$125 shopping budget

krmsotherhalf68

Wow! I found these posts somewhat amazing and, at times, unbelievable. But then again, before I started eating healthier, my husband and I were both overeating out of control. He is still doing the same thing while I'm trying to do better. We are both addicted to food (he far worse than anyone I know (including me!)).

A typical bill for one week of grocery shopping is $130+. I think part of the reason it's so high is because we live in New England where prices tend to be on the high side. I know the quantity of groceries is definitely a contributing factor. I shop sales and try to purchase my produce and household staples at a local discount market. It's not like we're eating steak and lobster either. We eat a lot of chicken and very little beef. Fish is also included when it's on sale.

Any suggestions? I know I can't change my husband - it has to be his decision, but I'm open to any other ideas out there. Thanks!

liftingandlipstick

I only shop for one, and I shop weekly, but my staples look like: (Wisconsin prices)

$2- flour tortillas
$2- 2 avocados
$3- 2 dozen eggs
$3- lunch meat
$1- canned beans
$2- 3 cans tuna
$9- 3 gallons milk
$4- variety of frozen vegetables
$5- bagged salad
$20- various fresh produce, from both the supermarket and the farmers' market

Comes to $51 per week, or $102 bi-weekly. I eat the same things pretty much daily. I don't buy tons of meat, as I'm given a fair amount of it, so that would come out of the extra $23, but you can get a fair bit of meat for $23. When I do buy it, I get the jumbo bags of mixed chicken parts and 2-3# packages of cheap ground beef.

rayonrainbows

my best tip is go whole foods whenever possible

canned goods here are outrageous ($1-2 for a little can of corn or peas, $2-3 for a can of mushrooms or spinach).. and there is so little actual content in the can, and they're so salty! we don't have any frozen veggies here, but i remember they were a pretty good deal, and quick & easy if you're not into cooking. if you're into cooking, find cheap fresh seasonal veggies, and you'll get a lot more bang for your buck

we boil beans too. same thing. a little can of beans goes for ~1.50-2.00 here. it gives you about a cup of beans. but you can buy a whole pound of dry beans for about $0.40. if you can take the time to boil them to soak/simmer in a crockpot, you can put them in little baggies and they'll freeze for a long time.

same with grains (though i dont have a fridge, so i can't attest to freezing them..)

sometimes making your own food isn't worth the time or money though. like i buy tortillas & bread, instead of making it, because it's cheaper and wayyy easier. ... it's all about keeping an open mind & thinking: Would it be cheaper if i made this myself? or is it not worth the time/minimal savings?

rayonrainbows

and by 'whole foods' i mean unprocessed, not that crazy expensive grocery store chain, lol

KelGen02

I am completely in awe on how little everyone spends and jealous all at the same time... We spend about $200-$250 a week $300 on weeks we have to buy cleaning products/toiletries/dog food... Me, my husband, and 3 boys 19,16,10... My husband and I eat pretty clean, lean meats, veggies, fruits, yogurt, nuts, fish etc. that is the bulk of our cost right now as the kids are eating it as well. Then we have the staple items for the kids, lunch meats, bread, PBJ, snacks, popcorn etc. My family goes through 6 gallons of skim milk in a week alone.. I shop at Super Walmart with coupons. Prior to them opening the super walmart I was spending a lot more at the regular grocery stores. Here I thought I was doing good and ya'll put me to shame! :noway:

Nice Budgeting people!!! :flowerforyou:

ponycyndi

I always buy what's on sale and what's in season. And cheap staples. My every day list includes milk, eggs, bread, bananas, tomatoes, yogurt, cheese, beans, cereal, peanut butter, chicken. Add in whatever fruit and veggies are in season, and whatever meats are on sale.

My husband is Hispanic, so if I buy tortillas, beans and salsa, then I have endless meals, either those things by themselves, or by adding meat, cheese, eggs, etc. My kids eat lots of eggs, peanut butter and cereal. Sure we eat lots of other things, but I know if I at least have those staples, we have a meal.

Edited to add: I'm feeding me, hubby and 10, 7 and 2 yo boys for average $100 a week (not including cleaning, personal care items) in Texas where there's no sales tax on food.

sheermomentum

There's so much good advice here, I'll try not to duplicate it. I do think your goal is do-able, if you're not including non-food items in that budget, but I also think it might be a challenge in some weeks, if you want to include significant quantities of lean animal protein. Meat is running way high right now, and will be for a while (same for dairy products). As a rule of thumb, the more fat and bone there is in a cut of meat, the cheaper it is. That's why whole chickens are so much less than boneless, skinless breast pieces, for example. At the same time, leaner, boneless cuts are often what you will be looking for if you're counting calories, so keep that in mind as you plan.

As others said, shop the sales, and stock up when (and only when) things are truly marked down for the week. Sometimes a store will mark something down by 10 cents and advertise it, so it pays to be aware. And plan your menus, and your shopping, in advance. Also, don't stock up on things that you can't eat or preserve before they spoil. A 5 pound bag of apples that turns mushy before its gone is a waste. But if you love applesauce, then its a bargain.

Feeling like a stalker as I did it, I took a look at your profile to see where you lived, and I noted that Safeway is the prominent big grocery store there. I see from the flyer on their website that they have chicken breast for $2.99/lb this week, and london broil for $3.99. Those are both lean cuts that you can do a lot with, so you might start your planning around what you could do with them. With the london broil, you can eat it as a broiled steak, or make stew or soup, or fajitas...you get the idea. If you have a food processor, you can also cut it into chunks and grind it up for hamburgers, meatloaf, meatballs or chili, because ground beef that's over 90% lean does not tend to come as cheap as that (in some areas, anyway). Then you can add in a meal or two (or more) based on pasta and beans (always cheap), and go from there. I see that corn is on sale at 8 ears for $2.00, so, if it sounds good, you might make a pot of chicken corn chowder. Leftovers make great lunches, and, for me, breakfast is usually eggs, oatmeal or cereal, but something in a different category for planning purposes.

I'm trying to give examples, so I hope this makes sense and doesn't sound nuts. This is basically how I do it...I figure out what I've got, and what I can buy, and what I can make with it. Again, I think planning is key if you're trying to eat both well and cheaply, and MFP lets you enter recipes, and your food log a week in advance, so if you're *truly obsessive, you can spend a few hours figuring next week all out in advance.

Good luck!

yellowlemoned

I am completely in awe on how little everyone spends and jealous all at the same time... We spend about $200-$250 a week $300 on weeks we have to buy cleaning products/toiletries/dog food... Me, my husband, and 3 boys 19,16,10... My husband and I eat pretty clean, lean meats, veggies, fruits, yogurt, nuts, fish etc. that is the bulk of our cost right now as the kids are eating it as well. Then we have the staple items for the kids, lunch meats, bread, PBJ, snacks, popcorn etc. My family goes through 6 gallons of skim milk in a week alone.. I shop at Super Walmart with coupons. Prior to them opening the super walmart I was spending a lot more at the regular grocery stores. Here I thought I was doing good and ya'll put me to shame! :noway:

Nice Budgeting people!!! :flowerforyou:

LOL I was thinking I was doing good on $180 every 2 weeks but wanted to cut back a little. I'm wondering if regional prices make a huge difference. I know when I lived near the gulf of mexico I could get fresh fish from the local fisher's market for $3-$5 a fish, but here even tilapia (which is a fairly inexpensive fish) is about $12. I'm sure it doesn't help that between the 2 of us we go through about 3 gallons of milk a week lol.


Also, I don't remember who mentioned home brewing ice tea, but we make ours with a cold press machine at a really high concentrate so it lasts for a while.

darrensurrey

About £80 then? Seems easy enough.

£35 on cooked chicken drumsticks.
£10 on salad.
£2 on couscous.

Bit samey but it's pretty much what I eat.

Oh, leaves £33 for a nice bottle of whisky. :laugh:

365andstillalive

Something I'd really advice is going through your pantry/cupboard/fridge before you go shopping and figure out what staples you already have; make a list and stick it somewhere visible so that you know when you run out what you need to replace. If you can plan meals around those staples, you can cut your grocery costs significantly, and then buy those staples again when they are on sale or when you're in need of them. For me staples are things like: oatmeal, peanut butter, frozen veggies, rice, etc.

If you can be a slave to the sales you can also save a ton of money, so it's worth it to look through flyers before you go and plan your meals around that. If you happen to have extra money left over for that two week period, consider buying a staple that you'll need in the near future that might be on sale.

Good luck! Your budget is totally do-able. I lived on $35 a week for groceries during university and I still managed to eat fairly healthy and get enough protein (which tends to be the most costly to provide).

mathjulz

I am completely in awe on how little everyone spends and jealous all at the same time... We spend about $200-$250 a week $300 on weeks we have to buy cleaning products/toiletries/dog food... Me, my husband, and 3 boys 19,16,10... My husband and I eat pretty clean, lean meats, veggies, fruits, yogurt, nuts, fish etc. that is the bulk of our cost right now as the kids are eating it as well. Then we have the staple items for the kids, lunch meats, bread, PBJ, snacks, popcorn etc. My family goes through 6 gallons of skim milk in a week alone.. I shop at Super Walmart with coupons. Prior to them opening the super walmart I was spending a lot more at the regular grocery stores. Here I thought I was doing good and ya'll put me to shame! :noway:

Nice Budgeting people!!! :flowerforyou:

I do have to admit that it's easier to keep to my budget during the school year, when the kids are eating school lunch and sometimes breakfast (we qualify for free lunch). There are weeks when it feels like we're really lean, and others where I can buy some extras. But the biggest part of what I do is buy generics and compare unit prices.

Anita4548

God, it's expensive in the US! Me and my bf spend about £40 a week - that is food, eating/drinking out occasionally + some washing/cosmetics/toiletries ...

zoeysasha37

I'd buy lots of rice, beans, and frozen veggies. You can do a lot with them by adding different seasonings, and can usually get them cheap and in bulk. I also like oatmeal, it's not expensive and fills me up.

allie_oop_07

One really good site is www.supercook.com. You can put in what you have in the pantry and it gives you recipes using those items. You can also single out ingredients to use up stuff that is about to go bad. If you only need one or two items to make a recipe it will tell you, which makes shopping really easy.

I shop for only myself and try to do one big run for produce and meat that will last me a week or two. I still usually have to buy more milk, bread, and other staples in between. If I stay away from impulse fast food I could probably make do on about $150 a month. I'm in MN so things are a bit more expensive here, even at cheap places like Aldi.

This site has two PDF cookbooks for people who want to eat well on a budget. One is specifically for people who live on foodstamps. http://www.leannebrown.ca/

liftingandlipstick

God, it's expensive in the US! Me and my bf spend about £40 a week - that is food, eating/drinking out occasionally + some washing/cosmetics/toiletries ...

Exchange rate, though. Forty pounds is about 70 dollars. That's on the low side, but not by too much.

CipherZero

If you have low dollars, plan on more time to cook things. An eight-ounce container of yogurt can cost a dollar, or you can buy a gallon of milk and make your own in a slow-cooker. Dried beans are pound-for-pound one of the best dollar-to-nutrition deals out there.