Saving on Groceries- what do you spend?

[MelC]

Hello

I never really spend a set amount on groceries each month. We never go crazy and buy fancy foods. My fiance and I usually take turns paying. Also we include other monthly needs like tiolet paper, shampoo, etc in this category. Thank goodness for super Walmart!

So what is rough estimate of what a monthly budget should be for groceries for a family of 3? Two adults and a 6 year old.

I pack my lunch every day, so does my daughter. My fiance works from home so he eats whatever is around, usually leftovers or canned soup or nothing!

So, Id love to hear from you, what are spending on groceries a month, if you eat out for work meals or pack, and what your family size is.

If anyone has any ideas on cheap meal ideas, Im open to those too.
I was thinking if we had one or two very cheap meals a week, itd cut down on groceries significantly.

Thanks

[TexasTodds]

We are a family of 5 (2 adults, and 3 kids 9,6, and 4--all sort of light eaters) and our "aim for" budget is $125 per week, which also includes paper items like plate, TP, and paper towels, Cleaning items, and also detergent. The break down is about $100 for food, and $25 for other household items.

I mostly pack lunches for school, which comes out to about 10 per week, since the 4 year old only goes 2 days, and the other two take it about 4 days each. My hubby also takes his 3-4 days per week.

We also have a $30 per week family dining out budget, and total blow money of about $35 per week.

I do alot of casseroles so that I can make 2 or 3 at a time, so I can put food in the freezer. As far as budget dinner ideas, I look for what is on sale, but also go to the store with a list/menu so that I know what I am planning. What I have also found is that if I only go once per week I tend to save money since I am not picking up alot of extras.

We do eggs and biscuits some nights with applesauce, or a simple skillet chicken/rice/salsa dish because it is quick. We also do Mac and cheese with green beans or broccoli and fruit some nights. One thing I also like to do is have spaghetti one night, and then make a baked ziti with the leftover sauce and mozzarella cheese that I put in the freezer for the next week. I always try to have a ham steak on hand since you can do so much with it--put in fried rice, make omelets, or just eat plain.

Hope this helps!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

$250/month for 3 full grown adults, 2 men and 1 woman. And none of us are fat, but we all work out regularly and eat more than average. And we live in a HCOLA for sure.

[MelC]

$250/mo for 3 adults?? That seems outrageously low..

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

The only time I actually tracked it was one month last fall. It came to $128 for two adults, all meals at home or carried from home. That was for edibles only. I'm sure that was an exceptionally good month, though. I'm in a medium cost of living area in the Mid-West. We shop for bargains at a 5 different stores.

[getforfree]

I spend $60 a week on average for family of 3 adults and 2 little kids.

But it varies a lot from week to week, depending what deals I get. I shop at 5-6 different stores based on their ads and specials, I do coupons. When I get a really good deal, I might spend over $100 that week and stock up, but then some weeks it's only milk and produce which is less than $30 for that week.

[stressedmama]

I budget $350/month for 2 adults & 2 young kids and this amount also includes some tolietries such as paper towels, trash bags, shampoo, etc(this does not include formula). $100/month for eating out.

[mom-from-missouri]

We run between $250 and $275 for 2 adults and 3 children (ages 9,9 and 11).
My grocery budget does NOT include cleaning products, pet food or paper goods. It only includes what we actually EAT.
I cook and bake from scratch.
I buy real food--such as potatoes, not boxed dehydrated fluff you turn into potatoes.
If we eat out, it comes from the entertainment budget, not the grocery budget.
We don't buy chips, soda, alcohol, candy, junk food, cigs...
We do supplement our budget by eating eggs our chickens lay, gardening and drying, canning our own food.
When in season we gather nuts, mushrooms and berries, and we have an orchard and grapes. We also have fish in our ponds, and at times we butcher our own beef. (although right now we have no beef in the freezer-ony in the field). Sometimes DD2 goes dear hunting and that goes into the freezer.

[Caoineag]

$300 for 2 active adults per month. Cook from scratch and try to eat fish once per week so definitely not skimping on quality. We still waste more food than I like but we are getting way better.

[brownbear]

Meal Planning for one to two weeks at a time seems to help me keep our cost lower than when I don't plan. This is a difficult area for me and probably my weakest area in our budget.

[kristinmarie]

i spend about 200-250 per month on groceries, which also includes all paper, cleaning, and pet supplies. that will cover myself and my boyfriend, a dog, rabbit and 2 lizards.

[Aleta]

We budget $240 a month for two adults but eat the majority of meals in. We also have a budget of $72. a month for house supplies, toiletries, pet food, and beverages ( sodas, beer, wine). We don't always spend that amount but it is saved in its own account for future expenditures such as buying toilet paper on sale in bulk and with coupons or dish washing liquid on sale with coupons, etc.

We buy a lot of BOGO free items. I especially like buying bread like that and freezing one. I also buy milk and freeze it.

[momof1in150]

For 2 Adults, 1 teen and 1 6 year old we spend about $130 per week. We rarely eat out (order pizza once a month). Every other month I will spend an additional $150 at BJs to stock up on basics. I have an advantage where I can shop at the commissary on the base. There prices are what most stores have for sale prices or less.

[meatloafkend]

Grocery shopping is where I really need to start budgeting better. When I bring my daugher along, she wants things (like strawberries, and other healthy things I can't say no to). Then when I take my husband, he wants oreos and granola bars, and things I never buy. I cannot leave my daughter at home during the day since she's 3, and it's hard to find time at night to grocery shop, so...we end up wasting a lot of food and money on groceries. You are all giving me new inspiration to create and stick to a new grocery budget. Thanks!

[PrincessPerky]

We spend an arm and a leg, food is one of our major splurge areas.

I have looked at many a meal plan to try and reduce the cost, mostly what I find is foods we don't eat..for example we are a nearly 100% whole wheat family..so mac N cheese for 59 cents a box wont cut it. neither will hamburger helper on sale. We are also addicted to fresh or frozen fruit/veggies, so that sale on canned reen beans wont help .

And each meal is veggie/fruit based, don't get me wrong we love meat, but it is a small portion of the meal..grains are cheap, fruit and veggies are not.

Top all that off with being folk who don't like asparagus, brussle sprouts collard greens or any other cheap veggie and you have a grocery budget thru the roof. (however 2 years ago I ate all that white flour and whatnot, had to). Nor am i able to grow a thing, we tried once and got a handful of carrots, most of the time we get nothing.

I do however avoid paper products, which helps balance the budget a bit. Haven't bought paper towels since my daughter puked in the car at the store (30 more seconds and she would be out of the car) 6 months ago.

I do let the kids pick one thing each trip, a fruit or a veggie, any healthy snack they want. figure of all the things to waste money on, health is it . If you want to save money let the husband do it, oreos are cheaper than blueberries!

some sortof cheap in spite of the rules meals would be quesadillias, cheese on a whole wheat tortilla dipped in salsa. (side of carrots) or cheesy tariyaki broccoli rice. (brown rice of course).

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Originally Posted by meatloafkend

Grocery shopping is where I really need to start budgeting better. When I bring my daughter along, she wants things (like strawberries, and other healthy things I can't say no to).

Unless you can buy equally healthy things for less money, go right ahead and bring your daughter and buy those good things. Unless there is a money emergency, don't go for cheaper but less healthy food.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

$300 for 3 adults, 1 is a 6'4" man who works out a lot. He bikes about 30-100 miles a day for training.

[Coleroo]

We have 3 people in our household - me, my husband, and my nursing baby (who has not started on solid foods yet). I weigh 130 and am 25, my husband weighs 240 and is 25...he enjoys eating...A LOT! We joke that we have two "growing boys" in our household.

(We also have 3 dogs, a bird, and a ferret.)

We don't budget for "specific" grocery spending.... we have one category in our budget that lumps together all "miscellaneous spending" outside of our set bills. Impulse purchases, pet food, toiletries, batteries, eating out, pictures, everything that's not a "set bill" or "gas" gets put in here.

We've been tracking this category since last December and the most we've spent is $420 in a month. We typically eat out anywhere from 3-5 times per month (we never spend more than $20 total eating out), order pizza about 2 times per month (only costs $5.35 for a large), and almost never have any "entertaining" expenses (we don't go to movies or out for "drinks" or such). We eat at my parents around 4 times a month.

I typically shop for groceries once a month or so (sometimes less) at Walmart, and the bill is usually $75 to $100 in a trip. I go to the farmers market about once a month and usually buy $30-$45 worth of fresh food. We love fresh fruit and can't really afford much meat. Most of our meals are vegetarian (not because we are...it's just cheaper). When we buy meat, it's whole chicken fryers ($2-$3 each at walmart), walmart hamburger patties (32 patties in a box for $13), and ground beef (3 lbs for $8.00). We don't buy TV dinners, but sometimes "splurge" on a few boxes of walmart brand hot pockets (my weakness). We rarely ever buy "snacks"..perhaps a box of nutty buddy bars or a bag or doritos every 3 months or so. We don't buy Ice Cream. We don't really buy much milk...perhaps a quart or so every month or two. We mainly drink water and tea, sometimes kool aid. Sometimes we splurge on grape juice or a two liter coke.

My pantry is stocked with basics - pasta, rice, flour (white & wheat), powdered milk, canned tomatoes, dry beans (many kinds). I also stay stocked with cheap canned foods (I usually pay 60-80 cent per can of whatever I buy). I google for cheap recipes a lot, and use recipezaar.com religiously to come up with different food combinations.

Our fridge holds fresh fruits, cheese, butter, onions, and potatoes (our taters and onions seem to last a whole lot longer in there).

I always cook "more" than we can eat at any one meal and then divide it up into freezer bags, then label and put a "use by" date on it (it forces us to actually use our freezer stock). Most of the time, my husband takes leftovers to work as well.

All in all, we rarely spend more than $220 per month on "food". During winter months when I don't hit the farmers market it's cheaper.

[SnoopyCool]

For 2 adults and 4 children (no one older than 6), we spend an average of $100 per week. This ebbs and flows, as I gather when things are on sale, and spend less when I'm using our food storage.

[Gailete]

This is something I should track better, but I am always stocking up and do much of our grocery shopping at a super Walmart which means other stuff ends up in the cart that we need, it kind of makes it hard to figure out what was grocery and what wasn't. Except for toilet paper though, we don't buy any paper products. I own dishes, why buy paper plates. I use rags instead of paper towels, we use cloth napkins, we use hankies. I love using those honest to goodnes pretty embroidered hankies from long ago and they hold up much better than a tissue (hubby uses plain mens hankies and loves them better than tissues). I some times go weeks between grocery trips if I don't need anything or nothing special is on sale.

Gail