How Much do YOU spend in Groceries per Month?

[SaraJayne]

If I had to guess, I'd guess between $500 and $700 a month in groceries (which I include paper goods, toiletries, cleaning products, cat stuff, Costco trips, etc in that category) for a family of 4 (2 adults, one 10 year old girl and one teen boy with a hollow leg ). I don't use coupons and will only buy things on sale that I know we will use. I don't buy things just because they are on sale.

Some months it's less, some it's more. Depends on our schedule and time of year.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

I coupon and get toiletries, paper products, etc for pennies, if not for free.

HOW? Is there some secret or trick? I must be missing something.

 

[blessedby3]

We are a family of 6 with our oldest dd in college (but only 45mins away and she is home some each week). We also have one small dog and a cat.
I make a menu for 2 weeks at a time and shop for groceries for 2 weeks. We dont go out to eat much (maybe 2 Little Ceasers pizzas one week ($12) and take out BBQ the next week ($13). We rarely go to a sit down restaurant--just too expensive, unless we have a GC. I cook every other night except Wednesdays which are "fix whatever you want" nights (ex- sandwich, frozen nuggets, cereal, etc). We arent eating stuff from cans/jars/romen noodles. I cook chicken, beef etc the nights when I am cooking and we arent having the pizza/bbq or Wed. night.
My groceries are right at $220 for my 2 weeks shopping trip. I do have to go back for some frest fruit/bread/milk. I cut coupons and try and buy sale stuff. I get my toiletries from CVS and pay pocket change or get it free for shampoo, body wash, deo, ladies products, toothbrush, toothpaste. I have a stash of it and rarely pay money for that stuff.
So with all that we spend about
$440 groceries
$50 take out
$40 for extra fruit/milk/bread

$530 total for the month

 

[blessedby3]

HOW? Is there some secret or trick? I must be missing something.

CVS probably....they like to give stuff away

 

[TwistGrl101]

I spend about $800 a month for my family of 5, and I have no idea how I would lower that. Couponing just confuses me, and I find that I buy things just because they are on sale and end up spending more money.

I've been going to the Farmer's Market for produce and that has brought me down, but i can't get my weekly bill under $175...

 

[erinmomof2]

This all sounds great! However I never see coupons that would make a product (the kind I buy and apparently you buy) free or close to free. Most coupons say for Cascadian Farms or Natures Path would be something like 1.50 off of 2 products. So if the product costs 3.50 each then 7 minus 1.50 = 5.50 for 2. I have gotten Udi's coupons before but the last time I printed one was December and it still won't let me print another one! Please enlighten me

The last time I bought Cascadian Farm granola bars they were on sale for $2.49 a box. I had a $1.00 of 1 box coupon that doubled so I only paid $.49 a box. My grocery store has a limit of 3 like coupons so I bought 3 boxes at this price. The next week they were still on sale so I bought 3 more. These were printable coupons that I found online. I have 2 computers here so I printed 4 copies (limit 2 per computer) and my husband printed 2 copies at work. Udi emails me coupons a lot and recently had a promotion on facebook where if you "liked" them they would mail you a coupon for a free item. I signed up, my husband signed up, and my parents and inlaws signed up. GF bread is expensive, so I was excited for this deal! I'd say 90% of the coupons I use are found online and available in all areas. And it seems like more and more of the high value coupons are found on Facebook.

If you have a specific store you shop at try a google search. I shop at Kroger primarily so the day before I shop I google something like: Kroger matchups 2/26/12 and a bunch of websites come up that have a list of sale items with links to the printable coupons. Very easy and takes only a little time. I save about $90 in coupons every time I shop at Kroger. Mine does double more than most, but even if it didn't double that would still be $45 in savings. It really does help.

 

[mrodgers]

I once was able to save $2.75 with coupons. I spent about an hour every day scouring the net for coupons and hunting down inserts and looking at the websites to find coupons on stuff we would actually use. We ended up paying about the same price for 4 tiny little boxes of cereal that were on sale plus a coupon as I would buying just 1 large box (we buy 2 large boxes per week.) Of all the coupons found online, it was all just the same stuff, which we don't use. I could print out 4 billion Pillsbury bread/roll coupons and say I saved a ton, but we don't eat that much of it.

The following week, I skipped all the time coupon hunting and I stayed at work for an extra 10 minutes on Monday. Made twice as much as my hours and hours of coupon hunting the previous week.

 

[SaraJayne]

The last time I bought Cascadian Farm granola bars they were on sale for $2.49 a box. I had a $1.00 of 1 box coupon that doubled so I only paid $.49 a box. My grocery store has a limit of 3 like coupons so I bought 3 boxes at this price. The next week they were still on sale so I bought 3 more. These were printable coupons that I found online. I have 2 computers here so I printed 4 copies (limit 2 per computer) and my husband printed 2 copies at work. Udi emails me coupons a lot and recently had a promotion on facebook where if you "liked" them they would mail you a coupon for a free item. I signed up, my husband signed up, and my parents and inlaws signed up. GF bread is expensive, so I was excited for this deal! I'd say 90% of the coupons I use are found online and available in all areas. And it seems like more and more of the high value coupons are found on Facebook.

If you have a specific store you shop at try a google search. I shop at Kroger primarily so the day before I shop I google something like: Kroger matchups 2/26/12 and a bunch of websites come up that have a list of sale items with links to the printable coupons. Very easy and takes only a little time. I save about $90 in coupons every time I shop at Kroger. Mine does double more than most, but even if it didn't double that would still be $45 in savings. It really does help.

Most stores around here don't accept internet coupons because of the high amount of fraud.

 

[charming23]

We do not eat a lot of processed food here. I do keep some boxed macaroni and cheese and frozen nuggets for something quick or for when my goddaughter is over. I think the biggest way we keep our grocery bill low is by usung leftovers. We eat leftovers for lunch like today we had leftover chicken and dumplings from last night. Then for dinner we are using the rest of the chicken (I made up a huge chicken in the crock pot and used half last night and will use half tonight) to make shredded chicken tacos.

I coupon and am lucky that my store, Giant Eagle, doubles coupons up to $.99. So a $.75 off coupon will double to $1.50. I also shop at Target a lot. At target you can use a manufacturers coupon along with a target coupon to help double your savings.

 

[angierae]

A couple days before my shopping trips I pull up all the sale papers online (all of my local grocery stores do this) and look at what meats are on sale. That's how I start planning our main dishes for dinners. Then I look at what is on sale that I can use for sides, and what is on sale that we regularly eat.

I know price points that I'm willing to pay. Bags of shredded cheese I buy when someone has them on sale 3/$5. That's $1.67 a bag, and that's what I'll pay. If it goes on sale somewhere before I need it, it goes into the freezer. I have a price point I'll pay for my meat, and I buy it and have it packaged up into what my family uses for one meal, and freeze it. Right now I still have chicken, but by the time I do my next big shopping I'll need more, so I'll have to keep an eye out for a sale. When roasts are buy one get one free (Kroger does this a LOT), I have them cut in half and packaged up four ways. That's four meals plus leftovers from the cost of "one" roast.

And again, like I said before - if someone doesn't want to shop sales, and can afford not to, then hey, I'm all for that. I'd love to be able to walk into a grocery store and just buy whatever I want, regardless of cost, but we're not there yet. Maybe when DD is on her own.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

The last time I bought Cascadian Farm granola bars they were on sale for $2.49 a box. I had a $1.00 of 1 box coupon that doubled so I only paid $.49 a box. My grocery store has a limit of 3 like coupons so I bought 3 boxes at this price. The next week they were still on sale so I bought 3 more. These were printable coupons that I found online. I have 2 computers here so I printed 4 copies (limit 2 per computer) and my husband printed 2 copies at work. Udi emails me coupons a lot and recently had a promotion on facebook where if you "liked" them they would mail you a coupon for a free item. I signed up, my husband signed up, and my parents and inlaws signed up. GF bread is expensive, so I was excited for this deal! I'd say 90% of the coupons I use are found online and available in all areas. And it seems like more and more of the high value coupons are found on Facebook.

If you have a specific store you shop at try a google search. I shop at Kroger primarily so the day before I shop I google something like: Kroger matchups 2/26/12 and a bunch of websites come up that have a list of sale items with links to the printable coupons. Very easy and takes only a little time. I save about $90 in coupons every time I shop at Kroger. Mine does double more than most, but even if it didn't double that would still be $45 in savings. It really does help.

Thanks!

 

[iheartpeterpan]

HOW? Is there some secret or trick? I must be missing something.

I agree! I coupon religiously, and have never gotten any of my stuff free or close to free. Maybe the coupons stink where I live?

 

[iheartdisney]

We usually spend between $500-700. Higher when Dh is home, lower when he is gone.
I shop mostly at the commissary, but good meats and fresh produce I will get at Vons, just because the commissary doesn't have very good quality.
I use coupons when they are on the shelf next to the product, but otherwise not so much.
Most of my budget actually goes for breakfast items: frozen waffles, breakfast corndogs, cereal, etc. But the kids will eat the waffles and cereal as snacks all day so *technically* it isn't just for breakfast.
They get lunch free at school.
I cook most dinners, and when DH is gone we will have enough leftovers to have a leftover buffet one night a week.
We don't "go out" but do have happy meals once every two weeks.

 

[4orm]

I wish I lived somewhere with all these coupon options! Canada is pretty devoid of most of the great promotions I hear about. Heck, my local grocery stores don't even take AMEX (my preferred point credit card).
Our bill was upwards of $1200 some months. We eat organic with very little processed food and tended to treat ourselves TOO MUCH with things like fancy cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. About 6 months ago I started meal planning more which has helped tremendously. Started loading up at sales if I saw a staple we regularly use and using a great farm delivery service where, if we spend more than $25, they deliver whatever fresh produce we ordered for free. Our bill has been halved, $600 last month, without even noticing! My husband (a designer) did some work for a local cheese shop so now we have a decent credit there (free cheese!!).

 

[junebug]

$500.00 for the month here, family of 4 no pets. I have to plan very carefully in order to stay within budget. I do use coupons whenever possible, and plan meals based on sales. Also I stay away from the store except for the one day a week grocery shop.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

$1,000-1,100 for two of us. But we eat a lot of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables and shop a lot at Whole Foods.

 

[2DisPrincesses]

HOW? Is there some secret or trick? I must be missing something.

Paper products mostly at Meijer. They double manufacturer coupons and you can also stack manufacturer coupons with a Meijer coupon for the same item. They run one-day sales where for example, Bounty paper towel and Cottonelle toilet paper will be 1/2 off. The sale combined with the stacked coupons makes for a great stock-up.

Toiletries I typically get from Walgreen's. They again let you use both a Walgreen's coupon and a manufacturer's coupon on the same item. If you wait until a week when there are register rewards on the item (register rewards are $$$ on your next purchase), you spend very little out of pocket and have register rewards to use for next week's sale items. If you continue to roll your register rewards, you can stock up for very little out of pocket.

Until I started couponing, I always put off buying my dh the Quatro whatever cartridges. Now he has a whole basket full. He won't go to the store with me and my coupons, but he loves to see the receipts.

BTW, I am no where close to an "extreme couponer" but it's amazing how much they can save you.

 

[ilovemk76]

The actual dollar amount is not the important number but the percentage of your net income is spent is what is important.

Gail Vax-Oxlade uses 25% for life and 15% for transportation. Housing is 35% with the remaing for saving and debt repayment.

If your take home pay is $1000 and you ate spending $250 on groceries and $150 on gas then you ate over spending. Life needs to cover food, health insurance, dr visits, vacations, entertainment and the like. Transportation includes gas, car payments, auto insurance, care repairs and the like.

If I said I spent 5% of my net on food many would be that is great but the same amount would say that I spent a lot if I said it was $250 per week (assume weekly net is $5000 just to make a point).

 

[budafam]

I garden a lot in the summer. My MIL has an acre garden that we get a TON of produce from. I freeze a LOT and can a LOT. That will last us through winter. I just started my own indoor herb garden as well so that saves me a ton. We eat well for the most part. DH is picky and only eats cheese pizzas and certain cereals so he gets his "special" foods and I try to feed my kids as healthy as I can. I use coupons a lot as well. I just purchased a TON of toilet paper (almost 400 rolls) but it ends up being 20 cents a roll which it's NEVER that cheap in stores... it will last us years (hopefully) and therefore saving tons of money.

 

[Rachel52288]

I am 23 and live with my fiance. I am responsible for all grocery and household item (cleaners, ect.) and I have a budget of $240 a month. I go to BJ's (bulk) and stock up with coupons when I can. We have tried to cut back on snacks and sods to cut back on the budget (as well as calories!). It has helped the budget and I know it is helping both of us lose a few pounds