Advice needed about grocery shopping and keeping the costs down..

[Cricketlegs]

I have a family of 5. Now, when dd goes back to college and the other is in Kansas(most of the year) I can pretty much live off $200 grocery money.

So I am thinking, my family of THREE lives off around $50 a week.

Now, my babies are big lol 19,17(the step dd) and 11 so I do NOT have baby or toddler needs. I also, do not have any experience with formula as I was a nursing Mama.

We have a member who has a high monthly spending amount for groceries, BABY and TODDLER needs of diapers, pull ups and whatever else babies need, and if I understand correctly they have added the cost of when they eat out or get take out into the amount of $700 for FIVE weeks.

I think that maybe we should post examples of our families, how many people, how much we spend and on what to give different senerios(sp) of how much it takes us to run our grocery budgets.

Now I am going off my 3 person for 9 months on $200. I do not include eating out in my grocery budget. It gets its own entry in my paperwork budget.

I don't buy baby items but I do supply a school lunch on most school days.

I DO include my cleaners, household items, paper products, and laundry soap IN my grocery budget.

I am about 50/50 on cooking scratch/convience foods so I am not doing as well as I should but I try my best.

So who is next??

[sdrjeolsen]

Hey Cricketlegs, great idea. Interesting, I also have a 19, 17 (next month) and 11 year old, all are still home, so we have 5 eating every day.

I try hard to stay under 200/month, I shoot to stay around 155 and that usually ensures I end up at 200 or less. I don't have baby needs. I don't count eating out, H&B, cleaners, paper products or similar. They come out of my Dining out and household envelopes respectively.

[rachelj]

We have a family of 4: dh, me, 3 yr old ds, and 20 mo old dd. Both kids are still in diapers DS is almost fully pottytrained...

We have about 185 in groceries: this includes H&B, paper products, cleaning. We budget $50 for wipes and diapers - this is separate from groceries. I should also state that b/c of dh's family being farmers we get free beef. Eating out/restaurant food is another category as well.

I try to cook most of the time from scratch - this summer especially with this crazy heat I have been lacking motivation. We have a couple of discount (and I do mean discount) grocery stores nearby that I like to frequent - where I can get things cheaper than I can even at Aldi's or with coupons. EX: I got a box of Quaker instant oatmeal (the "heart healthy" kind) for 75cents. Finding this place has helped a lot.

My kids eat lots of fruit and crackers. We are also meat and potatoes people. So, I feel pretty good about our budget.

[lisettelovebug]

We have a family of 4. dd is 1 so we have diapers still and ds will have school lunch to pack here soon. We have another baby coming in November, so our budget will have to be adjusted then. Currently with the strike we are on a $60 a week budget for food. This includes: any paper products, personal hygiene products, diapers, city garbage bags, etc besides groceries. I think the strike is over we will continue on this budget or pretty close. I think we could pay off a lot of debt. If dh hadn't went on strike, I was going to snowball our debt and have all except 1 credit card and the car payment paid off... sucks.
I do about 70/30 scratch cooking. We do buy things such as mac n cheese, shells n cheese. etc and add these to recipes.
So far this month we are good on our food budget.

[sunray16]

There are 3 of us, DH and me and our new addition who's almost 3 months old. I budget $200 for the month for food, hygiene items, household items (cleaners, trash bags, paper goods), and baby supplies like diapers. I'm nursing, so we don't have the expense of formula (thank goodness!).

I am not particularly brand loyal when it comes to food and household goods. I tend to shop the deals and combine them with coupons. Some weeks I'll buy a lot of one type of item and not much of anything else, it just depends on how the deals run. When I find a good deal, I tend to stock up so I won't have to buy that item again until it's on sale again.

When combining coupons with sales, I often get a lot of things for free or really cheap. By getting good deals on some things, I can afford to spend a little more on others. I usually visit Costco (warehouse store) once a week or every 2 weeks. If my grocery store hasn't had good deals on meat, I'll buy my meat there in bulk and freeze it in dinner-sized portions. I also tend to buy produce and milk there because it's cheaper than the grocery store. Things I can use coupons for...cereals, convenience foods, condiments, etc...I get at the grocery store.

I cook dinner almost every day. Since it's only 2 of us, I cook a meal that has 4 servings..we eat 2 for dinner and 2 for lunch the next day. I try to make cheaper (meatless) meals at least twice a week...like quiche or spaghetti. I tend to choose my recipes based on what I have on hand in my pantry and fridge rather than choose recipes and shop for specific ingredients...I cook according to the sales.

[i.m.cheap]

There are three in our family. DH eats like a teenage boy, and dd is eleven and growing fast, so she is always hungry. I used to manage on $200 a month, but with milk prices (and everything else) going up, and trying to encourage everyone in our house to eat more produce, $200 a month is no longer possible for us. We eat meatless meals at least twice a week, I spend $10 or less on meat a week. We go through about three gallons of milk a week, at least two 32 oz. containers of yogurt a week, and one container of low-fat cottage cheese, so dairy is a big chunk of our grocery budget. We also spend about $20 a week on fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables.

We eat all of our meals at home, and I include household, paper, cleaning, and health and beauty items in our grocery total. Last month I spent $400 on groceries, but this month I am determined to bring that down this month. I set my goal at $250, but I have already spent almost $150, and it is only the 11th of the month.

I try to always buy our bread at the bakery thrift store, and I am always on the lookout for marked down meat at the store. I only buy meat that is on sale, and we eat tuna once a week, because it is cheap. We also have eggs for dinner one night a week, and one night some kind of meatless homemade soup, like potato, cream of broccoli, or bean.

I use coupons for many of our non-food items, like soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, and deodorant. I will buy something like Hamburger or Tuna helper if I have a coupon, and can get it on sale for less than $1.00 after coupon. I use ground turkey instead of beef most of the time. Wal-mart sells the 93% lean Honeysuckle White ground turkey for $1.77 a pound. It is good in meatloaf, spagetti sauce, taco filling, chili, etc. Ground turkey is much leaner than beef. I buy boneless chuck roast or boneless, skinless chicken breast when I can get it for $1.99 a pound or less.

Sandwiches are usually PB&J, tuna salad, or egg salad. Much cheaper than deli lunch meat. We also like quesadillas. We don't buy cold cereal unless I can get it for $1.00 a box or less with doubled coupons. I do buy Eggo waffles, dd's favorite breakfast, but I stock the freezer when they are on sale, and I even order extra coupons to combine with the sales. I got 16 boxes last week for 25¢ each after coupons.

[littlemotherhaywood]

We are a grocery budget mess I strive for $200 and we've come in between three and four hundred every month. I budget household items and diapers (ds's been wearing undies for a week now) separately as well as pet care separately. We're already past $150 and it's the 13th. Admittedly I've been a little lax about cooking this summer with the move and the heat, but I'm working on it....even it's eggs and toast. Right now we're a family of four with a seven year old dd and a three year old ds. My ds out-eats dd daily, lol. I don't anticipate our grocery expenses increasing with the baby since I nurse exclusively. With ds we made about 90% of his baby food. Recently when Target had a coupon our for baby food I did pick up a bunch (stage two was the cheapest with the coupon) for two cents a jar. I figured I can't feed the kid for less than that, lol. They're all good for two years according to the label. Our biggest budget busters are dairy and produce. Milk just keeps going up and up and it seems like produce is never a decent price or if it is, it's not worth buying. I did stock up on blueberries two weeks ago when I had a coupon and a sale. I can't buy them frozen for as little as I bought them fresh so we got a few pounds and froze them. I think our biggest helping factor is going to be a planned out menu. I also plan to try a big OAMC right before the baby comes and....we'll be getting about two weeks worth of free meals from my playgroup. That'll be nice I can cook with meat more inexpensively than I can cook without ironically. There are so many different ways to stretch meat. Dh wants to cut meat out of our diets mostly though. He's still suffering from severe migraines several times a week and we've discovered two meats that are triggers. His thinking is that perhaps the hormones/antibiotics given to the animals could be a potential cause. I'll have to check back in when I've worked up a decent monthly menu.

[Dancing Lotus]

We have a family of four. My youngest is not yet 2 so we still have diapers , wipes and a lot of milk to buy. My entire monthly spending budget is 400. Thats for every little thing I have to buy includeing gas. I also have three cats to feed and that food budget also includes that. I woud say I spend less the 50 a week on actualy food.

[YankeeMom]

We are a family of six. Me, dh, dd15, dd-almost 13, ds9, & ds-almost 6. We also have three dogs (1 large, 1 medium, 1 small lol) and three (large) cats.

I spend between $400 and $500 per month.

In that I include everything. HBA, cleaning supplies, paper products, pet food, pet products (except flea stuff from the vet), all food made/eaten in the home. In the summer this includes all meals for everyone, as dh packs his lunch for work. During the school year, I pack home lunches for all except my older two children, they buy school lunches (that is not included in my grocery budget).

I do not include eating out in this amount. We eat out roughly 1-2x per month. Once if it's a sit down restaurant. Twice if it's fast food.

I don't buy a whole lot of convenience foods, but we do buy some. I try to use my crockpot more than the 'convenience foods on those late nights. Snacks here are generally fresh fruit, crackers, popcorn, cheese, yogurt. I don't buy a whole lot of junk food like chips. I almost never buy soda. We mostly drink water, with the occassional 100% juice or cup of milk.

I try to have one meatless meal per week. I also try to have breakfast for dinner once or twice a month. We don't eat a lot of red meat, a large package of hamburger will last us a month. We have pot roast once a month. In the summer we tend to eat more red meat because we can grill it. But mostly we eat a lot of chicken or pork.

That's all I can think of.

Oh, and I shop about 90% at the commissary the other 10% is from local grocery stores' loss leaders (usually Price Chopper). I avoid Walmart & Super Walmart as much as humanly possible.

[Odilia]

We're a family of 7, and in 2006, I increased our monthly budget from $200/month to $250/month. So far, I've been able to stay within that.

I include all food, H&B, cleaning supplies, paper stuff (only TP and the occasional package of diapers; we usually use cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, wipe-up rags, etc.), gardening and canning supplies in the budget. DH enjoys an occasional good beer and usually buys 1-2 six-packs/month. I love to cook with wine, so I buy 2-3 bottles/month of that.

I include the cost of taking a steer to the butchers, but I don't include the vet or feed costs. Since we eat pastured beef and don't finish them on feed, the costs are very minimal, but what costs incurred are within the farm budget. I don't include feed for the chickens or milk cow, either. I do include the cost of cheese-making supplies. (We spend about $5/month on chicken feed and about $20/month on the milk cow feed to keep her happy while I milk -- and last year, we had $55 in vet care for the cow.)

We grow and raise as much food as we can. We buy in bulk what we can't. We eat very little processed foods. I make most of our soap and cleaning supplies from basic ingredients. We forage for wild foods (lots of wild fruit grows around here).

[Neeley]

We are a family of 4 - DH, DD(14), DS(12) and myself. At the begining of the year we were spending at least $700 a month, often more. However we have been holding steady in the $600 range for the past few months. Our grocery spending includes food only.

~I don't eat meat but the rest of the family does. We use soy meat products in place of real meat about half of the time. If they eat real meat, I pass and just eat the sides and a salad.
~DS is a big fruit eater. He eats several pieces a day. Lately he has been eating a couple of apples, a banana, a peach or two, about two cups of grapes and at least two oranges per day. If I buy strawberries they only last a day. He gobbles them up so fast. He is very active, works out with weights, does condition training and plays competative travel baseball and travel football. He can put the food away.
~We use the e-mealz website for our dinner menu.
~Everyone's lunches are from home, noone eats out for lunch (unless DH forgets to take his).
~Bottled waters - right now about 72 bottles a week(only costs about $10 a week).

[LovingTheChaos]

Hi - I think Cricketlegs posted this for me originally. It is really helpful to see everyones ideas. I have a family of 5, with a baby who is 1/2 formula, 1/2 BF. My budget challenge for August is $700. I budget based on the number of weeks in a month. We eat 6 meals at home, & have $25 per week budgeted for eating out. Some times we eat pizza (approx 15 - 25), other times we splurge & go to Moe's (25-30). I have cut way back on processed foods, but I will buy some, cookies, cereal bars, etc. I work 9 -10 hour days, so there is a limit on time for meal preps - I cannot make everything from scratch, so I try to but things that are easy.
I am kicking myself because Hannaford had london broils on sale for 1.69 per pound, I bought 5 of them, at around $2.40 each, & they are sold out. I am really embarrassed to admit this, but I did not realize how great of a deal that was, until I saw them go back to regular price... THis is a learning experience for me, I am now paying attention to the price of everything, which we did not do before.
I have to say, $140 a week for us is a real challenge, each week, it seems like something hits, this week it was diapers & pull ups (Sydney is potty trained, but still needs pull ups at night). That was $30. Then paper towels, $7 ( bought bulk), wipes (store brand $6), Friday we spend $14 on take out pizza. So, before I even bought food for my family, we spent $56 on 'other' stuff. That left $94. I spent $123 at Price Chopper & $54 at Hannaford, $191 total, if i add the pizza. So I already blew my budget for the week
Although, I did stock up on some of those steaks!!

[i.m.cheap]

It is helpful to see what everyone spends. This is where our $$$ go for our family of three (weekly totals):

Milk and other dairy $20
Meat $7-10
Produce and frozen fruits and veggies $20
Pantry staples and other frozen (like Eggos) $15
Non-food items, paper, HBA, cleaning supplies $7-8

Some weeks I don't buy any meat at all, if there are no good sales. This week, I spent about $6 on meat, but I got five cans of tuna free with sale/doubled coupons, and five free packages of Fast Fixin' frozen breaded chicken patties and strips free with sale/coupon. I bought a pound and a half of lean ground chuck $2.78, and four packages of 93% lean ground turkey (19.2 oz. each) for 65¢ each (reg. $3.29!) with a BOGO sale, and coupons. I probably won't need to buy meat next week, unless boneless skinless chicken breast or roast is on sale. I don't have either of those in the freezer.

Dairy and produce are purchased every week, usually a couple of times a week. We consume two or three cantaloupes a week during the summer, as well as other fruits, and my fridge is not very big. I do have a separate chest freezer.

[IntlMom]

we are a family of 5: me, dh, two 9 year old boys, and our 20 mo old daughter.
I average 250.00 a month. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. This is everything! food, meat, produce, dairy, paper, baby (yes, even diapers), HBA, cleaning....everything! I do alot of scratch things, but will buy convieince when it is cheaper. (and I am sorry, but nothing beats pillsbury brownies.....NOTHING!)

[Scattymum]

we are a family of 4 for the moment,( plus 2 parttimers for breakfast and lunch) i spend about 150 euro (approx 180 dollars)a month and that includes everything, the last couple of months though i have gone over budget but have stocked up on a few items.

I shop once a month and do a big OMAC and freeze lots of meals.

I tend to plan my meals on whats on offer in the shop at the time - i love BOGOF offers LOL.