Spreading the joys of frugality

**hmcart** · 01-16-2012, 12:53 PM

The first of the year was the start for our family to really work on ways to save and getting our debt down. As a family of 6, grocery shopping is a challenge. We have completely cut out eat outs, but yall knew that.

We also decided we would cut the cost of eating in. Keeping in mind that 3 of our 4 kids are 12 and up, our grocery budget is only $100 per week. I am working to get it down to $350 a month but I know that will take time. Recently at work and with some church friends grocery budgets have been talked about and folks, I wish you could see their faces when I tell them what we spend! It really makes people think for sure. I even have reciepts on hand to show that we buy plenty of food! I just love sharing the joy of being frugal with others!

**jas** · 01-16-2012, 01:39 PM

Way to go on sharing your furgal tips! By the way what are your non-frual friends spending on food? I always am curious what others spend.

**pollypurebred39** · 01-16-2012, 02:03 PM

Jas, I don't know about hmcart's non frugal friends are spending, but my non frugal friends are spending $250-$350 a week, and those are the ones with only 2-3 per family. They eat out several times a week too. I don't really know if this is an outrageous amount or not, seeing that I spend a lot of my free time here around people who'd never go there at the grocery store, or that we just don't have what we used to to spend.

I'd hate to say what we used to spend on groceries before DH lost his job. Our youngest must follow a medical diet, and both DH and I are Diabetic so if we never had our lives interrupted we might spend more that that. I don't know?

**hmcart** · 01-16-2012, 02:29 PM

Most of mine are spending around $150 to 200 a week for a family with 1 or 2 small kids. They usually dont include eat outs or household items in that either!

**jas** · 01-16-2012, 04:23 PM

Good Lord that is a lot of money! Sure if I had unlimited funds I could easily spend that much and more the only thing is if I could spend that much I would have a stockpile like no other!!!!!

I spend on average 100.00 a week. That includes stockpile items. (food, hba, dog)

That total would not include eating out, which is one of my weaknesses and I need to work on this year for sure.

**hmcart** · 01-16-2012, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by jas

That total would not include eating out, which is one of my weaknesses and I need to work on this year for sure.

I am here to tell you that if my family can go a month without eating out then anyone can! And guess what! We are here for ya!

**oheoh's momma** · 01-16-2012, 07:22 PM

That is one of my families biggest weakness we eat out way to much. this has been a bad month but 1x month....we spend about 400 a month this includes my stockpile also

**ncarr** · 01-16-2012, 07:30 PM

wow that's a lot! For two people our budget is roughly $50. That includes food, cleaning supplies, and stockpile items. Sometimes I go over to 60 some weeks I do well and it's at 40. But never 250! eek!

**scrap_candles** · 01-19-2012, 10:53 PM

wow, I am having a hard time keeping my grocery budget in check and I thought it seemed low until I read everyone elses. I budget $600 per month $300 per pay but almost always go over and I make most everything from scratch. I do stockpile some but with 3 boys teen and pre-teen, dh, and a 16 year old nephew here almost every day they clean me out.

**ShadowMom** · 01-20-2012, 11:22 AM

I spend $150 every two weeks for 3 adults and 2 dogs, this includes HBA. Plus about every 3 months when meat goes on sale, we will buy between $50 - $100 depending on how much we have available.

We eat out about twice a month, once each payperiod. During the summer our budget goes up a bit as we do a lot of travelling for our ministry, and there is only so much food you can pack on a motorcycle.

**Wendy99** · 01-20-2012, 01:10 PM

Wow you guys do awesome!! I'm working on getting there!!! (well as close I can, we live in Canada). Stock Piling is the key for us. We're still slightly over budget, but our goal is to get to $420/month - 2 adults, 2 children. $420 includes any food (groceries, take out, snacks away from home), but nothing else.

**shoiji** · 01-20-2012, 01:13 PM

I have spent a total of $150 in two weeks on groceries. It is just me and the cat. In my defense I did purchase higher priced items like maple syrup and gluten free baking ingredients. Really do not plan on going to the grocery store next week. It really does make me feel more uneasy spending so much on groceries than it does skimping on groceries to stay on budget.

**sunflowers*8890** · 01-20-2012, 08:19 PM

Do you have certain weeks when you spend more, to save for the rest of the year? Or some items that you buy separately in quantity, that helps to keep the bills down?

I'm just now learning to be super-frugal at the market. Every year in January a local grocery store, Shoprite, has a 2 week 'can-can sale'. The prices are awesome, and we combine some things with coupons. It's all stuff for the stockpile.

My entryway is piled up with the stockpile stuff I bought.

I've started a pantry in the basement, now I have lots of stuff to add to it!

We went WAY over the weekly budget for the 2 week, but it will save a lot in the long run. Now I'm going to see how low I can go!

**Spirit Deer** · 01-20-2012, 11:01 PM

We don't budget, and sales are why. If something is cheap, better believe we'll be stocking up. One of our local stores has an arrangement with their supplier that the supplier dumps a lot of their excess into the local store, resulting in major sales that are all unadvertised. Like the half-gallon juices we've picked up for $1 lately, normally $4. Would we buy them at $4? No, but we're not going to turn them down for $1. We probably bought about twenty and froze tons of it. Or the Bailey's coffee creamer for .48, normally almost $3, which my husband bought about forty of. Again, wouldn't buy them at $3, but sure won't turn them down at .48. Stuff like that happens all the time and we're not going to not take advantage.

We also buy tons at certain times on their regular flyer sales. Like in the fall when there are truckload sales, we'll buy cases of canned veggies and other things because that's likely to be the lowest prices of the year. So we'll buy a year's worth. That means our grocery bill is going to be unusually high sometimes. But we spent a lot last fall before the winter heating season, and now that we're heating the house, we're spending next to nothing on groceries, giving us more money to pay the heat bill. So it was worth it for us to stock up because we saved money buying at a lower price, plus don't have to come up with the money to buy this stuff in the winter when there are other bills to pay.

It's what works for us, but of course things like budgets are not one size fits all. You'll have to decide what works best for your family and your situation. There were times in our lives when we couldn't have taken advantage of big sales or bought up case lots at one time, but now we can. So budgeting has a lot to do with each family's particular situation, not so much what someone else does.

Pretty unhelpful, eh?

**WV_mom_of2** · 01-21-2012, 07:19 AM

We are a family of four (me, dh, dd 19 and ds almost 16). I spend on average 100.00-130.00 a week. That is food for us, pet food for 7 pets, feed for the wild birds, paper products, hba, etc. I count everything into my total. Some weeks if I don't need much or there are no great sales it's a lot less. Last week I spent 200.00 and am probably close to that this week too. BUT the stores had great sales on meat and I need it. I got ground chuck for 2.59 a pound last week, regular ground beef for 1.97 this week. Whole boneless pork loin was 1.69 a pound yesterday so I bought one and had them slice it into chops. I got 8 packs of chops out of it. Turkey breast was 1.59 a pound. Also stocked up on small frozen dinners for dd to take for school lunch. She attends the community college and there is no cafeteria. I got 10# potatoes for 2.99, milk 2.99 a gallon, etc.

Like Spirit Deer I try to keep the spending in check but I don't pass up great sales. I too buy canned veggies by the case when they are cheap, soup by the case, kidney beans, etc. I also LOVE the Kroger marked down baskets. My son is 6'3" at not quite 16 and eats like a bear LOL. I am packing two meals for dh on the days he works(he works 50 miles from home, 12 hour shifts and is gone a total of 14 1/2 hours a day). I do in home daycare so I have at least one child here for breakfast, lunch and snacks Mon-Thurs. We go through food here like water LOL.