Those families who spend $400 or less on groceries

[Alexander]

We easily spend upwards of $250/week on groceries, and that only includes buying chicken. We have a farm and have a freezer full of beef and pork. However, DS and DH are both Celiacs and buying gluten free is expensive. Think double the typical price and half the size.

DS is 14 and needs tons of food. He can't go to the fridge like a typical teen and throw together a couple of sandwiches. Instead, he eats a whole pound of cold meat!

 

[mom2val]

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[cornflake]

Is there any reason the original poster can't garden or get to a farmer's market rather than buying at Whole Foods? A lot of locally grown produce IS organic, and doesn't cost much more. Same goes with meat...even if you live in the city you could dive a couple times a year to a rural area to buy your meat (half cow, whole pig, chickens) and freeze it. For what you pay now for half of your groceries for the month, you could buy yourself half of a cow and eat for the rest of the year! lol* A lot of families go in on meat together around here to keep the cost down and ensure fresher meat.

Not for nothing (as it's just idle curiosity) but if one lived in a city and went to buy a half a cow, a pig and chickens.... where would they PUT them?!

Also, I do live in a city and buy stuff from the farmer's market (as we're pretty well farmer's marketed) when in season, but it's not any cheaper than the local market or Whole Foods really. Whole Foods is more expensive on some produce, and most of their produce is worse (I rarely buy produce from there, will only buy a few specific things), but a lot is comparable across the board.

Like... a head of organic romaine is usually (as obviously produce prices can shift exponentially, but that's generally steady) $2.49 at my market and at WF, and it's $2.50 at the farmer's market. Organic apples tend to run about $2.49/lb at both markets and between $2-3/lb depending on variety from the farmer's market.

Yes, it's local and preferable for some things, but it's not a $ savings, at least here. For some things, it's more expensive, for a couple it's a bit cheaper, but in general, moneywise it's the same.

 

[HayGan]

Not for nothing (as it's just idle curiosity) but if one lived in a city and went to buy a half a cow, a pig and chickens.... where would they PUT them?!

I live in the burbs in a very modest house (less than 1,200 sf total). We have 2 fridges (1 in the kitchen and 1 in the laundry room) and an upright freezer in the garage. Only if you are living in an apartment would it be hard to not have extra storage room for extra storage space for food

 

[Casperina]

The only time I could imagine doing that is my mother-in-law. She had 6 total in the house, plus me lots and maybe one or two others - 3 of these were athletic boys on high calorie diets (5000kcal average!).

Otherwise, someone spending that much must mean you are eating packaged name-brand food that is not nutrition or calorie dense so they have to eat a lot and therefore spend more money.


Plan meals around sales and coupons.
Chicken was $0.97 a pound for bone-in, skin-on leg quarters - so we've been making lots of chicken... masala, teriyaki, baked with oil and salt...

good luck!

 

[nancycg56]

There are 2 of us and I spend about 200 or 250/week and that includes everything ~ paper goods, dog food and treats, OTC meds, shampoo, etc.

I buy meat in bulk at BJs and try to make most things from scratch and I buy sale items where I can. I buy lots of fresh produce and I don't even look at the price. I try not to buy any processed stuff but I do once in awhile if we are going to be really busy and I didn't plan well.

We don't eat out very much because I can make as good or better than a restaurant and I am really picky about where I eat (a phobia of mine) so most times it's easier to stay home.

For example, today we are having cajun chicken pasta, homemade Italian bread, homemade angel food cake with fresh berries for dessert. We will have leftovers from all three so I will have the LO's tomorrow and add a fresh salad.

I love these threads, too, because I always learn something!

 

[dntd]

For us a family of 7, it's about $150-200 a week but it could cost more if I can't go states side ( canadian). Butter here is $5.99 milk almost $5 and bread pushing 3, eggs $3 as well! We live under 10 mins from niagara falls so I try and make the trip weekly/biweekly, the prices frod the same things: $2 butter,$1.75 gl milk,bread $1 and eggs as well $1! We are trying to save money to pay down debt and go on vacations. I started to pack the kids things that are more homemade but cheap such as muffins( I use pancake mix, easy cheap and heathier), corn dog muffins(jiffy mix+hotdogs). Fruit and veggies are a huge saver in the lunches which I find take up a large portion of our budget.

 

[cornflake]

I live in the burbs in a very modest house (less than 1,200 sf total). We have 2 fridges (1 in the kitchen and 1 in the laundry room) and an upright freezer in the garage. Only if you are living in an apartment would it be hard to not have extra storage room for extra storage space for food

Yeah but the poster said even if you live in a city... I think your food storage is kind of extreme even for the burbs, based on my experience, but in a city, yeah, no one is sticking an extra fridge or freezer or anything in their apartments!

 

[HayGan]

Yeah but the poster said even if you live in a city... I think your food storage is kind of extreme even for the burbs, based on my experience, but in a city, yeah, no one is sticking an extra fridge or freezer or anything in their apartments!

I realize most in the burbs don't have 2 fridges but many have an upright freezer.

Living in the city doesn't mean living in an apartment. We lived in the city for a several years and had an upright freezer in our house as did most of our neighbors. I would say with a high level of certainty that only those who live in an apartment wouldn't have the room to put another storage unit for refrigerated or frozen foods. Anyone with a house does have the room. They really don't take up that much space

 

[kirstenb1]

Yeah but the poster said even if you live in a city... I think your food storage is kind of extreme even for the burbs, based on my experience, but in a city, yeah, no one is sticking an extra fridge or freezer or anything in their apartments!

Most of the people I know have a spare fridge/freezer in the garage. When we bought our new one, we just put the old one out there. We keep extra drinks out there year round, and it's very helpful at the holidays when I'm cooking dinner for 23!! I'm sure storage is at a premium in the city, but out here it's different.

 

[Colleen27]

Not for nothing (as it's just idle curiosity) but if one lived in a city and went to buy a half a cow, a pig and chickens.... where would they PUT them?!

We have an upright freezer in our basement. Once everything is butchered and packaged it really isn't that overwhelming a quantity (for us, 1/4 cow, 1/2 hog, and a couple chickens - I get the chickens close to home so I don't really 'stock up' on those).

Also, I do live in a city and buy stuff from the farmer's market (as we're pretty well farmer's marketed) when in season, but it's not any cheaper than the local market or Whole Foods really. Whole Foods is more expensive on some produce, and most of their produce is worse (I rarely buy produce from there, will only buy a few specific things), but a lot is comparable across the board.

Like... a head of organic romaine is usually (as obviously produce prices can shift exponentially, but that's generally steady) $2.49 at my market and at WF, and it's $2.50 at the farmer's market. Organic apples tend to run about $2.49/lb at both markets and between $2-3/lb depending on variety from the farmer's market.

Yes, it's local and preferable for some things, but it's not a $ savings, at least here. For some things, it's more expensive, for a couple it's a bit cheaper, but in general, moneywise it's the same.

Often this varies widely from one market to another, sometimes because of transportation costs and sometimes based on little more than what the local market will pay. The place we go for organic blueberries @ $2/lb charges twice that at the two farmers' markets they participate in, both located in upscale suburbs, and I've been told that a few of the vendors charge more at one particular market in a well-off than they do at another in a working-class community. For me, the farmers' market is much cheaper than the grocery store but we're in the middle of farm country so few of the vendors have far to come and pricing is good because there's a lot of competition - at the market, at farm stands, and from the big boxes because people in my blue-collar community are very price-sensitive.

The organic label is a price-booster too. A lot of the farmers I buy from use organic methods but are not and will not ever be certified because certification is a long, involved, expensive process. So if having certified organic produce is important to you, you'll pay more. I'm fine with talking to growers, getting to know their methods, and accepting "naturally grown" (which doesn't come with USDA rules) rather than organic in many cases.

 

[cousinbb]

Like many previous posters have said.... what in the world are you buying!!!!!!? We spend about $150 a week on groceries. We always have our dinner menu planned out. Breakfast and lunch is whatever is on sale. Like, if cereal is on sale, we get what we like. Or poptarts,english muffins, bacon. We always buy bread,milk,fruit and eggs every week. We don't buy much sweet stuff like cookies or candy. We usually bake our own pastries and buy our own candy when we are in the mood for it.

 

[cornflake]

We have an upright freezer in our basement. Once everything is butchered and packaged it really isn't that overwhelming a quantity (for us, 1/4 cow, 1/2 hog, and a couple chickens - I get the chickens close to home so I don't really 'stock up' on those).



Often this varies widely from one market to another, sometimes because of transportation costs and sometimes based on little more than what the local market will pay. The place we go for organic blueberries @ $2/lb charges twice that at the two farmers' markets they participate in, both located in upscale suburbs, and I've been told that a few of the vendors charge more at one particular market in a well-off than they do at another in a working-class community. For me, the farmers' market is much cheaper than the grocery store but we're in the middle of farm country so few of the vendors have far to come and pricing is good because there's a lot of competition - at the market, at farm stands, and from the big boxes because people in my blue-collar community are very price-sensitive.

The organic label is a price-booster too. A lot of the farmers I buy from use organic methods but are not and will not ever be certified because certification is a long, involved, expensive process. So if having certified organic produce is important to you, you'll pay more. I'm fine with talking to growers, getting to know their methods, and accepting "naturally grown" (which doesn't come with USDA rules) rather than organic in many cases.

Just to clarify on the farmer's market vs. organic thing - I was quoting the general farmer's market prices, which don't, here, vary much between the couple certified organic and the others. Didn't mean to be unclear. I also dunno about how they'd differ; there are a few farmer's markets' come around the neighbourhood, it's that kind of neighbourhood.

I totally agree about talking to them about their practices, and I - and I know others - do. Price is roughly the same here regardless. The guy with the lettuce I like happens to be organic with a certification and specializes in greens (and pickled korean veg, as they're a korean family - their stuff will clear your sinuses but good, heh). The lettuce at the other stands that sell lettuce is the same price though, sometimes $2 or $3 a head but generally they're all competitive with each other. Head of cauliflower is $3, apples $2-3, either at the certified guy (different farm) or the other (I prefer the other there), etc...

 

[mefordis]

Like many previous posters have said.... what in the world are you buying!!!!!!? We spend about $150 a week on groceries. We always have our dinner menu planned out. Breakfast and lunch is whatever is on sale. Like, if cereal is on sale, we get what we like. Or poptarts,english muffins, bacon. We always buy bread,milk,fruit and eggs every week. We don't buy much sweet stuff like cookies or candy. We usually bake our own pastries and buy our own candy when we are in the mood for it.

I spend only $50 more a week than you. I think the organic food can probably account for that $50 difference.

The $200 / week includes Atlantic Salmon as well as grass fed steak once a week.

Anyway, I got some great suggestions here. I know I will never get my bill down to $100 a week but maybe I can shave off $50 a week!

Thanks, all!

 

[jiminykrikkit]

We are a family of two adults and one toddler. I spend about $40-$50 on actual food each week - for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other household items added in would double that cost. For example, last week I spent $38.52 on food and $39.07 (incl. tax) on household items like laundry detergent, diapers/wipes, and trashbags (the diapers were about $22 of that though). I shop at Wal-Mart and buy the Great Value brand almost exclusively save for a few items that I'm brand loyal to (Hidden Valley Light Ranch & Cabot 50% cheese are examples)

Here's my meal plan for the week, prices listed are per serving (DH will sometimes eat two servings, I usually will eat a serving the next day for lunch).

Also, I'm on Weight Watchers so all of this is pretty healthy as I try to stick to power foods as much as possible and of course have reasonable points values.

Breakfast all week is cheese grits with sriracha and cilantro and a banana: 45 cents

Lunches are leftovers from dinners (below) or grilled cheese and mango: $1.08

Dinners:
Beans & cornbread - 32 cents per serving
Slow cooker salsa chicken and rice - $1.23/serving
Taco salad - 63 cents per serving
Slow cooker chicken fajitas & beans - $1.39/serving
Chicken chili & rice - $1.12/serving
Pork chops & rice - 92 cents/serving

Snacks are almost always fruit (strawberries or fresh pineapple) which comes out to about 50 cents per 1 cup (2 fruit servings), and sometimes celery and peanut butter (also about 50 cents per serving).

There is a lot of Tex-Mex flavors going on in our menu, because that's just what we like and I can make it pretty healthy. Also no pasta, because I cannot be trusted to eat a single serving at once! LOL (This is a dining out option though!)

We like Papa John's for our takeout option, because we can order a large thin crust pizza with half the toppings for him, and the other half for me. It's about $20 delivered/with tip, so WAY WAY WAY more expensive than our typical total meal cost, but sometimes it's just worth it. Plus they have rewards points that add up like a punch card for free pizza. We actually have enough points for two free now since there was a recent deal going on when we wanted to order pizza anyways.

 

[chigirl]

Holy Moly...$400 a week, I'd go broke...we are a family of 4 and I spend no more than $150-160 a week, and I rarely clip coupons. I do shop between 4 local stores: Jewel, Wal-Mart and our local "Centrella"/Independently owned store, plus Trader Joes. I plan out meals based on what is on sale and in season that week and we do grow our own vegetables in the summer. But I am a trained cook and we eat WELL...yesterday we had boneless country ribs, chicken legs, pasta salad & homemade garlic knots, plus a green salad. I make my own bread quite a bit. One of our biggest grocery expenses is milk, because I have 2 teenagers. I can say I buy very, very few frozen/processed foods. I buy my meat at the independent store, where there is a butcher and awesome deals on meat. I do not pre-cook and freeze food for later, everything is fresh....I think you need to google "cook like a European" and see how people there do it.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Okay- I have been trying to read through this thread for tips. Some have been great!
I will say that we are a family that spends a lot on food. Granted there are 7 of us but there is no way we could only spend $200 a week or less. Not unless we ate pasta 3 meals a day. Now we buy almost nothing processed. I cook as much from scratch as I can and we snack on fresh fruit and veggies as well as junkier stuff that is on sale only. As an example- I ran to the store the other day to stock on up on milk and fruit because we were running low/out. I spent about $80. That is just on fruit and milk! We do drink almond milk and regular milk so I do have to buy 2 kinds but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to spend that little on actual meals for our family. I would love to! Our food bill is our biggest bill. I try to shop on sale and with coupons but to be honest, most of the expensive stuff has no coupons. By expensive I mean meat and produce. We try to eat lean meats and lots of veggies with little carbs for dinners. So we do eat meat about 6 nights a week. We are not ginormous people with never ending appetites and our kids are young and growing. We also do not have picky eaters but we do have a dairy gluten issue with one adult. So we really do try and eat whole foods.

Buying lunchmeat for sandwiches can run me $30-$40 at a clip. I will only buy one brand but we do eat it all. No waste. I am a creative cook but again- I have no clue how others do it. I wish I did as I hate paying a lot for something if I can get it cheaper. Soooooo....looking for tips.

 

[TwistGrl101]

I spend about $200-250 a week for my family of 5, and when I tried to cut down and spend $150 a week, by the end of the week we had no food in the hoouse.

DH is big into body building, and eats very healthy and a lot. I work fulltime and we always have so many activities going on, that on top of our huge grocery bill we also order out once or twice a week.

I wouldn't even know how to cut down my bill, and I feel like when I tried to use coupons I was just buying this because they are cheap, but not things that we even use.

Between diapers, wipes, greek yogurt, meat for the week, tons of fruit and veggies, snacks for home and lunches, milk, bread, ice pops, cheese, etc. I am well over $200/week. Then when I need to add in toilet paper, paper towels, and Tide the bill is even more outrageous. I need an intervention!

Is it worth it to get a membership to a warehouse like Costco or Sams? I shop at the cheapest grocery store in my area that I am aware of.

And yes, we are dining deluxe in 43 days!

 

[cornflake]

Okay- I have been trying to read through this thread for tips. Some have been great!
I will say that we are a family that spends a lot on food. Granted there are 7 of us but there is no way we could only spend $200 a week or less. Not unless we ate pasta 3 meals a day. Now we buy almost nothing processed. I cook as much from scratch as I can and we snack on fresh fruit and veggies as well as junkier stuff that is on sale only. As an example- I ran to the store the other day to stock on up on milk and fruit because we were running low/out. I spent about $80. That is just on fruit and milk! We do drink almond milk and regular milk so I do have to buy 2 kinds but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to spend that little on actual meals for our family. I would love to! Our food bill is our biggest bill. I try to shop on sale and with coupons but to be honest, most of the expensive stuff has no coupons. By expensive I mean meat and produce. We try to eat lean meats and lots of veggies with little carbs for dinners. So we do eat meat about 6 nights a week. We are not ginormous people with never ending appetites and our kids are young and growing. We also do not have picky eaters but we do have a dairy gluten issue with one adult. So we really do try and eat whole foods.

Buying lunchmeat for sandwiches can run me $30-$40 at a clip. I will only buy one brand but we do eat it all. No waste. I am a creative cook but again- I have no clue how others do it. I wish I did as I hate paying a lot for something if I can get it cheaper. Soooooo....looking for tips.

I'd look at changing/shifting what you buy/eat, honestly, if you want to save money.

Stuff like lunchmeat is expensive - change from that mindset that you should pack or have sandwiches with meat for lunch and you can cut that. You can be way creative - and healthy - for much less.

If this is for packed lunches, you can do homemade soups in a thermos, or homemade hummus, a half a pita, and a bunch of veggies. You can make falafel really cheaply, and do that in pitas for a sandwich alternative that's cheap and healthy.

You can do veggie sandwiches - grill some summer squash (super cheap), eggplant, onions, peppers, whatever, and have with some pesto mayo and a couple slices of cheese. In bulk, cheaper than meat and if you grill up a whole mess of stuff it's versatile - it's a side dish, it's quesadillas, it can be sliced and tossed with pasta, etc.

The fruit and milk thing... well, you can stop drinking milk. No one needs the stuff and it's expensive. Water comes out of the tap and you can get a filter if you don't like the taste of your town's. Fruit is expensive, so maybe go heavier on the veg for snacks - buy carrots and celery in bulk and have them always cut up in water in the fridge, etc - and don't go for the expensive, single-serve fruits or expensive berries, get a couple pineapples and cut them up; wait for melons to go on sale and get a couple big ones and cut them up, etc.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I'd look at changing/shifting what you buy/eat, honestly, if you want to save money.

Stuff like lunchmeat is expensive - change from that mindset that you should pack or have sandwiches with meat for lunch and you can cut that. You can be way creative - and healthy - for much less.

If this is for packed lunches, you can do homemade soups in a thermos, or homemade hummus, a half a pita, and a bunch of veggies. You can make falafel really cheaply, and do that in pitas for a sandwich alternative that's cheap and healthy.

You can do veggie sandwiches - grill some summer squash (super cheap), eggplant, onions, peppers, whatever, and have with some pesto mayo and a couple slices of cheese. In bulk, cheaper than meat and if you grill up a whole mess of stuff it's versatile - it's a side dish, it's quesadillas, it can be sliced and tossed with pasta, etc.

The fruit and milk thing... well, you can stop drinking milk. No one needs the stuff and it's expensive. Water comes out of the tap and you can get a filter if you don't like the taste of your town's. Fruit is expensive, so maybe go heavier on the veg for snacks - buy carrots and celery in bulk and have them always cut up in water in the fridge, etc - and don't go for the expensive, single-serve fruits or expensive berries, get a couple pineapples and cut them up; wait for melons to go on sale and get a couple big ones and cut them up, etc.

We actually do most of this already. I don'y buy single serve anything. We always have carrots and celery on hand cut up and ready. As for milk, well I do agree that you do not need it but to be honest we don't really drink milk. I buy it for the occassional bowl of cereal or coffee. We do however drink almond milk. We are also big water drinkers.
Now as for making vegetables a dinner, once in a while with some pasta is great. Other than that we need protein. I don't like to make too much pasta because we love it too much and it's not really healthy to eat that often. Oh and just to be clear on the lunchmeat thing- I buy boarshead- not lunchables or some other thing. I know you didn't suggest that I did but I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't overspending on premade stuff.

Can you post how to make falafel? I love Greek food! Keep sending the advice! I want to cut this bill down!