With the cost of groceries skyrocketing, I try to come up with ways to cut back. I keep a magnetic pad on the side of my fridge and anything we need, we write it on there. Chad and Vince were always saying “get this or that when you’re at the store” so now they know to write whatever they need on the pad.
The things Chad added to my list were Vitamin B pills, mixed nuts, cereal, goat caramel, condensed milk, body wash, Crest Pro Health Tooth Paste. I can’t wait til he starts buying his own groceries.
This is the condensed milk Chad likes. He puts it on his ice cream. I can’t say that I blame him. I could eat a whole can of it but it surely is convenient just to squirt it out. I mean . . really . . you have to eat the whole can once you open it but I’ve never minded doing that!
The “goat caramel” is just awful! I haven’t figured out if Chad truly likes it or he knows it’s safe . . I won’t eat it. It definitely has a goat’s milk taste. On the bottle, it says “With Real Goat Milk – Milk Caramel Spread”. Yuck!
How people are affording to feed a bunch of kids is beyond me. After buying groceries yesterday, this is what the downstairs (overflow) fridge door looks like. This will all be gone in one week — 4 half gallons of orange juice, 2 gallons of milk (and there’s already a half full gallon of milk and half gallon of OJ in the upstairs fridge). The Dr. Peppers are mine though . . Chad doesn’t drink soda at all.
My grocery bill will definitely shrink when if Chad leaves home.
Carolyn says
I was amazed how much less my grocery bill was when Andrew left for college. It does go up exponentially when he comes home for a few days! I’ll be curious to see what happens in September when I have two in college…
Sue H says
We raised three boys, and I know exactly what you mean. They used to meet me at the door so they could “help” put the groceries away. They just wanted to see what I bought so they wouldn’t have to forage for something to eat. What good memories though! Now when they come home, they are at ages where they watch what they eat!
Erin says
I remember getting the list like that too! The guys have no clue til they go out on their own!!!
Carol says
I have a list that looks identical to yours hanging on my fridge, mocking me to go to the grocery. With 2 boys at home (18 and 23) my life has devolved into a sea of grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry. Its a good thing that they are both easy to have around and while the 23 yr old did go off to college and graduated in 3 1/2 years, he’s back home now going to law school on a scholarship, so I’m not complaining too loudly. I know I’ll miss them when they are gone.
Mar says
I remember those days, what you have there would last me a year. My problem is that I have to throw things out!
Diane says
Thank God my 3 are grown and buying their own groceries. I do not know how the young generation with familites does it.
Judy says
My 4 have their own families to buy for. Thank goodness! We were just talking about how much cold cereal my son could eat. He had a large bowl and could only fill it once a day. If he was still hungry he could have pb&j! That boy could drink a gallon of milk a day.
I do love it when they all come over and I get to feed them. Not too often though!!!
Suze says
I don’t think I would have the strength to carry all that in and put it away………..
Julie says
I think its kind of a harsh reality for kids when they get out on their own. I know I was contributing to expenses if I wanted my own “special” things after the age of 18. Oh, and helped around the house. As an “adult” I was expected to contribute something and I really appreciate that. I think, just my opinion, that children need more involvement in household chores and expenses while in high school so that when they go off on their own the make better choices and don’t get themself into debt.
Marlene says
Love this post Judy! I am making a real effort these days to buy only what I need and what I absolutely know we will eat, and there’s only 2 of us. At one point I found we were wasting a lot of food and that had to stop. I’m trying to remember some of the money saving habits my mom had (there were 4 kids in our family) and a few are coming back to me. I now put each little dab of leftover vegetables in a plastic dish in the freezer. One day soon I’ll have enough to make soup. I try to buy what I can at Sams in bulk but I don’t have a lot of storage space so I’m careful about that. Thank goodness for the outside freezer and refridgerator that are in a closet in the carport and thank goodness that my husband’s one vice (or two depending on how you look at it) is hunting/fishing and we can eat that! Not like golf balls. 🙂 Blessings, marlene
Evelyn says
Having space is key to budgeting for groceries – so you can stock up on basic pantry items when they really go on sale… for example – my favorite spaghetti sauce is usually almost $5 a jar – when it goes on sale for 99 cents – I buy 20! I think many people just don’t buy their kids juice anymore – soda is so much cheaper – my son isn’t allowed to drink soda but I can tell you – most of the kids around here do. Nutritition is being sacrificed for money.
Cheers!
Evelyn
Andrea says
Oh man that will only last a week?! Ouch!
I wanted to ask you, how do you keep track of how much fabric you have
Teresa says
Hi Judy, this is my first visit to your blog and I followed a link here about your STAR BOM. I wish I had time to join in on the BOM as the quilt is beautiful, but I better pass for now. I think your scrappy star quilt turned out great – but then I just love scrappy quilts. I will be following the progression of the BOM and be interested to see all the different fabrics people select. How fun it is for you to offer this to bloggers!
Karen says
I have 3 teenagers to feed 13, 15 and 17. Yikes !!! The food comes in and the food goes out just as fast. And when their friends come round…..!!!!But it won’t last forever, so I shall enjoy it whilst it lasts.
Your fridge is just so….. neat and tidy.
Thanks for all the quilting tips, I pop in here often for quilting and some cooking and some of your family life. We just love meatballs, tomato sauce and spaghetti, so….. Italian. Just got back from Turin.
Hmmm.. I don’t fancy a chat at that hour of the morning.
CJ says
Hmmm… we raised 3 boys as well, however I did things a bit differently, LOL. We did indeed raise goats and milked them, and made our cheese and our ice cream from goats milk.
We never (and still don’t) bought things like processed cereal. To this day, I buy oatmeal in 50 lb bags, and we always had more eggs and meat than we knew what to do with from our livestock.
If families today would buy bulk grains and rice, and make soups, breads, and pasta dishes, they could cut their grocery bill a LOT.
karyl says
Once the boys hit 18, and had jobs I asked them to cook a meal a week. Buying the items and using them. They not only learned to plan a meal and thier time… but how to spend less of THIER cash.
They also learned how to choose things everyone liked or hear the critisism of “I dont care for that”
jacquie says
i’m feeding a houseful of teens (only 1 of them mine), but they are always here and always hungry. my grocery bill will plummet when the last one leaves home…notice i said WHEN!
Connie says
This makes me thankful the dudes aren’t huge eaters. I’d need yet another job if they were. Of course, two of them haven’t truly hit the eating big time age………yet.
Minou says
Our grocery bill cut by half when our son moved away. Even feeding our SIL or daughters boyfriend makes the food just disappear so quickly….boys must be born with an empty leg for extra food storage!
Suzanne
janetsue2 says
When all of our boys were still at home it was amazing how many groceries we had to buy, so I know where you are coming from.
When my husband I got married the oldest was 14 , middle 10, and youngest 8. My husband didn’t have children so this was a very new experience for him.
A story that stands out in my mind is leftovers in containers to take to work for lunch. My hb would warm up the food in the microwave, open it up and there would be No Meat only veggies. Our oldest son would eat the meat out of it and leave the rest. lol! This happened many times.
Or, there would be something he thought”I’ll eat that tomorrow” most of the time whatever it was would be gone. He learned early on while the boys were still at home that they were always hungry. They were so active that they needed lots of calories.