so frustrated by groceries

[Wendy99]

I'm so frustrated. Out of curiousity I added up what we have spend on groceries already since June 1st and its $152.21. There are 4 people in my family (including 2 young children). I'm trying so hard to get my bill down. I dont buy anything that is premade (except occassionally bread). I haven't even bought meat except ground beef that was on sale. I use soy powder in baking instead of eggs. I make everything from scratch. I buy frozen juice (pure apple juice) as its cheaper than the cans, we buy milk so cheap from a variety store (although we go through an insane amount between drinking and baking - I'm the worst culprit at drinking too much milk), and we drink a ton of water. I just don't understand how people can go with so little on groceries and I struggle so much with the grocery bill. I have to buy a variety of fresh fruit as the kids need it, but even then I'm buying cheap stuff like apples, bananas, kiwi, grapes and sometimes 1-2 pears (as pears are more expensive). I started adding some canned fruit to the diet, but son is really sensative to foods (he needs the proper stuff to be able to have BMs) so I have to really watching things. I have The Complete Tightwad Gazette and am learning so much through it about baking from scratch etc. I just need help how do you keep your bill so low. I would love to be able to do groceries on $300 a month, even $400 a month would make me happy.

[hippytreehugger4ever]

Hmm, do you use coupons? What about gardening? I only spend maybe $50 a month, tops, for my husband and I.

[SewCrafty]

Wendy, don't fret, it takes a while to start getting your grocery bill down, especially if you are new at it.

One thing about meat a very smart lady told me (Darlene ) don't pay over $2 a pound for anything. Which means only buying what is on sale for that week. Buy extra! Okay so you may have to eat a few dinners with beef or chicken at first, but each week if you do the same thing with whatever is on sale, eventually you build up a large choice, provided you have room in your freezer.

Also, don't stop buying meat just cuz you have enough in the freezer, especially really good deals. Get them anyway as they won't be at that great price again for a long time and then you end up going back to full price or going without.

We also do meatless meals here especially in the summer, lots of salads, beans etc...

Most that only spend small amounts on monthly groceries have a WELL stocked pantry. What that means (stockpiling) is that they can shop from thier own pantry instead of the store.

Good luck to you and just keep at it, you'll get there.

[midwestgal]

The answer is stockpiling! It took me a while to realize this, but it really works! When you see an item that is very well sale priced, stock up. For instance, tomorrow I am going grocery shopping. I saw in a flyer that one store has canned tomatoes for 50 cents/can. In my neck of the woods, canned tomatoes are never cheaper than this, so I plan to buy about 15 cans. They also have 28 oz. bags of brown rice for $1.00. I'll buy 6 bags of these. Clip coupons and try to match them to items on sale that you normally use for scratch cooking, or items your family regularly eats. (Try to give up most of the junk food though!) So the key is to keep adding to your stockpile of pantry, freezer or fridge items each week when items go on sale. You'll soon recognize what is a "rock bottom" price. These are usually the loss leaders in the supermarkets. Eventually, your stockpile will be such that you can "shop" from the pantry, freezer and fridge and build your menus around these items.

The key to stockpiling is to have food in your home that was all bought for an average of about 50% off. This can be done, and you and your family will still eat very well! It just takes a little time to build up the stockpile, but once you are there, you will see huge savings!

[zakity]

Yep, definately stockpile. We eat from the stockpile and I replenish it with loss leaders or by shopping at the outlet store. That is how I keep our grocery bill so low. It is $500 (just raised up from $400 because of the increasing prices) for 5 people, 3 of which are growing boys ages 12, 10, and 10. Whoever said that boys won't eat out of house and home unitl they were teenagers, well, they were lying.

I try to keep some fresh fruit around, but there is canned if we run out. We normally do run out because the boys have empty legs. I used to keep more fresh fruit around when the boys were little. Well, I don't know if I kept more around or if now they just eat more of it at a sitting.

[baxjul]

I agree with stockpiling, and using coupons. I try to do both, but my grocery bill still seems to be moving upward!

[ladytoysdream]

We are mostly frugal with our grocery buying.
Just the two of us now.
The 7 kids - 4 mine, 3 his, are now grown with families of their own. Six of ours are boys and as teenagers, wow they could eat.
I was always clipping coupons, doing rebates, and a lot of scratch cooking. I usually did home baking every day.
I did a lot of canning food, and we did have a freezer.

So now things should be a bit easier on us. But this year after many years of not have a garden, we have a small one in.
Plan is to dig out my glass jars and do some canning of things we use a lot of. I keep looking for bargains to stockpile with.
Yesterday we bought a new upright freezer. Our old upright is
37 years old, still runs good, but we wanted somthing more
energy efficent. We are keeping the old one as a backup unit.

I am glad I have my old skills to fall back on. I do like coming to this forum to get new ideas and motivation

[staciah]

I know fruit can be very expensive at times. Start shopping around for the best deals on your fruit. Try going to Farmers Markets. Sometimes you can find the best deals there. Stock up on the fruit and try canning or even dehyrating it sense your son is so sensitive to canned fruit. (I dehydrate fruit and make fruit leather - very good snack)
Try growing some of your own too. You don't need alot of space. You can do a very nice container garden.
Shop for loss leaders at regular grocery stores, Aldi's (if you have one), Dollar Tree (if you have one) and Walmart (if you can a super mart). Use coupons and continue to cook from scratch.

[Daisygirl]

Stockpiling is the way to go. Amy talks a lot about this in the Tightwad Gazette. That is where I learned to stockpile. This week we are eating solely from our stockpile - that is how valuable it can be!

As for the milk - try using reconstituted powdered milk in cooking and baking - way cheaper. And you have to set limits on how much milk can be consumed. My kids have milk with their cereal and are allowed one glass of milk to drink per day. That's it. Bottled water is not purchased in our house. We have reusable water containers that we fill from the tap and put in the fridge. DD12 whines but that is what is offered. If your tap water is not so great try one of those filtering water jugs. These are two places you can cut your bill enormously.

Hang in there and keep trying. It takes a while to get the hang of it.

I am also the queen of prepping my food on the weekend. Yesterday I made 5 days worth of lunchbox snacks, individually packaged and ready to be thrown in. I also made 3 meals, ready to reheat. I chopped up veggies for tonight's stirfry and the chicken is marinating for it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[bclements514]

I totally agree on the couponing and stockpiling. I have been doing this for acouple months now and have seen a HUGE difference. My groceries have gone done at least 200.00. It does take time.
Good luck!

[geckoace]

we have my DH, myself, DS4 and DDinfant. we spend about 250 on groceries always fresh fruit and fresh/frozen veggies (helps with varitey) i say use coupons when possible, here they are often for stuff i dont want but sometimes we luck out.

also less variety in type of meals, meaning have chicken and veggies with rice/pasta 2 times a week and a pasta dish then some beef based meal then pizza whatever you like.
just limiting what you make that will require less ingredients purchased each month, also put off trying new recipes that require things you dont normally stock if you dont like it it will just go bad and waste your money, it will also make stockpiling easier.

also if possible dont take the kids with you, i have taken to shopping at night whle DH puts them to bed LOL. its so much easier to shop and think without the helpers

[Iansmommy]

I'm another one that votes for stockpiling. I try to spend only $400.00 a month on groceries including diapers and formula. Sometimes it's more like $500.00 but I try for $400.00. We are a family of 5. DH, myself, dd (9) ds (6) and ds (almost 9months)

[favesis37]

i stockpile, use coupons, and only pay under 2.00 a pound for meat. sometimes it gets boring but i spend around 275.00 a month for 3 adults 2 dogs and 2 cats. it will come to you, it just takes time

[Buckeye5]

I have afamily of 5 , kids are 21, 18, 15. (1st two kids, college students) they pick up a few items when I ask them, but I am very frugal with groceries and still it seems that I am always finding ways of cutting back because of the price increase. I know that as far as your juices and even some milk, add water to it and make it stretch further. Add water to your laundry detergent, fabric softner, shampoos, and conditioners etc. this will help it stretch further. Put a garden in, but only plant the things that you can grow cheaper than the store sells, like green bean, tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinni etc. this helps us a lot.

[Mamaof2rugrats]

I have a family of 3 and always spend under 150 a month. I don't by any means have alot of room or money to stock pile but I can see the good it does. I do usually keep a "stockpile" of beans( usually 20 cans or so), pasta(usually 10 boxes or so),5 lbs of Grits at any given time,Spahetti sauce ( usually 5-8 on hand). So I do keep smaller amounts of things we eat all the time on hand.
I would suggest growing as much of your own food as you can.
Buy less expensive cuts of meat, although we eat meat at every meal I buy in bulk and cheaper cuts.
Buy in bulk!!!
Good luck.