I've decided for the next two weeks or so to keep track of how much I'm spending on each meal that I make. Sound tedious? It is. But, I think I need to do that in order to really visualize my spending. I can easily look up how much I spent at Meijer each week. But I want more than that. I want to see how much it takes to feed my family a meal.
I figured after a few weeks worth of meals I'd be able to see which meals are less expensive yet filling. I can adjust my meal planning after that. I'm going to pay more attention to each and every item that I purchase. Is it for a meal or a snack? Can I make it cheaper myself? Yes, sometimes I can. Are we eating more food simply because it's in the house? You bet. The more cereal we have in the house the more we eat it.
I have a spreadsheet that I started about a year ago with lists of foods/brands and their costs. I list out the price at Meijer, Walmart, and Kroger. I even fill in if I found it on sale. It is not a complete list. I don't have every price down for every store. I usually fill it in after I shop. But, I'm going to work harder at looking at it and seeing if it's worth splitting my shopping trips with a few stores.
Included in my spreadsheet is a section where I've begun to track each meal. To my surprise, homemade pizza is actually less expensive than our Little Caesar's $5 deal. Who knew? And, it's a lot less fattening! I don't have a goal for how much each meal should cost. I'm hoping to get a better handle on that after the trial period. But, so far it's been between $2.95 and $4.95 to feed all four of us. Although, I haven't made a 'normal' meal yet. It will be interesting to see how that changes.
Some sites that I like to browse are:
www.hillbillyhousewife.com - Great site for simple recipes for convenience foods.
www.miserlymoms.com - Another great site for recipes and great simple money saving tips. The book is great to flip through too. That's where I started a few years ago.
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FYI: I don't know if you know or not but Walmart does price matching on all items. All you need to do is take in the weekly ads from your other stores and Walmart will match their sale prices. Also, if Meijer is having a "brand" sale you can get Walmart brands for the same price. They will not do % off or buy one get one free specials. This saves you time because you do not need to hit more than one store to do your grocery shopping.
Really? I had no idea! I'll have to watch for that.
I didn't know about the brand stuff either. Although, I've found that Walmart tends to be cheaper all around. But, I'll keep a look out for that.
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