Survey: Your Grocery Budget

I have 4 in my family so can't help there but a few questions:

do you clip coupons?
where to you shop?
do you ad match?

it takes a little more time but I have saved BUNCHES of money. I have a 17 year old boy and a 21 year old girl who eat LIKE crazy. I have a budget of less that $150 per trip (usually every 2 weeks) including non food items and very rarely go over. I am vegetarian but no one else is.

I have 4 in my family so can't help there but a few questions:

do you clip coupons?
where to you shop?
do you ad match?

it takes a little more time but I have saved BUNCHES of money. I have a 17 year old boy and a 21 year old girl who eat LIKE crazy. I have a budget of less that $150 per trip (usually every 2 weeks) including non food items and very rarely go over. I am vegetarian but no one else is.

I do not clip coupons. He doesn't want to pay for us to get the Sunday paper. I guess I could pick it up somewhere. I shop at Meijer and try to get everything Meijer brand. I do not add match. I have to admit, I find the whole coupon/add matching task a little overwhelming but I guess I need to give it a try. Thanks.

If you order th e Sunday paper you can usually get it for $1 per week instead of $1.75, sometimes less if you talk them down a little. To me it is really worth the $1. Walmart will take ALL ads including meat and produce but they don't double coupons. Meijer doubles coupons up to $1 but doesn't ad match meat and produce. Kroger/Scotts has the card that you can download some of the coupons on the internet AND the points you earn go towards gas. I also just got this HUGE envelope full of very useful coupons from Kroger (free salad dressing, $1 off cleaning supplies and more) in the mail the other day. Meijer and Walmart will also take CVS, Walgreen and Target ads all of which are in a Sunday paper. It takes a little time but it is worth it.

I am in the same situation - just me, my husband and our small dog. I try to stick to around $100/week. I shop at Costco a lot and we've found some good staple items that I'll mix in. I do get salad stuff every week, though, and it gets costly, but it's worth it to me.

I typically try to have a mix of "cheap" and expensive meals. For example, there is a soup mix we get at Costco that is delicious and low cal and it comes out to something like $.50/serving. Once a week, we make something with ground turkey (which we also get at Costco) and that is a little pricer but can make 5-6 meals depending on what we make with it. We make chicken occasionally, but if I am making a casserole or something, I use canned chicken and it works great (especially because its already cooked).

For lunches, I have leftovers, veggie patties, low fat frozen burritos, PB & J (once in awhile).

I found that when I was trying to be creative with recipes, I was buying a lot of "one-time" ingredients, which got expensive. Now I stick with the staples and try to improvise with them.

Hi

Family of 4 here and I TRY to keep our MONTHLY food shopping budget to around $600

Kim

Your DH sounds cheap, and a bit of a control freak! I personally buy whatever I want and my honey agrees or doesn't...we don't discuss it. I do however limit what he buys ($30 steaks), cause if I don't then we spend way more then we should.

We are 2 people and on average, not including cat litter, cat food, soap and the like we spend between $100 and $150 a week. If I spend $150 a week it is usually cause I purchased bulk meats, so then the next week when I have to get produce it won't be even $100. Our grocery bill is about $250 - $350 per month.

I also shop at Costco and that's where I get our ground meat ($10/4 lbs) and Yoplait Smoothies - 10 paks ($11), carrot snack packs, bulk fruit, corn flakes, bananas, bread..all in bulk....I shopped there last night and spent $200, but I won't need that much next week.......so it evens out.

BTW. Food is not a luxury, it is a necessity, I would be sure to put my foot down on your DH's need to control this item of your relationship....not like your buying $100 shoes or something.

My Thoughts.............:flowerforyou:

I have 4 in my family so can't help there but a few questions:

do you clip coupons?
where to you shop?
do you ad match?

it takes a little more time but I have saved BUNCHES of money. I have a 17 year old boy and a 21 year old girl who eat LIKE crazy. I have a budget of less that $150 per trip (usually every 2 weeks) including non food items and very rarely go over. I am vegetarian but no one else is.

I do not clip coupons. He doesn't want to pay for us to get the Sunday paper. I guess I could pick it up somewhere. I shop at Meijer and try to get everything Meijer brand. I do not add match. I have to admit, I find the whole coupon/add matching task a little overwhelming but I guess I need to give it a try. Thanks.

Well that's just not logical... him not wanting to pay for the paper so you can get the coupons. I guarantee that you would save more than the cost of the stinkin' paper every week.

Anyway... I have a family of three, my son is 8. He's not eating us out of house and home yet, so we're probably pretty close to you and your husband. Except my husband is also trying to eat healthy and wouldn't go near hamburger helper with a 10 foot pole . I'm a vegetarian, they are not. I spend anywhere between $50-$80 per week on groceries alone. I do buy a lot of fresh fruit, especially this time of year when it's in season. I buy all of my boys' meat at Costco, which can save up to 20% depending on what you buy. I also stock up on non-perishables like cereal, coffee, pasta, spagetti sauce, beans, frozen veggies and the like when they're on sale. I also buy a lot of store brand food. I don't clip a lot of coupons, but that's mostly because I tend to forget them at home when I go to the store. But sometimes I get on a kick and I look for coupons online. You can find a lot of them, and many of the sites are free.

If you're looking to cut cost, try going vegetarian for a couple of meals a week. You can save a lot of money by replacing the meat with beans or tofu, or just making a dish that's vegetarian anyway, like spinach pie.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Another problem I have is that I don't really know what a "reasonable" price is for the things I buy. He usually pays and keeps the receipt. I guess I need to tell him that I want to work on this together and if he give me the receipt I can start keeping better track of how much things cost and how I can save money.

BINGO! You can't agree on a budget if you don't share the information :noway:

Anywho, I asked my dad what he spends per week for him and my mom for you and he spends $90-$120 per week. He shops at several stores through out the week and he cooks ALL of their meals, and I do mean all of them plus bagels and other "treats" for my kids every other week. He does all of the shopping and the household budget so there isn't really an issue but if he buys something my mom puts on the list he makes her pay him back :laugh:

Also, they keep separate accounts for all their money and if a bill comes in that they agreed to split one of them writes the other a check. My aunt and uncle do the same. If you both work it may be a solution to your problem

Do you have an aldi near by? Love the store and the prices! I get all my produce there too...zucchini, romaine lettuce, citrus, avocados...so good and cheap!

Two of us in the household. I would guess we spend 80-100 a week. We usually do meat and household cleaning, paper towels, toilet paper, body soap, shampoo, vitamins at Costco, and I try to stock up when they send the coupons out. I've also found that some of the whole foods type stores (Not the Whole Foods chain, but stores like Sunflower Market, Sprouts, etc) often have less expensive fruits and vegetables, and sometimes meat. I signed up for email ads from Sunflower market and Sprouts so I can compare prices. I also try to buy bulk foods as much as possible. Saves major dough! Good luck.

I'm sorry... I may not be seeing this right. Do you earn an income as well? And if so, do you not have some say as to what groceries are being bought?

We buy a ton of fresh fruits and veggiesfrom the fruit market, buy our lean meats at a butcher's and then get the other stuff at a grocery store ( yogurt, milk, sundry items) $100 / week did not cover when there were 2 of us

We spend $100 or so a week for 3 of us including toiletries and cleaners. Most of the food is fresh, although i do buy some pacakged items. I shop around, checking the circulars for sales. If you have a Sprouts by you, they have great prices on fresh produce and bins so you can buy rice, etc. in bulk.

I also use coupons. My market doubles up to $1. Last week I spent $53, but saved $86 using coupons and sales.

I just found my grocery store online and they have some great coupons on the website, better than I get in the newspaper, lately there hasn't been as many coupons in the paper. There are also a lot of good websites out now that tell you how to save money on your groceries, if I didn't have a full-time job I would have more time to spend on saving money, ugh, vicious circle.

We also have two and a small dog in my family. I would say we spend about 100 on just the food for the other items I would add at least 20 more. Not sureif that helps so much. Good luck

Let me tell you, I'm in the same boat as you, to a degree. I do all of the shopping, and my fiance "holds" all of the money, yet he won't dare go to the store with me. I have to justify every penny I spend at the store :grumble: It's not as bad as it used to be, but, Since I've been shopping around and clipping coupons, an average "shopping" day is a little less than 4 hours. RIDICULOUS! but, I look at it this way. I get extra excercise, and time to myself :flowerforyou:

I usually spend about 200 and it lasts usually 3 weeks. This week, I had this wonderful idea that I was going to shop one day and spend the whole entire day (today) cooking food for the MONTH :happy: and freezing it. So far, My freezer is jammed packed, and I still have MORE stuff to cook. I decided to do this because I often find that my fresh veggies go to waste before we have the chance to eat them, simply because I buy too much. I spent about 250 this week, but, like I said, with all of the extra prep, this stuff will last over a month. I also bought dog and cat food, laundry detergent, fabric softener, kitchen sponges, freezer bags (about 6) boxes, freezer containers and numerous other misc ideas (all name brand). I bought a 3lb pork roast (for bbq beef sandwiches- with zero calorie bbq sauce!) :noway: a 2 lb lean beef roast, a big honeysuckle white turkey breast, 2 (3lb) bags of frozen chicken, tons of veggies and corn on the cob, ground meat for sloppy joes and tacos (I make all of the mixes so they are lower in cals). I can't remember what else off hand. I made subs (healthy turkey and ham and ff cheese on sub buns, wrapped in foil and froze to eat for lunches), I also did the same and made bfast burritos.
I just started shopping at Aldi too. I buy their produce when it's decent. I just got cucumbers there for 29 cents each! a container of grape tomatoes for 99 cents (was 2.99 at meijer). I got some things at Kroger ( they were having a special on the turkey breast, those big whole ones, for 99 cents a pound), their roaster chickens were .69 cents a pound, and 3 (I think) lb bags of chicken were half price (5.99). Strawberries were on sale 3/5, but meijer had them 4/5. Meijer has electrosol dishwasher det for 3 and I had a 2.50 off coupon, so they were 50 cents a box! It's unbelievable. If you print out coupons (for free) you can save so much money. I buy this magazine, all you, for less than 3 dollars and they have a TON of coupons in there. Plus the paper, you save a lot, especially if you don't buy the products that you have a coupon for UNTIL they go on sale. YOu will never pay full price for anything again! A couple of months ago, I got 250 worth of groceries at kroger for 65! It was CRAZY, I was soooo excited :laugh:

Let me know if you need help, I would be glad to help out :bigsmile: :drinker:

Sorry for the novel :blushing: Grocery shopping is jus mah thang :glasses: LOL