Eat Well, Spend Less: Grocery Shopping When You Live in the Boonies

by Mandi on April 19, 2011

grocery shopping

source: Bruce Turner

This month I’m participating in the Eat Well, Spend Less series with eight other bloggers. Each week we’ll be sharing tips from our own experiences to help you eat well on a budget.

Our family shoots for a grocery budget of $100-125 a week, including household items, diapers and other personal care products.

Out of that, we spend between $30-40 a week on produce at the nicer grocery store. I’ll be interested to see how that amount changes when we begin shopping at the farmer’s market and as our garden starts to produce, but we still have a couple months before that happens.

We don’t eat a lot of red meat or seafood (mostly because I’m too intimidated to spend the money on them when I’m not confident in my ability not to ruin them!), so I’m sure that keeps our budget lower as well.

In the first week of the series, I shared that I purchase generic items from Walmart most of the time rather than dealing with sales cycles and coupons.

With that said, here are some of my other strategies for keeping the grocery budget low even as food prices rise:

Meal Planning

Because we live 25-30 minutes from the closest grocery store (on a good day, when you’re not stuck behind either a tractor trailer hauling logs or someone who slows down to 25 MPH for every curve on the mountain highway), we probably spend more time preparing for our grocery shopping than we do actually grocery shopping.

Forgetting a key ingredient throws the whole meal plan out of whack, so I try really hard not to let that happen!

Instead, I start by planning my weekly menu with Plan to Eat, which automatically creates a shopping list for me. I add any additional toiletries or household items to my list as well as extra fruits and veggies for snacks and sides, and we’re ready to go.

Amazon.com

Although I don’t shop the weekly sales ads for our local grocery stores, I do watch for deals on Amazon.com for things like  healthier snacks, ingredients like coconut oil and household items such as diapers or toilet paper. With Subscribe & Save, you can save 15-30% off of Amazon’s already low list prices, which often makes for really great deals.

Buy Seasonally

Although I’m willing to spend a significant amount of our budget on fresh produce, I also try to buy seasonally, when items are priced at their lowest, rather than just buying whatever sounds good at the given moment. I buy and freeze various fruits when they’re on sale to be used in smoothies and desserts later, and I buy things like apples, potatoes and winter squash — which keep well in a cool, dark place — in bulk when they’re on sale to use in the following weeks.

Buy Locally

One thing I’m not currently doing that I want to start doing more is buying locally from farmers in our area. I’ve found one semi-local farm (which is actually about 30 minutes in the opposite direction from town) that I know sells eggs, honey, beef and chicken. I’m on the lookout for a closer one!

We also love to pick our own apples & strawberries, and I’d love to add a couple additional fruits this year as well!

That’s it for us. I definitely prioritize saving time over saving money, which I think is reflected in the way we shop.

Stay tuned for the roundup to discover how Jessica, Aimee, Shaina, Katie G, Alyssa,Carrie, Katie K, and Tammy shop as well!

How does where you live affect the way you grocery shop?

  • http://twitter.com/goodLifeEats Katie Goodman

    I completely forgot to mention Amazon in my post – I get pull ups, wipes, and a few other items there. I love the prime delivery, subscribe and save discount and amazon mom discount. Makes life so easy and saves money. I never have to worry about running out of these recurring purchases.

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      It’s really very handy!!

  • Anna Wegner

    Each time I move, the grocery shopping is very different: from downtown Baltimore, to rural Montana, and now the Congo.
    Other than locally grown produce, all the food must come into town by boat or plane. There’s not anything that needs to be refrigerated, but you can get powdered milk and laughing cow cheese. The meat or fish is caught or butchered fresh that day.
    There is not much variety, and there is no chocolate, although more things are becoming available. There was jelly at the market for the first time last week! We are also without fuel for our stove or refrigerator (for the last couple of months) because the river is too low for the boats to travel. We’re cooking on a kerosene burner- it’s a bit of a challenge.
    I have a cook who does the bulk of the marketing for me. She buys the meat for each day (Monday-Friday) and the other things necessary for each meal at the market in the morning, then cooks and cleans up.
    On the weekends, I tend to make spaghetti one day, and some type of beans and rice the other.
    The best part about the food here is the fresh fruits and vegetables. We can get papaya all year, and other fruits come and go with the seasons: pineapple, mango, oranges, guava, passion fruit, and more. They are usually really cheap. We can get the best avocados almost year round, and from time to time we have cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. There is also a type of white sweet potato that is available most of the year.
    There are some interesting foods that I’ve had a chance to buy, but I’ve turned down the opportunity. Among those are caterpillars, guinea pigs, pangolin, and monkey. My sense of adventure only goes so far!

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Um, wow, Anna. What an awesome experience, but yeah, I can imagine it’s a bit different for grocery shopping!

  • http://livingthebalancedlife.com Bernice Wood

    I never would’ve ever thought of Amazon for those types of item! I will have to check it out and see!
    Over the past winter, I have felt more compelled to try to buy from smaller local stores and farms. Problem is, we don’t really have any around us. I choose Aldi’s over Walmart whenver I can. As things begin to grow around here, I will definitely be on the lookout for small local farmer’s markets the towns around us are having.
    Bernice
    Stop the Work-Spend-Accumulate Cycle

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      It’s hard for me to step out of my comfort zone in areas like this too, but I’m trying!

  • http://savingbymaking.com Diana

    I live about 5 minutes from Kroger and Walmart is right next to where I work, where I live doesn’t affect too much how I shop–I still despise going more than once a week! :) I also am planning on checking out more Farmer’s Markets this year, though–even in the summer the produce quality isn’t the greatest in the supermarket. Thanks for the reminder to get out and do it!

  • http://savingbymaking.com Diana

    I live about 5 minutes from Kroger and Walmart is right next to where I work, where I live doesn’t affect too much how I shop–I still despise going more than once a week! :) I also am planning on checking out more Farmer’s Markets this year, though–even in the summer the produce quality isn’t the greatest in the supermarket. Thanks for the reminder to get out and do it!

    • http://savingbymaking.com Diana

      pardon the comma splice. that was an accident. :)

      • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

        Hehe — just this once, Diana! ;)

  • Pingback: Eat Well, Spend Less: Making The Most Of Where You Live

  • Pingback: Eat Well & Spend Less in the US & Canada — Life As Mom

  • Pingback: Eat Well, Spend Less Week #3 Wrap-Up and $50 Grocery Giveaway | Food for My Family

  • Pingback: Eat Well, Spend Less Week 3 Round-Up | Frugal Grocery Series | Good Life Eats

  • http://www.handymancraftywoman.com/ Handy Man, Crafty Woman

    Great article. It took me a while, but I FINALLY got over not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings by keeping the stuff they gave me. #6 is still hard for me, as well.

  • Anonymous

    I think everyone should think like they’re going to move around the world in a week and decide if they really would need/want/love the thing that they’re indecisive about. I grew up in Wisconsin, moved to Hawaii, moved to New Jersey then back to Hawaii then to Chicago then to New York City, then to Long Island and finally in Charlotte, NC. Let me tell you, moving around the country stops your sentimental emotional attachment to things and let’s you realize, they are just things. I still remember the plays I went to on Broadway, the trips I took to Europe and the fun I had in Hawaii and it’s not because I own the things that remind me of it but because they were meaningful enough in my life that they made an impact. I do have some things that have managed to keep in my possession from even childhood but it’s only because my Mom kept them and mailed them to me when I finally got married while living on Long Island, lol. I honestly don’t miss what would have been weighing me down.

  • http://twitter.com/JoeyfromSC JoeyfromSC

    Entered via the form! thank you for the chance to win!!

  • http://orgjunkie.com Orgjunkie

    How about creating a photobook with all the pictures…it’s a very quick way to preserve memories and there is journaling space as well. One of my favorites is Shutterfly.

Previous post:

Next post: