Just Had My Highest Grocery Bill Ever!

[locolala]

I guess right now our bill is a little higher than normal, thats because I'm drinking sprite to help settle my tummy with this morning sickness bullpoop. We also only drink bottled water, because the tap water here is disgusting. DH and I both grew up on well water so city water is foreign to us. Also, lately I've been craving a ton of fresh fruit so we're buying fruit on a pretty regular basis.

 

[tink_lover]

I'd be happy with $100/week. We are at $175-250 per week depending on what's needed. We do a lot of fresh fruit and veggies which can get really expensive here in the frozen tundra. We go thru a lot of dairy as well. I don't clip coupons. I wish I had the time to sit and do that and figure everything out. Unfortunately, we pretty much have set menus each week and I'm too busy to figure out what to eat around what there is a coupon for.

 

[brockash]

Well you all have me beat. We usually spend between $150-$200/wk. for a family of 2 adults and 2 kiddos. And, yes I use coupons, although we don't eat around the coupons and what's on sale (I'm guessing that would help a lot.) I just try to buy things on sale and when I have the coupons for them.

 

[allison443]

I always wonder what people are buying when they have those $150 weekly bills. We are a family of 2 adults, 1 college kid at home and usually spend $75 or less. We don't buy many prepackaged foods and the meals are simple but healthy, usually made with chicken.

That's like $10 a day..there used to be a thread on here called feed your family on $10 day and I found it very interesting to see the different budget strategies people used.

 

[eatatmidnight]

I just spent so much at the store! It was even more then I thought it would be. $83 and some change. I know that might not seem like a lot for some people, but on a usual week, $40 is really high for me.

I keep on telling myself that it's because I spent over $30 on stuff for fruitcake, and that stuff never goes on sale, and I only buy it once every couple of years, so not to worry about it, and that my actual grocery bill would've been less then $50 without it.

Money's tight right now, after buying a laptop last month, and saving up for my next Disney trip, though that doesn't have to be paid off for quite some time, and with all the extra stuff I buy around the holidays.

Luckily I am pretty much done with shopping and baking supplies that I need. I just need to buy a bunch of eggs and butter the week I actually do my baking, and buy a few more gifts.

That is a bit more than you usually spend. Do remember that those you share your homemade fruitcake with will truly enjoy it. You are right about those ingredients never being on sale. Just chalk it up to Holiday spirit and then get back to your budget. Enjoy!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

OP, how many people in your household just curious. There are 3 of us, and I would say I average about $100-$120 per week, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Just me, and I usually use a ton of coupons, so my costs are usually minimal for most items. I keep on telling myself that it's for Christmas, which is mostly true, since most of the items were for Christmas, and if I take away those items, I only really spent my usual $30.

 

[amccu18007]

Well, I spend about $150 per week and we have 5 people in our family. So your 30 x 5 seems about right.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Seriously? What do you eat? I just stopped in tonight to pick up a few items and spent $126. I still have to food shop this week. Even when I lived alone I spent more than $40 a week on food.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Seriously? What do you eat? I just stopped in tonight to pick up a few items and spent $126. I still have to food shop this week. Even when I lived alone I spent more than $40 a week on food.

I assume that question was directed at me.

Regular food. I don't really eat the same week to week. Like tonight I had chicken and curry cous cous, tomorrow I think I'm going to make shrimp pad thai. And over the weekend I made a lentil curry stew, with homemade bread, which I find to be much cheaper then buying bread at the store, and probably much healthier too.

 

[kymom99]

I'm sure you all have noticed that package sizes are shrinking while prices either stay the same or go up. Around here, ice cream no longer comes in 1/2 gallon containers. Now they are 1 1/2 quarts! Same price as 1/2 gallon though! That is very frustrating!

 

[figment3258]

I spend 100$ per week. Its my goal I have no choice and its very hard. I go by whats on sale and what I have coupons for. And we make it every time. We have 3 adults and 2 kids. And we do not eat out at all. Its hard sometimes but you do what you have to do and make do. It would be nice one week just to buy whatever I wanted and not worry. Our grocery store made things a little easier by when you start you scan ur card and take a scanner and scan the food yourself and it tell you how much u have spent its great and it comes with coupons one it so you never know what extras you can get.

 

[Minnesota!]

DAMN! What do you guys buy? We budget $250/month for groceries. To feed me, DH, a 2 year old, a 5 year old, and a nanny who is here for 2 meals a day.

We buy all fresh fruits/veggies (w/ the exception of corn b/c I LOOOVE frozen corn).

We go every 2 weeks and spend between 80 - 100 and then once a week DH runs to get milk, lunch meat, and bread if we are running low!

My kids eat A LOT and we still have plenty of food to go around.

The one thing I do have going for us is we bought 1/4 buffalo in April, so we ARE set meat wise. But otherwise, everything else gets bought.

I would pass out at some of your food bills...

 

[IDoDis]

I remember there was a monthly grocery thread on this board where people would post their grocery purchases and the prices. I could see where some of the difference comes from, but then when I looked at their grocery lists, I saw things like several boxes of Mac & Cheese, cheap frozen pizzas that they'd add their own extras to, and hot dogs. For example, some people were able to buy canned veggies for 4 for $1.00 on sale or .39 each regular price. But where I live, a can of veggies is now about .89 cents a can for the store brand and up to $1.20 for a name brand.

Another thing the budget grocery shoppers on that thread did did was stock up on meats. So one week when chicken breasts were .99 a pound (not here, but somewhere else -- I'd love those prices), the shopppers would get 20 pounds worth and freeze them in smaller zip lock bags, and would not have to buy chicken for the rest of the month.

Same thing when cereal would be real cheap. They'd add in the coupons and end up paying like .75 a box with them being on sale and using a coupon, so they'd buy 12 boxes of cereal. They even took pictures of their pantries that looked like they were stockpiled for aWWIII invasion. One person had like 34 boxes of cereal!

I tried stocking up on cereal once when it was on sale. Guess what??? My family ate the 12 boxes in the same amount of time that they'd have eaten 5 boxes. It became the "snack" that everyone chose since we had such a nice variety. So much for stocking up in my house.

It just didn't work for me to clip coupons and run from store to store. I guess if I stayed home all day and had more time to come up with a game plan and pre-plan my month's meal menus I could make it work, but really, some were spending $30 a week on perishables with a monthly budget of $200 for a family of 5. Milk alone is a small fortune for us since the 4 of us go through 5 gallons a week. Groceries for my family of four is around $175 a week and we eat dinner out once a week. We all pack lunches for school & work each day, so if that saves some money vs paying $8.75 a week for DS and $15 a week for DD, not to mention what DH and I would spend if we didn't bring our own food.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

Our grocery budget is $1000 a month. That includes dog food and cleaning supplies. We rarely eat out...we even make our own pizzas on Friday night Pizza night. Fresh fruit and veggies easily run me $50/week. Add in lunch meat (ouch!), organic milk and a crap ton of cereal and we spend quite a bit. Oh yeah, that is the amount I spend shopping at the commissary. Forget about the local chains.

 

[pipersmom]

I think a lot of it must be regional, I spend less than $50 a week for dd and I, and she eats anything and everything for the most part. It probably also depends on what type of meals you serve. Our dinners typically consist of a meat, a starch, and a veggie and fruit. Once a week we do pasta or some other meatless meal. We also use some coupons, but I'm in no way a total coupon type of person. I spend maybe an hr on Sunday clipping, and only clip for things we use a lot, ie cereal, steamer veggies (we love them!), things like that.

If anyone is interested, there are also two very good food co-ops, one is called SHARE, and the other Angel Food Ministries. We use Share, the box is $23 and includes meats, veggies, fruits, non-perishables, whatever they can get, basically. I would say the total value of the box is usually between $50 & $70 and usually 95% of the stuff is very tasty. There's enough in it for dd & I to eat from it for a week. (Not including milk & bread.) You can also order the box without the meats, and there's usually one or two other type of packages..ie, grilling boxes during the summer/fall, holiday specials around the holidays. When they do find people don't like an item, they simply don't order it again. Both organizations are very easy to find on the web, I would post links, but not sure if that would be okay or not.

 

[tink_lover]

DAMN! What do you guys buy? We budget $250/month for groceries. To feed me, DH, a 2 year old, a 5 year old, and a nanny who is here for 2 meals a day.

We buy all fresh fruits/veggies (w/ the exception of corn b/c I LOOOVE frozen corn).

We go every 2 weeks and spend between 80 - 100 and then once a week DH runs to get milk, lunch meat, and bread if we are running low!

My kids eat A LOT and we still have plenty of food to go around.

The one thing I do have going for us is we bought 1/4 buffalo in April, so we ARE set meat wise. But otherwise, everything else gets bought.

I would pass out at some of your food bills...

Just wait until those boys start growing and REALLY eating. We are feeling it, and we aren't even close to being into the teen years!

 

[disfan07]

We are 3 people....my parents and than me (college student)
we spend on average probably $150-$200/week depending on how much meat we buy.

meat/poultry- $40/week (whole foods only)
farmers market (hummus, pita, berries, veggies)- $45
albertsons/ralphs-$75 (gatorade, water, additional fruits and veggies, juice, cereal, soup, etc)
Whole foods- $35- (frozen dinners, soups, snacks)

We buy mainly organic, preservative free because I have a preservative adn chemical allergy so its gotten more expensive.

That was last weeks grocery bill so that comes out to- $195 for the 3 of us

We buy mostly fresh foods....we buy a few snacks (organic cheese crackers, a box of organic cookies, organic chips) mainly for my snacks at school adn my dads lunches and snacks at work

 

[Momof2princess]

We average $150-200 a week. This is for a family of four and includes dog food and cleaning supplies but not tolietries, make-up, ect...

It seems like I try to get it down cheaper but just never seem to get there.

 

[Disneyadore]

Wow can we start a low grocery bill wife swap?
I could learn a lot and my husband would love it. I spend well over $ 300 a week for two persons and we don't smoke or drink and neither are we pooh sized.

 

[HeatherC]

We are a family of 5 with kids ages 13, 11 and 9. I spend about 150 -175 a week on food. At first, that may seem high. But when you break it down:

21 meals a week divided by 5 people, it's only $2 a person a day for food!

So I think I'm doing pretty good feeding 3 growing kids and 2 adults for that amount.