Weekly Grocery Bill

[cruisnfamily]

Only quoted you because I wanted to point out your banner.

GRATS on quitting smoking
Each day that is smoke free is one day of healthier living..
Keep it up

Thanks!

DH and I both quit, so you cna double that banner for actual savings. More for health reasons than anything else.....we're not having health problems but too many scary stories lately that are cancer related. Side benefit is the financial savings, yay!

 

[disneynuts777]

Family of 4.....two teenage DD's. Budget 125.00 a week for everything. Most of the times I can stay in the budget. We eat out 1x a month. Everyone packs a lunch...except me I pack a dinner!!!
I usually will blow the budget if there is a really good sale on something. However I can usually make up for it in the following weeks.
I have a weekly menu posted on the cupboard and that is how I shop. Leftovers are also either used for lunch or made into another meal.
I also have been making bread and that has cut down my bread spending by over half.
It is alot of work....but it is worth it when I am in WDW enjoying myself for 10-15 days every year!!

 

[NiftyJ88]

For our family of 3 (Dh, me and DDalmost3), we have a weekly budget of $60
We cook everynight and I take lunches to work everyday. We don't make much processed foods and the majority of our budget is spent on produce and diary. We stock up on meat (i.e. buy a case of ground turkey at Sam's, you get one whole package free that way), which helps to save some money, but it also raises our costs when we do that. But, it does last us about 6 months.
The greatest budget saver that I have found is to plan out meals for the week. Then, I go to the store on a weekly basis with a list of items needed to make the recipes and our staples (bread, milk, produce, etc). I don't go looking for sales, I go looking for only the items on the list. I do skim the weekly sales ads though to determine what might be on the dinner list for the week.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I've been active on Hot Coupon World for an entire year. I feed the five of us (dh and I, two teens, nine-year-old) for under $250 for a MONTH. That's everything---all breakfasts, lunches (everyone packs or eats at home when working from home), and dinners. One family member has multiple food allergies, including soy, which precludes pre-packaged and convenience foods. I cook everything from scratch with the exception of flour tortillas, pasta and one type of bread that I can buy at an outlet. There are coupons available for fresh fruit and vegetables, for fresh meats and poultry, for dairy. Coupons are just for junk food. The important thing to realize is that not all areas of the country get the same coupons. You can look for coupons on ebay or trade for what you have (that's what I do).

The basement storage shelves are full as is the chest freezer. I'm able to get items for free or pennies that I donate to the local food pantry and the food bank.

It's a lot of work but well worth the time and effort. I don't watch tv---that time is spent reading forums on HCW and sharing what I have found with other members

 

[cherepikr]

I have cut down my bill alot using The Grocery Game.com It is a subscription service, but Imo worth it. I would not coupon if I had to wade through all the info on the other websites, so I pay and they send me a spreadsheet weekly to my stores. It matches coupons with sales.

My sis on th eother hand doesn't pay for the service and rocks it, reading the free websites mentioned earlier.

I think trying the free or cheap trial from Grocery Game can get you started and then you will know what can work for you.

I use the grocerygame in conjunction with the free sites because I'm a little compulsive.

It is definitely the easiest option when it comes to couponing, and they offer a $1 trial period .

 

[mamalle]

I budget for our family of 4 for $175 per week.. Most of the time Im right on the money. This week mine was only $116. It all depends. I do shop at costco 1-2 per month to bulk up on items. we do not order out lunch and dh works for the FD so he does get a food allowance per month of $100 and he normally comes under for that. He has to supply food for all 3 meals. I do not buy lunch meat every week and when we run out its PB & Jelly, tuna fish or chicken salad. ( whatever is in the cabinet) truthfully Im not a big lunch person so I might have a yogurt, pretzels, etc on the job. My kids get to order at school 2x per week and that is allocated in our budget also. The other days they bring lunch from home. Im not a big coupon cutter but do stock up on bogos and sales. Im sure I could go cheeper on some things but the fruit, etc I do not budge on so as long as I come in right at my monthly food budget Im fine with that.. we do not go out to eat that much so eating healthy at home is important along with food that everyone will enjoy and eat

 

[Caitsmama]

Just as an FYI , the Grocery Game site has a 4 week trial offer for only $1. And you can get multiple store lists for that price! All you have to do is cancel your membership before your trail ends if you aren't wanting to join. I just signed up for a trial, and will see how i can do.. I didn't get the Sunday paper today for coupons , but at least i have a couple weeks to try this out before i decide if i want to keep any of the lists...

 

[buzz5985]

Family of 3 - 4 (DF 76 is with us on average half the month), budget is around $125/week. Dh or I cook not every night - but we eat homemade meals every night, we do eat left overs. I also have a vacum sealer - so I will cook double and freeze. We pack lunches daily. Received a bread machine as a gift so now I make our own breads, including hamburg, hotdog, sandwich rolls, wraps, english muffins. We shop the outsides of the store. Vey little interior.

When gas prices were on the rise - I only did errands once per week. This was easy since I work FT. Have kept up that practice and really save that way too.

 

[gymboqueenkaylee]

There are just two of us, but DD has tons of allergies so our bill runs around 60 per week. We don't eat of lot of meat since myself or DD doesn't really care for it so that really helps out. I use coupons and stock up on our most used things when we can.

 

[Darcy03231]

I spend about $150/wk for a family of four and haven't been ablt to get it much less than that. I live in the land of no double/triple coupons. I do stock up when things are on sale and plan meals around what's on sale each week. We also do a soup/sandwich night one night a week and breakfast for dinner one night a week which helps.

 

[stazmatic]

My budget is $400 per month. I feed 9 people with this amount. We also frequently have parties or people over for dinner. My 6 kids range from 13 to 7 months. So obviously the 13yo would be eating much more than the 7 month old. Three adults are myself, DH, and my mother.

We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on this amount. We eat out at fast food about 3 times per month. But usually it is not all of us eating out. If one parent takes dd13 to a basketball tournament they will eat out lunch or whatever. Even fast food is at least $25 for that many people!

Breakfast is usually generic cereal, cinnamon toast, premade waffles (will only buy if they are $1/box) or already made foods. I will make a batch of pancakes or french toast and freeze them in a large ziploc so the kids can microwave in the morning. They are usually out of bed before me and make their own breakfast. If I am really lucky they are nice and get the little ones breakfast too! (I have great kids )

School lunches are made the night before and once a kid is in third grade they have to make their own lunch. We fill reusable bottles with juice or koolaid. I usually have some sort of treat like brownies, cookies, jello, etc. to choose from. They take a sandwich, fruit, crackers,granola bar and a treat. They only get 15 minutes for lunch so they don't take much more than that. I don't buy any prepackaged items for lunches.

Dinners are some type of meat, starch, veggies, rolls. We make dinner every night and sit down as a family to eat it. Typical dinners like pot roast, roast chicken, tacos, etc.

When I go to the grocery store I have an idea of what the lowest price of an item should be and that helps me decide what to buy. I get the sale flyers first and make a list based on what's on sale. I try to have each day's menu planned out a week at a time based on sales and my schedule for the week. I also try to only go shopping once per week, because I can not go into a store for only one item, I come out with $35 worth of extras every time. In addition, my children are lactose intolerant so milk runs about $7/gallon.

I thought it might be helpful to list all of the items I don't buy rather than what I do buy:
Jello-snackpaks
individual bags of chips
premade rice crispys
individual yogurt cups
small ice cream containers (I buy the huge container and we add our own mixins - yummy! I eat ice cream every night it is my major downfall)
cake/brownie/bread mixes - I bake from scratch it doesn't take any longer and tastes better!
Juice boxes - fill reusable bottles it's cheaper and better enviromentally
Hamburger helper - rice a roni etc make from scratch
Pop - unless we are having a party.
Shredded cheese - buy in chunks and grate yourself in food processor
Crumbs - bread crumbs, cornflake crumbs, cookie crumbs - use a food processor

They get a lunch card in the beginning of the year with 10 lunches on it and that is it for the year. Hot lunch is $2.25 which is crazy!

One of my tricks is to bulk shop but hide some of the food. I have found if the kids see tons of food in the pantry they eat more than they otherwise would. If there are ten boxes of cereal in the pantry they would open all ten boxes and some would end up getting stale. Same goes for chips.

I am a SAHM so my time is more flexible, but I wouldn't say with 6 kids I have more time!!!!

I hope this info helps someone, saving on food is one of the ways we save for Disney!!!

 

[Jakesmom1]

I was budgeting $120 a week for 2 adults, an 18 yr old, 17 yr old, 15 yr old and 11 yr old.. I couldnt get it to that no matter what.. I always went closer to $150 every week.. but that was for everything including cleaning supplies, toilet paper, dog/cat food, etc.. so then I started changing it up and said ok, I'll keep budget to $120 per week for actual food, $10 for extras such as toilet paper, cleaners, etc and $30 for dog/cat food.. I have been able to stick with this much easier.. I just wasnt being realistic enough I guess.. I've actually been doing a little better with my watching sales and using coupons, etc.. but if I know about what I'll be spending I can budget it better and this has helped for me..

Thanks to everyone for some good ideas, I love this one, I am including all my paper goods, dog and cat food and cleaning supplies in my $150 week total. Im going to try to go to Walmart for that stuff only, and just buy my weekly groceries at the supermarket.


I too have been known to go to more then 1 grocery store in a week to catch the specials. lol

I'll let you know how I do.

 

[Jakesmom1]

(bolding mine)

If you have 1 kid who is 17, you've got at least one who can pack their own lunch. My 11YO packs his own lunch & does a great job. I have a list & he has to select 1 thing from every section on the list. A typical lunch for him would be a PB&J, apple, yogurt tube, cookie, pretzels & a juice box.
For my DD, who I still pack for, I pack the night before.

AFA reducing our grocery budget, look into S.H.A.R.E or Angel Food. I've done both now & give a slight edge to SHARE but Angel Food is not bad IMO. I do a bit of couponing but not as much as I use to. I'm trying to get back into it because even $5 off helps.
I'm also trying to limit the individually packaged stuff I buy. Juice boxes & fruit snacks are about my only holdouts. I don't do the individual chip bags or anything like that. One of my DDs weekly chores is to fill baggies with cheese crackers, pretzels, etc for school snacks.

I've been thinking about the Angel food but kind of felt bad about it, since we really dont need to do it, but I guess in this economy I dont really need to feel guilty. As I am trying to pay off some credit cards, and am looking for extra money where ever I can find it.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[Jakesmom1]

My budget is $400 per month. I feed 9 people with this amount. We also frequently have parties or people over for dinner. My 6 kids range from 13 to 7 months. So obviously the 13yo would be eating much more than the 7 month old. Three adults are myself, DH, and my mother.

We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on this amount. We eat out at fast food about 3 times per month. But usually it is not all of us eating out. If one parent takes dd13 to a basketball tournament they will eat out lunch or whatever. Even fast food is at least $25 for that many people!

Breakfast is usually generic cereal, cinnamon toast, premade waffles (will only buy if they are $1/box) or already made foods. I will make a batch of pancakes or french toast and freeze them in a large ziploc so the kids can microwave in the morning. They are usually out of bed before me and make their own breakfast. If I am really lucky they are nice and get the little ones breakfast too! (I have great kids )

School lunches are made the night before and once a kid is in third grade they have to make their own lunch. We fill reusable bottles with juice or koolaid. I usually have some sort of treat like brownies, cookies, jello, etc. to choose from. They take a sandwich, fruit, crackers,granola bar and a treat. They only get 15 minutes for lunch so they don't take much more than that. I don't buy any prepackaged items for lunches.

Dinners are some type of meat, starch, veggies, rolls. We make dinner every night and sit down as a family to eat it. Typical dinners like pot roast, roast chicken, tacos, etc.

When I go to the grocery store I have an idea of what the lowest price of an item should be and that helps me decide what to buy. I get the sale flyers first and make a list based on what's on sale. I try to have each day's menu planned out a week at a time based on sales and my schedule for the week. I also try to only go shopping once per week, because I can not go into a store for only one item, I come out with $35 worth of extras every time. In addition, my children are lactose intolerant so milk runs about $7/gallon.

I thought it might be helpful to list all of the items I don't buy rather than what I do buy:
Jello-snackpaks
individual bags of chips
premade rice crispys
individual yogurt cups
small ice cream containers (I buy the huge container and we add our own mixins - yummy! I eat ice cream every night it is my major downfall)
cake/brownie/bread mixes - I bake from scratch it doesn't take any longer and tastes better!
Juice boxes - fill reusable bottles it's cheaper and better enviromentally
Hamburger helper - rice a roni etc make from scratch
Pop - unless we are having a party.
Shredded cheese - buy in chunks and grate yourself in food processor
Crumbs - bread crumbs, cornflake crumbs, cookie crumbs - use a food processor

They get a lunch card in the beginning of the year with 10 lunches on it and that is it for the year. Hot lunch is $2.25 which is crazy!

One of my tricks is to bulk shop but hide some of the food. I have found if the kids see tons of food in the pantry they eat more than they otherwise would. If there are ten boxes of cereal in the pantry they would open all ten boxes and some would end up getting stale. Same goes for chips.

I am a SAHM so my time is more flexible, but I wouldn't say with 6 kids I have more time!!!!

I hope this info helps someone, saving on food is one of the ways we save for Disney!!!

Thank you for some more great ideas, I have a 15yo DS who buys lunch every day at school for $2.50 I would love it if he would bring a packed lunch at least then I would know he's eating healthy.

Maybe its time to pull out my food saver machine. I did start baking my own bread and my DS just loves it.

Thanks again.

 

[cherepikr]

I've been thinking about the Angel food but kind of felt bad about it, since we really dont need to do it, but I guess in this economy I dont really need to feel guilty. As I am trying to pay off some credit cards, and am looking for extra money where ever I can find it.

Thanks for the insight.

No need to feel guilty about using Angel Food. The program is not set up for people "in need." If you go to their website, they explain that the more participants of any economic background the better.

 

[Chicago526]

Hi all,

Just wondering what everyone spends on groceries each week. It seems no matter how hard I try I cant keep it under $150. We are a family of 3 and I do cook a full dinner each night, you know meat, vegetables, some type of starch and salad. Dh and I also take lunch to work with us every day.

Would love to know your tips, with the economy the way it is, I would love to be able to cut back and still feed my family healthy meals.


Thanks for any ideas.

Jakesmom1

I'm at about $110 for two so $150 for three doesn't seem that out of line. It sounds like we make the same kind of meals you do.

That said, I'm trying to lower our bill. I'm combining coupons with sale prices and stocking up to the point that starting this week, I shouldn't need more than milk and fresh veggies for the next month or so. I'm trying to get my monthly average down under $400 a month rather than $440, but I'll need to see how long I can make my stockpile last before I know what my average will be! Last month I actually spent $526, but my house is full to bursting with food so from here on out, I won't need hardly anything for quite a while. If I spend only $200 in Feb (fresh fruit/veggies/milk and the odd thing we run out of), my 8 week average will be $91.50, almost $20 a week cheaper than what I averaged in 2008. Not bad!

The key is to get a lot of good coupons (buy more than one sunday paper and print a lot of online coupons) and then wait for said items to go on sale. For example, I shoped at Jewel this weekend, before sales/coupons, my total was $44.77. After sale prices and coupons, I paid $18.22, that's 60% savings. At Meijers, my total pre-sale/coupons was $65.04, after sales/coupons it was $38.67, or 41% savings, not as good as Jewel, but I didn't have as many coupons (I was out of a few things and couldn't wait to see if coupons came out).

Keep in mind too, that food prices and cost-of-living vary widely (and wildly!) across regions. Here in Chicago, food is much more expensive than in other areas, and stores don't double coupons either. What a family of four can just squeek by on here could provide a feast for that same family of five elsewhere. So don't feel bad if you see posts of people feeding a family of 15 on $4.76 a month and a trade in of some bottle caps, or some such thing!

 

[FINFAN]

I budget $600 a month for a family of 3, ( DD is at college) but that $600 includes OTC meds, contact stuff, and paper products, you know the stuff that REALLY adds to the bill. We are usually able to stay just abit under, maybe $20 or so, but we get paid once a month so I really have to watch it. You want a REAL budget buster for food? Our budget for 3 people for 12 months is $7200, and like I said includes just about everything...DD's fee for just food, no toiletries/meds/paperproducts...just 19 meals a week is $5100 for 1 person for 8 months and 10 days! and she weighs about 95 lbs! Talk about a waste! How many peole could be surviving off of that amount!?!?!??! It makes me crazy.
Sorry to hijack OP...I am sure you will be able to get your bill down some weeks, some weeks not. It is an ebb and flow. I have made certain that I always have my coupon book in the car w/me, and I have to literally ask myself if we really need or will eat ______. I also am not a very crafted person in the kitchen, so I know I could do better, but I am working on it! One thing we follow is that breakfast is not for mornings only, store brand pop is just fine most of the time (we ratoin out the REAL stuff )My biggest hurdle/ DH cannot have anything w/tomatoes. NOTHING. So no pizza, pastas, a LOT of ground beef recipes have tomatoes or tomatoe paste, sauce. Add to it the fact that he is on his own version of Atkins, so ditching the carbs...so agian, no pastas, breads...I mean, all the budget stretching recipes I find are all about make ahead and noodle this/that. It is killing me...oh well...keep pluggin along!

 

[srandsr76]

Our family of 3 (me, DH, and DD6) has a monthly BJs budget of $200.00 (for February I only spend $186) and then a weekly budget of $30.00. This includes all toleteries, dog/cat supplies, and food.
I make a monthly menu prior to going to BJs and the grocery store and try to stick to my list!!

Our goal for 2009 is to only eat 1 sit down dinner per month at a restaurant ($40-50). For January - we were a success!!!!!!

I pack DD6's lunch everyday. I take leftovers daily and DH has a weekly $30 allowance for food - he travels daily and we don't know what part of the state he will be in.

Total for the month - $490 for ALL food/ household supplies. (weekly = $122)

GOOD LUCK!

 

[AnnaS]

I spend a minimum of $200 a week w/coupons (not many - they all expire now within a month or two). We are a family of 5 - all adults - kids 23, 21 and 16. (I should mention we feed a boxer too). When other stores have enough items on sale to make worth the trip, I will go there - I try not to do that because I end up spending more money.

Due to dh's heart problems and my son's dieting every other month, lol, we have fish (salmon, flounder) at least 2/3 times a week. lot's of fresh vegetables and I cannot even begin to tell you how much fruit is eaten here (at least 10/12 pieces a day - wether it's oranges, clementines, apples, grape, etc. - try to purcase on sale items also).

We also go to Costco a few times a year and spend a minimum of $200 for each trip there (olive oil, honey, oatmeal, foil, saran wrap, etc.)

 

[stahshee]

I do for my family of 6 about 150 per week. Some times less. My big budget buster is toiliet paper ( I usually buy scott 16 rolls and thats 13$), milk and snacks. Also my kids can eat me out of house and home with snacks. I never buy cereal(unless a great deal) I freeze all my fresh fruit that I pick during the summer so I have lots of berrys. I also cook and freeze my broccoli that I get on a great deal .


I did start making pancakes and freeze the left overs.. Then when they want a snack they can have left over pancakes