My grocery bills are spiraling out of control!

[BWVDenise]

(I hope CindyB doesn't see this! )
I have already spent over $400 at the grocery store in April for a family of 5!!!!! Yes, I use coupons, look for sale items, and I've been checking out those 72 hour sales for things we use at super low prices. And at the end of the week, the cubbord is bare! My oldest ds isn't even a pre-teen yet, so I know it is going to get much, much worse b/c he already has a huge appetite (you'd never know it to look at him).
Looks like we are going to have to start eating pb&j for dinner a few times a week so we don't have to cut back on any precious vacations!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Cindy could do it for about $110 and have some freebies thrown in too. Just wait till your guy is about 15 or so.

 

[Cindy B]

Oh, Dan.. you are just so right.. It's scary...

Today.. I did a fairly high one for me $60.22.
If I didn't buy a $4 Crest Spinbrush... (on sale with coupon would have been a lesser bill!)


I bought lunch things for the kids for two weeks.. (two day week this week), and some great meat.


Now Denise.. are you buying prepackeged foods? Convienence foods? That kills people all the time...

I've learned to find fantastic substitutes... for example vinegar instead of Jet Dry... works the same! Make my own Bisquick.. just the same! Make my own pancake mix.. just the same..


Popcorn is one of the most inexpensive snacks.. not the microwave kind.. the loose kernels.. I pop them in a pot!

 

[Mishetta]

Do you shop at Sam's Club or Costco too? I find that their meat is priced pretty reasonably, as well as their breads, butter & eggs. I also buy the huge containers of peanut butter there, but there are things that I find cheaper at grocery stores with their sales & using coupons.

Now who is CindyB & what's her secret???

 

[dandave]

Popcorn is one of the most inexpensive snacks.. not the microwave kind.. the loose kernels.. I pop them in a pot!

But when you add in the price of the butter/oil used for popping, the electricity/gas to heat up the stove, hot water/soap to wash the pot, isn't the microwave popcorn bought in bulk about the same price?

 

[BWVDenise]

Cindy,
I don't think I buy much in the way of convenience foods. I bake my own bread! I buy sale meat. I only buy certain *fun* foods when they are BOGO (like potato chips and such). I only buy microwave popcorn when it is on sale for a decent price. I only buy ice cream when it is BOGO or 2/$5. I do buy bisquick but don't use it all that often. There are a lot of prepackaged foods that I can't (and won't) buy b/c my dd has red dye allergies, so I have to check every label. And the grocery bill doesn't even include the paper products!!!!!!! I buy those at Target (so it is worse than you thought, right? ) My kids even know that there are certain things that they might want that I won't buy if they are full price and they know that they will have to wait for a sale.
It's hopeless!!

 

[zurgswife]

Does CindyB give tutoring lessons....We are a family of 6 ....and I always spend at least $500+ per month...I'd love some advice...

 

[lisajl]

Boy, I could use some help too! We are a family of five.
My DS, 8 is eating us out of house and home!!

Any suggestions? We already do the coupons, and BOGO.

Lisajl

 

[tar heel]

I have one of those 15-year-old boys Dan mentioned! Tonight for his bedtime snack, he had four pieces of London broil, a piece of broccoli, a serving of mashed potatoes (had had larger servings of all these things for dinner about two hours before) and a regular-sized (like 15 oz.) can of mandarin oranges. In a few hours, he'll get up and have half a box of cereal for breakfast!

I'm a careful shopper, plan our meals around what's on special, carefully use coupons and use very few convenience foods. There was a time when my bill wasn't much more than Cindy B's, but now I'm lucky if it's under $100 per week. Did I mention that I also have two other boys?

 

[Keli]

I'm lucky because I don't have high grocery bills at all. I do shop at the cheapest stores for what I can and then run to Walmart to get the rest but I rarely spend over $40 a week for all our groceries, cleaning supplies, paper products and personal hygene products. Of course it's just me, dh and our dd. NO teenage boys! (Ashli eats such a small amount of food it's not funny, typical teenage girl, lol) I know what everyone means about teenage boys though. I used to be amazed at what my skinny teenage brothers used to put away. An incredible amount of food, they were always hungry.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by dandave
But when you add in the price of the butter/oil used for popping, the electricity/gas to heat up the stove, hot water/soap to wash the pot, isn't the microwave popcorn bought in bulk about the same price?

No, not really... I can get a large thing of kernels for 99 cents. I have a gas oven.. thats the only thing gas in the house so thats a low bill. Water bills are a set price every month. So it is the same.



Denise.. hmm..

No convienence, no bread, and that doesn't include paper products? Are you buying a lot of high priced produce/fruits? Produce Junction/Aldi has them at a lower price. Bananas are 33 cents a pound this week at Genaurdi's.. much better than the usual .69..

My kids know not to ask for certain stuff as well. I am a very careful coupon shopper, and I get great deals, but you do have to research. Do you go to the same store all the time? Sometimes other stores have better prices... for example a new Genaurdi's opened up near my house... usually Genaurdi's is high, but for example I've gotten bread 2/1.00 (thats pretty close to Aldi price), 6 pack of soda 49 cents (better than Aldi), and the best of all... Ice cream.. had a coupon for ice cream for 99 cents... and it was bigi on top of that.. so TWO half gallon of ice cream for 99 cents!, plus a $5 off coupon which made the bill go down.

I know someday I will have a teenage boy.. Both my kids tear into things when they come home from school. We do limit thier food intake, and we make them popcorn when they get home.

 

[cgcw]

I have found deals going to Sam's Club first thing on a Saturday morning and hitting the meat department. Our Sams usually has some meat "reduced for quick sale". I will always stock up. Sometimes I can get 8 pounds of ground round for less than $10. I like the quality of their meat and haven't ever had a problem.

I shop for most of our produce (or DH does) at the "fruit store" as we call it. It's a certified center grocery store which specializes in fruit/vegetables. Sometimes, I'll walk through Jewel or Dominicks and look at their prices and keep on walking. There is no way I would pay their prices for fresh items. Way to expensive.

I've enjoyed reading the tips here.

 

[Cindy B]

Yes, I usually go to the store first thing (not the easiest thing to do when I am working), and get the reduced meat. This is the regular grocery store, not Sam's or Costco.

Although, the new Genaurdi's I am going to rotates them out for the following day... I was ther at 4 pm, and they had markdowns for things that expire on 4/15. For example.. Purdue ground chicken... $2.00... was $3.69.. no way I would pay that for ground chicken... so with a $2.00 off coupon/reduced meat.. $1.69 for a pound of it is fine for me... (and 1.69 is about the threshold I would pay for it anyway!)


Yogurts at Super G go for about 25 cents/44 cents each in a bin. We are a big yogurt family.. everyone eats it! The lead time is about 2 days, but thats fine since we will eat in that timeframe... actually the USDA site says yogurt is "safe to eat" after 30 days of best of date.. but I don't agree with that...

 

[Mskanga]

We are a family of 4 , 2 kids ages 6 and 10 , dh , myself, a dog and a cat. My food bill is about $125 every two weeks including paper products and all that stuff . The two weeks that I don't go foodshopping I only get milk and bread and I spend maybe $25 a week for that ( we are big milk drinkers ).
I work at a convenience store and I get a lot of coupons on sundays from the leftover papers and my ritual sunday night is I go through the paper flyers and find out the sales in town and make my own lists. Our stores are pretty close so for me going from one to the other is not an inconvenience.
I do get some convenience prepackaged meals ( only when on sale and with coupons ) because I work on weekends and I want to make quick meals when I get home after working 10 hours.
I buy my meat and cold cuts in bulk at BJ's , that seems to work better for me.
A good example for me this week is shop rite has a sale for Mennen Speed Stick deodorant on sale for .99, I have $1.00 off and .30 off coupons so I will get one free , one for .39, so I may spend a little bit more this week but I will get enough deodorant to last me for months, and the same thing with other toiletries, I bought 6 tubes of colgate two weeks ago for $2.00 and I still had 2 tubes left from the time before , so I got toothpaste to last me for a while, LOL.
One thing I do have to do though is "hide a good part of the snacks food " , why?? because on weekends when I go to work , there seems to be no other food in my house than junk food, nobody else other than me apparently knows how to cook here, so they eat snacks

 

[lmhall2000]

Costco/Sam's Club is GREAT IF you only buy what you need. I make one costco run a month for about $200
Peanut Butter- lasts the whole month
Chicken, Pork, Hamburger- buy and freeze in little ziploc baggies- I never make big portions usually chopped up stirfry or mixed in with spaghetti sauce- this lasts us a whole month
Eggs- three 18 packs- lasts us the whole month
That huge 30lb (??) bag of Rice- I divy it up into airtight containers
Two double boxes of Cheerios
Two boxes of regular oatmeal
Krust-eaz pancake mix (usually lasts 3 months)
Frozen Broccoli, mixed veggies, and butter
Bread- although I buy this at Kroger as well
Milk- ditto
Pasta- whatever they have
Pretzels or other prepackaged snack food (when this runs out we don't restock until the next run)
Cheese- big block
Sugar
Flour-again a huge bag I can almost not carry!
Canned veggies/soups
Frozen juices

Weekly run for all fruits and veggies at favorite fresh market runs about $40 weekly

Weekly run for milk, bread, & sandwich meat & miscellaneous
We can do all this for about$450 a month- we eat out every Sunday for about $25- usually Subway- nothing fancy unless it's a special occasion.

Absolute no-no's--no sodas or beverages- we drink water, watered down juices or milk. We don't drink coffee- but dh will make Luzianne tea every other week or so. Hope this helps!!
Tara

 

[doxdogy]

Look for stores that periodically offer double or triple coupons. We have one store that will triple coupons up to 50 cents. I head there with all my coupons. Spent 38.00 after the coupons and their in store discounts it was 19.00. But, if you don't have one in your area, definitely use Costco or a store similar to them.

 

[Cindy B]

About every four weeks Giant will do a triple coupon.. Traditionally a week after the giant triple coupon week, Acme will do the same thing.. occasionally Pathmark does triple coupons as well.