I wrote a series of frugal living tips years ago, but here are the new ways I have discovered to save money as a large family.

So, what has changed? Mostly, I have added things that have made life easier while saving us money.

Food Storage Option: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Bulk Wheat & Bean Option: Palouse Brand

Best Grain Mill & Kitchen Mixer: NutriMill/Bosch

Click >> Azure Standard << For Bulk Shopping

I still keep a master grocery shopping list & simple menu plan. How I shop for groceries each week/month is generally the same at its core.

Some of the items on our master grocery shopping list and menu plan have changed (less organic, more food – because quantity over quality is sometimes necessary when feeding a large family), though our diet is still similar. And some of the dynamics of grocery shopping have changed, like my husband picking up my online orders each week, etc.

Frugal Meal Planning Help

Little House Living: The Make-Your-Own Guide to a Frugal, Simple, and Self-Sufficient Life
The Little House Cookbook: New Full-Color Edition: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories (Little House Nonfiction)
The $7 a Meal Slow Cooker Cookbook: 301 Delicious, Nutritious Recipes the Whole Family Will Love!
Necessary Food: Traditional Favorites Made Healthy from Briana Thomas’s Kitchen
Convenient Food: More Traditional Favorites Made Healthy from Briana’s Kitchen
Home Management for the Homeschool Mom: Simplifying the big things so you don’t miss the little things.

Frugal Living Tips From A Large Family Mom

Order Online For Pick Up – Now that our Fred Meyer and Walmart both have online ordering and “curbside” pickup, I can order our weekly groceries using our master grocery shopping list. By doing this, I don’t stray from the list and I don’t grab things on impulse that we don’t need. Plus, my weekly list is saved on the store’s website, making it even quicker to order. This helps me stick to our weekly budget while saving us time & money.

Choose Ugly Produce/foods – Find a delivery service in your area that offers discounted fruit, veggies, and more. They send you boxes of “ugly” produce that the regular stores reject. You can usually choose organic or not, small to extra-large boxes, all fruit, all veggies, a mixture of both, weekly or biweekly deliveries, and each delivery is customizable!!

Do Freezer/Bulk Cooking – Doing a once-a-week or month freezer/bulk cooking day saves you time & money in the long run because you are buying everything you need in bulk and getting all of the hard work out of the way so that you have easy meals available when you need them. This allows you to benefit from the cheaper prices on bulk foods and cuts WAY down on the need for eating out on busy/tough days because you will have meals prepared ahead of time!

Buy The Cheapest Foods – I shared the best frugal pantry staples before, but I wanted to share the list of the cheapest foods that I always fall back on when a monthly budget is extra tight. Whether fresh, frozen, dried, or canned, these are typically some of the cheapest foods. And, they are also foundational items on our master grocery shopping list anyway, so I usually have a surplus of these in my home.

• oatmeal
• eggs
• bananas
• chicken
• ground turkey
• rice
• beans
• potatoes
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• spinach

The above list might not be news to you, but I know that when money is tight and you have a less-than-enough budget for food, it’s hard to think about trying to buy wholesome foods on top of the financial stress!

Yes, the foods listed can get old/boring after a while, but they are nutritious. Sometimes we simply have to choose quantity over variety. If you can afford locally sourced foods, then those are even better for you. However, in a time of financial need, the above list is a quick/easy shopping list.

(scroll to continue to the next tip) Grab my printable pack of Cheapest Foods (shopping & preparing) cheat sheets that will help you when you need to stretch your food budget! Perfect for monthly use or to refer to when needed.

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Plant a Garden – Whether you have a potted garden, garden boxes, or a larger garden space, planting, growing, harvesting, & preserving produce will save you money. The first year will cost a little more money upfront to get started, depending on how much work needs to be done and how much of the materials you need to buy versus finding for free. (Read: Backyard Garden Basics For Homemakers with free printable tips)

For example, in our first year of building/preparing garden boxes and planting potatoes, we estimate that the potatoes we harvested & stored saved us enough money to “pay” ourselves back the $20 we put into materials, plus saved us an additional $20 in potatoes we didn’t have to buy, thus “doubling our money”.

Whether you want to plant a garden in the spring and/or summer/fall, you can get started on preparations any time of the year. The Homemaker’s Backyard Garden Tips will help you get started, plan, & track your garden progress from beginning to end!

To recap, the 5 frugal living tips I have added into my life over the last few years are these:

1. Order Online For Pick Up
2. Choose Ugly Produce
3. Do Freezer/Bulk Cooking
4. Buy The Cheapest Foods
5. Plant a Garden

Homemaking Resources

• Homemaker’s Friend Daily Planner with Meal Planning Pages – a physical hardcopy planner that I use EVERY DAY.

Proverbial Homemaker Planner & eCourse – digital Resources I recommend!