Slow-cooked Savings

Although the next installment of the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover isn’t quite ready, here are a few workable ideas from Oprah.com to add to your grocery budget arsenal.

I’ve utilized all of these ideas at one time or another and I have to say that using a slow cooker is my personal favorite, not only because it’s cheap and healthy, but because it’s a huge time saver. I feel most productive on the days when I get dinner going in the Crock Pot as soon as breakfast is over. And don’t forget, you can even use the Crock Pot for breakfast.

What are your favorite slow cooker recipes? I would especially love to hear any you have for overnight vegetarian breakfasts.

Pantry Challenge

I had another post planned for today, but since I’m a huge fan of the pantry challenge, I just had to tell you about this. As you know from an earlier post, we recently experienced an enforced pantry challenge during the power outage. And I’ve also chosen to conduct pantry challenges in years past, both to save money—and because I love a challenge.

Here’s a link to the NY Times blog about eGullet’s Forum where Steven Shaw’s story to give up shopping for a week has initiated a no-shopping challenge. Make sure to scroll down the page to read the guidelines.

I agree with Mr. Shaw that many of us in our land of plenty have stockpiles of food in our homes that we could better utilize, saving us money, time, and energy (both personal and environmental).

I also know from personal experience growing up in extreme poverty and homelessness that not everyone has surplus food. But if you do, get creative. Take the challenge. What inspiring new recipes can you come up with to nourish your family? And what will you do with the extra time and money you’ve generated by participating in the challenge?

Here are a few other links for your inspirational pleasure:

This is one of my favorite sites for all things frugal. I highly recommend the free subscription!

I used to belong to this pantry challenge Yahoo group when I had more time to spend online.

Read one family’s story and comments to give you ideas.

The Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover: A proven system for feeding your family for less

Some of the references and jargon in this document are based on the teachings of the FlyLady and Dave Ramsey. If you are not familiar with them, I strongly recommend that you check them out.

I developed this system when I was facilitating a Financial Peace small group. When I explained that I cut our family’s grocery budget from $600 to $250 per month, one of the students commented that I could do that only because I am a stay-at-home mom. That certainly gives me leave to focus my time differently. However, everyone can benefit from conscious efforts to improve ourselves, so I wanted to offer a few tips for an easy system that allows you to feed your family more healthfully and for less money, even in these challenging economic times.

The System
I have broken these suggestions down into 3 levels, from Level 1: Bargain Belle, the simplest, to Level 3: Super Saver, the most time intensive, to allow you to choose the options that best fit your time and budget needs.

For instance, a single parent whose time and budget are severely limited may choose to implement options only from Level 1: Bargain Belle, whereas someone who Dave Ramsey might describe as gazelle intense may choose all three levels simultaneously.

To save the most money, select tasks from all three levels. Together they are a system and the more you choose to do the more money you will save. Remember, the goal is Financial Peace, and once you attain freedom from financial constraints you can choose to spend more freely, but then again, you may find that simpler is better—and healthier.

For those of you familiar with the FlyLady, you will recognize that I have broken tasks down into 15-minute segments wherever that’s possible. As the FlyLady says, don’t say you don’t have 15 minutes. If you look carefully at your day, you will find it. If you watch TV, you can do many of these tasks during commercials. For me, having a spirited four-year-old most often means that a task that should take a half-hour can easily take three, because I have to break it down into segments.

If you work outside the home, carve 15 minute chunks from your day during lunch breaks, downtime if your job has any, or after the kids go to bed.


For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Warm Up click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part I click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part II click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part III click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part IV click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part V click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part VI click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part VII click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part VIII click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part IX click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part X click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part XI click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part XII click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Motivation click here.

For the Grocery Budget Extreme Makeover Part XIII click here.