What does your family spend in groceries a month

**TheRootedNomad** · 08-31-2011, 09:36 AM

I'm not a Canadian either .... much further south. This thread screamed at me though. I was always REALLY awesome with the grocery budget. All of 2010 though I struggled to keep it around 400 a month and generally ended up more like 5 something. I averaged 479 a month for the year. The first 3 months of year I was determined and ended up averaging just under 400. In April things started to REALLY jump here and we're averaging 663 a month from April through August. July and August were both enough to make my head spin.

We are 2 adults, a 12yo, a 15yo, and 3 dogs. The 12 and 15 year olds are both bigger than the adults and play sports. I do believe the HUGE jump in July's bill ($914

) was partially due to the 15 year olds 4 to 6 hour a day hard core conditioning/practice for soccer and cross country with his high school varsity teams. Overall though I think I'm in denial. I doubt I'll be able to hit $400 a month consistently ever again.

**Sophiasmama** · 08-31-2011, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by TheRootedNomad

I'm not a Canadian either .... much further south. This thread screamed at me though. I was always REALLY awesome with the grocery budget. All of 2010 though I struggled to keep it around 400 a month and generally ended up more like 5 something. I averaged 479 a month for the year. The first 3 months of year I was determined and ended up averaging just under 400. In April things started to REALLY jump here and we're averaging 663 a month from April through August. July and August were both enough to make my head spin.

We are 2 adults, a 12yo, a 15yo, and 3 dogs. The 12 and 15 year olds are both bigger than the adults and play sports. I do believe the HUGE jump in July's bill ($914

) was partially due to the 15 year olds 4 to 6 hour a day hard core conditioning/practice for soccer and cross country with his high school varsity teams. Overall though I think I'm in denial. I doubt I'll be able to hit $400 a month consistently ever again.

Sorry this made me LOL...our friends took their 13 yr old son plus 2 13 yr old boys camping this summer...for one week...she said it cost them 400.00 in food...every morning they could eat 1 dozen eggs and a package of bacon w/ a loaf of bread and 2 litres of milk...then 2 hours later they were hungry and foraging for food...got to love growth spurts.

I think the US prices are going up as well. Hope you can get in closer to your goal.

**mommy4ever** · 08-31-2011, 12:41 PM

August we spent just over $350 to feed 2 adults, 3 teens, one child, and the dayhome kids(2 preschool and 2 toddlers). I use as many coupons as I can for the items I use only. The cereal boxes have been giving some great coupons, and with coupons for the cereal to start with, it's a great deal.

Not sure what September will be like, but hoping it's a good one!

**crafty73** · 08-31-2011, 02:31 PM

I live in Saskatchewan and on average we spend anywhere between $300 - 500 per month for groceries/pet food & supplies/hba/cleaning supplies. There are 3 adults and 2 cats (the youngest 'adult' is my 18 yr son). Both ds and dbf are big eaters. That amount is in addition to what we currently have stockpiled....if I had no stockpile, the amount we spent each month would be alot higher. When I shop, 80% of what I buy is always on sale and if I have a coupon for it, I will use it with the sale. That being said, not everything we need goes on sale around here, let alone have a coupon for it. Some things we do have to pay full price on.....I noticed the price of cheese, eggs and milk and dairy creamer have gone up. Sugar has gone up a little bit too. Coffee has gone up big time, for a big can that I used to buy for 4.99 or even 5.99, it is now 12.99-16.99 .... that was a huge jump in price since January!

I haven't kept track in a long time on exactly how much I've been spending on groceries etc each month. I'll start that again in Sept.

**jas** · 08-31-2011, 03:00 PM

good grief that is once heck of a price jump for coffee. Thank goodness dh is the only one here that drinks coffee. I have been buying the big cans of it at Aldi and it went up from 4.99 to 5.49 a month or two ago. I have no idea what name brand large can of coffee goes for now at other stores.

We run about 300.00-400.00 for everything here. We used to be four people, ds just got married in July so he moved out but with the price of things going up it will probably stay the same.

**Sophiasmama** · 08-31-2011, 04:44 PM

Om goodness that sure is a big jump for coffee...here it is 8.99-11.99 depending on brand....but as a trick on DH(he is the only one who drinks coffee as I enjoy tea) I bought the Blue Ribbon brand from The Bargain store for 3.99 for 600 grams...He didn't even notice...and saved Us 5 bucks in the meantime. Do you guys have these stores? We just got it 2 or 3 yrs ago...and they have some impressive sales.

**MissSeetonFan** · 09-01-2011, 10:41 AM

Another State-sider here. Our budgeted amount has always been around $120/week but we did our best to keep it under $80. Still have the same amount budgeted but our weekly bills have gone up tot $100/week.

This is with 2 adults, 3 children under 8, me being pregnant so I do require a modified diet to fend off gestational diabetes, and a kid with a milk allergy so we have to buy rice/soy/almond milk and Zyrtec.

We include everything including cleaning supplies and hb, etc in all that.

**crafty73** · 09-06-2011, 06:51 PM

Yes coffee has been an issue up here, we have no aldi's or discount stores here that sell cheap coffee in the large tins BUT if/when it goes on sale anywhere from $4.99 - 6.99 its time to stock up. I missed out on the last sale

So had to buy a tin for 6.99 (sale price for generic brand). Gone are the days of brand name coffee, as long as its medium roast we dont care what brand it is lol

**Tashia** · 10-05-2011, 09:23 AM

I am from Nova Scotia and was in Ontario over the past weekend. I noticed that the food prices were a bit lower there. It is just my husband and me at home and he's a carpenter, and eats a ton of food! We spend about 150 a week on groceries. We buy in bulk from Costco and basically get meats, fruit, orange juice, veggies, rice and bread, milk, eggs, and cheese.

**dinah** · 10-05-2011, 10:07 AM

i'm in manitoba and we spend about $200 every 8-10 days. there's 3 of us. that includes everything: cleaning supplies, toilet paper, shampoo, etc... so it's about $600 a month.

i'm working on building a stockpile as well. when i wasn't stocking it was lower, but prices have been steadily rising here.

eta: i also make an effort to purchase fair trade and and green and organic and locally made products which sometimes makes for higher prices.

**low-1** · 10-05-2011, 11:04 AM

We've cut down a fair bit over the last few weeks. I've finally convinced my wife to really start sticking to a budget (it's usually the other way around, I know), so she's doing the cash-in-jars thing. She used to be bad for going to the grocery store every couple of days without a shopping list, and nickel-and-diming us to death. I can literally go weeks without knowing where my wallet is, let alone spending anything.

So now it's $100 a week for groceries for us, 6 yo dd and 9 mo ds. It helps that our little guy is off formula now. We live literally at the end of the road to the North, so perishables are quite a bit more expensive for us. So fruits, vegs and milk are our main expenses. My wife has started baking all of our bread, and for meat, we get either a side of beef or a whole cow from family every year for basically the cost of cutting and wrapping, as well as moose, caribou, grouse and fish that we harvest and process ourselves. So we hardly spend anything on meat. I can only imagine what our grocery bills would be if we didn't do that.

Plus we got a Costco membership this year, and I learned how to can, so we are building a pretty decent stockpile in the basement.

QM · 10-30-2011, 10:58 PM

This past month (October) we spent approx. $115/week for a family of four plus four daycare kids. About a week and a half ago DH and I agreed to try to live off the food we have in the house...unless we 'agreed' upon something we needed such as milk. We did really good, IMO! I'm hoping November will be just as good!

**NicJean** · 10-30-2011, 11:28 PM

I'm always rebuilding/rotating the deep pantry we have, as well as take advantage of good sale prices. With two major shops a month - it averages around 450 for a month. We can eat from the "pantry" at least 8 months without having to tap into long term storage items or freeze dried meals.

**NicJean** · 10-31-2011, 08:53 PM

By the way - shopped today $175 (saved well over 50, and got a fistful of dollars off coupons to use next time). Happy dance!

**oheoh's momma** · 10-31-2011, 10:32 PM

I spend around 400 here and I stockpile. I only buy meat when it is on sale. I only buy pop when it is on sale. I buy the produce I need for the week based on what is on sale. I buy a lot of GENERICS. If the chemical composition is the same it does not matter. My family really seems to prefer generics in most things.