July grocery bill report

[scrappinmom]

First I have to say thanks! You guys have given me a zillion ideas to save on groceries! This month I shopped Aldi, the bread outlet and Sam's club. Used a few coupons..need to get better at that. My total for July was $353.96 For our family of 4 plus one big dog! Now I didn't buy any meat - Freezer is still 3/4 full, trying to use it up. I feel so empowered! I can save money. Now this month I didn't put the money towards Disney..I need to buy new school stuff for the girls so I used the extra money to buy their school supplies..done. How'd everyone else do?

 

[lbgraves]

That is great! I haven't been keeping track but maybe I will start doing that again. Do you have the amount that you saved with coupons & store savings? That total always makes me smile.

 

[scrappinmom]

That is great! I haven't been keeping track but maybe I will start doing that again. Do you have the amount that you saved with coupons & store savings? That total always makes me smile.

Nope, I didn't do many coupons last month...but I'm armed & ready for August My plan is to keep track this month & put that difference in our Disney fund

 

[tink2dw]

We were out of everything but cereal!! So, I had to break down and go shopping. At Grocery Outlet I spent $145.00 and save[by their caluations] $93.00 for a family of 3. I got everything we needed but meat and milk. But bought Soy Milk vanilla flavor $.99 for cereal. Then I will go to Winco to get hamburger, chicken,and Milk later this week.

Best Deal - Hormel Ham Chunks and Chedder cheese chunks to go on salad Whoopeee!!

 

[Renate_do]

Here´s my (two adults eating LC),

groceries = 222,09€ for food, 23,69€ for drinks (incl. pledge 10€, that goes towards the Disney Fund). Freeze is almost full.

33,38€ for the cats (bought already the whole food for next month)
82,50€ for eating out (3 times and invited DD and DSIL)

saved 8,25€ (collecting the change from other countries)

1 € equals ca. 1,15$

There are almost no coupons here at Germany but I try to track the amound of reduced food I get and put it to our Disney fund

Greets Renate

hopefully going back to WDW May/June 2006

 

[Taja]

I don't really track my grocery spending, but I've always had a fairly stringent budget, and usually I am well within it. Since I shop for one person, many of the larger sizes aren't appropriate (I buy staples in bulk and occasionally meat to freeze, but most other things are wasted). I use coupons when possible, but they're fairly rare, as I'm on a pretty strict diet (medical) and have to avoid many prepared foods. I do take advantage of in-season produce and watch for sales on the items I use regularly.

My overall household budget is $200 per month, which includes pool chemicals, gardening needs and household products, as well as groceries. I'm exceeding it slightly at the moment, as the pool is eating chlorine. Temperature has been well above 100 degrees for some time and isn't cooling off much at night, which wreaks havoc with the pool water. It evens out over the year, though, so I can't complain. Too much!

 

[wdwpluto]

DH and I combine our grocery and eating out totals into one number. For 2 adults in July, we spent $349.xx which included all groceries, health & beauty stuff, bringing lunches to work, and a few small meals out (pizza, chinese food).This is a big improvement for us as we were spending close to $450/month previously.

 

[donnajon]

I've been saving about 45% each week for the past 4 weeks using The Grocery Game. I've also used what I've learned and applied it to other stores. My best was my trip to Super Bilo last week where I got $92 worth of groceries for $36. Not including the $10 rebate I'm getting from Diet Pepsi. They had Diet Pepsis on sale $1.99 for a 12 pack and there is a $10 rebate for buying 4 so I made $2 off of buying 48 cans of soda!

 

[scrappinmom]

I've been saving about 45% each week for the past 4 weeks using The Grocery Game. I've also used what I've learned and applied it to other stores. My best was my trip to Super Bilo last week where I got $92 worth of groceries for $36. Not including the $10 rebate I'm getting from Diet Pepsi. They had Diet Pepsis on sale $1.99 for a 12 pack and there is a $10 rebate for buying 4 so I made $2 off of buying 48 cans of soda!

I've got my $10 rebate ready to go too! My local store has 12packs on sale this week & dh takes them to work

Like I said, I didn't really do very well with coupons or the grocery game in July...But I'm going to try coupons this month...& May give the grocery game a try too.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I didn't do very well with my grocery budget for July, I spent close to $800 for our family of 7, I usually try to stay around $700. I'm off to a great start for August, though. Today I spent $285 for enough stuff to last 15 days. That includes food, HBA, cleaners, diapers, and DH's cigarettes. I saved $43 in coupons, my receipt said 15% ($30 of my total was the cigarettes, but they were on a different receipt).

I stocked up on a couple things that were really cheap, I got Kraft cheese slice double packs for .67, spaghetti sauce for .56, South Beach Diet cereal bars, but I don't remember how much they were, and Marcel tissues for .55. I stock up on those to replenish the kids' classrooms throughout the year.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

July groceries (includes toiletries and dog food) - I budgeted $380 for a family of 3 and 2 large breed dogs. I spent $360, after $20 in coupons.

Week 1 - $95/$94 after $6 coupons (inlcuded 5% saving certificate for shopping in June)
Week 2 - $95/$86 after $4 coupons
Week 3 - $95/$114 after $5 coupons (had to buy two large bags of dog food/poppy food)
Week 4 - $95/$66 after $6 coupons (income fell short this week so I had had to watch how much I spent)

Giant Food Stores has a shopping list available on their website. I can shop the weekly ad online and pick out my items without scouring the paper ad and writing them down. It evens gives a running total for items that are sale-priced (per pound sales sometimes cause the sum to go goofy and % off only items don't add in).

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

We started a strict budget June 1st and I kept track of EVERYTHING! I did really well on groceries for June...less than $400 for a family of 6. Our grocery budget actually includes groceries, toiletries, paper products, cleaning products and pet food.

July started out good but....I ended up spending about $700! BUT - it's justified, sort of. I work at Winn Dixie and our store is closing. All store brand products went 50% off so I stocked up. Boy, did I stock up! Seven carts one day and then the next day another cartfull! But, in spending so much in July it'll cut our monthly food budget down for six months to a year! I'm planning on spending less than $300 for August!

Oh, I also coupon shop and usually save quite a bit that way.

 

[cruisnfamily]

July started out good but....I ended up spending about $700! BUT - it's justified, sort of. I work at Winn Dixie and our store is closing. All store brand products went 50% off so I stocked up. Boy, did I stock up! Seven carts one day and then the next day another cartfull! But, in spending so much in July it'll cut our monthly food budget down for six months to a year! I'm planning on spending less than $300 for August!

Definitely justified! You'll save so much in the long run.....plus you're stocked up for hurricane season(assuming you live in a hurricane area).

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

Not so much for hurricane season (although we did get hit by two last year) but the winters! Being snowed in with hungry kids is no fun! We're set now, that's for sure!

 

[jgates]

I don't think I want to figure out what I spent....

However I did take advantage of some great deals. When a local grocery store cleared out at 75% off, I stocked up on all remaining laundry soap, bar soap & dish soap I could load in the cart. Also about 15 boxes of Kudos since kids go thru them like crazy - don't know why I didn't buy more.
The local store has been having some loss-leader specials lately and I have been taking advantage of those - this week it is 6 large size boxes or Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, etc for 9.96. That's over half off in our neighborhood! I bought DS a ton of their flavored oatmeal and Hamburger Helper a few weeks ago when it was $1 per box. All of that helps in the long run even if it doesn't get used right away.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Well, I just went into Quicken to get my totals for you. Until sometime last year, I would just get whatever we needed and toss it in the cart without any thought to being thrifty. Then the budget got tighter so over the last year or so, I've been trying to be much more cost conscious, shopping the sale flyer, etc. Last week I joined the grocery game so we'll see if that helps.

What I call "groceries" includes food obviously but also includes cleaning products, paper products, pet food and cigarettes(which is a big budget buster-I don't always buy them at the grocery store but sometimes I do so they're in there)

Anyway, here are my totals for the year so far:

Jan $710.99
Feb $526.13
March $769.44
April $594.18
May $564.77
June $376.61
July $533.65
That's an average of $582 per month for a family of 4. I definitely think we can cut back in this area but remember all the other things that are in here besides food.
So, I'll keep you posted!

 

[westjones]

This is a good idea. I have NO idea what I spent on groceries in July, but since August 1st is tomorrow, I am going to start keeping track.
DJ

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I will have to add up my receipts for July--I cheat a little and do fiscal months.....so I got August money on Friday and today's trip counts towards July. I will post back later my totals for July that do not include today's shopping trips.

Well done on everyone else's purchases!

ETA: My total based on the receipts is $623.55. However--hubby left town the July 7th--so not sure if I have the receipt for that first week. WE are usually $800+. This figure includes diapers/toiletries and such. But since I am just now becoming responsible--a few receipts could be missing. This is my # to beat in August!!!

 

[mommy22gurlz]

Oh my Gosh!! What a great thread....I also have been doing the "eating out accountability" thread trying to save on money.....after actually sitting down and calculating my checkbook I am shocked!!!

Now I really started to watch my spending in July so look at the difference from June to July, I also seperated my food etc... and my restauarant totals:

June:

Eating Out: 342.47
Food etc: 922.68!!!!! (this includes anything I have spent at walmart, heb, walgreens etc...no major purchases..just junk!)

July:

Eating Out: 186.00 (was a little high because I was on vacation and we were busy!!)

Food etc: 489.67

That is a difference of 589.00 between the two months. Geesh when you really sit and look at numbers you realize how much money was wasted.

I have been trying to stay under 95.00 a week on groceries for a family of 4, and a cat and dog.. I ALMOST hit it in July!! I am trying a little harder for August and we are trying to cut out ALL going to eat!! Well maybe just once or twice but not anything like our usual.

 

[westjones]

For us, we don't eat 'out' as much as we do carry out. On weekends we like to get a pizza or pick up Taco Bell. You save on drinks this way. Also, we all LOVE Olive Garden, but what we will do is order 2 dinner orders (hopefully having a $3 off coupon from the Sunday Coupons) and then we split it between all 4 of us. DH will go pick it up and bring it home. We don't do it very often, but a couple times a year we will do this.

DJ