Do you budget this way to save for retirement? Or are you trying to pay off debt? Or is your income too high to qualify for SNAP benefits but too low to spend more? if we had a budget grocery store I'd make that my #1 shopping place lol
We have many long term financial goals. So far, all of our children have debt free college educations, and our only debt is our mortgage. I hope to be mortgage free in the next few years. Then, we hope to build our financial positions to provide for our future. The discount store is definitely my #1 shopping place.
@@TheBealles Do you believe in investing in a 401k before paying off your mortgage?
@@hoffmansforhim7365 We do contribute to our 401k while we pay down our mortgage
Great haul for the money, Amanda! By the way, I planted cilantro in a pot this spring... got it for $2.86 from Walmart. That thing has gone wild! It is growing like crazy and no matter how much I use, it keeps sprouting up. Normally it will survive the winter, especially if its strong in summer. So you might think about growing you an herb pot!
Great price on the squash...we have it growing now in our garden. We had squash casserole a couple times last week...and today we cut it up with butter and garlic salt and put it in a foil packet on the grill. Do you have a garden this year? Thanks for the video :)
Alas, our garden is not doing well. Only some onions. I am not giving up, though. Planning a fall attempt. One day I will look back and laugh at how hard it was to get it together. I want to build an herb spiral :)
We had such a bad garden last year, our first year in our new home. It was thoroughly discouraging. But everyone said, "Try try again." And we have successfully grown gardens at other locations so we felt like we could do it. But so much of the garden growth is out of your control...like temperatures and late freezes and soil conditions and rain fall. Anyway, this year our garden has done beautifully. So yes, keep going! I have never heard of an herb spiral so I will have to look that up. I have grown herbs for years...but even that flopped last summer. Over half my herbs died. But my rosemary and oregano survived all winter long. This year we added cilantro and it is doing great too...so praying it will continue.
I live in Texas we don't have a Aldi's but we have an H.E.B. but what is the name of the discount store you shop at? or do you know any like this in Texas?
I do not, but if you join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group, you can ask around in there. I do not share my discount store for privacy reasons.
I consider myself to be a good budgeter - I shop at Aldi and the regular grocery store, take advantage of coupons, but I cannot get below $350/month for my husband and me (this includes pet food and toiletries, however). I'm going to definitely use some of your tips. I've never shopped at a "discount" grocery store though, maybe I'll add that to my grocery trip. Glad I found your channel!
Thanks so much! Make sure you join our Frugal Family Food Facebook group if you are on FB. You can ask in the group about discount stores in your area :)
Instead of food, could you show us how u save when u purchase ur essential?
Wow $50 every two weeks that's impressive! We're also a family of 5 but I can't ever seem to get under $80 a week. That's for all three meals for the 5 of us. We do live in NY so maybe it's just more expensive here I don't know. But I must say aldi is a life saver for me I do the bulk of my shopping there and then I got to other stores for their sales.
It does depend a lot on where you live.
do you buy a lot of milk or do you use powdered do you guys eat a lot of eggs
We don't really drink milk. It doesn't settle well with everyone. We do eat cheese and yogurt for dairy. As to eggs, I have several dozen. We do eat them rather frequently.
@thefundamentalhome what store is the discount grocery store you use? How did you find it and any tips about finding one in my area?😀😀I'm always striving to stay on budget, but have fallen off recently- finding your videos are such inspiration!!
You can google discount, thrift, or salvage grocery store to see if there is one in your area. You can also ask your most frugal friends because many times they do not advertise.
The discount store in ingles
this is great. glad I found your channel
Me, too :)
I could live off of 200 dollars each month. That would be everything though. Including soaps, personal care items etc. Have you tried making your own laundry soap? Lots of great how to videos out there. I'm going to try that soon also. I hate paying so much for a small container.
Yep. I have a video on that :) Here's a link if you want to check it out- ua-cam.com/video/CYg3eel8RLM/v-deo.html
michelle bright I made my own for about 2 years and it just never cleaned our clothes. Also, it has been said that it's bad for your washer & it's not really got any detergents in it. We've been using Arm&Hammer for about a year and love it! Plus it's only $11 for a ginormous tub at Sam's and lasts is a very long time.
I used to make my own detergent and it left a weird film on the clothes and they looked dingy. It also didn't get out grease stains, so went back to good old Tide. I still make my own window cleaner and Goo-Gone.
I have a family of 4 adults and live on a very budgeted income....what store is it that you're referring to when you say "discount store"?? We do have an Aldi's just around the corner from us and I love that place.
It's a mom and pop shop. I don't share the name because of privacy reasons.
Have you tried planning weekly meals THEN using that meal list to the grocery store to use as your shopping list?
I started budgeting that way, but I would always end up spending more because I would plan to use things that weren't on sale. By shopping first to get the best deals, THEN making a meal plan, I spend less.
The Fundamental Home I eat before I shop #1, but I've always found that meal planning works for me. Stick to the meal plan and save money. I don't buy processed foods except tomato sauce and never get fast foods 'cause I cook better. I noticed those things called Lunchables I think they were called but those are loaded with sodium. My mother never bought chips or cookies (homemade when we had them) and sodas she purchase once a year. I didn't have my 1st potato chip until high school when a boy brought them over. She had 5 kids and only her paycheck. We ate very little meat (meat maybe 2-3 x's a month) but ate fish and vegetables and lots of salads with everything but the kitchen sink in them. For snacks we had bags of oranges, apples and pears and grapefruit and carrot sticks and celery sticks and other kids would leave on the run! lollol We didn't get colds and flu like everyone else did either and it was attributed to the way we ate.
I'm 66 now and have had flu maybe 5-6 x's during my life and about the same with colds.
Good luck young lady!
I don't know about meat prices in your location, but I buy 80% hamburger at Aldi and pay less than $3 a pound. Do you not like the Aldi meats?
I do. You should check my other videos. Usually I can get meat at my discount grocery for $1- $2 a pound.
I know this is a very old post but I shop Kroger a lot for mark down meat two weeks ago I got 8 one pd packages of Laura's 93% lean 4 pk ground beef patties for $.99 each regular price $6.99 this was at 10:30( most of the deals are gone by then) I won't pay more then $1.99 .I've gotten Kroger premium 8oz ribeye steaks $3.99 and 10oz sirloin for $4.99. Recently I got two 32 oz package of bare chicken which is just boneless skinless chicken breasts regular price $14.29 for $.99 two days later they had some marked $1.99 I didn't buy any that day. I have three grocery stores that are in three different directions less than a mile from my house that I shop at but mostly I shop at Kroger for the markdown meat produce bakery deli & dairy in the summer I keep a foam cooler in my car. I plan my shopping trips around my other errands
I think that's a given we nag or so they say haha. That's the joy of motherhood not knowing from one child to the next how they are going to be. I love your videos and really enjoy watching them. thanks
Thanks for commenting :)
I'm new to your channal and I've only watched a handful of your videos. Do you do a large pantry stock up every quarter? Do you grow vegtables and can at all?
I do can, but in the past it has been things they we bought or were given from local farmers. We are working to try to grow our food, but so far, we haven't been that successful. I am going to keep trying until we get there. No large pantry stock up.
i love your grocery hauls and others too and hence i am your subscriber
I have just one suggestion.. try to focus the camera on the products when you talk about them.. as we cannot see the table where the things are placed only when you hold them out for us.. and one cannot focus on the products as you pick them up and keep them back. I am from India and am not familiar with the products and so I love to watch grocery hauls to know whats available in other countries.
I love the way you smile through your videos it looks really cheerful to watch.
:) I am trying to get batter at those. I never thought about those who may not be familiar with our products. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi
Thanks for your prompt reply
Thanks for taking my suggestion positively
looking forward to more videos .. You are doing a good job
Thanks! I made another haul today, and I kept your suggestion in mind. I hope it is better this time :)
Did you get all this from Dani Johnson. Com?
Nope. Never heard of that site. I will check it out, though.
2.27 for chicken what state do you live in cuz for want you paid for in Colorado double it 🤔
I have been watching a couple of your grocery hauls and I haven't seen you guys buy milk. Do you guys not buy or drink milk..
We don't drink it, so we don't buy it too often.
The Fundamental Home oh okay well that makes since we go threw about 6 to 8 gallons a month
Megan Marshall if you're worried about calcium broccoli actually has more calcium per serving than milk does :)
I like to buy powder milk
Could you link to the blog post where you talk about breakfast and lunch? I can't seem to find it.
Sure! It's part 2. You can find that here- www.thefundamentalhome.com/how-i-feed-my-family-of-5-for-under-100-every-month-part-2/
Thanks! We also avoid cereal because it doesn't hold very well and because it uses up a lot of milk!