Comments on: Mondays with Mavis – How to Feed Your Family for $100 a Month

By: Angie Smith

Angie Smith — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 02:34:24 +0000

Are you ready? I have no idea what we’re going to do – but here’s what I have so far: I HAVE to reduce the budget – by a lot – this year. We like to eat everything organic, grass-fed, wild-caught, etc. etc. etc. My first strategy was to scrap the rules about organic, but I still want to eat real food (no chemicals, hormones, white flour, etc.). I then proceeded to figure out how many calories we need and divide it by the amount of food money each month to figure out how many calories we have to get for our food budget. Then I looked at the things we like to eat & figured out how much we pay for how many calories. So far, even if we downgrade and buy non-organic foods, the only real foods that fit our budget are real butter, whole grains (not including quinoa – even at Costco prices), dry beans, shelled raw sunflower seeds, and flaxseeds. I take insulin (type 1 diabetes) & eating grain & beans make me much less sensitive to insulin, which means I have to buy a lot more of it, and the main reason I have to reduce the food budget is that I now have no medical coverage…so eating grain & beans is WAY too expensive for me personally, but my son can eat them…we’ll have a garden again in the summer, but there is no growing anything here right now, except the garlic that will be ready next July and the kale that is dormant for the winter but will hopefully regrow a bit in the spring while we wait for other things to be ready. My next strategy will be that we eat up all (or almost all) of the food in the fridge, freezer & pantry before we go shopping for more food (except that I may buy fresh local milk because my son thrives on it & doesn’t handle homogenized milk well at all). I’m hoping that if we save up our food money for a few weeks (or hopefully a month or more), we’ll be able to squeak by until the garden is producing food again. We do get random free things once in a while because I work in an organic deli (I make broth from the bones left over after we roast chickens to make chicken salad, I bring home the bacon grease when we cook bacon for sandwiches at work, etc.), so that helps. I’ve learned to make my own traditionally fermented sauerkraut & other fermented veggies so we can preserve some of the harvest longer into the fall & winter. I’ve also got a plan to grow a variety of veggies so that we have fresh summer-eating veggies, veggies to freeze, veggies for fermenting, and other veggies (like winter squash, carrots, potatoes, etc.) that store a while in the fridge or basement. I can sell a little bit of produce here & there from the garden if/when we have extra. If all of that isn’t enough, I guess I’ll eat buttered sunflower seeds and my son will live on air-popped popcorn with lots of butter…

By: Becca

Becca — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:39:25 +0000

My thoughts are – if they can do it for mass production, why can’t I do it myself? I’m still working out how to can beans so I can take our family chili recipe and can that up too… dried beans would expand and already cooked beans would end up too soft after processing…

A quick google search brought up lots of recipes for homemade canned tomato paste. At quick glance I like this one: http://www.pickyourown.org/canning_tomatopaste.htm

By: Madam Chow

Madam Chow — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:56:53 +0000

Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with processed foods including Doritos, as long as they are eaten in moderation, which is what you seem to do, Mavis. I grew up in a home where we had NO junk food, just one bag of chips per year. Yes, per YEAR. Consequently, my brother and I would go nuts when we had access to it. Now, my family eats about 95% homemade food, but I keep some junk around so that no one feels deprived, including me! Over the holidays we had chips, dip and tons of homemade goodies. Thing is, no one went bonkers and ate the Costco sized bag of chips at one sitting, which is what my brother and I would have done back in the day. Another friend of mine would make “sugar sandwiches” because his mom felt the same as mine did.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:36:37 +0000

Bought another freezer at the sears outlet last week . It’s so easy to quicky freeze produce as opposed to canning. Bought giftcards at albies and got 7 $15.00 cats. Then they sent me one with a dent so I got a big sears giftcard too! woo hoo it’s living in my garage to I don’t care.

FYI to you all that are new at this buy a manual defrost freezer. all that auto defrosting makes your food funky after a few months.

tomato paste person, crock pot it and freeze it. Works best cause its soooooo thick

By: Desi

Desi — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:47:12 +0000

I’m amazed at your accomplishments these last 2 years!! Last year we ended up using our entire $5oo a month budget for our family of 5. This includes anything our house uses up, from groceries, to cleaning supplies and toiletries. I want to go back to my original goal of $300 a month, I just need to stay away from the store.

We do what we call a date night fund. At the start of every month we put $40 into an envelope. We can either use it that month or save it for something special. Sometimes it’s the entire family that goes out and other times it goes towards a babysitter and our dinner. If we’ve used up the money we don’t go.

Thanks for the inspiration Mavis! I hope to have a bigger garden this year too!

By: Leanna

Leanna — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:37:42 +0000

Good luck Michelle. My hubby is a crappity crape eater…I swear he has sugar for blood as much as he eats & drinks it. But I try to do better…love my bountiful basket.

By: Mavis

Mavis — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:59:40 +0000

Congrats Sophie! Babies are the best.

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:42:18 +0000

How do you make it in the crock pot?

By: Sophie

Sophie — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 05:14:58 +0000

Im throwing all my plans out the window this year!! We are expecting twins in March and I have no idea how much we will spend this year. We moved into a new house in July and I had grand plans for a garden, but I am on bedrest until the twins are born, so that put those plans on hold until next year. I still have every intention of continuing to coupon, especially since we will be buying loads of diapers and wipes, but we seem to be using them for food less and less. I am finding that I dont get to eat what I want when I hard core coupon for food because my recipes always call for real ingredients that I stopped buying. We are trying to stop eating out as well. I am just going to apply the concept of couponing and saving money to life in general and try to be frugal overall.

Here’s to a hopefully healthy and happy year!

By: Maile

Maile — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:32:10 +0000

Yes! Thank you for posting. I stopped couponing about 6 months ago and cemented the deal when I saw Genetic Roulette documenting what processed GMO foods are doing to us.
Grew my garden (followed your blog religiously), but was a bit confused with the lush garden bounty coupled with the over the top processed foods. I now read labels, place my $ on real food, and prepare traditional foods the traditional way. So nice! Look forward to the new year with you. =}