What is your weekly grocery bill?

[Lucky St. Louis]

We are a family of four. I try to keep the grocery bill under $100 each week. Yesterday I shopped at FOUR different stores which are all close to my house (one in the morning and three while my daughter was at her 90 minute gymnastics class). I only purchased sale items (many with coupons) from each store and they were all things we eat. I do stock up if there is a good deal to be had. For instance, yesterday one of the stores had Capri Sun for $2 a box and I had a coupon for buy 3 get one free. I didn't need them but for $1.50 (better than Costco' price) I thought it was a good price and we will use them eventually. This trip also included lunchmeat and bread, 2 cases of Diet Coke, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, cereal, butter, cookies, milk, fresh chicken and canned and boxed goods. Enough food for the week and then some for stock up. When I added up all of my receipts and the total was $87.23, I brought the receipts to my husband and told him how well I did. He didn't seem impressed. He told me that he doesn't think it's that big a deal to keep it under $100 a week (I'd like to see him try!). He doesn't get nearly as excited as I do about my grocery savings. So, I got to thinking...maybe this isn't such a great feat and maybe my $100 a week budget is too generous. What do you spend each week?

 

[disneyfreakk]

There have been a TON of threads on this very topic. Try doing a search.

 

[jdyer09]

We are a family of 3, but with my hubby we eat like a family of 4. He's always a "growing boy" as he calls it! Just a big appetite. Anyways, I usually shop for between $45-50 a week. But I certainly applaud your start and your savings, we all started somewhere! We don't drink sodas, so that cuts out some, but when we did we usually bought the store brands for $2.50. We have an HEB here so they always have good deals and combos, where you buy lunch meat and you might get bread or cheese free. Very helpful. But when they run a sale on meat I spend the extra and stock up and freeze for down the road.

Yesterday I was at the store and even splurged for the kiddos and got two things of ice cream bars, (on sale and had a coupon) and was still out for $30.08. We bought chicken, grapes, bread, sandwich meat, the ice cream, lots of fresh and frozen veggies, some biscuits and then just daily staples for kids in school for their lunches, breakfast foods and a new thing of lemonade mix, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.... I try to do my shopping Wednesday or Thursday when there aren't as many people, but HEB also puts out their new sales on Wednesday, then I try to plan my menu close to whats on sale or what I have coupons for. We can still eat nutritious, yummy healthy foods and put money into savings each week. I budget my weekly food, then whatever I don't use goes straight into savings since I didn't count it in my budget. I also give us a daily budget to accommodate whatever we may need or if we feel we want to go out. This is usually whatever is leftover after bills, food, savings, etc are taken care of divided by the number of days until the next paycheck.

If you have any questions let me know, it was overwhelming when I started, now its easy peasy!

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Huge thread last month about this

 

[Kathi OD]

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

I do look for sales, but I refuse to shop at Aldi's or similar stores. IMO, their products are rarely worth what you pay for them. Vegetables, fruits, meats, and dairy products that have to be eaten that day or the next, frozen foods that have freezer burn, and packaged goods that lack taste. No, I'll pay a little more, make only one trip a week (saving gas) and get better quality.

If you're able to get high quality goods for less than $100, that's awesome.

 

[Juliet25]

I think you did great! $87 is my average if I shop at Aldi for the week. If I shop at a local grocer (like Schnucks, if you're in STL) I average $125 AFTER coupons.

 

[Beezle2]

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

I do look for sales, but I refuse to shop at Aldi's or similar stores. IMO, their products are rarely worth what you pay for them. Vegetables, fruits, meats, and dairy products that have to be eaten that day or the next, frozen foods that have freezer burn, and packaged goods that lack taste. No, I'll pay a little more, make only one trip a week (saving gas) and get better quality.

If you're able to get high quality goods for less than $100, that's awesome.

It's funny that people can have such different experiences! I have been really finding some great items at Aldis and saving a bunch of money. We buy eggs, milk, butter, basic baking supplies, cheese, bacon, veggies, fruit. I love their chocolate and wines (that suprised me!) Their ice cream is wonderful and only $2.49 a quart! Also buying their crossiants and chocolate doughnuts,frozen ravioli, etc. I've been very happy with the quality of what we buy and I buy 3 gallons of milk at a time it lasts 2 weeks and has never gone bad. Their are some thing I am brand loyal to and I will go to Sams and Meijers for those things. I try to stay at $300 a month for our family of 3 and Aldis is helping

 

[Meshell2002]

$100 a week is our budget for a family of 4, however my 3 year old doesn't eat a whole lot so I don't expect that to last in the next few years. We live in the SE. In the summer it will go down a bit when I can buy produce at the farmer's market. We use Costco for meat & dairy, & produce, BOGO at the groceries for snack items (ball practice snacks, ect). I have not had good luck w/ finding coupons I will use......I don't need frozen junk food, brownie mix, or dog food (all I ever find in the local paper). I use the occasional printable or x/xx when found. We don't buy soda or sweets unless there is an occasion (b-day, out of town guests). I just follow sales and try to stock up on BOGO's when I can.

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

We are a pretty large family. For us, it can fluctuate from only $40 per week to $120. I stockpile items that we use a lot of (ieasta, cereal, laundry detergent, etc) and when chicken is on sale, I will purchase a lot of it because we have a small freezer in the garage. Because of this, some weeks, all I have to buy is fresh fruits and veggies, milk, and bread.

 

[aprilgail2]

I have three people I shop for and there is not a week where I am under 100.00- and we don't eat any red meat, fish or pork!

 

[stacy347]

I average about $100/wk for my family of 6 (4 teenage girls). My goal is to get it to $75/wk, which has been a little easier since some of us have cut out meat at least part of the time. That extra $100/mo will definitely come in handy!

I follow several coupon bloggers to keep up on where the best match-ups and deals are. Those ladies ROCK! I don't have the time to do all the research, but all I have to do is take a few minutes in the morning to see what they have posted, and add it to my list for the week.

Example of one great deal this week:
CVS has select Kellogg's cereals for $1.77 (great deal!), plus there are printable $1 off 2 boxes coupons, so $1.27/box (even better!). Pair that with a current $10 rebate for 10 Kellogg's UPCs and I'm getting 10 boxes of good cereal for 27 cents/box. I would not have found that on my own, but it is an awesome deal for me, since we go through a ton of cereal!

I am also lucky that my Aldi, Target, Wal-Mart, Meijer and Kroger are all at the same intersection, so I can hit all the sales and not spend any extra on gas.

 

[mrodgers]

How many times per month does a new thread of this exact topic need to be created and discussed? The last one started February 25th and ended February 29th after only a mere 6 pages and 80 posts. I guess there really does need to be a new one, that was a whole 3 weeks ago......


There is no comparison to make. The variables are way too many to compare with a random population across the entire US with perhaps folks popping in from outside the US.

Some areas obviously have coupons available, some have hardly any.

Some areas have stores that double or triple coupons, some have none or the only ones that do are way more expensive anyways.

Some people eat nothing but garbage stuff, others eat completely organic, or vegetarian, or not at all at home but eat out every night.

Some people include all things used on a rotating basis (bathroom/laundry/pet), some people include only things they eat.

Some people have 15 stores they can use withing a 5 mile radius, others have single stores in a 40 mile radius.

Some people pack the kid's lunches or use leftovers for lunch at work, others, the kids buy at school or they eat from vending machines or go out for lunch.

Some people eat breakfast, others don't. Some kids eat breakfast at home, others get breakfast at school

Some include their eating out in the numbers, some don't.

------------------------------------

We budget for 4, $250 per week. Groceries include everything you would buy on a rotating basis such as soap, shampoo, paper products along with food. We have 3 outdoor cats that we buy food for about every 2 weeks.

The kids use to pack a lunch, but lately they've been buying in school. In the summers, we will have to buy more for the kids to eat lunch. I take leftovers to work every day. My wife works evenings and cooks dinner every night and eats with us before she leaves.

We rarely eat out. Eating out is a big treat for us. The majority for us would be $15 for pizza or $20 at Subway when either we didn't have time to cook or didn't feel like cooking. This is maybe twice a month at most. Last time we were in a regular restaurant was Christmas time when I had a gift card. Time before that was probably last summer.

My wife buys organic vegetables when she can. She buys the more expensive Amish non-hormone or antibiotic chicken breasts. She bakes very often (on weekends), thus don't have a lot of processed junk food from the stores. We eat beef, but here's the kicker with our $250 weekly budget, it is her father's beef. It costs us nothing. We have a lot of beef, but don't eat it very often (but we mostly use the ground beef when eating spaghetti, which we do eat often. I have about 50 steaks just sitting in the freezer.)

I spent a month searching for coupons every day. Probably spend about an hour a day looking for coupons. That netted us about $2 off our grocery bill because there just isn't any available that are any good. It is mostly for junk. Most of what I did find that we might eat, the generic is what we usually would use and is still less expensive.

I have a SuperWalmart available 30 miles to the north and 30 miles to the east. The grocery store we like is 30 miles to the west. These are the areas we like. There is no going to multiple stores to save money. To the south, 39 miles, is the snob town of Pennsylvania and we despise going there. There we could get double coupons for up to $1, but for everything else, it would cost $100 more to turn that $2/week in coupons I found to $4/week by doubling.


So, you could compare my $250/week for 4 to thus far everyone's $100/week, but there is no comparison to be made because all that is presented above is how much and how many people.

 

[Beezle2]

Kill joy

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I spend $200 a week. I have my kids every other week and they go to their dad's every other week, so the weeks they are here I shop and spend $200 twice a month. I don't usually make in between grocery runs, so my monthly grocery bill averages $400.

I see ppl saying they feed 3 or 4 ppl for 50 or 75 dollars a week and I don't know how they do it.

My bill includes all household and paper products, etc. I shop at Walmart and whatever we need gets bought at grocery time.

I am a vegetarian so I have little expense when it comes to the grocery bill, but even if I were buying just a pack of meat to feed the kids every day for 7 days, those 7 packs of different kinds of meat would cost almost $50 just for the meat. SO to those of you who can feed your whole family on $50 a week, kudos to you.

We eat 3 meals a day, of FOOD, so it costs a little bit of money to do that.

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

For those who say there aren't coupons available for good things to eat, I have had several coupons for fruits and veggies and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Our family doesn't eat red meat or pork so I just pass those coupons onto my friends who do. I have also found coupons for fish and pair them with sales at the grocery store. There are also coupons available on organic foods. We don't eat a lot of organic products, but if I find a good deal on them, I swipe them up! LOL

 

[Marsheliz]

Someone needs to teach me to coupon.. We spend about 120.00 a week- sometimes more, sometimes less.. We have an infant that is on formula and diapers so that is an added cost as well.... I buy milk, orange juice, cereal, fruits, snacks for kids, chicken, lunchmeat, cheese, juices, every week. Every other week maybe toilet paper, the diapers and formula. Once a month- paper plates, paper towels, ziplocs, toiletries.. etc. I applaud the person who got all that for $30.00!!

 

[sarahlovesmickey]

Someone needs to teach me to coupon.. We spend about 120.00 a week- sometimes more, sometimes less.. We have an infant that is on formula and diapers so that is an added cost as well.... I buy milk, orange juice, cereal, fruits, snacks for kids, chicken, lunchmeat, cheese, juices, every week. Every other week maybe toilet paper, the diapers and formula. Once a month- paper plates, paper towels, ziplocs, toiletries.. etc. I applaud the person who got all that for $30.00!!

The key is to buy these items when they are on sale and pair it with a coupon if there is one available. My grocery store also has deals often on General Mills products where if you buy say for example 6 General mills products, you get an instant $5 off and then I throw in coupons that double and BAM-next thing ya know, I'm walking out with 6 boxes of cereal for a couple bucks.

Diapers--I feel your pain on that one! I'm not a brand snob really when it comes to diapers. I have 5 kids and have probably tried every diaper known to man. While there are some I won't ever buy again, I'm content with most. I actually love the Walgreens brand diaper. I've found them to be very durable and haven't caused any rashes or anything. Walgreens will sometimes put them on sale, buy one, get one free or half priced. AND sometimes there will be a coupon in one of their coupon books for them. I ALWAYS stock up then!!!

Formula--I'm not overly familiar with what they have to offer because I breastfeed, but I do know that the larger formula companies put out coupons--you can sign up to receive them. Also, try looking on Ebay for formula coupons. My friend gets hers there!

 

[2disneyboys]

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?

 

[Sugar Jones]

We average about $250.00 a week for a family of 5, plus my home daycare. This includes all cleaning products, laundry, personal products ie..shampoo, soap, pull ups, feminine products etc....

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

The key is to buy these items when they are on sale and pair it with a coupon if there is one available. My grocery store also has deals often on General Mills products where if you buy say for example 6 General mills products, you get an instant $5 off and then I throw in coupons that double and BAM-next thing ya know, I'm walking out with 6 boxes of cereal for a couple bucks.

See, the key here is GENERAL MILLS. There are always coupons for big brands like that. I don't buy General Mills though and won't buy many of the brands where coupons are plentiful. However, I took the advice of another Dis'er from another thread and I have been contacting companies and requesting coupons for foods I do buy (organic, no artificial stuff). It has been lots of work but I have received some coupons I can and will use