Introducing Goals and Making Me Accountable

My goal for the next twelve months is to pay down ½ of our debt, including my public student loans (my 120th payment is February 22, 2026) and our credit cards. This goal should be doable if we stay on our current monthly budget. But what if we start using some aggressive money-saving techniques? 

That brings me to my topic today. 

Slashing our grocery bill.

Way back in the 1990s, I subscribed to Amy Dacyczyn’s newsletter, the Tightwad Gazette (Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle). I followed many of her suggestions, including creating a price book and comparison shopping, gardening and preserving, stocking up our pantry, cooking at home and rarely eating out, keeping a running year-to-year inventory of pantry and freezer items, and many other money-saving efforts. 

Our grocery bill in the 1990s was $182 per month. That total included all edible items, meals, a rare dinner out, canning and freezing supplies, seeds, cleaning products, pet foods, bath products, and paper products. Adjusted for inflation, $182 in 1990 dollars equals $455.51 today, which is entirely unobtainable now. 

Back then, we lived on 5 acres of land, had a small orchard of plums, a 1500-square-foot vegetable garden, a dozen laying hens, and five ducks. Anything we couldn’t grow enough to eat fresh and preserve for the coming year, we either bartered for or bought by the box from the farm, including onions, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, pears, and peaches. We made friends with an older woman who couldn’t care for her apple tree. We traded out apple tree maintenance for a portion of the product. We squeezed and bottled cider, canned sliced apples, and apple sauce and made, parbaked, and froze pies and tarts. She got as much of this as she thought she could use. 

We were a family of four, two adults and two kids, but we never fed just the four of us. There were always neighbors, kids, friends, and family at our house more days than not. With two acres of wooded property, one and a half acres of field, and one and a half acres of house, gardens, and lawn, our place was kid heaven. 

Thirty-plus years later, our lives have changed. We are now a senior family of three. We live in a rental house on a postage stamp lot. I still apply many Tightwad Gazette grocery principles in an urban setting. Do we only spend $455.51 per month? No, I wish, but our needs have changed drastically! We spend about 3.5 times that amount. This year, I aim to cut our food, entertainment, and personal products expenses by 15%. 

We will use straw bales, containers, and alternative gardening methods (another couple of posts) to do this. I will start a purchasing system to buy everything we need twice monthly and reduce “drop-in” grocery trips. I will begin with an inventory control system so we aren’t buying more than we need for a two-month supply. Lastly, we will be more diligent in our no-food waste efforts, cutting back on convenience foods, seeking out farm produce in bulk, and canning and freezing extra produce. 

Follow along on our journey.

Michele