What is your weekly grocery bill?

[Teresa Pitman]

I spent $53 this week. I don't think it's realistic for the way I shop to average It per week.

I buy 10-15lbs of chicken when it's on sale. To last until the next sale. So that week I probably spend $100. I bought a 10lb roll of ground beef at SAMs Club last week. Lots of steaks, pork, chicken already in the freezer.

The $53 included the new Muppets DVD, Capri Sun x4, Ziploc Bags x 4, Yogurt, Kraft Cheese x 5, Jello Pudding, V8 x2, 2.5 gallons of milk, frozen waffles, a watermelon, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, fresh green beans, Tyson bags of chicken nuggets x 3, Oreos x 2, Pringles x 2, popcorn & Snapple (free with movie), Country Crock, 6 bottles of Suave Shampoo... that's what I remember but I think I had more.

Won't need chicken nuggets for a long, long time. Or shampoo, or Ziplocs. I'll freeze the cheese (those Fresh Take things), DH took the Snapples in his lunch & took the popcorn to his office. Other than the milk, yogurt, fresh stuff the rest was just good sale price/coupons so buying it now means I have more $ later for when meat or whatever goes on sale.

We don't do a specific budget, like $200 in groceries a month or anything. We just budget our spending in it's entirety and once we hit our cap we cut out the extras. So if we spent all our money by the 27th & wanted to eat out on the 30th, we wouldn't. Not exactly a budget but how we have started doing things.

We are a family of 4.

When I look at these lists, what I always wonder is are you worried about your family not getting enough fruits and vegetables? You didn't list the amounts of the four vegetables you bought, but given the other things you bought with your $53, I can't see that you got huge amounts. We try for the recommended 7 to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables daily (and we don't do fruit juices), so that's where a big chunk of our food budget goes.

Teresa