NPCR: What do you spend on groceries?

[Melissa W.]

I was looking at our spending for the last two months. We spend a lot of money on groceries and household type stuff (soap, paper towels, etc)
We are a family of 4 (two girls ages 6 and 3.5). We buy most of our meat at the local farm stand so I know that is more expensive. We also eat a lot of fruits and veggies.

How do you cut down on grocery bills, any suggestions?

[wawa]

Costco.

[Daria Morgandorffer]

Way too effing much.

[hawkeye]

Aug 17, 2012 15:43:30 GMT -5 Daria Morgandorffer said:

Way too effing much.

Ditto.

I found this out by using mint. I had a cardiac event when I saw the $$ for July.

[Deleted]

400/ month. That includes household items like cleaning supplies, personal items like shampoo. It does not include eating out.

We meal plan and cut coupons but not super aggressively. I have found the biggest money saver is just making a list and sticking to it no matter what which is easier said than done lol.

[Melissa W.]

hawkeye, I downloaded my transactions for mint and realized that we are spending way too much.

[msmerymac]

I plan meals where I can use the same ingredients in more than 1 meal. So instead of letting half the kalamata olives sit around until I can maybe find something to do with them later on, I'll plan to make a greek salad one night and put them on pizza some other night, for example.

Other than that, I don't necessarily think it's my best interest to cut down on groceries. I know it's probably the easiest expense to control, but good quality and organic food is important to me. Cooking from scratch as much as possible is usually cheaper, if you have the time and inclination.

We budget $500/month for groceries, sundries/toiletries and alcohol. We buy a lot of our produce at the farmer's market. That's for 2 adults, and we have a friend over for dinner about once a week. We also go out for meals 3-4 times a month, and that's not included in this budget.

ETA: Most regular groceries come from Trader Joes, so we don't use coupons.

[meshaliuknits]

IDK. My job at the market is to keep the small child happy while H is in line. We regularly buy stuff from 4 different locations (Lucky, Natural Grocery, Farmers Market, Ranch 99). H probably has an idea, though. He's balancer of the books.

[mominatrix]

Ours is so complicated, I made a guess.

We do costco runs, but fairly infrequently, and it's hard to put costco into one category when budgeting, because we're as likely to buy hard goods (like, last time we were there, we bought B her rain boots and raincoat, and some clothes) as food.

we also have a csa box for fruit and veggies in the summer, and I've long forgotten what the weekly cost of that averaged out to (we paid for it back in february).



We're really lucky, though, to also have Grocery Outlet (http://www.groceryoutlet.com/) and Trader Joe's.

[wawa]

for a longer answer - many years ago we tracked all our spending to see where the hell our money was bleeding off to. And the answer was the grocery store.

So we instituted a strict weekly grocery budget of $70. that has to cover dog and cat food and household stuff like soap and TP. It does NOT include things like when make a bunch of jam for gifts or when we have a party, and it does not include booze. Party and gift budget is seperate even though those both involve food.

It sucked giant balls at first, but we've gotten the hang of it. The list is the biggest thing. We only buy the stuff we NEED that week. And we track prices on the list as we put stuff in the cart and keep a running total so we know where we are. If we go over for the week we have to put something back. Period.

We buy a lot of things in bulk. Pretty much all dry goods except flour (smallest size is 50 lbs. No room for that) come from costco. TP, soap, all of that. we pretty much stopped buying junk food except tortilla chips and salsa. about 70% of our produce is frozen (less in summer time, more in winter). We don't eat nearly as much meat. Also adjusting portion sizes to what a REAL portion should be helps a lot. You go through stuff like pasta a lot slower when you aren't eating 2.4 servings in a sitting. We make good use of leftovers - either repurposing or eating them for lunch. And we make a lot of stuff from scratch - no more rice a roni boxes or stuff like that.

the most painful cuts came from not having a constant assortment of fancy cheeses on hand. (sadness. one cheese at a time now. sniffle.) Also not being able to run across some random recipe and run out and buy whever I needed to make it. Now if I want to buy something special (like right now I really want some sundried tomatos) i have to wait for a week where we've got some surplus. So it can't be a week where we're out of chicken, or out of cat food, or anything like that because that shit eats our budget. That part is lame. But it's not THAT bad. Also particularly for speciality ingredients, I've had really great luck checking the ethnic markets near me. I've got a great korean grocery store and a hispanic grocery store near my house. Both are big and extremely well stocked with incredibly cheap, good stuff. Like limes are practically free at the hispanic store. They're like 1/3 the price of Giant. Also weird cuts of meat at both places for doing stuff like making our own bacon or stock. Spices are cheaper there.

I do not do coupons. It's so rare that I see a coupon for something I actually buy that it's just not worth the hassle for me.

[marie427]

It's just me and H, no kids, no pets. I shop weekly and my goal is always less than $100 for food and household items each week (excludes eating out, a weak spot for us). I'm often well under that. Shopping around the perimeter of the supermarket does help keep costs low for us, believe it or not. Sticking to my list also helps.

I would rather gouge my eyes out than cut coupons. That is my version of hell. I just stick with supermarket sales as much as possible.

[penguingrrl]

$400-425/month, down from $500 when we were living in NYC. I don't coupon and have no interest in starting, especially since it seems like coupons for what I generally get are few and far between (I've looked). Shopping for certain staples at Trader Joe's instead of a regular grocery store brought us down probably 15%. We get cereal, granola, cheeses, yogurt, frozen berries and most of our meat there for less than our local grocery store.

[emilyj]

I say it averages out to about $400/month for the two of us.

I now get all our produce from our CSA, so that's a set $100/month. I don't buy fruits/veg from the regular store anymore. If it's not in our bundle, I don't use it that week. I take advantage of the BOGO sales at the store as much as I can. Coupons are a wash for me, since I mostly buy off the perimeter - no coupons for those things.

I buy in bulk from Sam's, and I buy our cat food and litter in bulk off Amazon. We don't really go through toiletries that quickly, so that never seems to eat up our budget.

[emisi]

I had to ask H, since he does the grocery shopping. He claims $200, which would have surprised me except he also cooks and his repertoire is very small and not elaborate.

[Deleted]

around $1200/mo

[mmmomof2]

Food only for a family of 4 (3yo and just started solids 7mo) we average $800/mo. We rarely eat out and buy organic milk, eggs, chicken, some produce, some local meats. DH and I are semi-paleo so no pasta or other "stretchers".

[ringstrue]

$150/wk so like $600/month.

That includes cat cans and litter, paper towels, cleaners, toiletries, etc. Doesn't includes their dry food or diapers. We have 2.33 people.

[emmybean]

$300+ not including cat food or household items.

And that's for me and a 2 YO.

I drink a lot of wine and refuse to completely cheap out on coffee even tho I've dropped the $16/pound stuff for the $8/pound stuff.

It seems and feels high to me but I make all of our meals every day. We eat out maybe twice a month and my Starbucks habit is almost non existent at this point, so maybe it's not too bad.

[pescalita]

It's regularly over $500, and that does NOT include dog food/supplies ($200 every 4 months or so in bulk), personal care, or alcohol. It does include farmers market, meat CSA, and whatever paper goods/foil/plastic bags we buy which isn't much.

We really don't have time to get it lower at the moment.

[JLN]

The "budget" in our house is supposed to be $80, but we actually spend about $100. I plan meals and go off a list. I shop at target for items with coupons and Fred Meyer for items without coupons, then Safeway for store brands because I get a discount on those.

I also go to the farmers market each week for fresh veggies in the summer.

For me the best way to save money is plan meals and use the same ingredient repeatedly that week. I'll make a batch of pesto and we'll have pesto chicken one night, then pesto veggie pitas the next night. The savings do add up there.

[teflep]

We do the emeals and that has really helped with budgeting. We also have the fm for fresh fruits and veggies. So, probably 100-150/ week depending on necessity needs. It has been p a bit since lt went to milk...organic milk is expensive, but oh so good. Beer is a separate budget that dh plays around with as hes more into it than I am.

[statlerwaldorf]

We usually spend around $450 include toiletries. We rarely eat out. I buy a lot of produce and eggs directly from farmers and do not usually buy organic. LCOL.

[aw]

We spend between $600-$800 per month. It depends on how good I am being about cooking from scratch. We are a family of five (with me constantly pregnant/nursing and therefore ravenous). We eat every meal at home - even DH and my lunches are packed. So this includes our entire food budget. We also eat pretty much 100% whole foods, pastured meat/eggs, raw milk, organic, local, etc.

To keep costs down we buy our meat in bulk. We used to get a half beef every year, but now that the kids are getting bigger and are now bottomless pits, we'll have to start doing a whole beef. We also buy whole chickens in bulk from the farm. We also buy our raw milk and eggs straight from the farm.

We buy other stuff in bulk too. I made a deal with our local health food store and when they purchase stuff they let us piggyback on their orders. I can get 25 pounds of bulk organic, non-GMO oats for dirt cheap.

We garden for some veggies, but don't have a lot of land. We have a small herb garden and I dehydrate them for use during the rest of the year.

I do a lot of canning. We have friends and family that give us a lot of produce from their farms, which is a huge blessing. I end up canning enough jam to get us through 3/4 of the year for free. I also do enough applesauce to usually get us through the year. This year we were lucky to get free sweet corn from a family friend and we froze it.

I cook a lot of bread from scratch. I find that staying away from pre-packaged and processed foods saves us a ton of money. If you try to eat organic and eat the pre-packaged stuff it just isn't affordable.

I should have also said that our grocery bill doesn't include a lot of toiletries or cleaning supplies. We have a cloth kitchen. I make a lot of my cleaning supplies from things like vinegar and baking soda. We buy our soaps from a local woman who makes them. I don't use a lot of lotions and things, and am no-poo when I'm not pregnant. Not spending a lot of money on this stuff allows us to spend a little more on our food.

We've reached the point where the food bill is starting to grow. The kids are eating more and more. I can go through a dozen eggs each morning easily and now it takes two pounds of hamburger to feed everyone each meal instead of one. I am scared to even think about the food bill when they are all teenagers We're hoping we're on our farm by then. That's the only way we'll be able to afford to eat like this.

[robin]

We have a large garden and all our red meat comes from hunting, but we still spend too damn much. My job is working out so I eat a ton, my husband does manual labor for a living, so he eats a ton, and my 2 year olds eat enough for a grown man, each.

I also have too much money in wine. And beer

[aw]

Aug 18, 2012 8:43:06 GMT -5 robin said:

We have a large garden and all our red meat comes from hunting, but we still spend too damn much. My job is working out so I eat a ton, my husband does manual labor for a living, so he eats a ton, and my 2 year olds eat enough for a grown man, each.

I also have too much money in wine. And beer

I forgot about hunting. That helps too.

[megalicious]

It's gone up a lot in the past few months since (1) H saw Forks over Knives and Food Inc. so now we by mostly organic, (2) H (again from above movies) decided he wants to be vegan, (3) it's summer, so I buy almost all our produce from farm stands or farmer's market.

I probably spent $60-70/wk at the regular grocery store, another $30 at the farm stand, and another $40 in random quick trips to Whole Foods.

[batsteph]

We're at about $600/month, and that's for two adults and an almost-3-year-old and an almost-5-year-old. We seldom eat out, and we try to buy organic wherever possible. I do most of the cooking from scratch. That also includes our cleaning supplies and some other non-food household items.

[doctordonna]

We spend $500 on two adults, two toddlers and 2 cats. We have a teeny-tiny freezer so we can only buy so much meat at a time to freeze. We don't have costco membership because we have no place to store anything, really. We meal plan and stock up on staples by season (canned goods/broth during the holiday season, for example) so we almost always have stuff on hand. We have a lot of go-to meals (tacos, brinner, etc.) that are relatively cheap to make.

$80 goes to milk alone. The girls can drink a gallon of milk a day between the two of them.

$80 goes to produce, which is purchased twice monthly from our local Korean market and occasionally good sales at the grocery store.

$40 is for toiletries.

$40 is for cat food. Our cats are on special food for urinary tract issues.

The remaining money goes for meals.

I coupon when I can and joined Safeway's Just 4 U program, which is really helpful and saves us a lot more money than couponing alone.

[copzgirl1171]

We are horrible. If we didn't spend so much on groceries and pet food we would be crapping in tall timbers over here. We don't eat out much if ever. We occasionally buy our lunch but that is rare as well. Pet food kills us at around $150 a month or more.

We are well over $600 in people food but that will hopefully go down with the kids gone

[blondnearby]

Our food budget is just around $500 for six people (four adults and two children). This does not include paper products or animal food but does include ordering in (pizza) and eating out. I would say somewhere between 80 and 90% of our produce is organic (depends on what we get in our farm delivery) and we buy in bulk (two trips to costco/sam's club a month). We also plan our menus around what is on sale for the week and use coupons when we can. We have a "sit down breakfast" twice a week and lunches are usually leftovers or sandwiches. We hardly ever eat out. This includes ordering food in like pizza. We eat out/have food in maybe twice a month.

When we go back to just two adults and two children, I anticipate our food budget to drop down around $300.