We can live on that pretty easily if we do the following....

I make breakfasts (including the bread for toasts...no frozen preservative breakfasts, sugar filled cereals or psuedo-nutritional breakfast bars).

I pack lunches (sandwich, chips, fruit/veggies, waters, a soda...can't get my dh to give them up!...homemade cookies

I include a snack in the packed lunch like string cheese, or a soy protein bar (find the one with the fewest grams of sugar).

I make dinner.

We splurge on blended iced mochas and bagels 2 to 3x a week ($20-30).

We have basically given up fast food and don't miss it at all. We also don't miss waiting for 45+ minutes just to get a seat at a restaurant,and we are eating much healthlier.

I do have to make out a weekly menu and corresponding grocery list. We have had to learn to eat left-overs and plain meals sometimes. And I have become much better at coming up with my own quick dinner ideas with what I have in the fridge and cupboard.

I don't use coupons because we were paying more for the paperÙ)fn we were saving with the coupons. Why don't they ever make coupons for REAL food? You never see coupons for produce (here anyway!)

We used to save a lot of money buying all of our meat, drinks, cheese, etc. at Costco or Sam's Club once a month. That really helped to keep the weekly bills down as we were only buying perishables as needed. Now however, we buy all of our meat, dairy, and much of our produce at Trader Joe's where it is all hormone and preservative free and most things are organic as well.

For date night we try to go to a matinee instead of at night, as it is half the price for the same movie and then we can make it home in time to either make dinner, or sometimes we can make it out before the crowds and in time for an early bird special. We don't eat out much though, and we try to stay away from the snacks at the movies too!

That's about all I can think of right now. It has worked out well for us and we are on the way to becoming debt free and nuch healthier!

Hi,
Well, I almost made it. I went over by $15. Went to cook dinner Friday night after soccer practice and found out that I had left the pizza dough out on the table and the dog got it! So had to order out and spend an hour cleaning up all the mess. Not Fun!
One way that we save and still get to go out is that we have asked that family get our family gift certificates to movies, restarants etc. We also bowl once a week on a league that gives out certificates instead of trophies. We will go to an early movie or wait for it to be at the Hollywood Hits theater that is only $4.50 a ticket. It means waiting about 4 weeks after the movie has been released. A local restarant will give you either a free appitiezer (I can't spell) or dessert with your movie stub from that day. So we get one of each and share. We almost always go for the early bird specials. Around here the meals are the same as the dinner time hours but almost half the price.

Laura

Wow, I can do this one standing on my head.

We go many, many weeks spending $0. (It pays to have a pantry and full freezers. )

Did great last week let's see if I can do it again.

Spent $25 today have $75 to go.

How do you not spent $ for weeks. I still need to get milk and eggs. With teenagers in the house they need it.

How do you save on these kind of things.?
I truly believe now that time is $. It sounds that you really have to plan and bake and cook (from scratch) to save. I'm learning and taking baby steps.

I like getting great ideas from everyone. Thanks.

Here is what I do to stretch the time between grocery store runs...

1) I buy as many milk gall as my fridge will hold (usually 5) & keep my water out until it will fit back in - if you dig to the back there are normally later dated jugs. We use normally 3-4 gall a week, so it just lasts roughly 10 days.

2) I use powdered eggs & egg white to bake with & save the real eggs for cooked eggs. I didn't calculate the cost, it just frees up space in the fridge, & I don't waste yolks when I need the whites only!

3) I buy a minimum of 5 loaves of bread at a time. I double bag (plastic) the bread and freeze it. It thaws quickly, & still tastes fresh. If I don't double the bag sometimes the last loaf isn't.

Keep in mind, its a 20 minute drive to the town I shop in, so I like to go less than once a week. We average 3 trips a month, it works for us!

SuzyQ, did you know you can freeze milk? We buy 3 or 4 gallons of time when they have those $1 off in-store coupons on them at Kroger.

Cheap cleaners? Vinegar for the windows and floors(shiny and no streaking!) and bleach for everything else. I mix bleach and water 50/50 in a spray bottle, spray down the tub, counter, whatever, let it sit for a few minutes to disenfect and wipe off. If there's a spot that needs scrubbing, I use baking soda. I use Dawn dishsoap, but we buy it at Sam's and that big bottle lasts about 4 months. I switched from Tide laundry soap to Extra a while ago when we had to watch every penny, and it works just as well, I think. I add baking soda to the wash water and use vinagar instead of fabric softener.

If someone had told me 2 years ago I'd be using these things, I would've laughed. Now I wince when I think of how much money I wasted on cleaning supplies!

Re: $100.00 a week challenge I will take that challenge as well!! As far as the diaper issue!! My DD is allergic to alot of diapers so we use luvs or generic brand or even store brand and we use coupons but we can't use cloth diapers because we are allergic to alot of diffrent clothing materials as well as chemicals and fibers!!
Shopping for home supplies like cleaning supplies or paper we go to Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Big Lots and we shop Clearance Racks!! We also try to take advatange of the times when are State has Tax Free Weekend and We buy all of our Supplies of Pens, Pencils, Paper, Crayons basically office,home, and school supplies on this weekend we stock up then!! As far as Food goes we shop around and we use coupons!!
We go to several diffrent places to get bread!!
Sometimes we go to SuperWalmart and buy our Bread and sometime we go to the Bread Thrift Store and buy our bread and then sometime we go to Dollar General to buy our Bread!!
We go to several diffrent places to buy our Milk!!
Sometimes we go to Bilo Golden Gallon to buy our Gallon milk for about $1.89 ! Sometimes we go to Super Walmart , Sometimes to A Regular Grocery Store, Sometimes to CVS, Sometimes to Eckerds!!
So I would also like to see if My Family and I can only use $100.00 a week to live off of !! Actually I would like to try to live off of even less than that for my family!!
My Daughter is in the process of being potty trained!!
So soon I will not be using diapers any longer!!

Oh, I can't wait until ds2 is potty trained! I'm tired of changing diapers lol! Though I give kudos to those women who have two or more in diapers at the same time...I think I'd lose my mind!

Mrs. Maniac Thanks for the tips on household cleaners.

I have heard of using these things but like you thought I would never use them. I'll give it a try.