dave_j

Snap.. After my own heart. Could almost be me. Home brewed beer and wine in huge quantities do add to the budget though. Shopping is mostly pot luck, you get into a groove that resents paying full price for anything.

As an aside, our weekly garbage is minimal and I marvel at some as I drive past overflowing with pizza boxes etc.

Oink

not2old

Based the living in Southern Ontario & having the benefit of choices of grocery shopping bargains + the ethnic stores

From the minute a person awakes to the when they lay their head on the pillow at night - when it gets to an all-in food bill, prepared & cooked, including, liquids, juice, fruit, staples, meats & veg, the all inclusive should be no more than $2/day per person ($60/mth). Me & mine are below this number.

The extra's to the grocery bill being - anything used in the bathroom, laundry room, kitchen & cleaning stuff.

On the remaining household running costs, whether its, the mortgage, rent, property tax, utilities, phone/cable/internet. These are a huge expensive items that eat away at your income

The food bill should be a small part of the total monthly expenses

Some folks use public transit, own their vehicles, lease them, have them on the 'never-never' (HP)

In retirement anyone with two vehicles should ditch one as well as go straight to 3 rd party insurance. That's what we did.

Pensions could be anything - private, drawing any RRSP's early or converting them to a RRIF, CPP, OAS, UK state pension. On the UK state pension for those that are eligible, my suggestion is to top up the NIC's as much as you can


.

Shard

Absolutely mad.

not2old

if you say so

Pulaski

Dredge chopped meat in flour then brown it in a frying pan before putting it in the slow cooker - IMO it improves the flavour of the end product one-hundred-fold.

not2old

+1

that's the old fashioned way to cook beef anything, when cooking braising steak, stew, a hotpot etc.

Slow cookers are good for making a a load of [choice from,chicken, pork, beef or fish] curry

To make sure that any slow cooker 'concoctions' can go at least two dinner meals. Always cook to try to have leftovers is key

Tirytory

Oh she glows website has got a ton more of recipes which concentrate on vegan gluten free options. I find that it's a less expensive way to shop, if you're. Or worried about organic produce as vegans often are..

JamesM

If you're Downtown they do $5 wings for lunch at the Dogs Bollocks on Queen West.

Shard

They must be the B's D's...

Shirtback

A picky eater makes it much harder, as does the no gluten requirement . However, some of those items listed (other than yoghurt) aren't necessarily on the "cheap"/budget list *where I live & shop*.

I fear that my 67$ shop is being given unwarranted attention/kudos. There are multiple factors in play:

- I don't live in Ontario, nor in/near a big city
- I've been a (very) frugal shopper (needs must, more so in the past than now, but it's a habit) all my adult life
- there are 3 "discount" grocery stores in the same parking lot here, plus 2 other regular grocery stores and a wholesaler all within 1km on the same road, so price matching/competition is a factor

Anyhow: meal planning and or batch cooking (I call it feeding the freezer), a slow cooker, & shopping the weekly flyers are my basics. Like BristolUk, I buy/stock up on meat only when on sale.

I cook a lot of Asian-inspired food, both Indian & S-E Asia, stews, soups. Make my own bread which is easy-peasy (but again the no gluten might be a problem for you).

Jack Monroe, formerly known on the internet as 'a Girl called Jack', & now blogging at https://cookingonabootstrap.com is a fantastic resource for very low-cost but tasty food & recipes, if you can get past/ignore the politics.

not2old

every couple of weeks we get a flyer in the mail for the local 711 gas station with its convenience store, with it's really good take out - all inside in one store

The staff are amazing, as is the kitchen in the back, food is always fresh

Coffee, Chicken, pizza, potato wedges, donuts etc

Anyway, back to the coupon, the postal delivery guy always gives us two coupon flyers (because we asked him to)

Free 6 chicken wings (choice of regular, hot & spicy, medium) + 6 free potato wedges + free coffee

Wife & I get gas, pop into the store & use two coupons each, separately of course (two different customers) for 6 wings each + the coupon for 6 wedges each. 12 of each in total. Generally the woman behind the counter throws in a free donut.

This is a free night eats every couple weeks, just add some home made coleslaw or salad

Wife gets the free coffee

There are lots of 'cheap eats' (free) foods to be had, just have to look for them

not2old

You are too modest

Just those points can make or break the budget.

Batch cooking is key, as is 'only buy specials & lots of them', like my recent cheese, veggies & pizza buy

Shirtback

Next time I'm in the GTO, I'm going to try & replicate one of my budget shop & cook for ~a month (feed the freezer) episodes. And see how different prices/available produce are. This should probably be in the grocery thread - sorry bats for the swerve.

Pulaski

When I lived in London, Sainsbury's used to mark down their short-dated cuts of meat in an evening, after the pensioners, the mothers with children, and the unemployed had all gone home. Then I would stop in on my way home from my well-paid job, or sometimes after stopping off in the pub, to grab a few groceries along with any half-priced steaks that they might marked down. ..... I now live in the US but I can still find marked-down meat if I am shopping late.