For most meals, we use whole grains, brown rice mixed with white as a compromise,and our main “convenience food” is salad macaroni, which I can hardly find as whole wheat at *any* price. We also buy veggies on sale, in season, more chicken than beef, and use fresh fruit instead of juice. We seldom have the opportunity to use coupons, so we have more stable prices over the year, BUT do what we can to buy in bulk, generic or unprocessed items to cut costs that way.

A side note– Ground beef is often MORE expensiv than leaner, tougher cuts of beef, and MUCH more expensive than bone-in chicken parts, usually including breasts!

Prices have risen sharply even here in CA (I live in an area KNOWN for its orchards and farms) — so sharply that I’d have to dig out last week’s receipts to discover whether they were a few pennies higher or lower per item than your New England list.

The suggestion I have for anyone thinking of an emergency, bare-bones shopping list is to sit down and work out a week’s menus for simple to prepare, frugal foods you LOVE– family faves include minestrone soup, veggie sushi, hummus, and sweet potato fries– and check the plan for missing nutrients, then build your OWN “crunch list”. If you shop sales and keep even a SMALL pantry of these staples, it’s easy to remember and mak off the items you already have. That frees up a few dollars for unexpected expenses or padding the plain list with extra fruits and veggies. DO plan to include daily snacks of some type and a dessert or two for the week, as a surprise. Feeling “deprived” and “broke” is a BIIG reason our family makes an excuse to go out to fast food, so I’ve learned the hard way to make our menus VERY appealing.

Also bear in mind the benefit of doubling batches, especially of things like hummus dip for carrot sticks and broccoli. Packing lunches for those who head off to work/school becomes simple and frugal.

All in all, our family’s staple weekly menu comes in at about $120, for a family of 4. It’s not filet mignon, not even top sirloin, but I’m not worried about adding a multivitamin, either.

It’s impossible for me to mimic her success but if I were in a desperate situation I would use it.

Most couldn’t do it without their pantry. I could live without shopping for one week probably 2-3 weeks. But a month? It might be tight.

BUT we don’t stockpile meats with an extra freezer or anything. and the hardest part would be going without fresh fruit and veggies.

I enjoy HH for her tips and ideas, but I’ll confess I’m far more likely to save $$ on cooking by roasting a chicken (bought at $0.39- $0.69 a pound) and making it stretch to ostrich lengths over the weeks then feed my family on hotdogs and canned tuna.

I AM glad to see your validation that, yup, groceries are rising and it can be a challenge to make it all work. A dear friend of mine was convinced she was “doing something wrong” when she couldn’t make her grocery bill tally up to HH.