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We keep a pretty tight grocery budget. Sometimes it has been intentional, and sometimes it has been out of necessity. We also love good food and are adventurous eaters, so it takes a bit of work to make that happen. I have gotten a lot of questions over the years on how to save money on groceries, and I have been wanting to gather and share my thoughts for a long time. I do not have it all figured out, and as life has changed over the years, my methods have had to change as well. Staying in budget is not easy for me (though I do stay within budget), and I definitely feel the stretch. I just want to share some things I have been learning over the years in case anyone else feels a few familiar things pulling them in different directions when they try to plan meals or go to the grocery store.

Here are the things I personally try to reconcile as I’m feeding my family:

• Our grocery budget is not just a nice idea. I have to stay within my budget.
• My people eat a lot (there are six of us, and my kids are not dainty eaters).
• We strongly prefer to eat healthy, fresh, unprocessed, “real” food for the most part. We certainly enjoy the occasional drive-thru combo meal or frozen dinner.
• Having people over and sharing food with friends is an important part of our lives.
• I have four kids 7 and under, and we homeschool. When I cook, someone is usually either “helping” me or needing something from me. It also means it is less realistic to quickly run to the store for that one thing I forgot.
• We get tired of repetitive meals, so while “taco Tuesday” and regular weekly meals make sense for some families, they make our family want to ditch dinner and order pizza, which is not a helpful long-term habit. Thus, I have to spend more time and effort to be creative and come up with a wide variety of meals every month.

Does any of that sound familiar?

We buy very little organic food. And as much as my inner Ma Ingalls longs to eat local, farm-fresh everything, it just will not realistically fit in our budget. But we also eat very little processed food, so there’s that. In the end, we do what we realistically can to be healthy, but I’m not going to live as if eating 100% cage-free, organic, grass-fed, locally-sourced, raw, made-from-scratch-with-love-and-kale-dust healthy food is the most important thing in life. It’s just not.

We eat very well on our budget. But there are also a lot of things that we simply do without. As much as I love salmon, I haven’t bought it in years, because the cost per pound for six people is just not a prudent purchase for us. Cheese sticks are a rare treat for my kids. We don’t stock the fridge with bacon. You might be able to buy those things on a regular basis, and that’s great! But that is, I think, an important part of eating well within a budget. Learn what your budget can handle, and get really good at those things. For example, I have developed a vast chicken repertoire and can do magical things with a bowl of oatmeal.

I have a long list of ideas, habits, and tips I have collected over the years, and I look forward to organizing and sharing them with you. Hopefully they can be a help to someone! Is there anything you specifically want to know? Let me know in the comments!

Other posts in the Stretch Your Grocery Budget series:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Meal Planning
• Part 3: Dairy
• Part 4: Breakfast
• Part 5: Freeze It