What is your weekly grocery bill?

[robinb]

There are only 2 of us...DH and myself. I rarely buy "goodies," and rarely am under $100, even with coupons.

There are 2 1/2 of us (my DH is gone half the week) and no way can I shop for groceries for less than $100 per week! Even with coupons and shopping the sales. I know that we probably eat more expensive protein (organic chicken, steaks, shrimp, salmon, etc) than a lot of people who can keep their grocery bills under $100. We also eat a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit (sometimes organic).

 

[mombrontrent]

We are a family of 5 and we spend about $1000/mth just on food. I am a vegetarian and the rest of my family eats very little meat. I do spend alot of money on produce and I also buy alot of organic. We are not even big eaters (ok my 12 year old ds is now) but I don't coupon and I buy expensive food.

 

[busymama04]

For my family of 6 Dh, me, DS11, DD9, DS5 and DS3 I spend about $100 a week or less. I use a lot of coupons, never pay more than a $1 for cereal, and use reusable shopping bags which means I'm saving money even before I shop.

 

[Piecey]

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.

 

[mhsjax]

For my family of 6 Dh, me, DS11, DD9, DS5 and DS3 I spend about $100 a week or less. I use a lot of coupons, never pay more than a $1 for cereal, and use reusable shopping bags which means I'm saving money even before I shop.

So I have to ask, how does using reusable shopping bags save you money? Do you get charged less? Where I live it doesn't make a bit of difference how you take your groceries home. Plus for all of you that get to use double coupons, consider yourself lucky. There are no stores here in my area that double anything.

 

[mrodgers]

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.

Dang, where I live, the milk and chicken nuggets alone would be 50% of your total. Add in the Kraft Cheese (shredded cheese I assume?) and there's the entire $53.

So I have to ask, how does using reusable shopping bags save you money? Do you get charged less? Where I live it doesn't make a bit of difference how you take your groceries home. Plus for all of you that get to use double coupons, consider yourself lucky. There are no stores here in my area that double anything.

Many areas charge $0.10 or something per plastic grocery bag. The powers to be think that it would produce less landfill from people throwing away grocery bags when I would guess in reality, people would use them in waste baskets in the home instead of purchasing regular smallest size kitchen garbage bags that would be 3 times larger (thus 3 times as much landfill) for use in small waste baskets.

 

[CandleontheWater]

Some places also give you a .05 discount for every reusable bag. I know that my local grocery store does.

We are a family of 3 and I usually spent around $100 and that is after $15-20 worth of coupons.

We are military though, and shop at the commissary, which is a huge savings. I really hate driving over there, so I did a one month challenge to see if I really shopped sales and used coupons if I could save as much at the grocery store as I did at the commissary. I failed miserably. I could never get out of our local grocery store for less than $175 for the week.

I am dreading DH getting out of the military!

 

[marmalade]

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

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.

WOW!!!! Even with matching coupons and sales I could never walk out of the store with that load for less than $100.

Our grocery bill is more of a monthly thing, we used to be able to do around $600-$800 a month. And when we did spend $800 there was usually a holiday or birthday party that required additional supplies. Now with the price increases at the grocery store it's more like $800-$1,000 a month. We are a family of 4 and my kids are only 5 and 7.

 

[Hoodie]

OP: We spend between $150-200 a week for gorcery's. This is all cleaning products, health/hygine products, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, and meat /fish. The only "canned" things I buy are tomatoes for soups etc. very little of what I buy other than cereal comes in a box. I'll be honest. It take a lot of time & effort to match sales w/ coupons and frankly, time is not something I have a huge surplus of... by the time I get home from working all day, and make dinner and spend time w/ my family, it's bed time.. so no, I don't use a lot of coupons, and yes I know I could save money, but when I calculate my "hourly" rate, it is a rare time I can find coupons to offset the time it would take me to work the coupons correctly. Don't get me wrong, I do use some.. can't remember the last time I paid more than $.50 if that for toothpaste etc but I am not going to spend gobs of time searching for coupons for my fresh fruit & veggies, which is the BULK of my grocery bill. and my "stockpile" of things I bought w/ a coupon cuz they were a good deal and I felt they would be used within a reasonable amount of time all fit on 1 shelf in my pantry.

DH has an retired uncle who buys extra papers and organizies his coupons in a huge 3 ring binder with baseball card like inserts..and walks out of the grocery store with a cart full of bags for like $30 dollars (I've SEEN this happen!) but he spends a tremdous amount of time on this, and this works for him. To me, it's like a 2nd job. I'm jealous of the people who coupon well, but am honest enough to admit that I'm too lazy to make the effort to minic them. Does this make me a bad person?

No, it makes you practical.

Couponing really well takes time. As OP stated, she went to 4 different stores. What people don't account for when they state "I saved $50 this week!" is the amount of time it took to do it. Sure, you can save $50, $100 dollars a week but how long did it take? Figure out your hourly salary and then how much time it would take to coupon, review the circulars, and go to multiple stores (don't forget to deduct extra gas!) and see what the breaking point is. I tell that to my hubby everytime he watches that couponing show. You'll see someone who buys multiple papers, spends 30+ hours a week clipping, organizing, and searching for deals and walks out with $300 of "free" groceries. Feels good for them but in reality they barely made minimum wage for their efforts.

I'd love to be better at it, but really don't have the time. Heck, I've gone to Peapod because I don't even have time to go to one store, let alone 4!

 

[HM]

I don't budget the groceries, but I try to do sale items and occasionally use coupons. I know we spend anywhere between $100-200 a week and we also have some eating out.

OP, I think you are doing great keeping under $100 a week.
Does that include only food items? Or do you include laundry detergent, shampoo, pet food, etc in your figures? (I do).

 

[Piecey]

Dang, where I live, the milk and chicken nuggets alone would be 50% of your total. Add in the Kraft Cheese (shredded cheese I assume?) and there's the entire $53.

Milk- $2.59 gallon, the half gallon was Smart Balance $1.99- $1.50 coupon, Chicken Nuggets $3.99-$1 coupon from Tyson mailer - $3/$15 Kroger Frozen foods coupon (add in waffles to get $15, which I had a coupon for making them .49c). Only reason I bought 3 bags was to use the $3/$15 LOL Cheese was actually the Kraft Fresh Takes with the breading in it, but .79c after coupon each.

WOW!!!! Even with matching coupons and sales I could never walk out of the store with that load for less than $100.

It's a really good sale with coupons at Kroger this week! My son and I were in there for like an hour wandering the aisles! lol

 

[girli565]

We did our groceries on Sunday (we were on a weeklong cruise last week for Spring break so we were running low on everything because I didn't want to buy things that would go bad while we were gone.) at Costco and Aldi's.

My Costco bill was $111.69, $5.99 of it was a 20 pack of Glad tupperware that wa stoo good a deal to pass up. The rest was staples like milk, juice, and meats.

My Aldi bill was $35.94, this included canned goods, bread, snacks, butter (better price than at costco), fresh vegetables, and a few frozen foods.

I'm not including about $20 spent at a local fruit/veggie stand because I had a Livingsocial.com deal ($10 for $20 to spend) that I bought months ago and was just waiting for the strawberries to be at the peak of season. I got 2 pounds of strawberries, 6 ears of corn, 8 roma tomatoes, 2 giant spanish onions, and a pack of fresh baby basil. It was a great deal!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

OP: We spend between $150-200 a week for gorcery's. This is all cleaning products, health/hygine products, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, and meat /fish. The only "canned" things I buy are tomatoes for soups etc. very little of what I buy other than cereal comes in a box. I'll be honest. It take a lot of time & effort to match sales w/ coupons and frankly, time is not something I have a huge surplus of... by the time I get home from working all day, and make dinner and spend time w/ my family, it's bed time.. so no, I don't use a lot of coupons, and yes I know I could save money, but when I calculate my "hourly" rate, it is a rare time I can find coupons to offset the time it would take me to work the coupons correctly. Don't get me wrong, I do use some.. can't remember the last time I paid more than $.50 if that for toothpaste etc but I am not going to spend gobs of time searching for coupons for my fresh fruit & veggies, which is the BULK of my grocery bill. and my "stockpile" of things I bought w/ a coupon cuz they were a good deal and I felt they would be used within a reasonable amount of time all fit on 1 shelf in my pantry.

DH has an retired uncle who buys extra papers and organizies his coupons in a huge 3 ring binder with baseball card like inserts..and walks out of the grocery store with a cart full of bags for like $30 dollars (I've SEEN this happen!) but he spends a tremdous amount of time on this, and this works for him. To me, it's like a 2nd job. I'm jealous of the people who coupon well, but am honest enough to admit that I'm too lazy to make the effort to minic them. Does this make me a bad person?

I am totally with you. I spend just over an hour a week on grocery shopping, and that includes making the list, drive time, and putting everything away. The only way I can make it work is by going to the same store each week and buying what's on the list regardless of whether or not it's on sale.

 

[mom2my3kids]

We are a family of five, we usually spend 125.00-150.00 a week and by the end of the week its all gone. My kids are big eaters so its like feeding five full adults..

 

[mrodgers]

I am totally with you. I spend just over an hour a week on grocery shopping, and that includes making the list, drive time, and putting everything away. The only way I can make it work is by going to the same store each week and buying what's on the list regardless of whether or not it's on sale.

Only an hour? Our drive round trip is an hour and a half alone. I could call my wife lazy for not wanting to go to multiple stores to shop sales, but 1.5 hours east for the grocery store sales, then put those purchases away, 1.5 hours south to another grocery store to use double coupons, then 1.5 hours north to SuperWalmart for the rest would get a bit tiring, so I wouldn't say my wife is lazy for not wanting to do that

 

[thebeesknees]

Yep, all depends on where you live as to what deals you are going to get, along with your family's eating habits (vegetarian, organic, etc.). We don't have Aldi's or CVS here, and 2 stores will double coupons up to $1 but no triples anywhere. I do most of my shopping at Sam's, Kroger and Safeway, sometimes Target or Walmart if they are running a good sale or something. If you are satisfied with your food bill then I guess it doesn't really matter what anyone else pays. Per past threads, I was kind of expecting to see people saying they bought 4 of everything in the store and the store paid them to walk out with it!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Only an hour? Our drive round trip is an hour and a half alone. I could call my wife lazy for not wanting to go to multiple stores to shop sales, but 1.5 hours east for the grocery store sales, then put those purchases away, 1.5 hours south to another grocery store to use double coupons, then 1.5 hours north to SuperWalmart for the rest would get a bit tiring, so I wouldn't say my wife is lazy for not wanting to do that

I'm not limiting myself to an hour because I'm lazy. I do it because grocery shopping is not how I want to spend the few hours a week I have with my family. On weekdays, we leave the house at 7:15am and it is 6pm at the earliest when I get home from work.

Plus, I live about a four minute drive from the grocery store.

 

[mrodgers]

I'm not limiting myself to an hour because I'm lazy. I do it because grocery shopping is not how I want to spend the few hours a week I have with my family. On weekdays, we leave the house at 7:15am and it is 6pm at the earliest when I get home from work.

Plus, I live about a four minute drive from the grocery store.

Hope you didn't think I was calling you lazy. Now rereading, it does look like my post may say that. It was a continuation of the "lazy" mention that you quoted. I should have split that up separate from the drive time comment.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Hope you didn't think I was calling you lazy. Now rereading, it does look like my post may say that. It was a continuation of the "lazy" mention that you quoted. I should have split that up separate from the drive time comment.

I aspire to be lazy! I am planning a beach vacation just so I can spend a few days being lazy--can't wait!

 

[Sheaboys]

We are a family of 7, 6 of them boys and then me. I spend on average $150 a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less.

I live in a rural area, there is a grocery store (stop and shop, walmart and a shaw's) in the next town over (about 20 miles away) and a Super Walmart about 30 miles away. And a Big Y (again 15 miles away) in the other town. I try and use coupons, but often do not, unless I am purchasing the item to use and not stock up. If I do stock up, it is items like toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, juice boxes, these are items I get at walmart or super walmart.

We eat lots of fresh fruit, veggies, steak tips, chicken breast boneless skinless, roast here and there, corned beef etc. Fish of any kind.

Milk in our area is $3.70 a gallon. I would spend more in gas running around to eat store for a good deal. If one store has specific stuff I want, I will shop there.
I don't really stock up on food, because the kids would eat it fast. If I buy just what they are going to eat in a 5-7 days, that works better. I have tried the BJ's thing and spent more money there than a weekly grocery store.

I do get a 5 cent discount for each cloth bag I use. I also use the self scanner and that saves me money because I see exactly how much I am spending as I go along, so if I hit a price, I then decide what is actually a need and a want.