I fully support this goal!! How can I help?

 Oooh, watch Extreme Couponinng on TLC!

I love seeing how much I can save when I shop. It's like a game. Talk about a prize! Instead of getting a prize for doing everything yourself, you get the prize of seeing your 50%+ savings on your register receipt!

When I used to watch Clean Sweep (and later Hoarders), I'd get all inspired to clean out the basement. Now I watch Extreme Couponing and get inspired to save more on groceries. (The other cool thing is that the people are a very stark reminder of what you'll look like if you become as obsessed as they are, so its a good deterrent to going overboard ;)  Everything in moderation, yes?

Also, I've started doing a vegetable garden in the summer. It's good exercise, therapeutic to be outside and working in nature and you get veggies that are tastier than what you get at the store and cheaper. Plus, you're in total control of what goes on your food (i.e. chemicals, etc).

Good luck!!

I like all these ideas! Thank you, I'm excited to have a new goal to focus on. I'm thinking of making this my 21-Day Challenge. And I loved the hot mess of Clean Sweep, though Hoarders utterly freaked me out. A veggie garden will be a perfect addition once the weather gets nice again. Perfect inspiration, thank you!

Love your goal Shea.  Hoarders is absolutely scary to watch.  Clean Sweep was much easier on the stress level.  Any plans for a vegetable garden at all?  It's a great idea and the difference in taste is amazing.  We had an veggie garden up until the twins came along. Best tasting tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, potatoes and zucchini.  It was a lot of work and time, but very worth it.  So nice that Bill's offering to help.  Maybe he'd be up for the garden idea?  Oh, here's something that might help... does your grocery store price match?  Ours just started offering that to it's customers and it saves us money each week.  Best of luck to you.  It's a great goal and so awesome that you love to cook too.  

Hi Andrea, I'm sure we'll get into gardening next summer. Come spring I'll start to look into what's required. It just feels so far away right now! Although, can't complain, it's nearly 20 degrees celcius here now (I think, that's my best estimate for conversion for your easy reading!).

I am going to spend some time this weekend on my first budget/menu, and make note of what's on sale at two local grocers. I don't think they do price-matching, unfortunately, but if I stick to a few meals on budget, that will be a good start. I also picked up a Rachael Ray magazine and she features four budget meals, less than $5 a person, often down to $2 a person, so maybe I'll try a few of those. They look reasonable, low in ingredients and at least one sounded delicious to me. I'll keep you posted on how they go! Thanks for following and giving your smart advice, as always! 

What a nice thing to say Shea.  Thanks.  Spring does feel like it's so far away.  It's freezing here with a tonne of snow but I'm happy to say, the kids have finally gone back to school today.  Love Rachael Ray.  I'll share a family favourite recipe with you:  Pasta, romano beans (a can that you drain and rinse, or dried and then rehydrated) and veggies (in season) or switch the beans to diced chicken breast all simmered in a simple tomato sauce.  It's quick too - especially when cutting up the veggies - you can toss them into a salad at the same time that you're preparing the stew.  If you're short on time (and who isn't these days) you can even get a bag of frozen peppers and onions to avoid the cleaning and chopping time of the veggies. The kids love it if we use a fun pasta like rotini or fusilli or radiators and the meal has to be less than 2 bucks each (especially the bean version).  Add some parmesean and cracked black pepper and red pepper flates to spice it up for grown ups.  Make a bunch of the stew (before adding the pasta) and you can freeze half for another day to save time next time around.  Looking forward to your tips too. I'm always looking for ways to save money on our groceries.

I am updating this goal as my 21-Day Challenge, just so I will make it more actionable. I realize the way I wrote it, I didn't add in quite enough practical steps. I am going to make my grocery list tomorrow and really get this goal going. I want to see if I can save $100 during the challenge.

And Andrea, I'm definitely going to try that recipe. Thanks for sharing! I'll post any good ones I find, too!

Do you buy organic produce? I find it very helpful to know which fruits & veggies you get the most benefit from buying organic if you don't have the money to buy organic everything (which I don't). Some fruits & veggies like berries and celery aren't really safe unless they're organic, but for others like bananas and oranges it's not a big safety concern. So I save my $ for buying organic on the foods where it counts the most.

Is the 21-Day Challenge starting today? I haven't heard anything about it and it's not on the main page of the website...

Foley, thank you, that's so helpful! I am careful about buying as much organic produce as I can afford, too, and I also want to be more aware of what's worth it and what isn't. I know apples and pears are more important to go organic, because of the high exposure to pesticides in the non-organics. I'm sure I buy more organic than I need to. I will look up more about that, thanks for the idea!

The 21-Day Challenge starts today! Email is going out shortly with the rules. So pick a goal and get ready to rock it!

 Thanks Shea.  Looking forward to the recipies.  It's always great to get a recommendation from someone.  I forgot... be sure to add oregano and basil to that Pasta/Bean/Veggie stew.  

 Came across this today and thought of you.  http://sailthru.dailyworth.com/view/bl9h.68m/89e1a437

Hi Shea, good luck with this goal...it is all about the planning and the list (something I am not good at doing...being a singleton, I never really know when I will be home). As a result, I am all about making and freezing. Soups can be extremely cost efficient. I love to make chicken soup with the left over chicken and carcus of the store bought rotisserie chicken. I add some frozen veggies, lots of great spices. you can add pasta or rice or beans to make it heartier.

I wanted to pass along a friend of mine's blog...this month's topic in Budget Month. She has some amazing ideas! here's the link http://kim-thelunchbox.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

Loving this version of the chicken soup Heather.  It sounds awesome and simple too.  All my kids love chicken soup.

A site that I like to use for coupons is http://www.cellfire.com/.  It links a coupon directly with your savings card and works with many different supermarkets.  Not a lot of coupons to choose from, but any little bit helps!

I gotta check some of these other sites people are recommending for my use!  Good Luck, Shea!

KRAZY KOUPON LADY.  Check it out!!!!!  I saved over 100 bucks (50%) in a month by shopping at CVS and Walgreens and using coupons.

I was saving so much money my husband even checks with me to see if I have any coupons before he heads out the door to the store.

Oh, Jamie's right! I didn't think about this because I don't get most groceries there, but there are plenty of regular-purchase things I buy at CVS because you can get MAD deals at CVS if you work your savings card and your coupons right. My SO's mom must have a black belt in CVS shopping, because she regularly walks out of there with almost as much in ExtraBucks as she spent on her purchase. I'm not at that godlike level, but even without being too hard-core you can get some good deals.

hope that u are finding success with the shopping/grocery lists. You have so many great options in the US for all those savings...and all those savings cards! get those scissors out and start scanning the different sites. I am a closet Kourtney and Kim in NY watchers (shhh) and Kourtney became addicted with couponing. it was an interesting episode for sure!

Hi Shea - So, to assist with one of my goals (jump start to tithing), I have been reading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Revisited and as I was reading this morning, I thought of you.  This may or may not really effect you, depending on your credit card usage, but here's what it says:

Even if you pay your credit card off every month, you buy more when using plastic.  ...a typical grocery purchase is almost doubled when the shoper uses plastic. 

Another thing that I, personally, do (and this is only good if it's available by you), is online food shopping.  My local Shoprite has it, and while the service itself costs $10 (every 5th time is free), it helps for me to compare prices more easily and figure out my coupons, and where it's simply better for me to buy a different brand, rather than use a coupon. 

Lastly, I totally agree that CVS is an excellent resource!  Every week, they also email me a coupon that I can choose to just attach to my rewards card (this week, it was 20% off). 

You guys are fantastic, what a great bunch of resources you've shared! Thank you.

I have been carefully planning meals, that was step 1. I made three meals this week for a group of five, for which I had to spend less than $2 a person. Now, some of that was because I already a few of the staples in the house, but I think working with what I have is a good habit to build, instead of going to Whole Foods and buying every single ingredient to buy whatever is on my mind (as I often do). I looked at what was on sale and bought a handful of items that could complete a meal and literally spent $9 on the whole deal. That's proof for me that this can be done! I have started to pay far more attention to what I'm buying and what I'm cooking.

The next step is to see about coupons. I haven't been able to institute this part yet but that will be the goal this week. I have heard a lot of people say they buy things they wouldn't normally buy if they have coupons, so I want to avoid that at all cost. I am looking at items that I will always buy (like meat and laundry soap, etc), and I'm assessing how much I care which brand I use. Wow, brand recognition is a powerful thing! Do I feel so strongly about Tide that I will pay double for it? If I weren't doing this exercise, I probably would just reach for it because that's what I've always done. It becomes rote, what we buy in the moment. So I'm making progress, just in becoming more aware.

Zin, I think that's terrific advice, all of it. I do have a CVS here and I will definitely check out their flier this week to see if there's any great deals to be had. I never, never charge anything (that was part of a goal of mine a million years ago and I'm still living finance-charge-free), but it's still good to remember not to overbuy just because you can.

So many awesome tips.  Great to read that you're becoming more price aware Shea and so awesome to read that you're still living finance-charge-free after so many years.  I think Heather's right, you guys seem to have a lot of savings options there.  What were the meals that you were able to put together so efficiently?  

 Hi Shea, thanks for your encouragement in my 21-Day challenge.

This is a great goal. I always try to purchase seasonal. It may not seem as fancy, but it tastes better and it's grown closer to home. I picked up strawberries the other day, and they're almost not worth finishing (maybe I'll chocolate coat them). 

I'd also like to hear these great $2 a plate meals that you've been making. I recently made a vege soup that lasted half the week. potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and spices. simmer, serve, and when you go to it the next day, add more. It ended up pretty rich and delicious. Perfect with a little sprinkle of grated or chopped cheese. 

how is the cost cutting going Shea? I am sure that you are finding some great choices at bargain prices! Im with Jo...share those recipes!

$2 a plate, what?  Love to hear more about that!

Hola everyone! Sorry I have been so lax about my updates on this one, ridiculous. The meals I've been making have been going great, even I'm surprised how possible it is to cut these costs, if only I'd paid the slightest bit of attention in the past!

One night I made angel hair with a homemade bolognese sauce, ground chicken from the freezer, canned tomatoes and paste from the pantry, shredded carrots, and threw the whole thing in the blender with spices I always have on hand, garlic, nutmeg, crushed red pepper and more. I basically throw the kitchen sink in it. Don't forget the fresh parmesan. Got fresh bread and a bit of wine and we were in heaven.

This week I saved more than $30 on my bill, without even using any coupons! Stocked up on everything I'd usually buy, but strictly paid attention to what was on sale. Beef and chicken stock, london broil, split chicken breast, turkey for a new tavapa recipe, beef chuck for beef and apple stew. Only spent $160 out of the $200 I'd budgeted, too! I was really thrilled. I will post the recipes for a few good things, easy, cheap and delicious.

Because I love to cook so much, I realize one thing I struggle with is buying vegetables. I buy organics when I don't peel them, which gets expensive. I thought about what recipes I could use frozen veggies for, but my heart's just not in it. There are some compromises I'm just not willing to make perhaps. But I also am trying to lower my expectations, knowing it would simplify my overall life, too, if I didn't make such complicated meals every single time I cook. Sometimes it's just OK to use frozen. Or pre-made rice. There are shortcuts that people have been using for a generation and calling them dinner. I don't know why I haven't been alright with that. Partially because prepared food is full of allergens that my daughter can't have, and partially because there are more preservatives, etc., that contribute to weight issues .. but all of these reasons make me sound like a health food nut. I'm not. At ALL. I just have been cooking fresh for so long and constantly experimenting in the kitchen that I forget to keep it in perspective. Simplifying will save money and time. I just have to start thinking that chicken and a garden salad is enough for dinner, rather than multi-layers for every meal.

What do you guys make for dinner? Am I as OTT as I think I am? 

$30 on your grocery bill is huge! Good for you Shea! (But your bolognese sauce is making me jealous...)

Thanks, Foley! It's really simple recipe. Anything that simmers for three hours has to taste good. :)

Zin, I think you were the one who inspired me with this one. I already have a spicy wine pot roast in the crock pot but tomorrow night I'm having salad and wine for dinner! Let's see how I go.

The cheaper cuts of meat are really the best for the crock pot - saving money, saving time - Life Is Good (and better with that glass of wine). 

Also, if I'm not mistaken there was some show on the food network about $10 meals (for families).  I think Melissa d'Arabian was the chef ~ one of The Next Food Network Stars winners.  That might be a great resource, since I think you said you do enjoy cooking to find some fun recipes that are also cheap.  Another show might be 5-ingredient fix.  While it doesn't tout the cheap, you have to assume that in many instances, 5 ingredients in general may just cost less than many other recipes. 

Always happy to inspire!

Reading some more and came across some more info about Coupons.  They are fantastic, of course, but only if you're buying stuff with them that you would normally buy.  You don't want to spend more on a brand because you have a coupon, when a different brand is cheaper without.  Definitely check out when the supermarket is offering double or triple coupon days and see what coupons are allowed to be doubled (as not all are).

Hope you're succeeding in your goal!

hey Shea! hope that you have been succeeding on cutting down on your grocery bill and have had fun with the challenge of preparing meals on a budget.