How often do you food shop?

**Izzy0906** · 01-16-2008, 12:38 PM

Do you shop weekly? Bi-Weekly? Monthly?

I have always shopped either monthly or biweekly. I would spend $300 on a family of 3 NOT including dog food or cat food. I'm thinking I may be better off shopping weekly. Just doing a weekly menu (which I do do for monthly but sometimes I buy all this food and then end up not being home for more nights then I thought). I have a budget of $60/week for food/toilettres etc... Is this possible (Btw, bf is a HUGE HUGE eatter, eats 20 nuggets at once but has agreed to reducing meat from every meal to every other). We don't eat beef, mainly sausage & ground chicken and chicken breasts. I really really really need to stick with this budget now that I JUST FOUND OUT I'm not getting $1,000 back in my tax return but instead will be owing $200. I'm determined to pay off my debt and get my new air unit so I have to do whatever I can to reduce my budget. Oh and I make breakfast daily for myself and daughter, we all eat lunch from home (browbag it), we hate beans and we all eat dinner from home plus I have to provide juice boxes and snacks for my daughters daily for school. WE also try to avoid snack foods/etc.. Any advice would be great! I do get coupons but it's alwalys for Items I don't buy and I am NOT brand specific, I generally stick to store brands or head to the dollar store. TIA!

**zenmama** · 01-16-2008, 12:45 PM

Once a week for us, on Thursdays (payday), but my meals are planned on the Sunday so I have to consider overlaps. The pantry and freezer come in real handy there.

**perSue** · 01-16-2008, 12:48 PM

sadly once a week... but that's for "we ran out of...." (milk, bread, etc.)

Otherwise, the "big" shopping trip - twice a month.

and the entire budget for the month is about 200$ - and most of the time I come in under that.

yay for staples, bulk & sales! (i dont get coupons where I'm at - so i can't add that

)

**monkeywrangler71** · 01-16-2008, 01:00 PM

Weekly. I find I can more accurately plan meals on a weekly basis as I will have a better idea of what days my husband will need lunch or be out of town or late or whatever. Also, it means I can take advantage of weekly sales.

I tried the once a month shopping but ended up spending a lot more. I felt like I needed more to make it through so would overbuy, then plans would change throughout the month, stuff would get wasted. Knowing that I'll be back in a week makes me more willing to get by with what I have. It was purely psychological for me.

Back home, it used to be illegal for stores to open on Sunday, so every Saturday I would go out and spend a fortune buying things that I might possibly need the next day because I knew I wouldn't be able to get them then. I'd go out and buy a couple cans of paint 'just in case' I wanted to paint the house the next day (never felt like painting the house the next day, but bought lots of paint). I had the same kind of mentality with the monthly groceries - there were a lot of 'just in case' purchases.

**Mamaof2rugrats** · 01-16-2008, 01:01 PM

I shop once a month or if I have a decent amount of food still left then I'll go longer. I always have a good supply of canned goods just in case money gets too tight when the next shopping trip is planned.
As far as milk goes I buy it several gallons at a time and freeze them, same with bread and cheese so that eliminates trips back to the grocery store to pick those up.
Also, we do mostly frozen fruits and veggies or during certain seasons home grown. Buying all of those in the store gets pricy.

**Izzy0906** · 01-16-2008, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by monkeywrangler71

Weekly. I find I can more accurately plan meals on a weekly basis as I will have a better idea of what days my husband will need lunch or be out of town or late or whatever. Also, it means I can take advantage of weekly sales.

I tried the once a month shopping but ended up spending a lot more. I felt like I needed more to make it through so would overbuy, then plans would change throughout the month, stuff would get wasted. Knowing that I'll be back in a week makes me more willing to get by with what I have. It was purely psychological for me.

Back home, it used to be illegal for stores to open on Sunday, so every Saturday I would go out and spend a fortune buying things that I might possibly need the next day because I knew I wouldn't be able to get them then. I'd go out and buy a couple cans of paint 'just in case' I wanted to paint the house the next day (never felt like painting the house the next day, but bought lots of paint). I had the same kind of mentality with the monthly groceries - there were a lot of 'just in case' purchases.

I have a feeling that may be part of my problem. I buy several jugs of juice to last a month because i"m afraid they will run out. BF eats more then he should and when it's limited and planned out he's good but when he has a months worth of food in the house well not so good. He already went through 2 pounds of deli turkey and 1.5 pounds of deli ham in 6 days.

**mom2matty** · 01-16-2008, 01:03 PM

I shop once a week.

**Marie78** · 01-16-2008, 01:04 PM

I make a weekly menu and shop weekly, but I keep in mind what can be used the next week or later in the month. I inventory the cupboards, and fridge and freezer weekly before I grocery shop. I make meatballs 2x a month with about a 1lb of ground beef, but I a make enough to last for two weeks. I freeze half of the cooked meatballs for the next week. When we have chicken sandwiches we only eat 4 a week and I freeze the other 4 buns in the package for another meal during the month. If we don't finish the fresh bananas before they get real spotted then I freeze them for banana bread or to add to homemade pancake batter later in the month.

I buy bulk meat and freeze it and this allows us to only buy one $8 package of porkchops a month, and one $10 package of ground meat lasts us 8 weeks or longer (I am only using it to make meatballs right now). and a bulk package of chicken- $11 lasts us about 4-6 weeks. We have meat 3-4 nights a week and leftovers for lunch. We have a soup and sandwich night once a week, and we have breakfast for dinner night a couple times a month. I also make a crockpot meal a couple times a month which feeds us for most of one week.

Even though I have a weekly menu I try to keep in mind waste not want not and then use the food items that I have saved in the freezer for later.

**Izzy0906** · 01-16-2008, 01:14 PM

Does everyone think you are able to do a weekly shopping for 3 people plus some furbabies on $60/week? I make my own bread and have condiments, spices, flour and sugar in bulk but no other stocked items (well I do at the moment but I have to make it last another month)

**Holly** · 01-16-2008, 01:16 PM

Every 2 weeks.

**Mamaof2rugrats** · 01-16-2008, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by Izzy0906

Does everyone think you are able to do a weekly shopping for 3 people plus some furbabies on $60/week? I make my own bread and have condiments, spices, flour and sugar in bulk but no other stocked items (well I do at the moment but I have to make it last another month)

Absolutely, I do it for 3 people on much less monthly. I would suggest very frugal meals and meal planning. Good luck!

**tina150** · 01-16-2008, 01:44 PM

I was going to the store way too often ( it was almost every 2 days) but since coming here I've been getting better at trying to make a plan

But I have the same problem, the more I buy, the faster it goes, so I can't really "overstock"

**Neeley** · 01-16-2008, 01:49 PM

DH and I go once a week. We tried going once a month but we ended up spending $1000 a month on just food. Now that we go once a week we spend $600 a month.

**Tango** · 01-16-2008, 02:54 PM

I write a weekly menu and get the things I need for it weekly. I also shop weekly to add sale items to my ever growing stockpile. So even though I may end up at the stores as much as twice a week, I can stick to my budget of $200 a month by getting $100 cash out every two weeks. Once the cash is gone that's it until next payday. I've done well with this system.
____________________
Krissy

**Izzy0906** · 01-16-2008, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Tango

I write a weekly menu and get the things I need for it weekly. I also shop weekly to add sale items to my ever growing stockpile. So even though I may end up at the stores as much as twice a week, I can stick to my budget of $200 a month by getting $100 cash out every two weeks. Once the cash is gone that's it until next payday. I've done well with this system.
____________________
Krissy

I"m glad you said something about stock piling. after the next 3 weeks, mine will be almost gone. I would like to try to stick to $50/week for the three of us plus dog food and cat food (thought BF said he's going to take care of those seperate) and use the remaining $10 weekly to stockpile. I mean when I come across my shampoo on sale for $.79 I can grab 5 shampoos and 5 conditioners and be set for 6 months.