Survey: Your Grocery Budget

12by311

My husband grocery shops...
And my husband likes that I cook....

I think that's two reasons that he doesn't say anything. He knows how much things cost and he enjoys eating a good home-cooked meal.

kevin831

Just the two of us. We spend around 110 to 120 a week We buy mostly fresh veggies & fruits that are on sale or in season that week. We buy only the leanest pork, beef & boneless skinless chicken & fish. We have a WINCO & Wal-Mart here. I buy the meat when it is on sale and in bulk and put it in the freezer. I pay less for that (1.99 lb for the beef, pork & chicken) than hamburger or cheaper cuts of meat. We cook a lot of bean based soups and stir fry veggies. We have 5-6 servings of fresh veggies & fruits every day. Milk is a real bagin here in Idaho as we pay only $1.99 a gallon. We shop for whole wheat bread at the day old bread stores where we really save and get good bargins. We both agree this is cheaper in the long run as we are getting up there in the years and doctor bills are soaring. How can you put a price on good health???

gustergirl

My ex husband was like this and it was a HUGE stressor. I think you need to have more control over this----if you want to lose weight and be happy about it. I think if you approach it as look I am going to get the newspaper, cut the coupons and spend this amount then he should be good. Sounds like major trust issues here that need to improve. BEST OF LUCK!

Juggalette0327

I know for me to feed a family of 5 I spend roughly 100-150/ week (including non food items). If he won't let you buy the paper you can print coupons. Do a google search for online coupons and you'll be amazed at what comes up. If you can why don't you try to start a garden? That way you can have the fresh veggies and it only cost you the amount of seeds. I hope this helps (and let me tell you that spending the few bucks on the sunday paper to get the coupons turns out to be a big saver. Usually I clip at least $10 in coupons out of it and I only spent $2 on the paper. Or if you get it delivered it's even cheaper to get it.) Also you could look for other little ways to save some $$ that way more cash could go toward your food bill.

Iceprincessk25

For the two of us I usually spend about $100.00 a week and that's NOT including non-food items that I usually get at walmart, target or big lots. We only get the Sunday paper and I always clip out the coupons. It really makes a difference and helps to stretch out the bucks.

click

i am probably an outlier here, but i cook most of our meals for two of us (you can see some examples of what i cook/recipes at http://www.iloveyoumorethanfood.com ), and I buy mostly organic foods, high end meats (just like, free range, hormone free, from good retailers)... I spend ridiculous amount of my income on food, like, really, I should just go ahead and move to Belgium.

I don't have to report on this to anyone because I don't pay rent but I do pay for almost all of our meals and we both earn income (him a lot more than me).

It amounts to about:

$140 per week comprised of:

$31.50 farm shipment (example of what it includes: http://info.farmfreshtoyou.com/boxfind_result.php?Service_Name=Regular --several pounds of mixed fruit & veggies all organic from a local farm)
$111 between andronico's/whole foods/rainbow foods etc in San Francisco, we eat meat/fish 2-4 times per week and it's always good quality thus somewaht pricey, though I try to buy what's on sale (that can mean $5.99/lb chateaubriand or $13.99/lb ribeye or $18/lb king crab) I buy almost nothing processed except for some chips here and there and very little dairy unless it's fancy cheese.

Probably a bit more if you include personal items, and we don't have a dog.

OH! I almost forgot. I get some awesome deals at our local asian market. If you have one, try to buy produce there. If you know how to tell what's good and what's on its way out, it works out really well. For example--strawberries? 99 cents for a square pack. yep. 99 cents. ORGANIC.

click

just curious, do you buy a lot of spices that you didn't already have, and do you buy much that is prepackaged or is half cooked etc (not produce or straight up grains)?

I never use coupons but have some good ideas for you if some of those items that are racking up bills are the $5-6 spice jars you need for a single recipe, etc.

aymie24

Meijer sells the Sunday paper here for .99.

I only shop at meijer and I have four kids, two teenagers and two toddlers, my dh is in Iraq.

I spend about $125 a week but I do clip coupons and plan my meals around the sales.

Have you checked out the mealbox on meijer.com? They have a menu planner with drag and drop recipes and printable coupons for the things in each week's ad. It's awesome once you get used to using it.

I also stock up and freeze a lot. I make things like wholegrain pancakes from scratch and freeze them for the kids to pop into the toaster in the morning. I don't buy any prepacked foods, I make them, and it's so much easier than it sounds. It's also healthier and much less expensive. I make my own soups and freeze them to take to work for lunch.

There are a ton of ways to cut your grocery bill. If coupons seem overwhelming, try putting them into baseball card sheets in a binder. Organize it according to the layout of the store and you can easily find coupons for sale items and price drops. I find that to be less time consuming than filpping through them in a coupon holder. Couponmom.com also has a great free service that tells you what's on sale at local stores and if there are coupons for those items, with the detailed prices. It also has a link to a ton of printable coupons.

Do you cook with dried beans? Cooking them in a big batch and then freezing them in recipe sized portions can save a ton of money! Black bean quesedillas are a staple here, meijer brand whole wheat tortillas are great!

Good luck!

msarro

I have a 70$ food/gas/entertainment budget a week. Usually it ends up being around 40$ being spent on food. I do a bunch of shopping at bargain stores like Ollie's, Big Lots, and Aldi's. I get whole foods, cottage cheese for breakfast, oatmeal/steel cut oats, fruits, flour, eggs if needed and splurge for veggie burgers. I've been getting yogurt recently, as well as almonds. I also get some dried beans/lentils regularly at the Lebanese market down the street since they're usually cheap. Sometimes wal-mart has good deals as well. I make my own bread, pitas, and tortillas.

Best advice I can give is to walk the perimeter of whatever store you're in and stick with whole foods. They're cheaper and healthier.

chicaloca6470

theres no way in hell you can get all of that for 80$ yea right!! tell him were not in the 50's lol. me and my husband spend about 350-400$ a month. if you take out diapers and baby food we woulld still spend about 250 -300 a month. groceries is one thing we splurge on because theres nothing like having no food in the house

kjllose

There is only two of us, I shop and he cooks some of the time. I tend to pick up everything around the edge of the store and don't go into the boxed aisles unless it is a little pasta or cereal. I use more chicken than other food. A little red meat thrown in so he doesn't get upset. But it's around $300 a month and thats with 4 kitties to feed and all the dry stock such as paper towels, toilet paper.

Do you live where you could container garden or have a regular garden? That would help you save. We built a root cellar this year and we put by potatos and carrots and canned goods. I don't have to shop as much since we built it. I didn't buy potatos at all since last fall. Same with carrots. I hope you could do something like that if you are interested.

msarro

theres no way in hell you can get all of that for 80$ yea right!! tell him were not in the 50's lol. me and my husband spend about 350-400$ a month. if you take out diapers and baby food we woulld still spend about 250 -300 a month. groceries is one thing we splurge on because theres nothing like having no food in the house

Check out farmers markets, bargain markets, and ethnic markets. You'd be amazed how cheap certain foods can get

Also, sign up for all of the local grocery stores' "price clubs" and make sure you sign up to get mailings. Once a week you should get circulars with listings of all of their deals. The deals tend to cycle every 12 weeks so once you get used to it you can start to plan in advance. Then compare and contrast.

Nlongenecker

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. It looks like I need to make more efforts to save and he needs to be a little more flexible. Hopefully we can meet in the middle. But it helps to see that I'm not alone. A lot of people are in the same boat (a small budget) and make it work. Thanks again.