Grocery Shopping/Budget Questions!

I just did this tally last weekend to figure out a better budget. I need to feed 3 people and 2 dogs. On average my grocery bill is about $300 a week so $100 per person but like you this includes a bag of dry dog food $20 a week, and cleaners, toiletries, so not just entirely food. I do buy only healthy foods, I limit the fresh fruits and veggies to what I can absolutely eat in a week so no more than 2 pieces of fruit per person per day, I only buy lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers for a simple salad, some green peppers, onions, one bag of potatoes, carrots, celery. I keep it simple. I can make soups, bake anything, with those basics. I buy frozen veggies, frozen fruit, healthier cuts of meats. I have an adult child living at home who has extreme food allergies so must by expensive meats like bison or turkey. I tend to avoid most of the middle aisles, I get low fat dairy like greek yogurt and cottage cheese in the brands I like, no sense in buying a different brand or store brand if it doesn't taste good as no one eats those and they get thrown away. I also live in NY so everything is more expensive here. I also am struggling because the coupons are for boxed crap or bulk number of items. I don't want either. I cant really find ways to save and wish I could spending $1000 a month on food sucks. From that $300 if you deduct the dog food -$20 a week, and - $30 for some cleaning supplies and toiletries, that's $250/ or $83 per person per week for food...less than $12 a day per person. I need to figure out something different.

Just me and my husband. We spend 40 euro (55 USD) a week on groceries, not including any other household items. No coupons.

Eggs, beans, Ezekiel bread, Greek yogurt, bacon, ground turkey, crushed tomatoes, garlic, onions, frozen veggies, frozen fruit, mixed nuts, almond milk, rice, etc.

1. How much do you spend weekly on groceries? Be sure to mention how many people are in your household and if the amount you give includes other household items like toilet paper, shampoo, pet food, etc.

<> We spend between $30-60 on groceries each week. It's just my husband and I, no kids.

But that does not include other household items, sorry to screw up your 'survey'! hehe For us, groceries is a whole other category totally unrelated to items like cleaning supplies, toiletries, and pet care/food. We don't buy ANY of that stuff at the stores where we typically purchase groceries and our purchases in those categories are all over the place...we spend maybe $20/month on toiletries mainly at Big Lots and Target, cleaning supplies are purchased sporadically but never more than $10-15/month at Target, dollar stores, and/or natural food stores, and my husband buys cat food and supplies (litter etc) at Petsmart for around $30/month.

2. For those of you eating right on a budget ($50 or less per adult), how do you do it? Do you coupon? If not, what cheap, but healthy foods do you buy to keep you under budget?

<> Nope, we occasionally use a coupon here & there on something like cleaning supplies or at-home haircolor, but for the most part we don't buy any of the national brands that offer coupons. We actually prefer a lot of store brands/generic and at least 70% of our food comes from the produce and bulk aisles. We buy a lot of seasonal produce and for off-season items we go with frozen. Our grocery spending is split about 50/40/10 between Aldi, a regional chain called Food 4 Less, and a small natural food store near our home. We don't buy meat other than seafood, because my husband is pescetarian and I hate touching and preparing meat (I do order chicken and beef sometimes in restaurants). We eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, eggs, beans, nuts, lentils, rice, and some cheese, yogurt, almond milk, etc. Rounding it out with fresh spices and quality chocolate. Honestly I'm in my mid 30's and have been grocery shopping for a very long time and even in my previous marriage to a non-healthy eater (who also ate meat and insisted on many name brand items) I have seriously never spent over $50/person per week...I don't mean to sound snotty or anything, but I never quite understand how my friends and family spend so much on groceries to be honest. I am frugal to a fault, though!! And when I splurge, it's usually on things other than groceries. We do go out to eat 1-2 times per week but do not spend a lot on that either.

ETA: The #1 thing that has always helped me is making a list of exactly which meals I'm going to make each week. Usually 7-10 meal ideas for a week. We do have stuff on hand for a quick lunch, varied breakfasts, or baking...but in general, we buy only food for the precise meal ideas on our list.

1) I do about $400 / month for myself and my boyfriend (so $50 per person per week). Sometimes a little more sometimes a little less. We include any cleaning / paper products in with that budget, but always buy giant sizes so don't need to buy them that often.

2) I don't buy things that aren't on sale (exception necessities like milk or eggs, and bananas, because those are always cheap). I have less than zero brand loyalty, if it's comparable quality and cheaper I'm buying it. There's always some kind of bean on sale, some brand of yogurt, a handful of fruits and veggies, some kind of meat, etc. I plan out what I'm making in a week based on what's on sale at my stores, and if it's a very good price I buy a lot of it (chicken was 1.99/lb last week and I bought about 8 pounds of chicken to stock up my freezer), which will throw off my weekly budget, but if I already have 8 pounds of meat in my freezer I can save on it next week).