My husband is a wonderful man a little prone to worrying about his job. Sometimes he is right to worry, but most of the time he is not. Right now the Soft drink manufacturer that he works for has become a insecure place. Chris used to work as a delivery driver. The changes they were making were causing him so much stress that he decided to go to work in the warehouse. The first few months were great. Things change quickly. Let’s just say the person who runs the night shift is controlling costs on the backs of the day shift workers. Of whom there are only 2 or 3. The day shift might get 40 hours, but the night shift gets 40 plus hours.
This leads my husband to panic city. When we lost my job we lost 40% of our income. When Chris went to the warehouse we lost another 10%. Now? We have lost another 20%. If you are counting in the last 3 years we have lost 70% of our total income since 2009. I am basing the percentages on 2009 income.
We have lived on my husband’s base pay, but vacations, taxes, and any other extras come from the overtime that he made. We won’t discuss the job issue for me. It is to depressing. We have our costs down huge. The electric bill averages out to $100 a month so that leaves us with the food budget to cut. It is the only place we can cut. So instead of my usual $320 a month for groceries (this includes pet food, paper products, and personal products.) we are down to $240 a month. I made it this last two weeks.
I have decided to schedule the meals as this. 4 pasta meals every 2 weeks
1 vegetarian meal every 2 weeks
1 breakfast for dinner every 2 weeks
4 meals that are 2 can be for 2 days such as roast chicken/chicken enchiladas
4 misc anything you want meals.
Once the weather changes the pasta meals will cut down 2 and soup will start. I may even cut the vegetarian and breakfast for dinner for soup. We are no longer stocking up, but maintaining what we have. If you have met my husband you would know the vegetarian meals are not his favorite. In fact he just had one and he loved it. When I told him, as he ate it, that it was meatless he very quietly asked me to just never tell him. So I won’t.
I don’t coupon because most coupons are for processed foods, personal products, and cleaning supplies. I don’t purchase processed anything if I can help it. I am making my own personal products and have been making my own cleaning supplies.
One thing I did was join a company called Zaycon foods. I found them through a blog hop with Furgally sustainable. I just purchased 40 pounds of chicken breast for $1.69 a pound. You must purchase in 40 pound increments. This is an awesome price here in Brevard county. My poor little freezer is full again! This company pre sells through the internet and delivers in a town near you. The chicken has no hormones added and has never been frozen. They sell bacon, beef, and other products. This is a commodity based company. They offer whatever they get at a good price. In fact the company was featured on Good Morning America this past week.
My parents live in a tiny town in southwest lower Michigan. The closest place for them to pick up is in South Bend Indiana. Check this company out for yourselves! You may be glad you did! https://www.zayconfoods.com is the link. I can’t wait for the next event! You have to join the site to see the prices, but no credit card is needed unless you order something. We used a chicken breast last night for chicken nuggets and fries. Very, very good.
Ideas would be wonderful if you have them of how you save money on your grocery bills. I would love to know how you feed your carnivore husband vegetarian food that he likes.
Creatively Living With Sue 