Albertsons $17.05
A few days before we had our kitchen sink {and oven} up and running I picked up a few convenience packages of fruit fruit. I used to think those little tubs of pre-cut fruits and veggies were for lazy people, but how could I resist a giant tub of pineapple, raspberries and cantaloupe for $3.33 each? Cuties $3.99, Butternut Squash $1.88 and Bananas $1.19.
Zaycon Chicken – Free
I cashed in my Zaycon referral credits last week for a 40 pound case of boneless chicken breasts which I shared with my new neighbor The Church lady. We whipped up 26 freezer meals in less than 3 hours and now our freezers are stuffed full of homemade goodness. Yay for nice neighbors.
Albertsons $0.75
I popped into Starbucks {which happens to be in our local Albertsons} to grab a hot cocoa using my Starbucks gift card I bartered with Mrs. Hillbilly for and spotted and sweet deal on Planter’s trail mix.
Twenty five freakin’ cents. Umm ya, so that was a good deal. In my old extreme couponing days I totally would have asked the cashier for more coupons, but fast forward a couple of years and I find myself happy with 3 packages of trail mix for a quarter a piece instead of a 3 cases. Funny how how things change, huh?
Smith Brothers Farm – Sponsored
I don’t know about you but I’ve got a boatload of baking to do this week and thanks to Smith Brother’s Dairy I’ve got all the essentials {plus a few extras}.
How did you do this week? Did you find any good deals?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $17.80
Total Spent Year to Date $1602.76 {Over for the year!}
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
One Hundred Dollars a Month is proudly sponsored by Smith Brother’s Farms, my family’s favorite milk. Check out their website HERE and learn about the over 100 top quality products Smith Brothers Farms can deliver to your porch box.
Natasha says
While I think its neat you share how YOU are feeding your family so cheaply, I dont see this as a realistic way to show others how to save and feed their family for less. The majority of us do not get sponsored dairy products, and we likely would never have enough referral credits for a bunch of free chicken (after all, its your readers that helped you get those referral credits)… I do think its great youre able to feed your family and get such amazing offers and free stuff, but to the general public, thats not an option. Its just unrealistic for everyone else.
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks so much for taking the time to write. You are so right! Most people could not feed their family like I do. I use my site, and have since its inception, as a personal online journal. In the beginning it was just family keeping tabs on me and then it grew and grew. I never anticipated that, but it has been so much fun to see it grow and virtually “meet” so many faithful readers. But even as it grew, I stuck to the same format and I never switched up the journal mentality, meaning I still used it to record my life and purchases. The only difference is that now thousands are watching me do it. I have added some great features that I think help my readers in numerous ways, but the overall hope is that, while most can’t duplicate the way I feed my family and shop, they will be able to pick up tips that can be helpful to them. I am so sorry you don’t find it realistic for your family. I do hope you have picked up on a few helpful tips to save you money as you shop for your our family’s situation.
Thanks for reading!
Mavis
Amy E says
To Natasha: I’ve thought about that too, but it takes on a different meaning for me. Mavis talks about how she’s made a shift from extreme couponing and getting lots of processed foods for next-to-nothing, to growing more of her own produce and generally trying to improve the quality of food her family eats. It’s pretty obvious that even with the perks of sponsorships and referral credits, it’s still REALLY hard to go for healthier options on such a limited budget, even when your blog is built around that concept! It just proves that you have to compromise a lot on quality and nutrition. So I don’t fault Mavis for going over budget or using credits, because it kind of validates my own sense of what a reasonable food budget can be. Planning around grocery sale ads and using coupons (moderately) lets me get away with about $100 a week for a family of 3, while prioritizing unprocessed foods as much as possible. I’m much further off the $100/month mark than Mavis is, but I think that’s not too bad!
Natasha says
Amy, I totally agree with you. I just meant her 100.00 a month food budget isnt reasonable for the average family 🙂 I dont fault anyone for going over that budget, because that would be impossible in most circumstances, especially when not getting free dairy and some free meat (which makes up a huge chunk of food costs).
Marcia says
I don’t know – while I agree it would be hard for the typical family to do this, that doesn’t mean it’s not “doable”.
Yes she gets credits for meat (I just got my first Zaycon chicken order this month, so some of that was from me!), but if you read back, you’ll see some of her savings used to be getting free produce from the produce guy at the store – stuff that was going to be thrown away.
(And when she realized he started giving the rest to the food bank, she stopped accepting it so that it could all go to the food bank).
Just like (who feeds, or used to, her family for something like 40 cents per person per day, which is about $108 a month for 9). It takes a LOT of work to do that.
I could probably not hit $100 a month in coastal Southern California. But I could probably get pretty close if I were willing and able to make that much of my own bread (and actually eat bread), eat more beans, have a garden. I could choose to use my social media accounts or my blog to get other people to buy Zaycon foods, to get credits. (For that matter, I could really amp up my Beachbody game and get friends signed up for different programs and get my morning shake for free.)
It depends on how far you want to take it, and how much work you want to put into it. I’m impressed with the level of professionalism on this blog. I’ve gotten many a good recommendation here for free E-books (or $1-2 E-books). I got a great inexpensive set of crochet hooks because I’d lost some of mine. I enjoy the photography and it’s obvious she puts work into the blog.
Just like the 3 or 4 other blogs I follow, where the photography is good, or the recipes, or the content, or the writing, or all of the above. Some of them are monetized (affiliate links, ads, etc.) and some are not. Some people are pretty talented and can make money off their blog because of it, and I think it’s great. It’s what separates the talented from the hobbyists (like me).
Mavis says
I love everything about this comment! Thanks, Amy!
Trish K says
I think this is about her journey. She set goals, and made most of them. I’m not a stay at home mom but I garden organically and I have a couple of hens, hoping to organically get more by getting a rooster in the spring. We will never be all on the same page at the same time, but we learn from one another, don’t we? I bought chicken from Zaycon, she got credit from me. Second time I bought a friend bought and I got credit for that. 200 lbs. of chicken between 2 families raising athletes and feeding hard working men. I don’t have a problem. I see an opportunity to do it better. This is the only one I consistently follow. She’s real. Warts ( or bad teeth) and all.
Mavis Butterfield says
You made my day. Thank you.
suzanne hissung says
Let’s not forget although you call yourself a stay at home mom, you work da*n hard. There is nothing wrong with being compensated for hard work. I’ve always used your links to Zaycon, amazon, garden seeds or whatever. You are my daily dose of entertainment and I can’t count how many free books I’ve been able to download free because of you. By the way I’ve only used Zaycon twice, referred only two people and have close to 30 bucks credit already so it’s pretty doable.
Mavis says
Thanks Suzanne! And that Zaycon credit adds up fast. It’s so great!
Denise says
I’ve only recently started reading this blog, so I’m not sure who or what Zaycon is. The setting of goals based on posts like this one on how you feed your family may not be totally realistic for me (most of the time, it’s just me and my husband), or for many other readers. That said, however, the benefits are immeasurable to me, because it gets me thinking about what’s POSSIBLE; you push me to think about the dollars leaving my wallet and where they’re going. About how I can stretch resources, or even WHETHER I can stretch them. We are apartment-dwellers at this time, and it’s not hard to blow a good $100-150 on groceries per week in Dallas, TX. Plus, there are health considerations with my husband and animal products (we have to get as close to organic on these as possible), and there’s no gardening or chicken-keeping for us. But, I am a prolific cook, and seeing other ways of filling the larder (so to speak) helps me adjust my expectations and our needs, and change a recipe or cut a corner where I might not have considered cutbacks or substitutions before. Carry on, Mavis–it’s a wonderful blog and I’ve learned so much already. I really enjoy reading your posts (and the comments), and challenging myself to do better and better.