How much for YOUR groceries? Switching to Cash

[sk!mom]

I'm always amazed by how little some spend. DO you eat out often?

We are a family of 3- sometimes 4 and we spend $200-$250 per week for everything household- food, cleaning, etc...This total does include 3-4 bottles of wine per week. No double couponing here and only one nice store (love HEB) and Wal Mart. We eat only fresh vegetables, lots of fresh fruit, meat, fish. Very little processed food. We only eat out on Sunday for lunch. We all pack lunches so these totals include three meals per day for 3 or 4 people. Honestly, I don't see how a family eats well for much less than $200 per week.

 

[ilovepete]

I'm always amazed by how little some spend. DO you eat out often?

We are a family of 3- sometimes 4 and we spend $200-$250 per week for everything household- food, cleaning, etc...This total does include 3-4 bottles of wine per week. No double couponing here and only one nice store (love HEB) and Wal Mart. We eat only fresh vegetables, lots of fresh fruit, meat, fish. Very little processed food. We only eat out on Sunday for lunch. We all pack lunches so these totals include three meals per day for 3 or 4 people. Honestly, I don't see how a family eats well for much less than $200 per week.

We do sometimes on the weekend. Usually it is a lunch meal and usually only once a week. Sometimes twice, sometimes none.

 

[amylynne01]

I'm always amazed by how little some spend. DO you eat out often?

We are a family of 3- sometimes 4 and we spend $200-$250 per week for everything household- food, cleaning, etc...This total does include 3-4 bottles of wine per week. No double couponing here and only one nice store (love HEB) and Wal Mart. We eat only fresh vegetables, lots of fresh fruit, meat, fish. Very little processed food. We only eat out on Sunday for lunch. We all pack lunches so these totals include three meals per day for 3 or 4 people. Honestly, I don't see how a family eats well for much less than $200 per week.

I spend about $70 a week on everything (food, drink, HBA, cleaning, paper, and diapers). I have been couponing for 2+ yrs, so I use my stockpile a lot. We eat out once a week (mostly at the local pizza or Chinese place, once every other month out to an actual sit-down place like Olive Garden or Texas Roadhouse), but our eat out budget is not part of our grocery budget. My total does not include alcohol - we just don't drink that much. We eat a combo of fresh and frozen veggies (ones without sauce), lots of fruit, meat 6 nights a week, 1-2 gallons of milk for DH, DD1, and me, and 1 gallon of soy milk for DD2 who is lactose intolerant, etc. We don't eat convenience meals like frozen dinners or noodle bowls - don't think they're awfully healthy. But we do eat processed food like pasta sauce, peanut butter, taco seasoning, cereal, marinades, chips, condiments, etc, and the kids enjoy the occasional box of mac & cheese (and me too).

We are eating better than we have in years. DH and I have maintained the same weight since we moved into this house in Jan 2008 (minus my 2 pregnancies). Our kids are also of typical height and weight with healthy appetites (minus a picky 3 yr old). All of us are home for every meal every day - I work PT in the mornings, and DH works nights. Eating well can be done for less than $200 a week.

 

[arthur06]

We spend on average, $150 per week on food and household supplies.

Some weeks more when we find local stores have good ads or 1 or 2 days sales. We bought 20 packages of Breakfast sausage links when the store was 10/$10 (normally $2.28 each). We shop store brands at times (we know which are quality and which are not).

We have enough food in our house, that if the supermarkets ran out, we would be good for several months!

 

[yesiamcrazy]

I'm always amazed by how little some spend. DO you eat out often?

We are a family of 3- sometimes 4 and we spend $200-$250 per week for everything household- food, cleaning, etc...This total does include 3-4 bottles of wine per week. No double couponing here and only one nice store (love HEB) and Wal Mart. We eat only fresh vegetables, lots of fresh fruit, meat, fish. Very little processed food. We only eat out on Sunday for lunch. We all pack lunches so these totals include three meals per day for 3 or 4 people. Honestly, I don't see how a family eats well for much less than $200 per week.

What I just realized is that it may depend on where you live as to what the prices are. I'm sure prices change a lot from region to region and state to state. I'm in the same situation. One big store, no double coupons, don't eat out much, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (no alcohol for us). But I watch sales, use coupons and buy very little name brand. (plus as I mentioned before my beef I don't count in my groceries so actually mine would be higher, but I have 8 people in my family.)

 

[kimara]

After reading through everything here, I am going to try for $200 per week, hoping to NOT spend it all. Any left overs will go into my Disney envelope. After a few weeks I hope I will be able to bring that amount down a bit, but it will take some practice.

Thanks SO much for all your input and advice. Gotta love my DIS family to come through with great answers to any question in life.

 

[puakinikini]

We are a family of 6 - 2 adults and 4 kids (13, 6, 6, 3) and 1 medium sized dog who is spoiled. After really getting into couponing and stockpiling (not extreme) and using the cash only system. I am now spending $75 week for all groceries and household. So about $300 a month give or take. Before I started this, I was spending $800/month.

I think going back and seeing what you are spending now - before you start cash only - is key. Then you can slowly start trying to control spending. I have been doing this for 4 years, and have finally reached my goal.

 

[bettymae1121]

I try to keep it at $500 a month for two adults (food only, does not include H&B or cleaning suplies). I know this sounds high but we do eat mainly organic, also DH has a very physical job so he requires a lot more food than the average person, so I'm really almost feeding three adults, not two. I'd like to get it down to closer to $400 by planting a much larger garden this year. We are also thinking of buying part of a cow to get our meat costs down (we already have a huge freezer so we've got plenty of room to store the meat).

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

We spend $120 a week for a family of 7 and that includes diapers/pull-ups for the youngest and all cleaning supplies and health/beauty aids items for everyone. Everyone takes lunch to work or school. We usually eat 1 or 2 meals out a week but otherwise everything is from home.

I am a heavy couponer and have a well stocked pantry so I don't buy everything every week but rather stock up on staples when I can get them cheap by combining a sale and coupon. Our weekly list is usually perishables and whatever coupon sale items I need.

 

[MacFam4]

We're a family of 4, including DS14 and DS10, plus 2 dogs and a cat. I have a budget of $400 every 2 weeks for groceries, but I typically spend anywhere from $230-$300. I call this my "Wal-Mart bill", because it includes our food, pet foot and kitty litter, cleaning supplies, health and beauty, etc. I don't know that I've ever spent all $400 since I started this budget back in Oct. I do sometimes have to stop in and by fresh fruit and milk, and we do sometimes go to Sam's to stock up on stuff.

I make alot of crock pot meals so we have leftovers, atleast for DH to take to work. The main things that's really helped my budget is that I make a list for meals for 2 weeks, and a grocery list so I don't forget stuff. We hardly eat out any more. Maybe once a month? I'm also very particular about what I put in the cart. Is it healthy? Will we actually eat it? I coupon a little but not very much. We live in a very small area and the only grocery stores we have are Wal-Mart and another little store that is very pricey. My options are limited, but I do what I can.

 

[Marionnette]

We spend around $100/week to feed 3 adults (younger son is still home but at 17, he's eating more than his dad). Before the older two kids headed off to college in August we were spending more than $200/week on just food for a family of 5. No paper products or cleaning supplies.

A major change is that we aren't buying a lot of the junk that the kids eat but my husband and I try to avoid. No frozen pizzas for the older boy to pop in the toaster oven when he gets home from work at midnight. No Propel fitness water for the daughter to drink at the gym. I don't buy chips, soda or cookies very often. It's amazing how much that junk adds to your grocery bill. It's not that those items are banned from our house, I'm just not buying them.

I'm also not spending money in the deli like I used to. I bought a meat slicer and now I cook an extra roast or turkey breast when the oven is on. Then I slice the remainder down for sandwiches and I vacuum bag it for the freezer. We always have lunch meats on hand and they're costing me so much less now.

Final exams are this week. I expect my grocery budget to go up next week when the kids are home. But I'm hoping to keep it at around $150/week for the 5 of us.