$300.00 a week during summer. Maybe $225.00 week during school.
We're a family of 6 plus my mother in law lives with us now so we're 7. We usually spend about $100-120 a week on groceries.
Some cheaper dinners are:
*Oatmeal with apples and cinnamon
*Pasta tossed in olive oil and diced tomatoes(sometimes I'll throw in a chicken breast)
*Tostadas
* Baked chicken(bone in skin on is cheaper)
*Spaghetti
Hope this helps some!
What is air-chilled chicken? I've never heard of that.I spend about $250/week for three of us. And I am not getting steak.
We have food allergies in the family so often we are limited what brands we can buy. That cuts out a lot of couponing.
And then there is some personal preference issues. I prefer air-chilled chicken for health reasons. Produce all comes from the farm stand this time of year. Some organic produce finds it way into my cart, too.
Food is expensive.
Food budgets are also appetite/age dependent. Families with lots of active or growing members will eat a lot more than families without same. My spouse is a gym rat as are my other kids, some of whom are also in the puberty/eat the whole house stage...so if I served say oatmeal with apples and cinnamon or the above pasta with just oil and tomatoes, they'd eat it and then ask either "where's the protein" or more likely "where's the rest of dinner"...or they'd snack all night out of my kitchen til they found their own. I'm so hoping that eventually this stage of our life slows down, since feeding an army every day is not easy. And I will say, all of my family members are at their "healthy" growth stage and weight, so sometimes, I don't know where the food goes, but it's not going to their waistline (I'm the only one who ever has to watch that - thank you pregnancy metabolism changes!)
So, since the Op also has 2 kids likely in or around the puberty stage (who may also be active)...she could have the same needs as my family does, so she probably doesn't have as far to reduce her budget as many do...I'd say again, she should try for 10% off her current spending and if that works, try another 5% until she reaches 20% and live on that for 6-12 months...
I wish I can spend $130 a week. I shop at HEB i live in Texas. I honestly don't know how to coupon. I also make a grocery list for the week. It takes me all day to make my list on Monday and I am still over budget. I try to budget for $150.00 a week and that doesn't work. Also this amount is just food not toiletries that's a different list and different budget amount and I am a little lost on that too. Saturday and Sunday counts a big meals cause the kids are home most of the day and they eat breakfast, lunch and supper. During the week its just breakfast and supper.
I buy the normal things I think...
Ground meat, chicken, sausage, steak, bread, snacks, juice, water, eggs, breakfast food, cereal, oatmeal, pizza, lunchable, hot pockets. everything on this list I buy once a week.
What is air
What is air-chilled chicken? I've never heard of that.
I just moved from California to Georgia. And, of course, I'm finding grocery prices (AT GROCERY STORES) more reasonable than California. In California I would only buy sale items at the grocery stores (Nob Hill and Safeway) and everything else mostly at Target and Walmart. It was a real price difference in California. However, Kroger and Publix here in Georgia are very competitive with Walmart and Target and most times Kroger's prices are better. I still try to stick to mostly sales items at grocery stores and I downloaded Krogers app which really helps. I decided to buy meat at Costco (like I did in California). Just not liking the meat departments in the local grocery stores here. Even my 11 year old daughter commented the meat tasted funny.
Where we spend money is on produce-that does seem to be higher this year.