But I will add some specifics such as our grocery budget is $250 and if you read my Money Matters post on day 22 you know we went over last month and so far this month we are going over as well. May have to adjust the budget for that line item! I also shared in that post that the commissary is a huge benefit that we are grateful for. The prices in my opinion are the best around but that is only if there is no ALDI nearby. Which is one of my favorite stores for many reasons but mostly because it saves on our grocery spending. And for the record I do shop the local grocery stores to get the sales as another way to stretch our grocery dollars. Some locations have better sales then others.
My upper and lower pantry cabinets.
This is where the majority of our food gets stored. It's hard to "stock up" but then again when you are trying to stretch your grocery dollars it's hard NOT to. I also stash things under the dinette when I need to! Otherwise these two cabinets do the job. And the lower shelf of the lower cabinet holds my storage containers and bowls so it's not even ALL food in that one!
If you think that my cabinet space is lacking you will really gasp when you see the fridge. It's not tiny but it's NOT full size and the freezer is not very big either. I do tend to grocery shop more often since our fridge space is limited but it's doable and it IS working so no complaints! I just have to make sure I don't buy more cold or frozen items then I have room for! Recently Eggo waffles were on sale AND I had a coupon and MiRV was really wanting some so I bought three boxes; that pretty much took up any extra freezer space we have so I knew not to buy any frozens until that area was cleared a bit!
Fridge
Freezer
In Shreveport the sales were great!!! Especially on things we use and that I will only buy on sale such as soda! MiRV enjoys his soft drinks but unless I can get them on sale they are a no-go! Shreveport groceries also ran great produce sales which we enjoyed a lot since the Barksdale commissary produce section lacked. We also enjoy hitting farmer's markets for great fresh produce and again Shreveport had the BEST farmer's market! Montgomery local ads were not so great, in fact probably the worst to date, so it was the commissary for nearly everything. And commissary prices were higher in this area too which was a bummer. Commissary prices seemed to be the best at Offutt and the local stores in Omaha ran great sale ads there too! Florida has been hit and miss. Mostly miss!!! Oklahoma City was not so great as they didn't really have many grocery stores where we were but the Tinker commissary was really good on their prices so no worries. And when we get further south there will be ALDI so I will be very happy about that indeed! And hopefully get back within my orignal budget amount!!
Read more about the 31 day challenge HERE.
Grocery shopping and storage is always a delicate balance. Our first 5th wheel was a little lacking in the storage department - but I did have a small pantry area, and the refrigerator was like yours - small! We ended up putting a plastic crate down in the basement for some canned goods that I had stocked up on (chicken stock for example) and that worked for us. When we bought the newer 5th wheel I thought I had died and gone to heaven - one whole wall of pantry (which we added wire shelves to, doubled the useable space) and a double door frige/freezer! Oh yeah, it was sweet! Since we are retired military we didn't have access to base commissaries, so we pretty much relied on Walmart. Not my first choice, but they are pretty uniform throughout the country on what you can find. Good luck on the budget - it's a never ending battle!
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