Weekly grocery bill

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  • letlovegrow89
    letlovegrow89 Posts: 18 Member
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    Meal plan you'll spend way less. I also shop at Costco or Sam's Club so I can buy in bulk. We buy a lot of organic food and my grocery bill has also doubled. I use to coupon but everything is junk food. We're a family of 5 and I spend about $600 a month on food now.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    hummingbird92548 wrote: »
    My first thought was I'll trade you. I get 94 in food stamps and have another$50 max that I can spend on groceries if I don't have to buy medicine. Eating healthy food on this amount is very difficult. Any suggestions.

    @hummingbird92548 suggestions for you:

    1. See if you are mistakenly receiving too little money. Every childless person I know gets more than that. My brother's amount fluctuated down to under $50 and it turned out to be a mistake.
    2. Utilize food pantries/religious charities
    3. Farm stands and farmers' markets. (However, my experience has been that farmer's markets that specialize in organic are overpriced.) http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/
    4. Grow your own herbs in pots in the windowsill. You may be able to get supplies on freecycle. I've given away lots of pots and plants to fellow freecyclers. When my garden really starts popping I give away produce as well, as do many people who grow cucumbers and zucchinis. Seedlings of these often get sold in six packs and you'd need to be feeding a platoon to be able to consume all the veggies produced.
    5. See if there is an Aldi's near you. People here praise their low prices.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited May 2016
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    I don't have any tricks.. I spend around $200 a week . It's just me and hubby.

    I used to spend over $300 pw when my 2 kids were still living at home.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Brocksterdanza wrote: »
    My wife and i are almost 2 weeks in to eating clean again and this is something that came up in our discussion. We are also working on tightening the reigns of our spending and waste for financial reasons. We have a 4 year old daughter as well. We calculated that in the last several months, we are spending nearly 850 dollars on food. Now granted this is groceries and eating out. I see all over the Internet that families of 4 or more are eating for under 600 a month. How do they do it? My wife says eating cleaner is much more expensive. Is this true? What are the tricks? How much do your families spend? Thanks all!

    When I was tracking my spending, I came in at about $200 per month for me. I didn't eat out. I don't drink soda or juice.

    I'm not a "clean eater" per se but I do eat a lot of organic produce and humanely raised dairy and meat. However, I get the cheaper cuts. I eat a lot of chicken thighs and very little steak. I buy meat when it's 50% off and freeze it. I see what's on sale where and meal plan around that.

    Over the winter and early spring I was using organic baby greens in my smoothies, which are expensive, but less so when purchasing by the pound as opposed to the 3 or 5 ounce container. Now, I'm getting my greens from my garden.
  • upoffthemat
    upoffthemat Posts: 679 Member
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    When people are starting "clean eating" they often have a couple misconceptions. If you are just trying to avoid processed foods like you are saying there are some things you can do easily:
    • Sign up for any rewards program/email lists your local grocers have. They often will send you some really good deals.
    • If you have shelf space, buy stuff when it is on sale in bulk. Stocking up saves a lot of money.
    • Plan your recipes based on what the store has on sale. When I go shopping there is seldom anything in my cart that isn't on sale unless I am Aldi's or Woodman's.
    • Organic isn't necessary
    • Look for local farmers markets, they aren't always cheaper, but sometimes they really are.
    • There are ways to add more to your meals cheaply: beans, rice, vegetables can add bulk to your meal and beans especially are a cheap protein source.
    • I don't do coupons other than the ones the stores email me, but they really can help
    • Don't be afraid to shop around. You may find that different stores have lower prices on different items. In my area I buy most of my meat on sale at the local grocer because their sale prices are better than others by a dollar to four dollars a pound usually, but fruit and vegetables I buy at Aldi's or Woodman's because their prices are usually a third of that same local grocer
    • Check the clearance section/bargain bin if your store has one. Sometimes there are some great deals.

    I do all the things I mention above and it has cut my bill drastically. It is mostly about spending my money at the right time and the right place. I could easily pay double or triple what I do if I just made a list and shopped without looking at ads or if I shopped at only one place
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
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    AmazonMayan wrote: »
    Plan your meals around what's on sale instead of shopping for a specific menu plan.

    I have a friend with 12 kids and this is what she does. It works well for them and they eat a completely whole foods diet. I couldn't do it because it's not my style and we have the luxury of not having to do it; but it does work!

    We are a family of 5. Two adults, one teen boy, and two teen girls. We spend $1200 a month on food (this includes all my household products as well - TP, paper towels, shampoo, etc.). We eat an 85% or more organic diet and some of our snacks are more processed then I'd prefer. We're in Idaho which is considered to be fairly cheap cost of living wise. If I had to hit just what we spend on food, I'd say it's about $1000/mo. I do not have to buy beef as we buy half a cow each year but I do have to buy chicken and I only buy organic chicken. I think anyone that can feed their family for $600/mo is a hero. LOL!

    There have been some great suggestions put forth here but the planning your menu according to what's on sale is probably the most logical in my mind.
  • pfreeme
    pfreeme Posts: 42 Member
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    I am impressed lots of good advice. Its just me and my adult daughter shes more particular. I eat clean/vegan she doesnt. I buget coupon some but except w my fruits/vegies certain suppliments I never spend high end. I try to freeze what I can eat cabbage &kale vs lettuce just cause it stores longer. I use lists and try to be disciplined in my spending never eat out or splurge. I simply cant afford it only working part time.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    - stop eating out if you want to save money
    - compare prices with 2/3 stores and stock up when things are on sale
    - buy in bulk when possible (but always compare prices, some things are more expensive in bulk)
    - use coupons when possible (90% of the stuff I buy doesn't have coupons)
    - buy cheaper things. We eat a lot of chicken vs salmon or steak, for example. Eat lots of frozen veggies instead of fresh.

    I spend less than $150 a week for the 4 of us in groceries - but my husband eats lunch out 3x a week (wish he stopped) and we eat out once a week on top of that... so we're probably not that far off (we usually spend $60 or so eating out).
  • TribalmamaEmily
    TribalmamaEmily Posts: 41 Member
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    Put in a garden (or start a windowfarm for the urban). If you are blessed with the land, then not only will you be feeding yourself wholesome real food but burning calories too. It's a win/win.
  • Enjcg5
    Enjcg5 Posts: 389 Member
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    KateTii wrote: »
    Wiseandcurious wrote: »
    424a57 wrote: »
    Reading through this topic is amazing. You guys are amazing to eat on $500-$800 per month. My family of 4 adults (in Southern California) spends over $1500 per month on food (groceries, restaurants, fast food).

    From your perspective @424a57, why is that? Lots of eating out? Food generally more expensive where you live? Throw out food a lot? Eat truffles/foie gras a lot? Life standard (costs and salaries) double that of other states? Just curious, I am not in the US so wondering what a double (or triple) difference can come from.

    @Wiseandcurious - My guess would be that $1500 includes "groceries, restaurants and fast food" One night at a restaurant for a family of four would be a minimum of $40 up to probably $100-150. A fast food night can add up quick too.

    I don't grocery shop but a fantastic website is the cheapskates club. http://www.cheapskatesclub.net/ They have heaps of cheap dinner recipes & do a $300/month grocery challenge.
    Soooo true. Eating out at a "nice" restaurant for family of 5 can easily cost $100. I can feed my family of 5 for a few days on that!
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    If you have any yard, patio or balcony I'd suggest growing some of your own food. Many vegetables can be grown in containers that take up very little space. If you have the space for a garden that is even better. Gardening can save so much money if you enjoy fresh produce.
  • chunky_pinup
    chunky_pinup Posts: 758 Member
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    I purchase our family's groceries. I'm vegan, my husband is not, and our child eats anything we put in front of her. We usually make a joint dinner that my husband will add chicken or steak to, so there really isn't a huge difference in what we are eating, and I take leftovers for lunch the next day while my husband has a standard lunch of chicken, rice and sweet potatoes. We eat "clean" I suppose you could say. We buy our grains and beans in bulk, and I shop for fresh produce 2x/week (but we eat a lot of frozen as well). We only eat out 2-5x/month, and our total food budget for the month is $350. Honestly, we rarely get close to this, unless we are replenishing our dry storage. We have found our food budget dropped significantly when we started ordering our groceries. When we would go into the store, we would always end up with $20-30 worth of impulse buys that we no longer get when we put in our grocery list online and then pick up at the front of the store. It's helped so much! I know it's not an option everywhere, but I'd look into seeing if any of your local stores offer it!
  • kristysaurus
    kristysaurus Posts: 91 Member
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    I live in probably one of the most expensive places to buy food, especially fresh food (Northwest Territories, Canada) and can feed our household of three adults on about 700/mo. This includes a ton of convenience items (i'm a little addicted to rotisserie chickens!). We shop sales and buy what is in season.

    Our grocery store will put meat packages on sale for 30-50% off. I asked the butcher when they do this and shop according to that. I will go earlier in the morning or in evening and buy most of my meat on sale.

    I eat a lot of frozen veggies because it's significantly cheaper here. I made sides, stir-fries out of frozen veggies

    I buy no name or "off name" (weird brands that seem like a copy of the name-brand) brands for as many items as possible. Most of the time it's just as good and I save a ton.

    I buy a lot of the same stuff over and over again so buying in bulk is often cheaper. For example, a small jar of banana peppers is like 4 dollars but I can buy a really big jar for about 12 dollars so the price per gram is cheaper than the small jar.

    I am spending less money eating healthy than I ever did eating badly :)

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